Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE. Covering Dell Technologies World 2019. Brought to you by Dell Technologies and it's ecosystem partners. Hello everyone, welcome to Dell Technologies World, this is theCUBE's coverage, our 10th year covering EMC World Dell World. We're here with Pat Kelsinger. Pat, it's not your time yet, but you're going to be coming on later. I'm sorry. Great keynote. Thanks for coming by. Thank you. Appreciate it. We'll see you back tomorrow. We'll see you later. Thank you Pat. Pat Kelsinger kicking off the Cube coverage, three days of wall-to-wall coverage. We've got two sets, shotgun of content. We've got two Cube cannons blowing out the content. I'm John Furrier, Stu Miniman, Dave Vellante. Keynote, really kind of the tectonic plates in the industry kind of coming together. You had on stage is Saty Natela, CEO of Microsoft, Michael Dell, CEO and founder of Dell Technology, and Pat Kelsinger, legends in the industry, captains of the industry, really a critical juncture for Dell Technology Worlds. And a slew of other announcements, but the Dell Cloud Unified Workspace, but showing Microsoft on stage, this is a game-changing move for Dell Technology Worlds. Sure, Dell Technologies, but also VMware. VMware in bed with AWS, we know that covered that relationship. Now going multi-cloud all the way with Azure and seeing the CEO on stage, pretty incredible day. I think you nailed it. It's a VMware story, John, and the numbers tell it. VMware's market value is 83 billion. Dell owns 80% of it, that's 66 billion. What's left? Dell's market value is 47 billion. That says that Dell Core is worth negative 19 billion. If it weren't for VMware, Saty Natela wouldn't be here. And you're seeing Michael Dell really drive the integration. He said that several times on stage today. How much collaboration? I love the collaboration across the divisions. You saw Jeff Clark with Pat Kelsinger talking about new desktop management, talking about VMware Cloud on Dell. It's a VMware story, you're right on. And Pat Kelsinger's too, really key message up there, simplicity, simplifying IT, the common operating. I felt like we were in a CUBE interview four years ago because that was the basis of hybrid cloud now, kind of coming to fruition. Clear visibility, at least on the tech stack side, on the operating side. This is an operator world and a developer world and simplicity and ease of operations is going to be the critical differentiator for the winners. So John, first of all, I think we're getting some clarity on this multi-cloud world. Look, one of the things that VMware did so well, not just that wave of virtualization, but vCenter was the center of IT management. And the question is, can they extend that into a multi-cloud world? When VMware made the partnership with AWS, it's like, oh my gosh, what does that mean to Dell? We got the answer today, what that means to Dell. VMware Cloud on Dell EMC hardware. For me personally, that relationship between VMware and Dell, I think it's closer from the top executive all the way on down to the field, go to market than it ever was. I was one of the first people working with VMware at EMC. I watched that relationship. EMC always kept them as kind of the, we own you, but you're going to be independent and work across the board. Across the board, you hear, you know, VxRail and NXX and PKS and all these wonderful products, Dell and VMware developing together, going to market together. It has ripples, but Amazon likes it, Microsoft like it, that's a big deal to see. VMware and Microsoft partnering together, there are some challenges with some other partners vis-a-vis Cisco and some of the others like IBM and HPE, that have historically partnered a lot with VMware, but a lot of exciting news and definitely tons of things. And VMware knocked down Google last month, yeah. So guys, this is the theme we're seeing. We see Zoom went public, that was a video conferencing, disrupting an existing industry. People thought it would never be disrupted. You heard Satya Nutella say on stage here that the new generation of new apps need new infrastructure. So a revamp, a reset, a revitalization of infrastructure to power apps via cloud. It's kind of the same game, computing resources, software apps, but with a whole new distributed architecture. A boom is coming. We see the stock market is up, it's huge. You see the tech earnings last week, across the board, solid results. This is now a game changer. This is not a bad business to be in.   Well, Michael Dell's keynote wasn't just about products. It was about innovation. He talked about solving world problems, a big picture stuff. And then he let Pat and Jeff get down a little bit more into the product weeds and you'll hear more of that. But Michael is laying out a huge vision. What ejects the position between, that's what it was, four or five years ago, you had sort of Joe Tucci, the chairman up on stage. Michael was there, you had John Chambers there. Now Michael owns the whole Kitten Kaboodle. He's calling the shots and people want to do business with them, VMware again, as you pointed out. Well, let me ask you a question. You've been following EMC for a long time. When we interviewed Michael Dell years ago when he was, when private, then he bought EMC. One of the things he said, a lot of people were poo-pooing the whole deal. Oh, and why they want to buy that? It's like a boat anchor. He said, scale matters. So are we seeing a new generation? Let's do it like you did the way in on this too. Of competitive strategy where scale matters. Because if you look at what Dell Technologies has done and is doing, they're essentially rolled up the global IT business and are competing at scale with synergies not even looked at before early on. We kind of, we talked about it, but we're starting to see some fruit off that scale. Amazon proved scale cloud, Microsoft moves to the cloud, scale up, now the earnings are up, thoughts. Well, what strikes me, John, is that, you know, they always talk about end to end, companies talk about synergy. Synergy is a code word for cutting. What you heard today, you had B of A up there, you know, talking, they had a video, and talking about the end to end capabilities that Dell Technology brings. Dell, by acquiring EMC and of course VMware, is a much way more strategic partner for corporations. Way more than many of these startups can be. So that is their linchpin. You can maybe criticize them on innovation and oh, maybe they don't have the hottest product, but end to end, throw in financial services and other services, people want to do business with this company because of trust. It's two, scale, cloud scale, Dell scale, IT scale. Yeah, so we heard Tom Sweet this morning talk about that Dell maybe had missed a couple of turns in the marketplace and they needed to go private to kind of rearrange things. When they bought EMC, we knew that there were a couple of tailwinds that they could ride. Hyperconverged infrastructure, absolutely one. We've been watching that trend since day one, that they are outpacing the industry, they are the leader, if you talk from a software standpoint, VMware's there, if you talk from a hardware standpoint, Dell's there, who's number two in the space, Nutanix, which also is a complicated relationship, but Dell sells that and VMware still is the primary hypervisor on that environment, so they are still beating the market in growth, but they're doing that by gaining market share and taking it. Michael always loves to talk about when he's taking market from the business. So the question is the overall macro, how long can they keep that double digit growth going? And Dave, I know you're looking to dig in with Tom Sweet to take on that. 90 billion dollar business that grew 14% last year, so this company, in order to grow, it has to gain share because the market is not growing that fast. You can't rely on repatriation, I'm sorry. The people aren't going to just disappear from the cloud and come back, so you've got to gain share. The other thing I think to their favor is, let's face it, they really didn't have their act together in storage. They were kind of missing the boat there and took their eye off the ball. PCs stayed strong, they got their act together in storage, which helped with the product niche, mix higher margins. So last year was a very, very strong year. 2020 is going to be a tougher compare, but it seems like they still have some knobs to turn. Guys, let's talk about competition in front of Nutanix. What do they do? VMware relationship with AWS, I'm sure Andy, Jesse looking at this and getting words like, chaotic, complex, the bane of our existence, kind of talking about cloud in general when you deal with multiple clouds, where Pat Gelsinger say that. Kind of public cloud losing flavor here? I mean, Stu, you got the public cloud dominating. Now all this talk about on-premise and you got Nutanix out there. What happens in Nutanix here? Yeah, so look, Nutanix is doing well and Dell is a very important OEM, but we just saw Nutanix made a big partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which of course, I'm sure Michael doesn't like that happening. Nutanix needs to keep growing. They are a software company. It's interesting, you talk about the other competitor I mentioned, Cisco. Cisco is transforming themselves into a software company. Dell, Dell Technologies, the core business wants to be the leading infrastructure company. They have VMware, Boomi, and Pivotal. Are there software brands? But the core business is really around that scale, that whole infrastructure piece, and it's a different chunk of the market. Chuck Robbins at Cisco, the CEO of Cisco has not yet made a big bold move, like a red-at move. Couldn't Nutanix be that move, Dave? Well, I don't know. I don't know, I think I just play as an IoT, but to your point about your question about the cloud, the cloud is not attenuating. Amazon's a $30 billion company growing at 41% a year, throwing off 25, 30% operating margins. I mean, that's where the innovation is. That's where the scale is. Everybody wants to do multi-cloud because they don't have a cloud. It's your only path if you don't have a cloud. So, I think the cloud's got a long way to go. Look, and they talked, you know, I tell you, my community got all excited when Michael got up on stage and said, we're all in on Kubernetes and what we're doing with multi-cloud. You're going to hear under the covers here, everything is going from VMware, VM as that unit, down to containerization, you know, talking about that application modernization. That's where they're going to lean on VMware, modernizing some of what they're doing, and, you know, of course, Pivotal and Boomi are the ones that are the tip of the spear in that area. Yeah, I don't think, Dave, to Sue's point there, the Amazon growth will continue because if you look at what Dell Technologies has rolled out today, certainly the Microsoft thing is a little shot across the bow, multi-cloud, nice checkbox, great to see the commitment of the CEO there. But everything benefits with SaaS and the cloud. SaaS is a cloud game, and if scale on the cloud is going to be there, I only see the public cloud getting stronger because the scale's there, the economics cannot be ignored, certainly the data equation will be interesting, but an on-premise infrastructure that's set up operating like a cloud, I think will ultimately benefit because Amazon's weak link, if there is one, is that they really don't have a SaaS business, right? So they have a series of customers that do SaaS, but that's going to be an opportunity for all those workloads to run on the cloud. My question is going to be, how cloud-like is what we hear today? And I'm a skeptic, I want to see it first, show me. Yeah, no, I mean, what do we hear? What are VMware services on Azure? It's the SDDC stack, so we understand what that is. It is more than just virtualization, but we used to say private cloud just can't be virtualization plus plus. So VMware's expanding and changing that model, but is it cloud enough?  We can totally do that, the OPEX, it's great, but you know. At the end of the day, innovation and economics wins, and the cloud guys have the scale. I mean, look it, the amount of money, we heard from Google last month, they spent what, $12 billion in CAPEX through April? It would take Oracle six years to spend that much in CAPEX, it would take IBM three and a half, four years to spend that much in CAPEX. Their cost structure is going to be so much lower and ultimately, I believe, that's going to win. Talk about the winners and losers because we heard the Bank of America you mentioned, also you just said there, the future has to be redefined, not how you got here, how you moved forward. What's the competitive positioning posture for a winning supplier in the modern era of IT and cloud? I think it's really smart that Dell is forcing these integrations and getting out ahead of this multi-cloud thing. Like I said before, if you don't have a public cloud, you've got to get into that multi-cloud management business. VMware's there, they're obvious linchpin, they're early in the game, this is going to play over the next five to seven years, but VMware has knocked down AWS, Google, now Azure, they've got a relationship with Alibaba, it's just a matter of time before you see that one happening, so they are in a pole position, the other one is IBM Red Hat. I mean, those are the two favorites in my opinion. And by the way, Red Hat's here, and if you want to run the latest and greatest Red Hat solution on the Dell Ready nodes, of course you can do that. So we love to talk about competition, but at the end of the day, it's what's good for customers and can they pick and choose the option of their choice? How much do I get a full stack if that's the same and how much is their choice? And I didn't hear the word choice a lot because they were focusing on certain announcements today, but absolutely, Dell has done a good job in the HCI space and the cloud space of laying out the top choices that customers want. The choice word wasn't used because the choice is Dell, they'll ship you VX Rails, I'm not sure they'll be shipping other things in there, maybe they will, Stu, thanks for the analysis, Dave, great analysis. Man, this is going to be a great show, three days of wall-to-wall coverage, two Cube sets, two cannons of content coming your way here at Dell Technology World, the Cube cannons. Stay with us for three days. I'm John Rose, Stu Miniman, Dave Vellante, Lisa Martin, Rebecca Knight, all here in Las Vegas for Dell Technology, stay with us, we'll be right back.


Coming up today, Mike is back with some more channel critiques. Who will hear review? You'll find out in a moment. Calm down. What is up everyone? My name is Zesty Mike and this week we're back with more video critiques.  Seriously. So to make up for it, I'll be doing four videos this week. So needless to say, you'll be seeing a lot of me. Anyways, today we're kicking things off with tutorials. First off, we have Stuneus and his video DIY camera slider. In this video he shows techniques that replicate the look that a camera slider will create. First of all it's a really cool technique and it's really important for a filmmaker to have alternative solutions just in case they don't have proper equipment. I highly recommend any filmmaker to check out this video and start getting ideas on how you can start building your filmmaking arsenal. Now since you are a filmmaker showing filmmaking tips, I think you need to up your overall quality to build your credibility. For starters, you already mentioned it in your description, but the green screen is cropped so you often go out of frame. If you can't seem to find a green screen big enough, then simply try to hang a black cloth behind you to create the same feel. Now next up your microphone. It sounds like you're using the on-camera microphone because your audio is just a little bit echoey. One of the most important things about video making is good audio. If you don't have good audio, your video becomes really distracting. Keep in mind that you can have the most beautiful picture in bad audio and your video will be unwatchable. But if you have okay video and great audio then your video will still be watchable. So look into getting a different mic that you could bring closer to use so you can get a nice and clear sounding voice. Next up we have Lidify and his video How to Make Cool 3D Text in Cinema 4D. In this video, just like the title says, the video teaches you how to make 3D text in Cinema 4D. It's good quality, quick, and to the point. And the end result is in fact pretty cool. As for things that you can improve, there's no commentary alongside it. Although it's possible to follow step by step, it would make things a lot easier if you explain what you're doing as well. Me personally, when I watch tutorials, I like to minimize the video and actually work alongside the audio as I continue working. Now if I have to watch every single step to figure out what you're doing, I'm not going to be able to do that and it's going to slow down my production rate. However, other than that really good video, you have good information and your title lives up to its standards. Next up we have Splurge Games in his video How to Find Your Twitch Live Streaming Stream Key for OBS Twitch Tutorial. The title pretty much explains it all. First of all, you have good quality, the voiceover is good and you sound confident in what you're talking about. And you have a cool outro. As for things to improve on, I honestly think you did a good job. However, there's one thing I'd like to point out. Your intro where you say your name. Hey guys, it's me Splurge and welcome to another tutorial. Sounds to me like you're actually trying to copy PewDiePie's intro. I'd recommend finding a way to be yourself and make your own personality. The rest of the video is great, but the intro made me feel like you're just trying to copy someone else's success. This is one thing that many YouTubers need to overcome. It's okay to take inspiration from YouTubers that have done it, however you need to adapt it your own way. If the viewer is able to point out the YouTuber that you got your inspiration from, you're doing it wrong. So find a way to adapt it into your own style and I think you'll have a really solid video. But anyways, guys, that's it for me today. Don't forget to click the links in the sidebar to check out the full videos. Make sure you go over there and give them some love and say, hey dude, you're awesome. I like bananas. And of course, if you want to submit your videos onto the show, use the link down in the description below. Feel the form and submit it to me and I'll get back to it as quick as I can.  The comment section's for love, learning, and growing together. And lastly, if you want to see more of me, click the links down in the description below as well and that will take you over to my daily vlog channel as well as my game channel that I plan to launch next month. But anyways, guys, that's it. We'll see you tomorrow. See ya. Impulse is produced by the Freedom Network. Ever wanted to earn revenue from your videos? Freedom offers a great partnership program which includes access to hundreds of thousands of audio tracks, sponsorships with great partners, and most importantly, a no lock-in contract. You can leave at any time for any reason. We accept everyone, both big and small. For more information, click here or visit the link in the video description.


This episode with Kota the friend was extremely important. If you don't know who he is, he's a completely independent artist with over 1.7 million monthly listeners has toured internationally and really running his own operation. And he touches on just that and monetizing, supporting himself, his career and his family all with his music. How he legitimately impacted all the content that we see today from artists and most artists don't even know it. But at the same time, he's not an artist who likes to drop content all the time because he cares about the art, which is another key part of this conversation. How do you keep the purity of the art and still monetize in a serious way? If you really care about your art, if you really care about your freedom as an artist, I implore you to listen to this full conversation that we had with Kota the friend. What's up, what's up, what's up? I'm Brandon Shawn. I'm Cory. And we are back with another episode of No Labels Necessary Podcast. You can catch us everywhere on DSPs, YouTube, et cetera, et cetera, here at the intersection of creativity and currency. And you know when we do this intro, we have a special guest. Today, we have Kota the friend and independent artists like a indie indie artist. 100%, like no fluff in the stuff. I'm really excited actually to have you on bro Kota because like I said, been watching you for a while from afar, having caught everything, but like I caught you way, way, way back seven years ago. I didn't realize the moment till your boy had sent something over. And Cory was like, man, he recorded his video seven years ago. And I was like, dang man, I've been watching him for that long. So without further ado, artists, I think y'all will get a lot of game from this. And fans, I think y'all will get a lot of value from it as well. Kota the friend man, appreciate you having you on man. And appreciate you putting me on the show. Yeah, of course, man. Of course, man. I think a great place to start as someone who's done something like independently for so long in this game where we know there's a lot of smoky mirrors, right? Where people feel like someone isn't necessarily the same type of independent as other artists might be or there might be more behind it. I wanna start with like the first side of it, which is just getting your own thing going, actually getting things popping. The first thing I got onto was the lyrics to Go series. Thought it was genius. Obviously what I do, I help an artist even back then, that was before like TikTok and IG was really like, content, content, content. Gary Vee hadn't even gotten into the game in people's heads yet. You know what I mean? And I was like, look, man, this is a very simple way that's repeatable. It's not too much stress, but it's also focused on the lyrics. So every artist is in lyrical, but I especially when I talk to lyrical artists, this is getting people to consume and understand what you're saying all at the same time. I thought so much of it was beautiful. So like for artists real quick, I just explained, we all see those yellow video, that yellow text of the video transcribing the song. Kota was the first person I've seen do that and own it. Maybe some other people might have did it randomly here and there for whatever reason, but that was like the thing that every single video. What gave you that idea, bro? Man, I just realized that that was my strength, and I didn't have much. I didn't have a lot of resources. I didn't have a lot of industry connections. So I really had to hone in on myself and how I can use my strengths to kind of like put my best foot forward.  So I was like, I'm gonna make the video simple. And just what I didn't know, I knew how to edit videos and I knew how to color grade. And I just knew what I was doing in that realm. So I was like, I know how to make it interesting. So I did the slow zoom and I did a nice color grade to make it look cinematic. And I was like, if I put the lyrics on the screen, then people will screenshot it and maybe share it on Twitter or share it on their Instagram or in there or whatever. And that's exactly what happened. And I didn't realize that it was gonna blow like it did until I dropped the first one lyrics to go ever so one. And for some reason that was going crazy in any video I'd ever made ever. And it was the most simple video I've ever made. And after that I was just like, all right, let me try another one. And I did the same thing. And then I was like, let me try a third one. And then after a while, I just started really putting some money behind these videos and being like, I'm gonna shoot like five of them. And then I'm gonna promote each of them with like different Instagram pages and different Facebook pages or whatever. And it just started going crazy. And then it became a thing that just everybody did was like the lyrics on the screen. And then you started seeing apps just automatically have captions ready I was like that. So for me, I didn't see one rapper or one artist or anything put lyrics on the screen. And so for me to see like that become the norm upon all social media platforms was crazy. Yeah, man, I was wondering if you thought about it, man. Like you low key OG in terms of like where the current content landscape is. Like Sean said, this was before content was a buzzword, but you were on top of it. And now looking at where things are is really just an extension of the seeds. You were kind of, you know, you and other artists were kind of playing back then. I always wondered if you thought about it that way. Nah, I always think people, some people will hit me up in the middle of like middle and like nowhere. Like they'll be like, yo, bro, how do you feel about the fact that everybody uses captions now? Like that's like the norm. Like seriously, people ask me all the time.  That's crazy. And I just look at it like, man, it's like that's my like stamp in the game. Like that's something I contributed to music. So I'm happy about that. Bro, I can say that a lot of people have started things and then it somehow permeates throughout culture.  They had to get it from you. But in your case, we can explicitly say it was you because I had my platform, I teach artists. Like, you know what I mean? And I was using you as an example and telling so many artists, no, this guy is doing it. This is exactly how you should do it. Like use casual. I was using you over and over and over again. People have been following for a long time. But with, especially around that time, no, like you were my primary example of exactly how you should do it. So at the very least, there was an amount that came directly because of you. I appreciate you, dawg. Like that is one of those things that you just got to like, you choke it up to the game. It is what it is. Yeah, yeah. Now, there was something interesting that you said, though, that I think every artist, person, whoever can benefit from. You said you just knew your strengths. Like when I talk to people about like just their brand, you know, like a lot of it is like, if you want to be authentic, what are your strengths? Or how you should, you should build your team. You got to know your strengths and compensate for the weaknesses. So how did you, what were your strengths at that time and maybe even the weaknesses? And then how did that somehow lead to the, to that series and then how you moved after that? Yeah, my strengths were the lyrics. Like people, whenever people talk about my songs, they talk about how meaningful the lyrics are. So I thought about that. And then my other strength was that I knew how to shoot videos, which a lot of my peers, they didn't know how to do because I had spent years kind of like, not necessarily perfecting the craft, but I knew, I knew a lot about it. I knew enough to make somebody's music video and make it like hot. So I knew something about how things looked and how things were edited and how to make things look interesting. You know, which is a big part of my come up because people would see the video and be like, damn, this video just, it's something about it. They didn't know how to explain it, but they were like, there's something about this video that I really like, you know? And it's just because it was professional, it was clean. It looked like a real videographer had shot it because I am a real videographer, you know? So, yeah. Yes, I was gonna ask about that. So at that time, were you a videographer that was looking to transition into becoming a music artist or were you already a music artist and you were using videography to kind of get you in? Like which of the routes was it? Yeah, I was a music artist. For a minute, I was already recording, but I actually took a full step back so I could like make money, you know?  Like, there was no possible way. Like Spotify numbers weren't, they weren't hitting like they're hitting out for independent artists. So it was hard to get a fan base.  You're not getting real tour money back then. So for me, I was just like, man, I'm just gonna learn something else. I'm just gonna learn a new craft, you know? So I make music, but I ended up selling all of my music equipment and I bought a Canon T3i and then after that, I upgraded to the Canon 5D Mark II and then I got like, I had a whole bunch of cameras after that. So I was a real full-fledged videographer and that was my main thing. I remember telling my friends, my friends wanted to fight me, they were like, bro, you can't stop making music, you can't stop doing this. I'm like, bro, this is what I have to do for now because I have to eat and I got to make sure that I got a roof over my head. And so I did that for a while. And once I realized I had like savings and everything and I was just like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna buy my recording equipment back. So I bought a whole bunch of recording equipment and I got back on it. And then when my son was about to be born, I think that's when I really had to make a decision. Say, am I gonna do this? Like, cause I can't have my hands in every single part. I have to actually hone in and focus on one thing. And that's when I really decided to go full steam with the music. So like you took that step back after you had started to develop a fan base? I had a little bit of a fan base nowhere near what I had after the fact, you know? But it just wasn't materializing to anything crazy. I wasn't getting any crazy looks. I wasn't getting label offers. I didn't have any connections, like I said. So it just didn't seem like something that was gonna lead somewhere at the time, you know? It seemed like I needed an extra something. I needed an extra something to make me more of an asset. Now I wanna get to the music as well, but like this part of the conversation is actually so important, man, because I feel like that's just part of what's gonna inspire people, not only artists, but people in general. You took a step back for your dream. You refocused. Now you got 1.9 million monthly listeners. Last I checked, you got Income Producing Real Estate. Flight Boys is a brand that's established, right? That people actually know about from a clothing brand standpoint. You have multiple things as a legitimate business person, all right, and you're still 100% indie and have a legitimate fan base, but that it didn't start there. Like you just talked about having to take stuff back and figure out how to get bread. So I, one, what inspired you to stay independent? Because you've had to have some offers at this point. I got offers, but they just weren't good, you know? It just didn't make sense in a business sense. It just, I don't think good deals don't really exist. You know what I mean? Like a lot of the times, like, I think it's rare that somebody gets a really good deal and the only time they get a good deal is when they've already built up a crazy follow and then they're a short thing, you know? So I was always just, I mean, like I'm a simple dude, like if I have a crib and I have food and everybody that I love is taken care of and nobody's struggling, then I'm gonna stay independent. You know what I mean? There's no rush for me to do anything crazy. I look at this like a job, whereas I realize a lot of rappers in particular, they, it's a lot of competition.  I want to be making this many aims and this, but I've always been like, bro, if I can make a 100K off of music, then I'm winning. I'm up, you know, like, and if I can make 200K even better, if I can make 500, if I can make a meal, that's the dream. Like, so I kind of still look at it that way, where it's like, man, everything in my life is taken care of and it's all because of music, which is something I love. And on top of that, I could, I got side of the blues. So we having fun with it. Are you at a point where everything you're making off of music is just straight going into music or like, are you like, or do you have enough leftover where you can think about I'm planning a year or two in advance in music or maybe like ducking off a little bit to the side? Everything I make goes into a lot of family stuff. You know what I mean? Making sure the family is good and for their longevity. Other than that, I do have my hands in like real estate and so I'm always figuring out ways to invest in that.  But, you know, there's some stuff that I actually take loans from the bank. So the bank will give me loans and I'll put that into the music, you know? I wanna interrupt this episode to say if you are still using Linktree as an artist, I'm not saying you're playing yourself, but you're playing. Let me tell you why. The link in bio is extremely valuable real estate. I can't tell you how much we've paid influencers just to be able to put a little link in the bio. Yet for some reason, people only seem to value it with somebody else's paying them for it versus taking full advantage of that real estate for themselves. For an artist, forever fam is the best way to do that because it's not just some random link in bio. It's specifically for artists connected to the full music funnel and software to make sure every single interaction helps you understand your fan base, engage with that fan base so they support you, continue to fund your career, and most importantly, help you find more folks like them. Check it out at foreverfammusic.com slash no labels. That's no labels with the S. And then when you get there, you can get access today for only $1 using the code no labels as well. So get rid of your Linktree or whatever link in bio you're using and replace that condo with a full blown compound. It'll make your life easier, especially if you're an indie already making stuff happen. It's like having a whole employee without having to hire an employee, if you know what I'm saying. So go to www.foreverfammusic.com slash no labels and use the code no labels, get access for just a dollar, see how it works for yourself and you won't want to use anything else. I know because it happened to us. Like you got a good, like an interesting like background because the Flight Boys brand, you started that in the 11th grade, saw that you went to school with phony people, which is dope cause I rock with them like pretty heavy. I remember when they first hit, like were you in a super creative environment in high school coming up like beyond, like was it just you and a couple of people or your area? Was it like, I don't know, the Pharrell's and Timberland and Missy and like you just got all these people everywhere. Nah, it was definitely like you just had those people everywhere.  So that, I think that was one of the beautiful things about how we came up and we went to a arts high school and we were always going from one high school to the other high school and then we were doing shows on a weekend where everybody was coming together and it was like talent shows outside of school, which is nothing better. There's nothing better than a whole bunch of kids coming together, no fights, no negativity, just really showing off what they can do as an artist. And that's how, that was our environment, man. It's like, we'll go to Edward R. Murrow and we will see Capitol Stee's freestyling and that was regular. And even one of the stories that somebody told me and I think Joey, like Joey Badass, he told me that they was freestyling outside of this spot called the Five Spot and this is where I used to throw all my showcases when we were in high school and he was like, that night they were freestyling outside the spot. It was one of my shows and that's the night that they created Pro-Ever. So it was like, that's how connected everybody was. It's like, even if we didn't know each other personally, we were in the same spaces at the same time. And so I think that's because everybody wanted to be something and that's, it just goes to show because people really became something. Man, that sounds like y'all got a movie that should be made. It's really Brooklyn. I think it's really a movie and if people had kind of like stuck together then it would be going crazy right now. The stories being told would be crazy. It's just, I think it was just, it never stayed cohesive. Not like Atlanta or LA, you know what I mean? So. You were part of a group, right? Yeah, which one? Which one? I don't even, I only knew what, I can't remember the name. The first one. Napierre? Napierre, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was in Napierre. What was, what's the experience like being in a group and versus being a solo rapper? Man, you gotta be mature to be in a group, I think.  So you're not thinking about somebody else working as hard as you. So, but when you're in a group, you have expectations of each other. Yeah, and that becomes a difficulty. Because if somebody, like I was always the person, I'm always the type of person, I think you can tell it's just, if I want it to happen, man, I'm gonna go hard. I'm gonna make sure it happens. I'm gonna put everything I got into it. Whereas everybody else is a lot more relaxed about pretty much everything. Yeah, it is for some reason, I always just noticed that. So for me, being a solo artist made so much more sense, because the work ethic. You like sports? Yeah, I like sports. What's your favorite sport? Man, whatever's playing, bro. I'm the kind of person, I can get into it as long as I know what's going on. And once I'm into it, I'm into it. I can't stop. Like my wife, she's from the UAE. So I was never into soccer, football, whatever, whoever you want to call it. But I wasn't into it. Then we were watching the World Cup. And I'm sitting there, I watched probably like one and a half games. And by that, by then I knew everything that was going on. Like I knew what team I wanted to win. I had my favorite player. So it's like, it don't matter, bro. Yeah, I can sense the vibes from some of the stuff you said. That's all I was immediately thinking. Like, who was your favorite basketball player? I could tell a lot about somebody based on that type of stuff. All right, Iverson. Easy, hands down. I got you. I know what type of guy that is. Good disrupter. I love the underdog, bro. I love it. I love seeing the little guy win. It makes my heart happy. It's like, Iverson is my favorite for so many reasons. Like, first of all, everybody gonna say he changed the game. He was so tough, man. To be six feet or maybe not even six feet and be doing the things he was doing and leading teams and dropping 53 points, neck and neck with Kobe. He was doing crazy stuff. So, and all the stuff that people try to throw at him too. So, and all the stuff he had to battle through even after the NBA. And it's just, so I always root for him. And I always root for people like that in life. When I see him, whether it's on social media or whatever. And people going through hardships while everybody else is being him down. I'm rooting for him. Like, that's who I am. Yeah, that's all I was gonna ask you. Do you see yourself in that same vein? Like, as an indie and just maybe your own personal life, do you find yourself to be more resonating as an underdog yourself? All the time. I've always been an underdog. But, and what's funny about it is like, you always feel like underestimated and that's the beauty of it. That's what keeps you going. Yeah, man. I got a question, man. We talked a lot about early come up and obviously you are a much more established artist. And what I think is really important for us to show, our viewers sometimes are that the answers aren't, the problems aren't solved just because you got shows happening or you got million plus monthly listeners.  You went the media route first to make some money. I heard you mentioned doing some of your own early marketing stuff like sending out some of the pages for you, for yourself. You mentioned like doing showcases. So you've had, you've dabbled in a lot of these different areas and it sounds like figuring some stuff out. What are the problems that color the friend today is working on? You know what I'm saying? Like what are the things that you're actively working on now to try to, you know, keep progressing yourself?  Man, it's so crazy. Because I think about this all the time. There's things I think about all the time with the music industry as it is now, man. Just to kind of, it all comes full circle because when I started that content situation, I was dropping so much content so often with the yellow subtitles and bro, that's all of social media now. So that's all of Instagram rails. That's all of TikTok and it's flooded at that time. Like when I started doing content and weekly content, sometimes bi-weekly, sometimes like, I would drop like three videos in a week maybe. You didn't really know that that was so rare. That was like unheard of. What do you mean you dropping two videos in a week? Three, what do you mean you dropped, you shooting five videos at one time and dropping them throughout the month? Like that wasn't heard of, but now that's nothing compared to what these people are doing. These people are shooting five videos a day. These people are shooting 10 pieces of content a day. So I got two kids bro, I don't know about shoot, but I don't got time to shoot 10 pieces of content a day. Like that's, I just don't have time to just and make good music on top of that. So I think with my situation, I'm really, I'm taking another step back. It's almost like I'm going back to where I was when I was trying to, I was trying to stack up some bread. Like I feel like I'm in a moment where I'm taking those steps back to really look at the landscape and see where I fit in in this landscape because I'm not a TikToker. I'm not a Instagram real maker. I love making content, don't get me wrong. I love making videos, but I'm a musician. I'm a writer. That's what I do, it's about the art first. And so what I'm trying to do now and my issue is my problem is really trying to figure out how do I make this art, you know, get it to the people that want to hear it or how do you find people that just want to hear good music and people that are not like caught up in the drama and the facades that we see on social media and just caught up in other people's lifestyles. I don't care about, I'm not trying to give you my lifestyle. I'm not trying to give you my rundown of what I'm doing every day. I'm not showing you where I'm at. You know, I got things to lose.  You know, like I don't feel like that really exists anymore because this once you see something, the next thing is popping up. And then the next thing popped up, people's attention spans, it seems like like 15, 20 seconds. So really trying to figure out where I fit in so I could continue just making music and doing what I do. Yeah, I feel like you'd be a good streamer. I don't know what I can see. I can see you having a... Yeah, I'll tell you why. Like you mentioned consumer behavior change and why like attention spans are shorter. I think now fans expect a lot more access to their artists. And what's really interesting and why I say I would throw you in that bucket is I remember early Instagram live days, you have this series where you would just like talk to the camera while you were taking your son to school or picking them up from daycare or something like that. It was something like that. Like you would just sometimes like pop on camera and be like, oh, like I gotta pick them up in like 20 minutes. So I'm about just like chop it up. And it's like, I look at it like, like I said, but like a lot of that stuff that you and other artists may have been doing on accident back then or just the past of time is kind of like the norm now. You know what I'm saying? It's like now I expect, if my favorite artist got kids, I want to know, you know what I'm saying? Did the kid make it home safe? You know what I'm saying? Like what y'all eat for dinner? You know, like I want to know that type of stuff. And so that's what makes me say, I think like, no, of course you're in a different space. You're a much different caliber of arts than, but just talking to you now and then thinking about you doing that, I think you'd be a good streamer, bro. I think you should. I could try, but I'm telling you, maybe at some point in my life, bro, but I just feel like what streamers do is so much energy, you know? And I don't knock it, but I kind of envy it. You know, I kind of envy it because it's just like, man, that opens you up to a whole new fan base because that's what is popping out and streaming. But man, I really, I got to find the energy, you know? I think that's one of my problems too is like finding the energy to do everything, bro. You're really like just thoughtful overall, man. And you know, the decisions, the music, you can hear it in the music. What, from the music, because that's the core of all of it. Do you feel like you have something to say? All the time. I feel like I always have something to say just because the world is always gonna be the way to the world. And I'm always on a journey. I'm always learning something. I always see things in my own, in a different perspective, in new perspectives because I may be reading a book, or yeah, I'm reading something new, or I watched a video, or I heard a speech, or I just had a conversation with somebody that kind of just like sparked something in me. So I try to stay inspired by always learning. I'm never content with the knowledge that I have. I always know that there's more. And so I feel like I always got something to say. And I think a few months ago, I was like, man, do I even have anything new to say because I was having writer's block like crazy. But then I read a book, and then I had something to say. Yeah. So do you feel like you're on a mission to make a certain point or get a certain message out there? Or is it more just like whatever I have to say and whatever I need to express, I use the music to get out there? Yeah, definitely. I feel like I've just had things to express and things to get off my chest. I've used music as an outlet. I've used it as an outlet to tell stories and say things that people wouldn't really allow you to say face-to-face. You know, like for some reason when you add a beat and then you speak your truth, people accept it a lot better than when you say it straight out. And that's just the way it is. So music has always been my way to kind of say those things that were hard. Like in my real life, man, communication is an issue. We're working on it. But through the music, it's like, damn, that's the communication. The communication is all there. That's an artist, man. Man, go listen to this song, man. Get back to me in 10 minutes. You'll see when I come home. I kind of really stopped saying stuff on social media, like all together. It's like, I used to be like other people where they talk about how they're feeling on social media. But then after a while, I just really drew all of that back.  You know what I mean? Y'all don't give a... Like people really don't care about people. And I see it. I'm not arguing nobody or nobody's Instagram comments, I'm not...  New song dropping next week is what it is. Because it's like, that's the only thing that matters is what you create. Everything else is like nothing, you know? Speaking of create, man, you got a book.  Koda and Sedona, which... You know, I saw how in the book you alluded back to hidden moments that alluded to the photo album. And one, did you create the project first and then the book was just like later or was the book always in mind? This is a children's book, by the way, for those who are following, which makes it even more interesting. But which one became first? The project. Project. The photo album came first. The book actually came about because I was on the TSA line in Colorado. And the girl next to me, she was like, oh my God, you're Koda the friend. You know, I was like, yeah, I'm Koda the friend, that's me.  And she was like, oh, no, she's an illustrator and she works with a publisher. She was like, oh my God, like I make children's books and so if you ever wanted to make a children's book, I was like, yo, it's crazy because I've been wanting to make a children's book. I got kids and I love reading them books. So something I've always been interested in. And a few months later, we was drafting a book and she was sending me illustrations and we was writing it up. And it turned into, we want to make a series of books. So this is the first one of the whole series and this is Koda and Sedona. And each book is gonna be based on a different place that I've been to. And they're all just dedicated to kids in the inner city that don't get to experience places like Sedona, Arizona or Denver and Colorado up in the mountains. Or it's like, we're wherever I've been. I've been all over the world as a kid from Brooklyn, New York. A lot of my friends have never left New York, you know? So it's really just about me and my son. It's like a black father and a black son and we're traveling the world and we're seeing things that, we're seeing the beautiful parts of the world. So, yeah. That's a beautiful concept because it was funny, like reading that that's kind of what the book is about, right? Showing people different parts of the world, specifically, you know, kids, it's a kids book. But, you know, I read it and I'd never been to Sedona, you know? And I felt like now I know some stuff. Like I saw a little, you know, I had the pictures. Now I know about the vortex and a place to meditate. Like I really kind of got that experience and I haven't read like nonfiction in a long time either. So, or is it fiction? I always mess it up. Fiction, I haven't read fiction on, sure, I really, that's a whole other story. Not to the track, but I haven't really read fiction in a long time. And it took me on that, just that little bit of journey, so the impact of it, like I can imagine I already know that, like the kids will feel it, even me as an adult, you know, went through that short experience and just was like, oh man, that's dope. Now I know a little bit of something, you know? Now that's what kind of why I'm excited because we really get to teach kids about places that they would otherwise not really know about. I didn't know about Sedona until I was a grown man as well. Like, you know, I was like, okay, that's a place.  And that's how I learned about a lot of, you know, places that I now and either have been or I'm interested in going to just, I'm a grown man, bro. First time I really got on a plane, I was a grown man, dog.   Like, man, I've been kayaking, I've been mountain climbing, like I've been out here. And it's like stuff that we're afraid of a lot of times when you come from the city, it's like, I ain't never doing that. Like even you asked me, if you asked me 15 years ago, I'll be like, I'm not going camping, what I look like? Going camping, I'm not doing that. I'm still not there yet. I feel you. And it's just, it's like, but I think the whole point is like, there's nothing to be afraid of though. You know, it's like, I feel like I really want people in our communities to feel like they can have those experiences too.  That's it. I feel like sometimes because of where we come from in our past and society, sometimes we close ourselves off from cool experiences. And so these books are kind of like that. It's like, look, this is what Sedona looks like. Man, this is what it looks like to be in China. This is what it looks like to be walking around in Barcelona or in London. And it's just like, man, now you grow up and you're in the second, third grade. And you're like, yo, mom, one day I want to go here. One day I want to go there. And now you have these dreams, yet you're like the world becomes, the world is huge, but it becomes smaller. When you start, the more you know, you know, the more you really get the education of what's going on around you, like the world becomes smaller and things become more attainable. And I think that's when life gets interesting. Yeah, I'm talking. I'm talking. I'm chatting. Yeah, no, that's dope. Cause you're truly planting seeds. And, you know, I see the impact. I have children as well. So like, I just, I know how those small things, you know, they can take over their entire mind. You know what I mean? For real estate, they can obsess over it over a while and you know what's going to happen some way one day just because it's now a thing to them. You know? Yeah. I think it's dope that, you know, books are obviously, it's writing. You called yourself a writer earlier in addition to just be, I'm an artist, I'm a rapper or something like that. Books are a great extension, right? To what you're doing. Do you feel like there's any other ways that you want to like do a brand extension of the talent that is Kota, like the writing, the music creation or the brand that is Kota, you know, your look or whatever you want to build on that side. Cause you also have the clothing brand and stuff like that as well. Man, I just think that I just want to create things. I want to make, I want to get into film. I want to really get into fashion the way I want to. I want to get into art. Whatever is art, I want to support other people in their dreams. If I see something that's going to be beautiful. I was just talking to somebody the other day. I was like, I just want to, I want to create, I look at it like real estate. I look at these creative ideas like real real estate. And I want, I want to build downtown Manhattan. You know what I want? I want every, I want to build the Empire State. I want to build the Chrysler building. And I want to do it. Obviously I can't do it alone. So it's just right now I'm in a space where I'm finding a whole bunch of people to work with and create different projects with. And together we can make something so much bigger than ourselves and something that lasts so long. You know, something that can't be knocked down. And that's, that's what I'm interested in. So it's not really about Koda the brand. I don't think Koda, I think Koda is really just a part of this bigger situation that's, that's like happening on a low. And right now I'm just really connecting the dots. The universe will do everything for you. If you, if you, if you put it in the world that this is what you want to do. And it's like, comes from pure intentions. The universe has been putting every single person in my path has been. It's like, I didn't even have to do nothing. It's just that person is just there. Meet them. Oh, they already know about you. They want to work with you already. Boom, y'all created that connection. Then y'all started doing it. So I'm more interested, I'm so much more interested in meeting people and connecting and building something together that stands the test of time. Man, when I hear you speak, I do, I think of you as a legitimate artist, man. Beyond just the music now, and it makes sense, you went to art school as well. Like that's kind of like a lot of my upbringing and as well as my dad went to art school. Like there's so much of it that it's nothing that's really out of reach in terms of different forms of arts. It's not that big of a deal where I feel like a lot of people are bound more to music and they kind of like this other stuff that's cool that other people are doing. But it seems like for you it's just, it's all gonna come out one way or another eventually because it's in you, you've just been around it for a long time. Have you found it like to be like kind of effortless? And you just, because that's how you talk about it. It's like, well, yeah, I just did this and now this is the other thing I wanna do it. And I just did that. It does not, there's not as much of a challenge. It seems like for you to get into things as some people who haven't been into things or got to taste as much as you might have, you know what I mean? I think that I think I owe that to my dad. He's always been an entrepreneur. So I never watched him really work a regular job. He'd be in the crib at 1 p.m. Like that was so, I didn't know that you had to do that. I didn't know that you had to get a job. I never looked at it. I was like, if I get a job, I must be doing something wrong. That's the way I saw it. If that's my end goal, so freedom has always been a big deal for me to be able to just get up and do the things that I wanna do. And if I have an idea, try to make it happen. And if it fails, then okay, you just do something else or whatever. I've never been afraid of failure, never, never. I've never been afraid. Even to this day, I'm constantly trying. I try something, if it don't work, then I may spend 30 minutes being down on myself about it. And then on the 31st minute, I get back up and I'm like, I tried something different, new plan. And so that's just how it's always been.  You can't be business focused or talented at business and then also talented at the arts. Have you found that to be a struggle personally? Yeah, because I'm an artist. I'm an artist first. I think the business, it's tough. And sometimes I wanna strip down the business to nothing just so I could focus on being an artist. And so it gets tough. You really gotta have like a business manager. Somebody to really manage your business. While I think I'm good with certain marketing techniques and creative ideas, I think I'm, I keep my lane as the creative at all times. And a lot of times I hate when people on my team try to get into the creative.  So you need to just, it kills me. It's like, but I'm definitely a stay in my lane kind of person. Where I had, sometimes I'll have a good business idea, but I don't think I'm fully business savvy, man. I'm not, I'm a creative. I would say I'm 90, 10, 90% creative, 10% business. Or maybe 80, 20, you know? Cause I don't, there's a lot of things that I don't let just like get by me. I see things that don't make sense business wise. I see things and I bring it up. I'm like, this doesn't, but for the most part I'm a creative, you know? What part about it, about the business side stresses you out in terms of the creative that you want to get done? It's just that business is kind of linked to capitalism, you know? And I feel like business and capitalism are anti-art, anti-artistry, which is why the music business has been so trashed for so many years. Because, and artists have kind of taken the shitty end of every deal. It hasn't been kind to artists because it's not, it's not about the spirit. Business is not about the spirit. It's not about, it's not about feelings and morality. It's about how much, making sure I make more money and making sure that this deal is better for me than it is for you. So it's hard, it's hard to really balance both because they kind of negate each other. Sometimes I wonder if music was ever meant to really be a business. I look at music like another art form, like painting or dancing or whatever. It's not so easy to monetize. And I feel like so much money has been made from music that people stop looking at it, like an art form. This is something that people are getting millions and millions and millions and billions of dollars for. So it's turning to something different. But at the end of the day, music is about doing, writing a song, writing a beautiful song, performing it for however many people are gonna come listen and they're gonna pay to have a much money to come see you. And so it's simple to me, it's simple to me. And so it's difficult when I look at the way the music industry is now, it's super commercialized. And I'm not trying to sound like one of them people that's just anti-business and pro-art all the time, but it is a struggle, bro, yeah. I mean, bringing in money, scaling something commercially does naturally take the purity out of anything. We talk about it with art, cause it's kind of obvious. But even if you look at the NBA professional sports, I knew people, some of my, like one of my godfathers, he would, he did not go to the pros cause he had to take care of his mom and get a job cause it wasn't money in basketball like that now. I mean, back then, but basketball now has so much money. People are pursuing it to put their family on. You go, you know what I mean? And it's less about the love of the game. And I think the same thing even happens in music. So it's one thing where the artists are talking about all the business, the labels, the professionals, the industry, but now there are many artists that get into it, right? Because of the lifestyle that they see, let alone the money specifically, the lifestyle is a whole another thing that's not art itself, but that's the motivation behind it. And even you, you're living off of your music, which is a great accomplishment, right? Where do you find the line to be as someone who is successfully having some level of, you know, capital gain from your music, but you also have your freedom? Like how do you keep that balance and still feel comfortable as an artist? I think this is the best place you could, I think it's the best place you could be as an artist, to have your freedom and to be making a living off of music. I don't know about the longevity of it though. I don't know how long that lasts, like the way things are, it's like the way things change all the time.  You got to get out the game now. If you don't get out the game now, then I don't know what's going to happen with the rest of the movie.  The movie ends, road credits. Like for me, it's like trying to figure out the perfect time to get out, you know? Like because I appreciate the art so much. I don't think I'll ever stop making music, but I just want to, I really want to get to the point where I build something so much bigger than what the music is so that I can really just fully enjoy and have fun just making music. And I'm getting it. You know, I'm on my way to, but it's tough, you got to, I'm trying to figure it out. That's the perfect person to hear that from because there's going to be artists who are at this point, all right? And are going to get to that point and they're going to wonder like, yeah, what do I do if I want to maintain integrity? Is that an option? And you just reminded me that I got a homegirl who she expressed something very similar. She's done very well in like merch and made money and other ways from the music. And now that she found this spot, because she didn't think and strategize this way, but once she got to that place, she started to appreciate the freedom in which she could create her music, right? Cause she wasn't relying on it to make the check. And I'm starting to think personally for a lot of artists who are like, all right, I truly, truly care about the art itself. Like maybe that's the way, right? You monetize and maybe it might be brand related so you can stay a creative bag, but so you don't have to put pressure on putting out another track just for quantity sake, you know what I mean? Or fulfilling some type of deadline and you can lead the art to art.  That sounds like to me that might be the dream for real. Yeah, I think it is, man. It's like, people think, like I think I put on Twitter a while ago. I was like, and I got some backlash from this comment, from this statement, but I was like, bro, if you really love the music and if you really love the art, then don't quit your day job. You know, like that was the tweet. And a lot of people came back at me like, oh, says the person that's making money off of their art already. And it's like, I get that, but trust me, I'm talking to people who really love what they're doing. I'm not talking to the people that's just trying to get the bag. Cause right now I think we're in a space where people care a lot about the bag. Like artists and now it's just like, I not get that people, we need money. We need money to eat. People's trying to live good lifestyles. They're trying to live crazy lifestyles and trying to, some people is just trying to take care of everybody around them. And I understand that. And that all comes from good spaces. But which is why I specified, if you love this art, because if you just try to focus on getting a bag and at the same time you really enjoy making this art, you're gonna, it's like you're having an internal war with yourself. And people wonder why they're so depressed. It's like, now I made it here, but I'm so depressed. It's like, because you've had to give up and sacrifice 50% of who you really are to get this bag.  So it's just like, is it worth it? It's like that, it's like the biblical phrase. Like what is good, what good is it's a man who gains the world when he loses his soul? Yeah, I think that's pretty heavy. That's something that I'm gonna leave the artists to think on that for themselves. But before we get out of here, I do wanna touch on a couple more things, man. One, like doing shows, I remember a minute ago when you got your first show to go to South Africa. You know what I mean? And I think I didn't forget it because it's kinda like that thing you said, like being where we're from and then going to a Sedona. Like it really clicked like Brug going to South Africa. It was a big deal to me. You know what I'm saying? And I wanna know just what was that like and how does something like that come about for an artist who's in Brooklyn? You know what I mean? And shout out to Twitter. And you'll never hear me say that again. Shout out to Twitter. That's the only time you ever get that quote out of me, man, because that's really where a lot of my South African fan base came from. And I ain't know where it was coming from. I was like, yo, why is so many people in South Africa showing me love on social media? Turns out that Coda is a South African street food. Like it's spelled the same way too, K-O-T-A. It's a South African street food.  So he was like, yo, see, this is what a Coda is in our hometown. And I was like, that's crazy out there, I'm a food. So they thought I was South African. That was where the connection came from. They actually, and I'm sure they probably saw my face. And then once I saw what South Africans looked like, I'm like, I could definitely be South African easily. And so they thought I was from, they thought I was from South Africa. They was trying to figure out, yo, you from here, you from Cape Town, where you from? Like they didn't know I was from New York. And so they was telling me to come out, thinking that I, they was telling me to do a show, thinking that I was from there. And I saw that rock in the daisies, somebody was like, yo, you need to get on rock in the daisies. That was the festival that they throw in Cape Town or near Cape Town. So after that, I just started telling everybody, yo, spam rocking the daisies, telling them to put me on the ledge, telling them, and I started going crazy on Twitter. South African Twitter came together. And before you know it, we had an offer and it wasn't crazy. It's like, I think all the money that they gave me, I spent to fly me and my friends out and put us up in a hotel. Like, so it was probably a few thousand dollars just so we could make it work. And I think my homegirl was my DJ at the show. Like, it was the most last minute, just not normal thing to happen, but I was able to go to South Africa and they showed me mad love. Like, to this day, that's the baby crying. To this day, I always say that was the one place that showed me so much love that I felt like I really wanted to cry. Like, they were crying. They were like, oh my God, I never got that much love. So I always got mad love in South Africa. I can't wait to go back. Man, that's a new marketing strategy. You can catfish your way into a family. But he thinks, I didn't even know, bro. I didn't even know. That's crazy. It was a complete accident. I want to leave it with this, man. You kind of touched on some of the stuff, but maybe we can go deeper. For an artist who cares about the art, all right? You said a few things throughout this talk, but what would you leave them with? For artists that cares about the art. Well, like I would say, keep the art pure.  Like we've been talking about, it's tough. It's like, what do you tell artists in the capitalist society, man? What do you tell them? I could try to give you all this advice, but am I gonna give you advice so you could be more at peace? Or am I gonna give you advice so you can make the bag? It's like, because it's hard to do both at the same time. And it takes, I think it takes a lot of, it takes a lot of knowledge and not only knowledge, but knowledge of self and you really, if you wanna make the bag and keep your heart at the same time, yo, it's levels to that. Yo, it's like, it's not normal. Like you even look at Jay-Z. He's become one of the most successful people in hip hop ever. If not the most successful person in hip hop. And when you listen to 444, I'm like, this man is 50 something years old. It's like, he's still going through it. He's still going, and that's not a knock on him, just to say that's the reality. It's like, it's hard to have everything. And I think that's, it's hard to give him advice, bro. It's hard to give him advice because I feel like I'm still trying to figure out, I'm still trying to figure that out, that balance and I'm learning more about myself every day. I guess I wanna ask you a question. What do I want for them? What is the thing that I want them to do? Do I want them to be happy or do, I want them to be as successful as possible? I mean, I feel like there's a way to get to both, but you have to make sure you define the success for yourself and not others. You know what I mean? And what I heard you say is just understanding that life is something that doesn't get figured out 100%, it's always evolving. And maybe such as my grandmother might give me that same advice just as a human experience. So much of art is really just reflecting the human experience, even if it's your own and just your own. So maybe that's, that is the thing, right? Be okay with the fact that there's phases and they'll be struggled with your art, but maybe that's what makes the art, you know? I got it. I got the advice. I got the advice, bro. I got it. Shout out to what you say, because you kind of what you said made me think and I was like, okay, if, so I would say just focus on what you have to offer. Stop thinking about yourself almost entirely. Obviously you feed yourself, you take care of yourself, you make sure you're good, but whenever you put the pen to the page or whenever you release a song, think about how you're affecting somebody else's life and thinking about how, what you're contributing to society. And even when you're not making music, I would say focus on, focus on what you are giving to the world rather than what you're receiving from it. I feel, and I feel like if you have that mentality, with just everybody you meet and everybody you ran into, it's like, man, what am I doing to make this person's life better? I feel like good things are gonna come to you. You can get the success and at the same time, you will get that peace. You will get that inner peace and good things are always gonna come your way. I love it. I love it. Yeah, that's fine. Everybody, this is Kota the Fran. I'm Brandon Shawn. And I'm Corey. And this is yet another episode of No Labels Necessary. Peace. Peace.


What's up everybody Jason from jazby's case breaks dot com we just filled up another random number blog randomizer in allusions A box inter case break pick your teams number eight and this random number blog randomizer features these teams here with the dolphins Packers eagles and bears so again works like any other random number blog break on our website But only for these teams in this specific break and just please know please know guys that there are cars They're gonna be unnumbered whether they'll be relics autographs based cards, etc Just know that all the unnumbered cards in this block of teams If we do pull any we'll be randomized to one person and one lot at the end of the break And everybody gets a random number from zero through nine So for example if we pull a serial number With three being the first number on the left side of the dash it'll go to that team To that customer that has that hit so if it's a Jalen hurts right here and it's serial number 13 out of 99 the eagles are part of this random number block So it'll go to block three three out of 25 43 out of 49 93 out of 99 and so on it'll still go to Block three since it is the first number on the left side of the serial number dash And then of course all redemption cards pulled from any of these teams will go to spot zero If you get randomized it even if we know it's a one one and still go to spot zero So good luck guys. Here's the dice roll. Let's roll it and we got ourselves a four to four eight times Eight the hard way customer names and numbers one two three four five six seven and eight eight times Shannon down to gabe eight times here one two three four five six seven eight three down to two So Shannon you have three Raymond you have zero sending our redemption for these teams will be yours followed with six Man Arna with seven Andrew with four gabe with nine gary you have eight cordy with any one-on-ones What spot one will be yours gary with five and gabe with two So again, uh coming up next now guys in a separate video is the break itself So i appreciate you guys jaskiescasebreaks.com


drinking water quality for human consumption is a global issue of paramount importance. In this study, we assessed the physical and chemical properties of drinking water from five major sources in Sapeel, Delta State. We used a convenient sampling method to collect 40 water samples from river, rain, well, borehole, and sachet water sources. Our results showed that the pH of the water sources ranged from 4.5 to 6.8, the total dissolved solids, TDS, ranged between 5 and 14,000 milligrams per litre, milligram L, the electrical conductivity, EC, ranged between 10 and 740 microseemons per centimeter, SCM, and the turbidity range between 0.01 and 23.9 nephelometric turbidity units, NTU. The mean levels of chloride, calcium, iron, lead, copper, and cadmium were all below the maximum permissible limits set by the World Health Organization, WHO, and the National Standards for Drinking Water Quality, NSDWQ. However, this article was offered by Prince Esiogeen Edike, Esi Clementina Isa, and Ubuizi Makogwu. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


Enquête Marichal de la Troie de Tassini Kosovo, Hungarian, Polish, American, and Portuguese soldiers assigned the K-4 pushed themselves to their physical limits in the Spartan 300 Challenge. The grueling competition tested each competitor as an individual and as a team. Each contestant had to do 50 pull-ups, deadlifts, kettlebell snatches, box jumps, push-ups, and floor wipers, equaling to 300. While the competition was fierce, it also brought each soldier closer together in camaraderie. I definitely think it's good for the camaraderie. I've already made so many friends from multiple nations, so that's been great and that being one of our main missions. I think that this probably helps just as much as anything else we do, in my opinion. Polish contingent soldiers placed first in the team competition, and they believe the Spartan 300 helped each nation form stronger bonds with one another. And in fact it makes our relationships between nations more tougher, I think, closer. So it's really nice. For example, Hungarian guys, American guys, they're really... Reporting from Kent, Marachel, Krileczu, Tatechri, Kosovo, I'm Army Sergeant David Marquis.


So what says I'm right? I keep arguing that evolution has made these changes happen and everything, but we don't really know that, right? I can't go a billion years back and check. Well, don't fool yourself. There is nothing that says evolution has to take a billion years just because some important parts of evolution have taken that long. There was a really cool paper published about a decade ago about Tomcott. So Tomcott is an Atlantic type of cod, in particular abundant outside the north-eastern US coast. It's sadly also an animal that's very sensitive to other poisons such as PCBs. So the common way PCB, for instance, act as such, have a protocol ARH, the aryl hydrocarbon receptors. These receptors, the green one here, they sadly bind the PCB. When they bind the PCB, they tend to go into the nucleus of the cell and sadly activate incorrect genes. I'm not even sure why that happens, but the point is that this now leads to errors in the proteins we're expressing, possibly errors in the duplication of the genomes in the cell and everything, and eventually you start having disease and the animals might even die. So they will not be able to duplicate their genes to as many generations if they're subject to PCB. Partly the reason why PCBs are now increasingly prohibited. Eventually, after billions of years, you could imagine that if we keep having PCBs around this version, maybe they would evolve some sort of resistance to this. Maybe you can have a different version of this ARH protein that didn't bind PCB. The cool thing is that this hasn't taken billions of years, but it has happened in a few decades. So I think this was in 2011. Yes, I even had a reference there. This was a really cool science paper that they've been sequencing COD outside the northeastern US coast. Then it turns out that there are two alleles. Remember these two chromosomes, the two pairs in each chromosome. So that the tomcord expressed two slightly versions of this ARH receptor, where one of the copies was resistant or at least more resistant to PCB. And normally in the clean waters up there in the northeast, you have the normal ARH receptor, there's nothing special at all, no pressure. But look here down, in particular on Hudson River, which is likely not the cleanest part of the Atlantic coast, the second allele has taken over completely. So that the tomcord has evolved resistant to PCB in a few decades more or less. We haven't used PCB more since the mid-20th century. It's a super cool paper that I've also shared with you. So evolution can happen in decades, sadly, because the evolutionary pressure in this case is extremely strong. The tomcord wouldn't survive in the Hudson otherwise.


Maia, maia, maia, maia, maia, maia, maia... Maia, maia, maia, maia... Maia, maia, maia... Maia, maia, maia, maia, maia... Maia, maia, maia, maia, maia... Maia, maia, maia, maia, maia...  Atau iawni ato-aakata anumari. Ako maipa gadaa maipa whanaula. Anumari te tepi i te parua … … ilema mersa manorai maipa menea … … kaila i luwta. Maipa menea i saumiaţi keriaw kaipa menea, semaikai te kata maipa menea … … kaipa menea, kaipi i maipa menea … … kaipi i menea. aroi, i ao ratao te pa i maiai moa mahtua piaiai uniria. Manusiai, uniriai aroa maha i kauesa uniriai kaueis, te maiai kontyikai na hītai te ha alike. Maiai kapa tini ta kiwtiaxaretia. Nairtamit yw panai aagaipiaa ausa, maiai sch te maiai aroa, aroa mahi aroa mahi tini, momeu te maiai kapa sa te maiai aroa mahi maiai, mene ria maiai angati itai, everybodie was supported and that was the vision in the beginning so all it left me planning on it. So I'm very thankful that that ended up doing how it happened. So obviously a lot of the work that we had already played we'd wanted to do. We talked about explaining the 2019 in 2010 was to D werden in 2020 and ofc a lot of our non-essential work had to stop immediately. We did do some things so we had our usual business as usual though, we had the pandemic load and we did some projects so we moved from OpenShift to EKS on Amazon, it's quite a big undertaking with the amount of sites we're carrying. Doug, who spoke yesterday, spoke about my purge service that we created to put the ability of purge back in the hands of our users and we moved, I can't remember the number, but a lot of Drupal 8 sites to Drupal 9 and we started assisting other agencies to prepare to move from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 this year. So quite a lot of work. About three months ago, we decided to step out from under that weight and get back onto our roadmap and get back onto the vision that we have for this platform in the service and we took the first steps in doing that by putting in out an EOI for digital experience platform tools and a number of other projects have also kicked off behind the scenes which I'll talk about shortly. There have been even messages for back and not only are we back but we're really pleased to be back here and to see so many colleagues and people that we've met along the journey on Drupal and it's been lovely to see so many people face to face and be able to talk. So the journey, I do want to spend a little bit of time on this because I think it's really important that you understand where we're trying to go and why we're trying to go there. The end goal and they've been complex user journeys. So when we talk about that people think life events that would be a simple music journey but the problem is life events are about everybody and there are actually no single person at all because all of us have multiple complexities at the time that we are interacting with government and the way that I use the example is pregnancy. We're sure the pregnancy life event fits pregnant people but when you're pregnant you normally eat other things as well and my goal is that we put the pieces in place so eventually if I find out I'm pregnant my relationship is just broken down and by the way I'm in my second year of a degree we can actually deliver a complex music journey that brings together personalisation across many faces of somebody's life all at once. So we can't do that now but we're trying to put the pieces in bit at a time so that this is possible. It might take two years, it might take five, it might even take ten but the point is if we don't know where we're going we'll never get there at all. Making content shareable and reusable but we already do syndication in the SAS platform and the defence has been doing that on SAS since 2016 but what we're thinking of is much much more sophistication around this and what are we trying to solve here? We're trying to solve the fact that in government there's always many many different agencies that talk about the same topic to their customers and this is at the heart of why we deliver an inconsistent an inconsistent view to the citizens who are accessing that information. It's not done on purpose but one of the really good examples I've used before is childcare. Services Australia responsible for childcare responsible for the transaction side of that responsible and bears the cost okay and that cost if is greatly where the people do something in a digital manner whether they ring up on the phone or when they go into the office. So we have services Australia that has invested quite a lot of money and time and resource into trying to move people through digital pathways but then when we turned to childcare we found seven other areas of government that also touched on childcare different facets it could be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island programs it could be teen parents keeping them in school that could be the education aspects of childcare but what all of these different parts of websites it spoke about childcare what we found in our research was all of them wrote about their bit and then they took services Australia's content bits of it and they come pasted that in a point of time and they added it to theirs and can you guess what they did at the bottom of the page they blasted services Australia phone number at the bottom of these pages every single one of them did that that just undid all of that digital transformation work that services Australia had done the our vision is we can get these content snippets and we can put them in a central repository and allow people to draw from that and they're always drawing what is coming and then we're also allowing them to draw the carefully crafted messages about how to go through the digital journey so we're not doing that fast on your phone and this is why it's important. Explicit. And they've been third-party content delivery a bit of a dream of mine that we get to this point I think there's been an arrogance or maybe just not enough thinking about where we deliver government messages and information and there's been always a thought that we have government websites and that's where we put our information. The question for me is is that where people are and I believe it's not where they always are and so I'm not alarming anybody I'm not proposing that we get rid of government websites because I have founded my research that even if people find out about something external to government they've come back to government to check it's your authority and source so it's really important that we continue to publish on government websites. However a good example pregnancy now I know there's a lot of blokes in a ribbon I know you won't personally experience pregnancy but you've got mothers you've got sisters and partners and friends so I hope this journey won't be too AEM to you and I have spoken about this before so I apologise if I'm boring anyone. So what do people do when they find out they're pregnant and a little line comes up on the thing? Well I can tell you the first thing that comes into their head is not oh my god I'm pregnant I must go to a government website it just doesn't happen like that in life but guess what in government there are key messages that we need to get to that woman at that point in time that week all right we need to get messages out of the passage and supplementation immediately. By three months we need to be engaging with them to make sure that they haven't they have a legal maternity care by five months we need to make sure they're booked into a hospital and then there's all the other things that go on in government around health um around preparation around the workforce that we need to message and make sure that people are aware of their um of what's available to them or aware of any obligations but if you're a working woman maybe you don't engage with government until you're seven months pregnant by choice you don't come by choice and it's because you want to find out about the opportunity therefore we are people we are the people that are pregnant oh my god I'm pregnant I must go to baby.com or you know babycenter.com.au and what I want to know is where's my when's my due day and what's my food is doing how many millimeters is it this weekend what's it doing what's it doing in there that's what that's how people are pregnant are actually doing on the internet so what if we can deliver our content um and allow the private sector to take that content that is authoritative and deliver it to the place where people actually are so that's the vision now I know there's lots of things that will need to be developed around that how do we brand our content how do we probably protect it make sure that it stays in contact how do we make sure it's easy for people to get back to your authoritative service there's lots of thinking to do not a finished product but we're starting to think now how do we put the structural pieces in place to allow that to happen design consistency up till now um it would be true to say that most sites think that it's better to be unique and special and we really have a job ahead of us convincing people that consistency is key and I don't just mean in what colours you're using in typeface but also in where where your buttons and call to actions are placed on a page what we call the buttons that we ask people to press that kind of consistency and started working towards that with the Australian Government design system and of course I'm sure many of you saw that that uh no longer in government what you may not know is that GovCMS a couple of government agencies and the DTA secretly sprinted for nearly six months to build the Australian Government design system out to a stage where it could be used and used by some rather large GovCMS sites so we have a vested interest in it we believe in it and we said we've always supported it and so we were you know a little disappointed to see that and delighted absolutely delighted at the civic theme which is actually taking that work and taking it forward and truly open sourcing it and making it available to far more than the Australian Government and we in tune are fully committed to the civic theme and we will start to bring that more and more into GovCMS you know the basis of any white sites that we develop from now on or we highly encourage in the community to take up more and more elements of that and if you're not across that please make sure you acquaint yourselves with something structural gaps there's still lots of structural gaps and where we can we'll try and put some pieces in. Wolves engines lack of editorial control in the back end of this topic these are things we might be able to do something about because it's got a really large community obviously user journey mapping there's quite a bit of that going on with the my gov work at the moment but it does seem to somewhat around transactions and those really high volume transactions there's the need for that to go further and cover business and lots of cross journeys and cross restrictions so that's it at the start there's a long long way to go on that we can't do complex journeys until we've actually mapped them so here's some of the things that we have started working on to try and put those little bits in place for that vision that I've just outlined the first one personalisation obviously and we're right in the middle of that now we've just commissioned four proof of concepts and we'll now be we are within weeks of issuing the RFP and that RFP will go to people we've selected they went through that ELI process and more than four so the four were selected for POPs but there's a bigger group that will be invited to respond to the RFP and the idea is at the end of that hopefully by the end of the year or very early next year we will have DXP available to all of our agencies as a separate and new section under the Dirtal Services panel so in other words it makes it much easier to procure so I'm putting the light in the sand and saying we're moving now rapidly into a much greater sophistication and to enable in a much wider set of tools or guidance. The GovCMS community in the showcase was extremely excited about this. We've ever heard Peter Andrews talk about it, we've heard people hear, he's written a lot about it, spoke a lot about it, you know, Peter and I have a relationship that your working relationship has gone on for years and I think it's time for this and during the POC you know the showcase it was done on rules of code was really exciting and solved them all for a lot of problems for people in government so watch this space I think a sign-on we've started up working on a single sign-on all the things that we need to know from managing it and we have a partner an agency he's really really keen to be the first one out of the blocks and Joseph is leaving that work on a single sign-on for us so we're progressing with that this year API's well I think we've got a manageable amount of API's at the moment when he recognizes it's very manageable you know it's more enormous but we think there's going to be explosion we think there's going to be a big um movement towards Headless we think the XP tools all going to require API connections we just see as a big growth area so what do we need to be thinking about how we're going to govern and protect those API's and the endpoints and Joseph Lee you've got a bit of work too he must be busy civic theme I already touched on and content anywhere and yeah I'll be taking a particular interest in that one to make sure real things happen it is the year of procurement so to the community so this is my commitment um we're still utterly committed to open source first nothing's changed and the reason nothing's changed is because all the vision we had for Gov's HMS about being able for agencies and visual teams and governments to be able to share and reuse and to share the burden of development and to do things together and share the load what's only possible because we're on open source no it's fundamental to the cultural change we've brought to digital in the federal government and some of the states and territories as well we're not back away from that and Drupal all the reasons I picked Drupal for in the first place one how much skill set was in the community could we purchase skills Drupal skills and the community we needed them and how big was that community there's a reason why I selected Drupal over John Law or anything else at the time the word press and has that changed it's changed because the Drupal community now is even more mature in terms of enterprise delivery and it's even bigger and it's even stronger so all the reasons I picked Drupal haven't changed they've got stronger so I can tell you that we no change in Drupal but I think it's getting that way I would want to you see these numbers on the website I just want to make sure you know what they mean this one here is not our pipeline anyone who thought that's our pipeline our pipeline is normally around 200 to 600 um this means the 57 agencies who have signed an MOU with us and have actively begun development and have a projected date to come on to the platform that's what that 57 means it doesn't mean all the people knocking on the door all the people have conversations with us all the people challenging what's coming for them and we need them to bring in the shape of it so anytime you want to know what your pipeline is meant to be and that's the active pipeline the committed pipeline this was our establishment phase started with that here we went for another transformation here going to Kubernetes and our partnership with Salsa are amazing we're now at this point here we're now starting our next transformation and it's going to be all about personalisation and content and consistency and all of it and another level of sophistication again what does it mean for you we're going to have a busy year post-election a lot of sites are italic and then another whole bunch of sites is created so stick to busy year agencies are going to need help they're going to need help with all the things that you normally do for them but they're also going to need help on the drip side to expand integrations what was his code you're going to need help with SSO integration so if you don't have much experience and that's where a good place to start investing in some skills in your digital agencies your agencies plan to build on headless so if you've not been doing too much of that again another place to invest um your team skills and your own skills if you're going to sit in the room here um and there will be work for content specialists and designers and when we start influencing around design consistency and appropriate types of content that can be reused they're going to need to see persistence around these things as well I think there'll be no shortage um and by the way that's my fact again everybody in the digital community a lot of people in this room and it was uh it's been amazing two and a half years terrifying at times um the privilege but also we hadn't felt alone and we've known that there's a whole community that we can reach out to and we have reached out to different people at different times um we build on your work and make the most of what you have made possible so once again thank you and I must say that it's it's delightful to be here and to see all person and to my day of drippy sprint tomorrow and my team is all participating it makes a bit of work and that's it thank you very much