Mixed and Mastered
Mixed and Mastered is the podcast where the untold stories of the music industry come to life. Hosted by Jeffrey Sledge, a veteran music executive and former VP of A&R at Atlantic Records and Jive Records, each episode dives deep into the journeys, challenges, and triumphs of the people shaping the sound of today. From label executives and producers to artists, songwriters, and managers, Jeffrey brings you behind the scenes to meet the minds driving the industry forward. There’s a gap in the marketplace for these voices, and Mixed and Mastered is here to fill it—one conversation at a time. Because the best stories are told by those who lived them.
Mixed and Mastered
Kwasi Kessie
From the heart of Harlem to the red carpet at the Met Gala, Kwasi Kessie’s journey is stitched together with culture, community, and style. In this episode of Mixed and Mastered, Jeffrey Sledge talks to the the stylist, runner, and creative force behind Lace Magazine and Kill Off Season. He shares how Harlem shaped his eye, how Foot Locker opened industry doors, and how working with BET and A$AP Ferg cemented his voice in fashion.
Kwasi talks sneaker culture, storytelling through style, and why running the NYC Marathon means more than just crossing the finish line. Whether he’s dressing icons or lacing up for his next race, Kwasi is repping Harlem all the way.
Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio, and hosted by music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to the discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @MixedandMasteredPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/
This week on Mixed and Mastered, I'm talking with Kwazi Kesey, celebrity stylist, designer, brand consultant for Adidas Runners NYC and captain of culture. Starting at Foot Locker, kwazi went on to style the host of 106 and Park, along with A$AP Ferg and Noah Liles for the Met Gala. He's the force behind the Kill Off Season clothing brand and Fit Check on Instagram. When he's not styling icons, he'soff season clothing brand and fit check on Instagram. When he's not styling icons, he's running marathons and repping Harlem. This is Mixed and Mastered with Kwazi Kesey. Welcome to Mixed and Mastered, the podcast where the stories of the music industry come to life. I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringing you real conversations with the people who have shaped the sound of music. We're pulling back the curtain on what it takes to make it in the music business. These are the stories you won't hear anywhere else, told by the people who live them. This is Mixed and Mastered. This week on Mixed and Mastered Quasi Kesey how you man.
Speaker 2:Bless man, I'm good, I'm good. How's everything? It's been a minute.
Speaker 1:I'm good man. It's been a minute, man. It's been a minute I watch. You know we talk via social media, but it's a minute since we actually talked, you know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. I was telling my friend uh, right before this call, I'm like yo, we go back, we go back, we go back, we go back. Quite a ways, man, yeah let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Man so born and raised in harlem, yeah uh yo, I, when I was watching, I was researching this and I was watching like I didn't know where on riverside drive, did you?
Speaker 2:stay. So I was on the 779 Riverside Drive apartment 853, the fifth floor, so that's on 157th and Riverside, so technically that's Washington.
Speaker 1:Oh, those buildings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was like a big plant pot took up the whole street, so 157th and Riverside so it was like a cul-de-sac almost. But yeah, technically it's Washington Heights because anything above 155th is Washington Heights. So that cemetery kind of was like the transition from Washington Heights to Harlem. But yeah, I grew up there up until around like 13 years old and moved to the Bronx. So I like to tell people I'm by borough, so Bronx and Harlem is where I resided all my life.
Speaker 1:Yo, it was crazy to be. I lived in 730 Riverside. Get out of here. I was on the corner on 150th 730 Riverside. When you said Riverside I was like what. You was right up the street, bro. I know exactly where you was at. You was getting money.
Speaker 2:That's a fact.
Speaker 1:Riverside.
Speaker 2:Chill, because Riverside, honestly, was like it was a different world compared to Broadway, amsterdam, st Nick you know what I mean. It was just like, especially when they built Riverbank, it just created a whole transition and just cleaned up the whole neighborhood, but Riverside was always very ethnically diverse.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Age diverse. It was really dope, really dope.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the drive is different, like you said, once you go right up the block to Broadway it's a whole other planet Right. I didn't realize we lived that close to each other. Like yeah, I was right down this block. I didn't know. We'll talk about the stories about the area offline. Yeah, so I got to ask you this one question before we get deeper into the interview. For sure, I got to ask this question you ready? Yeah, who got the best Joloff Rice?
Speaker 2:Oh, ghana, ghana got it. There's no debate. We've won the jollof wars. Based in new york city that's traveling across the world shout out to my brother, abdul um and his team. They put on a jollof wars. We've won the jollof wars in terms of the rice category three straight years, or four straight years, probably even more, but Ghana has the best jollof, because I think what it is is. Nigeria's jollof is very smoky.
Speaker 2:It has like a smoky flavor to it and Ghana is, I feel, a little bit more tomato based and I think it's more palatable for, like that, American palate and, like you know, more diverse, more diverse palates will gravitate more towards the. Uh, the guy named, but guy named Joloff is Ely. I'm actually going to uh, my bro, um chef Eric Ejepong. He has a spot in DC. I'm going there this weekend for Juneteenth just to go and check out the Joloff.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's up. It's Ely. Yeah, so tell me about, about your experience growing up in just to go and check out the Jollof Wow. It's up, it's up, it's up, it's elite. Yeah, so tell me about your experience growing up in Harlem.
Speaker 2:Oh man, harlem is a magical place for me because my mom is she's super Black, like she's like pro-Black, pro-us, knowing the history, having the books, and then my sister grew into but she's pretty much a historian. So, um, harlem growing up was beautiful because it created a sense of pride within who I am as a person and also a sense of fashion sense. Just like Harlem was a place where you never wanted to look like everybody else, like that wasn't even an option. It was like I want to be a little different, like I might add a different shoestring to my kick so I might get a go somewhere and get a different belt. But I never want to look like everybody else.
Speaker 2:I want to stand out in my own way, I want to add my touch of flair and I feel like that was important in my development because as kids, you know, or young people, people just want to like group themselves together and look themselves together and look like the masters so they fit in. But Harlem was a place where you wanted to stand out, you wanted to peacock, you wanted to have this energy about yourself so that people could recognize you as the fly one or the risk taker or the jiggy guy. That's what I really appreciated and loved about Harlem, brought up in Harlem, but it was magical man. Just the people that I was able to work with, like the Fergs, the Belchezes, the Tiana Taylor's it was just like it was a melting pot of creativity, of fashion, sense, of exploration, and everybody was just going for it, like if you danced, you really danced. If you got fly, you really got fly. If you got money, you really got money. Everybody was taking it to the back.
Speaker 1:It was very extreme.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But in a good way. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:It was very extreme. Your voice is echoing.
Speaker 1:You got me, am I good? Okay, okay, shoot, hold on a sec. Yep, oh, you got me. I think so, you don't.
Speaker 2:Am I good? Okay, okay, it's just on my end.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, cool, cool. Okay, Okay, cool, all right, all right, cool. The funny thing about Harlem you bring up Tiana Taylor, who I remember seeing around when she was a kid. You know and a you know and a lot of you don't know Chris Brown spent a little time in Harlem. He lived in Harlem for like two. See, you don't know that. That's how come him and Tiana know each other that he used to live I think he lived down by Minnesotan or something like that, but he stayed in Harlem for a little bit as a kid and that's how he really got his dance skills up and all that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah he was. I feel like he was around like lower Harlem, like around Douglas, like 110th, 108th.
Speaker 1:Oh, he was down that way, okay.
Speaker 2:Yup, yup. But he used to hang out with like Cry Baby, who was like a dancer, who is a dancer, great dancer coming up, and I was actually working with Chris Brown early under the guise of Mike B, my mentor. He brought me into the game but, yeah, chris was in Harlem. I feel like a lot of talented people spend a little time in Harlem, get a little sauce, a little energy, a little vibration. You know what I'm saying keep it moving, yeah.
Speaker 1:One more thing about Harlem, and we're going to move on.
Speaker 1:But the thing about Harlem that I love, what I used to do when I moved to Harlem in 92 and what I used to do on a Saturday I would just walk Harlem. I would just walk up Broadway, go down 145th, I'd go to um, I'd go to uh, down 145th, I'd turn on like 8th or 7th and I just walk, walk in between the blocks, you know the cookouts, the block parties, whatever was going on, and that really like gave me, you know, obviously to 125th and then below that and just walk around, walk around and you really got a sense of Harlem because, even though because people get confused Harlem is still a neighborhood, it's not a borough. You know what I'm saying? People are kind of it's like Brooklyn, it's a neighborhood and all this amazing, like you say, creativity and amazingly talented people come from this. Basically 45 block neighborhood. Yeah, me and Mickey always argue about this. Do you cut Harlem off at 45th or 55th, 55th, 55th?
Speaker 2:It's cut off at 55th and then it turns into Washington Heights. Yeah, that where all those churches are and the highway that kind of like separates.
Speaker 1:Harlem. So tell me about how you got into, where'd you get your sense of style and where'd you get your style bug from?
Speaker 2:Wow, so my sense of style starts at home. It started actually from my mom. My mom, I think among her siblings, was called like the bougie the bougie sister, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So she was shop for myself and my sister at like Lord and Taylor A&S. I remember growing up shopping was like an event for us. It was like Lord, taylor A&S. I remember growing up shopping was like an event for us. It was like, you know, we're going to school or we just made seeds, whatever. It was a big deal. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And my mother took pride in the way that we looked, I guess because we were a representation of her. So we always had like great pieces. I look at pictures of my sister myself growing up and my mom. My sister as like a young person, had a leather red skirt and like like just crazy pieces. I'm like yo, that's like we were fly. But it really graduated when I went to church. When I was going to church and I would wear suits, so all the women would say how cute I was and I thought it was the clothes that made me cute. So I told my mom I'm like Ma, I want to wear suits to school. So I was in pre-K kindergarten wearing full two-piece suits to school and everybody else was dressed.
Speaker 1:What were the kids saying?
Speaker 2:I don't even think. I don't remember what they, how they, what they used to say. I don't remember that much. But I remember feeling very like, confident and prestigious in my suits because I stood out. You know, that's going back to harlem. I stood out so and the reason why my mom took so much pride in the way that we we dress, because my mom is an older mom.
Speaker 2:She's now she just turned 80 in march so yeah she said her um, like her uncles, they only wore suits, like that. You know she was like farmers wore jeans and overalls and nobody ever wore sneakers, because that was that was only for gym class, like even dad. But dan talks about that and they from the same age and same era, um, and she grew up in harlem as well how I'm in the bronx so she kind of instilled that as in us as um, and she grew up in Harlem as well, harlem in the Bronx. So she kind of instilled that as in us as kids and she didn't even know it. So then as I matured I started like really like dressing, dressing.
Speaker 2:I remember I was in elementary school wearing suede jackets with matching Timbs. My mother was actually doing that too. Yeah, I was wearing I would have on a wheat suede jacket with wheat Timbs in elementary school in the early 80s, 90s. So like that's how I was pulling up. And then it's like I graduated into high school and I had like a love of sneakers, but it started at home with my mom. And then, you know, harlem had that influence of wanting to stand out and be fly and you know that competition that happens within you, know neighborhoods where you want to be the fly one within. You know neighborhoods where you want to be the fly one, and also my sister. I got to give credit to my sister, mariam Masai. She really made me want to be like different. She would always tell me like, don't look like everybody else.
Speaker 4:You got to center yourself from everybody else.
Speaker 2:So again it's that constant conversation of looking different. And my sister's four years older than me and she would venture off to like Soho. She was in a village, she was going to Newport Mall in Jersey to get no tax. So me, being a younger brother, tagging along my mother saying yo, go with your sister, I'm going to Soho. So I'm seeing the Mesa Hiltons, I'm seeing the Little Kims, I'm going to 8th Street where guys is in the Benzes and they you know what I'm saying we going to the Benzes, and they you know what I'm saying we go in the atrium, we shop in that. That there was like an African store on 8th Street. It was like UFO, rugged soul. So my world was so much bigger at home because of my sister and she opened me up to those experiences.
Speaker 2:And then when I would come to high school I would have pieces. They'd come to high school, I would have pieces. They'd be like yo, where you getting? Where you getting these colorways of sneakers? I'm like yo, I go to jersey, newport mall, foot action they didn't have a foot action in the city. Oh, I'm going to atrium to go. And this is when atrium sold mecca and iceberg, nichin.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm saying so like I gotta credit my mom and my sister for really instilling that fashion bug in me, and you know, growing up in harlem and then, um, just creating that energy of like flyness and jiggingness yeah, yeah, atrium was a legendary spot.
Speaker 1:Now, now, for those who know, no, no, now atrium is kiss right right uh, atrium was like atrium on a Saturday. Oh, I said this on another. So I think I was talking to Terrell Terrell Jones. I interviewed him too and I said I hope somebody was filming Soho on Saturdays back then, Because the people that are now running fashion, like the Virgils and like you said, and the Tiana's and the Misa's and even the Telfairs, that's who the kids were walking around Harlem back then. Excuse me, Soho.
Speaker 1:Back then they were just walking around on Saturday and now these kids have become men like yourself. They've grown up and now they have really taken control of the fashion industry. It's a beautiful thing to see what that turned into from just being on a Saturday and everybody just walking around, tons of kids just walking around styling. I got the Rick Owens or whatever. It was crazy, it was crazy.
Speaker 2:What's ironic it's crazy, it was crazy, it was like it was. It's still. What's ironic is it still has the energy, like I feel like, in terms of fashion, that's still the fashion capital of New York City, like even it's so much, in fact, that the, the fashion houses have moved down there, you know, first starting with Prada and Louis and Gucci, like everybody, celine.
Speaker 1:First starting with Prada and Louis and Gucci Mark Jacobs was down there.
Speaker 2:Mark Jacobs yeah, so it's like you know it still has the energy that you walk down there you're going to see like the flyest people, you're going to see celebrities. You know what I mean. But back in the days that shit was remarkable man and I was a teenager going down there rocking. You know, these are young, are young adults, adults and seeing the stylists and seeing the celebrities and like even the people that worked in the stores were like semi-celebrities because they were helping all of these people. And then that was also the boom of the sneaker era. So you had all these crazy sneaker stores. You had nort recon, classic kicks, clientele, uh, uh, a life you had, like it was dave's quality me.
Speaker 2:Uh, you you had like it was Dave's quality and me you had a time was had. It was a beautiful time.
Speaker 1:What a time to be alive.
Speaker 1:So, tell me about your first kind of foray into styling was through Mike B, who you've already mentioned, yes sir, who was at that time styling all the stuff through Bad Boy, yeah, and so tell me how y'all linked up and how that, how you you know you got into styling because I, when I interviewed terrell, I said this too like people kind of don't I think it was more now maybe but people still don't quite really know what stylists do. They kind of say I'm a stylist, but like you don't do you really know what that is and what that entails. And you'll go ahead yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Um shout out to my brother tyrell harlem, harlem legend. Um killing in the fashion game. I I actually got into styling through mike b, as you said. Um, and I was working at footlocker again. My love of sneakers brought me to working at footlocker on 34th street. Uh, the corporate headquarters, the big dog, and I was working there and I see Mike, he got on these coach leather LeBrons, the high school colorway, the green with the tan.
Speaker 4:And I'm like he had them early and I'm like yo, who is this guy?
Speaker 2:Because I know my sneakers. He had them like. It was like at least six to three months earlier than they were supposed to come out. And I was like so I channeled my mom. My mom is a talker and I wasn't really a talker at that time. So I channeled my mom. I'm like, all right, I'm going to talk to this guy and see what he does. So I talked to Mike B. I'm like yo. He's like yo, I'm shopping. I'm shopping for some bad boy artists. I'm a stylist. At that time I didn't understand that verbiage. I didn't even know what that really meant, but I knew it had something to do with fashion and sneakers. So I was with it. So he's like yeah, I'm doing some shopping. I'm like yo, they got more sneakers than Soho. He was like yo, can you show me? And I'm like hell, yeah, I can show you. I literally I got the stripes on full, out the stripes I talked to my manager, maria.
Speaker 2:It was a dead day. It was dead. I'm like yo, she knew who he was. I was like yo, can, I, can I leave with mike to show him some sneakers downtown? She's like, yeah, now this is real life. So I leave with mike v, we go downtown, we do some shopping. Um, I think we went to clientele on lafayette it was on the corner lafayette like and um, get him some of Lafayette and get him some sneakers. They didn't have the sneakers in it that I got for his artist in that size.
Speaker 2:It was the MS-95 Greek or Greece Olympic colorway. They were actually about to come back out this year. They had, like, a rainbow colorway and he was like, damn, I need a 13. So he was going to Miami to style a video. That's where he was shotway. And he was like, damn, I need a 13. So he was going to Miami to, to, to style a video. That's what he was shot before. And I was like, yo, when you get back, I'm going to have you a size 13. Cause this is what I do I'm a sneaker guy.
Speaker 4:So he comes back.
Speaker 2:I got the 13. He, he gives me the money. I'm like, nah, I don't want your money, I want an opportunity, I want an internship assistant, something. He's like yo, I got you. So I'm on the phone, he gives me his number, you know, and then I'm on the phone just hitting him day and night for like a month. Literally no response. So eventually I run into one of my OGs at Harlem Mo and he's like yo, I'm like I'm trying to get this internship at Bad Boy. And he's like yo, who you trying to intern for? I'm like Mike B. He's like Mike B, he calls him instantly, right there in my face. He calls him. He's like yo, give my little man an opportunity. Man, he a good cable dude. And I'm like and then the next day I get a call on my bad boy intern and like, literally it was like overnight, but that was my introduction into styling.
Speaker 2:It was through my, my my knowledge of sneakers. I like to tell like young people, like, try and figure out what your superpower is. At that time my superpower was like sneakers. I was working at full locker at the time. I wasn't creating my sneaker magazine yet, but I just I knew about sneakers. And because I knew about sneakers, I saw he had on the the, the high school coach, leather LeBron's. I knew he was somebody, I knew he had them early I got to tap in. But yeah, that's that's how I got into styling. And then I was interning in for Mike and then it turned into an assistant role and then we became the fashion stylist men's fashion stylist at BET and through that time we had worked with Chris Brown, as you know, we worked with uh, it was like Neo Ludacris, jamie Foxx, it was it was, it was.
Speaker 1:You did Bow Wow, of course, because he was yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But that was me, that was me solo. I eventually, during that BET time, I eventually became the men's fashion stylist and I started working with Terrence J Bow Wow, then I started working with Ferg, and the list goes on and on. But yeah, those early days was wild. Those Chris Brown budgets was crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jai was giving out some money. I always ask people tell me, without getting anybody in trouble or anything like that, you know, of course you could leave names out, you know, tell me one, I don't even like to say crazy one spicy story about Stalin at Bad Boy.
Speaker 2:Spicy story about Stalin at Bad Boy. I don't have spicy stories because I'm really trying to think. I would just say this because Mike always was, like he's so morally sound and so Jamaican, raised by Jamaican parents, not fucking around so he always made sure I was in the best space as possible for me to succeed.
Speaker 2:But I would say this that hours would be crazy, so like I would, I would be there at seven in the morning and sometimes I would leave at three at night and I'm an intern and getting $40 a week and I would let my $40 stack up so I'll get like 160 and I think I was born. But yeah, it was. I just, I was just. For me it was like an opportunity of a lifetime, like working with these incredibly successful literally at the time, like fashion icons, like, yeah, like Dow, you had Max, you had Mike B, you had Jameel Spencer, you had. It was just like it was lit. So for me and my adolescent young mind, I was just like happy to be there and over time, like at the time at one point I was at school full time.
Speaker 2:At LIU I'm working at Bloomingdale's part time, night and weekend. I still have my job at Foot Locker because I didn't quit. I had worked there on the weekends, I wanted my discount and I'm interning at Bad Boy. So my schedule was crazy. But I was a college kid so I wasn't tired or nothing, I was just going, yeah, because the opportunities were crazy. But yeah, I would just say that the schedule was crazy. Sometimes, like from 7, I literally be there at 7 am, I may leave If. If someone has to travel, it may be I may be leaving at 3. And I got to be back there at 7. You know what I mean. So it was but yeah, but I don't have any like spicy stories, yeah, Nothing crazy.
Speaker 1:So tell me about. Tell me about the um, the B.
Speaker 2:Oh, the BET experience was incredible. I got to give a huge shout out to Texana Watts she's the BET wardrobe supervisor and it was even from like outside of the wardrobe department. That was one thing, but like, even like the on set team, everybody was like family. It was beautiful. So yeah, it was. It was a great time. What it taught me was to be always be super prepared, because live television sometimes we would shoot three shows in a day and one would be live. But live television, somebody may spill something, something may get ripped, and I remember what I remember most is running up and down to the wardrobe department. For some reason was on the third floor and the set was on the first floor.
Speaker 2:So I remember running up and down stairs, getting stuff lint rollers, but it's just like being prepared and being ready for whatever happens. But it was a beautiful time. Texana Watts was an amazing boss, leader, queen. It was one of my favorite jobs that I've ever one of my favorite few jobs that I've ever had. It was so dope. Everybody from the top all the way down, from Stephen Hill to Connie to Rick Grimes, Everybody was like really cool, really easygoing. Yeah, I loved it there.
Speaker 1:I loved it. Did you work the BET Awards too at that time, or you just stayed in New York?
Speaker 2:BET Awards. We was flying to LA dressing. Remember, at one point there were multiple hosts so they would have a bow-wow. Show you the prints. Oh yeah, but I was, I was only. I was the men's um wardrobe stylist, but yeah, we was. Bet Awards was crazy when they would do like, um, the final show was wild for 106 because it was like it was AJ, it was Big Tigger, it was uh, bow Wow, it was Terrence Shorty, the Prince. It was like I probably had like 15 talent that day. It was wild and I also did like the news shows. So I would do the news shows, I would all of the like live programming from the network. I was responsible for dressing the male talent, which was really great. So I got like diversity from dressing men in suits to street wear and everything in between.
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Speaker 4:And now back to our show.
Speaker 1:And is this around the time you started the laced magazine? Yeah, this is around the time we met. Yeah, yeah, so actually.
Speaker 2:So I started internet bad boy and then I started, while I was internet bad boy, I started laced magazine. So that was like, oh, four ish yeah yeah, yeah. So tell us a little bit about lace magazine oh man, lace magazine, keeping you laced from the ground up was a sneaker. It was a sneaker publication that myself and steven artello yeah created and it was brown yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:Again, that was a community effort, right, we had like uh, saint as a writer, we had Size as a contributor, we had guests, photographers, and this was all friends and family. We had like not Kim or Mark, and it was just like we all came together to create this publication. But pretty much we wanted to document sneaker culture through our lens, because at the time only like Complex was was really known for it at the time. And then we had Frank-151, we had Sneaker Freaker, but none of it really spoke to our culture and how we saw it, how we used to hit the village Soho stores. We would dig into these local spots and go to their basements, but we had some crazy covers. We had Chris Brown eating kicks out of a see-through kick. So the whole idea was I would use my fashion connects, working with Chris Brown, working with different artists, and get them on a cover.
Speaker 2:And then Steve, at the time he was interned in that Smooth magazine so he was able to work on the magazine portion, the layout, the whole editorial side. So I was bringing the fashion and the talent and he was able to work on, like the, the magazine portion, the layout of the whole editorial side. So I was bringing like the fashion and the talent and he was bringing the, the editorial and the. I mean the magazine know how we had swiss beats when he had people don't know that. He had a collaboration with pro kids. That was our first cover. We shot him at his studio. We actually had the clips on on a cover. Um, we have fire and ice, so we had the clips and we had the ice cream skate team and that, the Clips article that Saint. So geniusly he interviewed the Clips that started the Lil Wayne beef. If you Google it.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:The Clips article in Laced Magazine. The cover story started the Lil Wayne beef. If you Google it, complex even cites Laced Magazine as the source. From that interview that Saint did shout out to Saint, my brother Saint. Yeah, of course that started the Clips beef, but yeah, it was a great time. We had Tiana on the cover. We had Ferg on the cover our last covers but yeah, it was documented sneaker culture through the lens of real sneaker enthusiasts. In New York City we had girl editors. We had sneaker enthusiasts. In New York City we had, like, girl editors. We had sneaker store write-ups. We were just trying to put people onto our culture. So it was dope, super dope.
Speaker 1:So where did you go after you left BET?
Speaker 2:After BET I went on my own, so I just became a freelance stylist. Okay. So that's when I started working with ferg, the. The crazy story with ferg is that um so he had a shoot in la and um he had to shoot a big sean for his video. The world is mine. So I was known for, you know, since harlem, like we were just coming up together.
Speaker 2:Fly dudes. You know different. We had different crews. I had gfc, he had uh, harlem envy, and we had our own jackets. You know, he had his own varsity jacket, we had our own varsity that we could see each other at car show like yeah, he's always loved so those who don't know, ferg his father's was named d ferg.
Speaker 2:He passed away sadly and he's the one who designed the bad boy logo yeah, yeah among other things uptown records logo yeah records, yep yeah, he's, he um, he's a, he's a Harlem legend, for sure, absolutely a legend yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 2:So Ferg um, when I was, you know, I had a roommate in Harlem and when Ferg first got signed, he would hit me up like yo, I got a video coming up, can I get some stuff? Because I always had all this access because I'm an assistant stylist, so I got mad stuff in my house. So sometimes I wouldn't be there and I'd be like yo, just hit my roommate, he'll let you in and you can take whatever you want. So he was like you know, pulling pieces from my closet to you know, supplement things that he needed for video shoots. You know, early on budgets I mean artists, they don't have these crazy budgets so then we had the opportunity to tap in with me. You know what I mean. He tapped in I fly, we fly to LA. The budget I believe the budget all in was like $3,500, right. And shout out to my brother Nakim Nakim was like managing me, right. And he's like yo, you gotta go.
Speaker 3:And I'm like word this is not enough money to go.
Speaker 2:We can't fly, get a rental, Because I feel like it was in not Calabasas, but it was in the hills or something the video shoot. And I'm like damn. But he was like, nah, trust me, just go. So I pull out all the stops, he got Gucci, he got all this crazy stuff. So I get out there. We lay out his looks and he was like yo, I didn't think y'all was going to come, because he knew his budget, he knew what time it is. He was like I didn't think y'all was going to come. That was crazy. So he was really impressed with the effort that we put forth. And from then on we've just been thick as thieves, like we've been locked in um, and that was a long.
Speaker 2:I don't know what year that was, but that was around the time that I stopped working at bt so that was like my first client as a yeah that was my first major client with, like you know, record budgets and you know, doing a lot of videos making appearances and stuff, and the great thing about ferg is that he's you don't necessarily style him, you collaborate with him. You collaborate with Ferg. He already has a vision for himself. He's a fly flashy Harlem to the bone type of guy.
Speaker 2:So he got the vision. It's like adding or subtracting or giving suggestions. You know what I mean. So I just love collaborating with him because it's just a great opportunity to create. You know what I'm saying in certain spaces, but yeah, that was my first client post-BT and I just thank him for trusting in me and believing in me. You know what I mean, because I definitely believed in him.
Speaker 1:So who was next? After Ferg? Who would you start styling? Who was the next client?
Speaker 2:Who was next after Ferg. You know what was crazy. After that, it just got super crazy. I worked with PnB Rock. God bless the dead I've worked with I just gotta look at my website so many different artists, a lot of new artists, because you know how it is in the record industry system. I feel like they look at you and they'd be like all right, I feel like you could work with this person or you could work with that person and I had like a blend of like street sense mixed with like high end sensibility, but it was. It was a lot of artists, a lot of artists that I've worked with, that I've touched in terms of like the fashion space, but the one consistent one that always, we always continue to work with each other is Ferg for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ferg's a loyal guy too, like if he rock with you. He rock with you regardless. He could be, you know, figuring it out, or he could have a $10 million budget and he going to work with you.
Speaker 4:That's a fact.
Speaker 1:That's a fact, yeah he's a very loyal cat. Tell me about, because I never really asked you this. Tell me how you got into running and the Adidas fit thing and all the stuff you're doing with them, because I never really have asked you about that. I just see you doing it and I'm like, wow, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah, so again.
Speaker 2:I got to show love to mom when I was younger. We were going to Riverside and she decided she wanted to run a New York City marathon.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:This is the East. This is yeah. Late 80s on Riverside that joint was like it was drug infested. It wasn't scary, but it wasn't like at night. It wasn't the safest place because it was so desolate that you know stuff would go down back then. Yeah, it wasn't really lit up too much back then Right, it was very dark Until the, until the state park came.
Speaker 1:So yeah, till Riverbank came yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So me being a man of the house, quote unquote my mom would come home from work, she would change and she would go train and I would be like I'm going with you. So I take my scooter, I take a bike and I will always go with her. So I saw the whole process of her training for the New York City Marathon and I was like one day I'm going to do it, because if mom could do it, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 2:So I was just turning 30 and I was like low key, going through like you know, like a midlife crisis. I just stopped working at BET, well, 106th and Park had stopped and I was just going through like this transition period in my life and I was like I'm gonna start running. I remember I couldn't run a mile. I was like, damn, I can't run a mile. This is gonna be. I gotta do 26.2, this is gonna be tough. And then next thing, you know it, I'm running 10 miles in central park with no water, in the middle of the heat, and I'm just, I'm just high off life because I did it not knowing any better. So that was happening.
Speaker 2:And then during this whole time, I'm in communications with Adidas because I'm hitting them up. Like you know, do you mind sending me? I'm training for the New York City Marathon. Is it possible to send me some marathon gear? They're like, absolutely so. They send me stuff and they just see how dedicated I am. And this is all because of my connections that I created as an intern, what might be you know what I'm saying Just continuing the conversation, taking those relationships and continuing to work with new artists, et cetera. So eventually they hit me up. They're like you're always starting this new thing in New York, or Adidas Runners NYC, would you like to be a part of it? And I'm like, absolutely so, y'all going to pay me to run? Like, absolutely so, y'all going to pay me to run? Like, absolutely, y'all going to pay me to show my community something healthy? Absolutely so. I was 100% with it and, yeah, it's been a beautiful thing. I had my own sneaker AM4 Quasi-Cassie in 2024.
Speaker 1:I don't need a 10 anymore, I need a 10B.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got you. There's a few floating around, thank you. Thank you, I got you. But it was like I had billboards on the side of highways on Harlem, on Harlem River Drive. I saw, I saw, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:It's been a beautiful thing, but it started from my mom just getting into running, running and then it's also started from styling, again from my relationship that I continued to create. Um, shout out to mike b. Just, I remember one day I was an intern and he was like, yo, I want you to. We were, I think we were styling like a loon video and he needed, uh, shell toes. And I reached out to adidas. But I was like my earliest memory of me reaching out to adidas and them being like, okay, we'll send you X, y, z. But I continued from different people in marketing. There I continued the relationship. So when it was like my turn, they were like, oh no, we know you, we got you. And then it just blossomed from there and I went from captain, just a captain, to Harlem captain, to captain of culture and experience, to an Adidas ambassador.
Speaker 2:And my biggest proudest moment, outside of having my own sneaker, as a sneaker enthusiast, was we redid the court. I mean the court, we redid the court. Actually we redid the Black Gates and Kingdom with Belches as a collaboration, okay, and the hood. But we also redid the track in um, in jefferson, thomas jefferson projects. Really, yeah, yeah, it's right. So by my high school we redid my high school track uh, it's a 200 meter and we redid it with, like, the state department. We did a whole ceremony, we had a run and then it was right before COVID. So, like the community was super hyped because it was a little crazy before. So we redid it right before COVID and then, like when COVID happened, you know the most thing that people could do was like run. So it was a beautiful thing that we was able to do that right before COVID. Ferg performed. It was crazy. I hired all the local icy person. I hired Reg with the juices. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:I was just acting in the community, absolutely.
Speaker 2:That was probably one of my proudest moments when working with Adidas.
Speaker 1:That was really dope. Another Harlem thing that a lot of people from that area might not know is there is like a small fitness kind of thing, like people come out every year because the marathon, actually the New York State Marathon, runs right through Harlem and people come out there every year with the signs and cheering people on. Like it's a. You know, it's a thing. You know what I'm saying. It's a small thing, but it's a thing. It's a. You know, it's a thing. You know what I'm saying. It's a small thing, but it's a thing. So the fact that you were able to do that and give back to the community and you know, help people who are running and stuff like that probably give out. You know gear and stuff.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, bro, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah For sure. Like the thing about it is like, just like I saw my mom, people have seen me, yeah me, yeah, it's like my peers have told me like yo, I started running because I'm like word. Like like my peers, I wouldn't even think I would be like a younger person, but they're like, nah, like you inspire me because you showed you, you made it look like it was possible, like you didn't make it look like too too difficult, like oh no, it's easy, you could do it. You made it look cool. So I'm like, wow, that's I just like to always say, like you never know who's watching. So like, make sure you try and do something positive. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that running is a huge part of the community. And actually Ferg and I well, ferg is going to be doing Ferg Flow. I think it's August 14th, thursday August 14th so we're doing a 5K in the morning and then we're doing a sound bath meditation, then we're doing calisthenics and we're going to be doing, and then it's going to segue into a concert with Summer Stage, all at Marcus Garvey Park. Wow, so we taking that whole fitness initiative.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's something for everybody. If you don't run, you can do a sound bath. If you don't run, you can do meditation. If you don't do, calisthenics, you could do. You can watch a show yeah, you can watch a show, and we're going to be doing like a bike. Ride out too, because he's heavy into.
Speaker 1:BMS. So yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 2:I'm excited you. Right, right.
Speaker 1:Yo, I'm trying to lose you, son. You know you never know who's watching you.
Speaker 2:So that's dope that you're doing that, man you know, yeah, yeah, especially like in our community, like we got to always make sure that we like showing up in spaces and doing the things that you know. We just don't want to keep it to ourselves. We want to show and doing the things that you know we don't. We just don't want to keep it to ourselves. We want to show the world like it was possible, you know so tell me, tell me about uh kill off season so kill off season.
Speaker 2:I got on um airbrush t right here fire fire.
Speaker 1:Uh, you starting on me. Okay, I got you. I need one of those two.
Speaker 2:I got you, I got you. So yeah, so, kill Off Season is a brand I started with Stephen Otho and O'Brien, so the whole concept and energy behind it was, you know, we killing in the off season. That's what it stands for killing the off season. All of the greats, from muhammad ali to jordan.
Speaker 2:You hear about the off season regimen more than you hear about the on season recipe. You know when jordan went through what he went through with the pistons, he came back, he was in an off season, he was lifting weights, he had to bulk up. So that's the whole idea behind the brand is like to really put focus on the off season so that you can show up as your best self in season. And we came together to create a price, competitive and conscious leather pant. You know we wanted to offer us.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you, man, thank you.
Speaker 2:We wanted to offer something to the industry that was unique but also, like again, price competitive. So we created this stack leather pant. It was black with the pony stripe, with the gunmetal stripe, and it was like something unique. And it was also something like that was created to like for like, celebration, like when people want to pop out, when people want you know what I'm saying when they got that energy, when they want a birthday energy, popping out energy, you know you want to flex on your ex energy, like all that energy.
Speaker 2:That's. That's the clothes that we make. You know I'm saying so. Like that's the energy behind our brand is to like, really like, embody your true superhero self through clothes like you know what I mean. Like when you wear a good fit, it makes you feel like you could talk to anybody, you could bag any shorty, you could do anything. You know what I'm saying. So that's the energy that we want people to feel when they put on our garments. So, yeah, we've been around, we've been together and created for three seasons. For three years. We actually just opened really proud seasons for three years. We actually just opened really proud. We just opened a showroom, studio space and design studio and Dumbo right under the bridge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can see a man bridge. You can see the uh the world trade uh, one world trade. You can see Brooklyn bridge, like it's a beautiful day and we're also going to start our workout division of kill off season, uh called Pack of Wolves, because us coming together. You know you can do amazing things by yourself, but when you come together as a pack of wolves you're unstoppable Everybody's resources, everybody's mind, everybody's energy. So we started Pack of Wolves, which is going to be a running and calisthenics collective. So, again, if you don't run, we will do some push, we do some pull-ups, but we just activate in our community because this is our part of our lifestyle. Like me and steve, we run, we do, we do uh, calisthenics. So we just want to incorporate that into our brand because a lot of our community that we uh our wolf pack they also into the same type of thing, like so. So that's the whole energy behind the brand. We're really excited. We're slated to do a presentation in September.
Speaker 1:So excited about that You're going to be presenting at Fashion Week or something like that yes, sir. You're getting money. You're getting money. We got to do it, man. That's beautiful man. You're making me like a proud dad.
Speaker 4:You know what I'm saying, for sure.
Speaker 1:Where I met you up to now is incredible, you know what I'm saying. It's incredible. And before we run, tell me about the Met Gala.
Speaker 2:Which one, though? Which one we got 2018.
Speaker 1:How many have you worked on? I've done two.
Speaker 2:So I did 2018 with Ferg. Yeah, yeah, many have you worked on. I've done two, so I did 2018 with ferg. Yeah, yeah. So ferg 2018, it was. So it was. It was, it was wild, but it was in the moment it was. It was. I knew how great it was going to be, but so that that theme 2018 was, uh, heavenly bodies, right, and you know, ferg is a hood pope, so I'm like like yo.
Speaker 2:I presented I had this, I think I had a picture of it this mood board of, like you know, pope robes and pope hats, because he's the hood pope. I'm like yo, this is perfect. And he's like yo, I love all of this. But I just want to look like a handsome black man and I was like I feel you. So he didn't want to go too costumey, he wanted to like he's like yo, this is my first one. I just want to look handsome and presentable and like dapper. So I'm like alright, I totally understand. So I wound up working with Dapper Dan, and this is when he was at the Gucci house and he had the store on Lennox.
Speaker 2:He had the Habitashery on Linux, so Dabbeday and myself work together. Ferg goes on tour, so we aren't able to do any fittings. No because he's not home.
Speaker 2:He's not home. So Ferg lands the day of the Met Gala. He comes to the Haberdashery the Gucci Dabbeday Haberdashery on Linux. He does one fitting. He loves it. He's like we have to do some tweaks. Bird comes back, goes home, takes a shower, comes back, he gets dressed for the Met Gala at Dapper Dan's studio on Linux. Wow, we leave from there to the Met Gala. This is unheard of. Usually you do a few fittings.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was so seamless.
Speaker 1:You get dressed at the hotel close by and then you uptown but it was beautiful though.
Speaker 2:It was beautiful. He was sitting at the tiffany table. He wore their most coveted rock, the bird on the rock. Like beyonce's wanted jay-z. It's um, it's crazy, and I'm. We met their representative on madison. She handed me the bird on a rock in a box. I take it out, I put it on his lapel as we drive into the Met Gala. He gets out and just wows the crowd. But that was. It was beautiful just for me, because being from Harlem, working with Ferg for so long, working with Dapper Dan, icon, legend, fashions guru, a great mind, it was just like so. The synergy was so perfect, you know, I mean so at that moment was like that's one of my, my proudest fashion moments, just working with my friend and client, working with that. But then and and just at holland and everything happening in holland, it was.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, it was beautiful. I can't even I can't even imagine what it was like before I walked out of there, out of that spot, and onto Linux like dressed. I'm sure it was just like oh my gosh, it was amazing.
Speaker 2:It was beautiful man, Beautiful. That was the time. And then, to fast forward 2025, I worked with one of my clients, Noah Louse, the fastest man in the world. We worked with Tom Brown and shout out to Tom Brown they were super great team to work with. I mean, we in a fitting and they got 10 people, the head designer, they got the PR they got everybody.
Speaker 2:They got different tailors. They not playing their attention to detail was crazy. In the case of Noah Lyles, he just wanted to stay on theme. In the case of Noah Lyles, he just wanted to stay on theme, which was Superfine. Taylor A yeah, taylor, for you, black Dandy and he wanted to stay on theme and he just wanted to show up and show out. So he was partnered with Anna Khoury. Anna Khoury is a women's jewelry designer, so she came up with some beautiful pearls and it was crazy. It was a great time and that, too, came together last minute. But he came out stepping. He was super, super happy, super proud. And yeah, that's another one of my famous, most famous fashion moments, or most iconic fashion moments, cause just to work with like the fashion house, brown hit that Met Gala stage seven years later was just like with a different client, fastest man ever After the Olympics. It's just like it was beautiful man. It's always a joy and a time and I'm just happy to be in this space. To be honest, did you?
Speaker 1:hit any after parties.
Speaker 2:Nah, nah. So I've always been like a I'm going to go home to me and eat a good meal type of person. I respect that I got a lot of invites but I was just like, after the week that I had and the last five days that I've had, I don't even want to. I don't want to party with y'all. I want to. I'll party with my people, but I I'm going to give me a good meal. Yeah, get some rest and watch something. You know what I'm?
Speaker 2:saying Like I can put in that much mental, physical and spiritual labor. It's just like I don't got nothing for nobody else. I'm going to just retreat back to my to my space.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, that's cool, that's cool man. So what's next?
Speaker 2:What's next, oh man, next, oh man. We spoke about kill off season we're going to do our presentation in september. That's going to be epic. I'm excited for that. We got ferg flow, august 14th. I'm super excited for that. We're gonna be. I'm gonna be leading a 5k star and it ended in marcus garvey park that morning, um, and that's gonna segue into the various events ending in the concert, the ferg headlining, what else we got coming up new New York City Marathon 2025. This is going to be my 12th consecutive New York City Marathon.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait. Tell me a little bit about the. We haven't talked about it. Tell me a little bit about the experience of running the New York City Marathon.
Speaker 2:Yo.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I say it like this I feel like it's the biggest block party in the world. It goes from Eastboro, starts in Staten Island, then Verrazano and it ends in Central Park. But I feel like, even if you don't run, you got to tap in and cheer, you could sponsor a runner, you could do charity work, but it's just like the whole city comes together and the whole world really, because it's like so many people from across the world come to run or to cheer or to share like their, their family member or their loved ones on, so it's just like the energy that day is like. It's so, so, so amazing, so beautiful. But yeah, running through the city is like. That's why I keep doing it, cause I I like to consider myself the ultimate New Yorker, so I keep on doing it because I love New York that much. And it's a hard course.
Speaker 2:So I want to like, I want to like really feel like I crushed it. You know what I mean. Like I have a track later on today and it's humidity and it's heat and I'm excited because I know that this work now is going to pay off. November Sunday, november 2nd. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So, but it's the greatest time anymore. Again, if you can't run it, if you can't run it, run it. If you're unable to definitely come out and share. It's super motivational From like the grandmas and the grandpas, to like the people in need of special need people, to like it's just like wow, this is a beautiful time, beautiful time, special need people to like.
Speaker 1:it's just like wow, this is, it's a beautiful time, yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I said, I used to go out there on.
Speaker 2:Fifth Avenue and see them running. Yeah, yeah, that's when people, that's when people washed Fifth Avenue is tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fifth Avenue is real tough and it's a hell of a world. That's the thing about New York people don't realize it's way more hilly than people think because there'll be a lot of slim inclines. Not, they're not like this, but they. But it's like you're used to running up the slim incline for like a minute.
Speaker 2:It's like, well, I'm, I'm still going uphill, you know that's the fact, fit bath is like a steady incline and when you're in the park it's an incline, it's tough, yeah, suicide hill in the park and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, it's a good time. It's fun, man I had a good time.
Speaker 1:It was fun, man. I had a good time, brother.
Speaker 2:Nah, I appreciate you, man, thank you. Thank you for having me on here and again, you are an icon, you're a legend. You supported me in my career. We even hit on the Bumby, ugk, all that type of channels.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it real quick, before we go.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about it Working with Shanique. Shout out to Shanique Peru. She was styling Pimp C at the time and the people don't even. I even spoke to Bun about this, but people don't even realize like I'm in the credits as Pimp C's last like stylist, for I think it was Underground Kings I forgot what album it was, but their last album Underground Kings was the last album.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where he wore the fur, Shanique couldn't make it and she sent me to Houston and he had the fur on with the hat and he was Pimp, was super cool and yeah, that was historic and I also worked on Too Short. Blow the Whistle, that's right, you know.
Speaker 1:That's right in Oakland, I forgot, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, I forgot about you on that set too. Yeah, yeah. So like Two iconic videos too. Yeah, we go back. Yeah. And two smash hit records, two sets Still. Blow Whistle plays now like it's new.
Speaker 2:My mom 80, if she's like, make sure you play Blow Whistle. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Because it got the energy like it got the energy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, yeah yeah, so we go back, we go back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I'm proud of you, man. I'm proud of everything you do man I had to have you on the show.
Speaker 2:I was like I gotta give my man Quaz on the stunner a little bit for having me and continued success for you. I'm going to definitely be tapping in, please. The show is dope.
Speaker 1:Thank you, man, congratulations. I got a lot of good people lined up, so I'll keep you posted on everything.
Speaker 2:Nice man, yes, sir.
Speaker 1:You can catch Mixed and Mastered on Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheart or wherever you get your podcasts. Hit that follow button, leave a review and tell a friend I'm your host, jeffrey Sledge. Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios.
