August 8, 2023 • 29 mins
Even if I’m not going to clubs every weekend like I used to, I still like to listen to some of the best DJs whose music makes the club experience a great night, and one of those DJs is Steve Aoki. I’ve known Steve for a while now, and it was amazing for me to come across an Instagram post the other day calling out an upcoming show he has & knowing that he’s still out there doing what he loves. The post actually reminded me of an interview I had with him a few years back that was centered around the specific moments that drove him to becoming the cake throwing DJ we see on social media, or in person if we’re lucky, and I knew I had to share this conversation with everyone who thinks that a lack of limitless money is what’s holding them back from achieving their goals.
Check out this all new episode for:
-
The struggles Steve faced as he initially tried to pursue his music goals
-
The scrappy ways Steve built a name for himself without any help from his father, creator of Benihana
-
The origin story behind Steve’s iconic cake-throwing at his shows
-
An eye-opening look at how being broke is actually your best asset - and why Steve thinks he would have never achieved this level of success if he had been provided with funding from family
Host: Daymond John
Producers: Beau Dozier & Shanelle Collins; Ted Kingsbery, Chauncey Bell, & Taryn Loftus
For more info on how to take your life and business to the next level, check out DaymondJohn.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It was kind of a really beautiful mess. And you know,
it's like thinking back into that little square foot apartment
that was broke out of my mind. DJing two hundred
dollars a gig, sometimes a hundred dollars a gig every
day than it possibly could. Honestly, got those little one
hundred to two hundred dollars gigs saved me, saved me,
(00:21):
saved me.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Get ready for my new.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Podcast, That Moment with Damon John will jump into the
personal stories of some of the most influential people on
the planet, from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
What's up, everybody, It is Damon Johnn here now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm actually traveling and creating a lot of those that
Moment special times of my family because one of the
things I do with Red is that earlier in my career,
I never traveled with my family. I never took that
time out. And the biggest question of the his challenge.
You're always going to ask yourself or have his work
life balance, and if you don't have both of those,
(01:07):
you're in trouble. But I don't want to forget about you,
because I'm going to play for you something that I
pulled out of the vault, something that I actually use
often and listen to myself, probably every three or four months.
It is an interview with my buddy Steve Aoki. Steve
is the cake throwing superstar DJ that performs all around
(01:29):
the world for hundreds of thousands of people at a time.
And maybe you've gotten hit by him with the cake,
or maybe you've seen him on social media, or maybe
you've seen.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Him in person. But let me tell you something about
this man.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
He is no joke. He's a global phenomenon. But here's
the challenge Steve had. Steve grew up with money, his
parents had money, and that actually hindered him. Now, if
you would talk about yourself, you would say to yourself,
right now, you know what if I had.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Unlimited money, what would I do? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Sometimes that can be your biggest problem. And people don't
want to do anything for you. They want you to
pay for everything. And even when you pay for everything,
they want to take it from you and say you.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Didn't deserve it. And Steve had to activate the power broke.
So here you go.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Check out my interview of that moment with Steve Aoki
that I still reflect on and I go and listen
to from time to time to energize me, and I'm
sure it will energize you. And by the way, some
of these pieces in this interview I've never put out
at all to anybody, but the pieces that I did
put in the Power Broke ended up becoming a chapter
(02:34):
and the book became a New York Times best selling books.
So trustfully, they are going to be nuggets in there
that you are going to absolutely love. Thank you for
listening to that moment with David John piece. What's uf
I'm Damon John, and I'm sitting here on my buddy,
Steve Aoki, the world famous EDM DJ and producer and
(02:56):
everything else and an amazing individual that I've gotten to know,
and one I want to highlight individuals in my Power
Broke book. I wanted to really talk to individuals from
all walks of life. And the beautiful thing about Steve
is that Steve made it on his own exercise of
power broke from day one to even now when he
(03:18):
decides to go into new ventures. But I want to
just ask him a couple of questions and let you
get to know him and see how he exercised the
power broth. So thanks Steve, thanks for thanks for being
here at grant Meme dated View. Now, you know, tell
me a little story. I don't know if everybody knows,
but you know, you have a pretty rich background, and
I know that your parents, you know your dad especially
(03:39):
I create a business. And can you just talk to
us a little bit about the business that he had. Yeah,
uh so I followed you found at Benning.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
At a restaurant and done my bravest spot.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
And his story is incredible. So he let's give a
brief that really quick because that that his story really
ends up becoming a big, big like play into my life.
So he came to Japan to New York to wrestle
(04:11):
for Japan, I think for the Olympics, and he I'm
not sure if he defected, but he ended up staying
in New York I think illegally. So for some point,
he's young, he's in his twenties, and he wanted to
be he wanted to live in America. So I mean,
he was an ice cream man. He was living in
(04:31):
Harlem for a couple of years of ice cream out there,
and he went through a lot of hardship. This is
like in the forties or I don't know what what
years like long years and years ago or maybe I'm
not sure that the year, uh it was. It was definitely
at a time when World War two passed and and
there was like a lot of discrimination as Japanese obviously
(04:53):
during that time of the Bobbies. So he was out
there on his own, and he was broke, and he
he would find tools, whatever way he could make money.
And eventually he raised enough money, he made enough money,
got some help from his father to come and and
(05:13):
open up Beni Hannas in New York and and his
father came out, brought the chefs out and they they
actually created that concept tep on yaki in America for
the very first time, the idea of cooking, entertaining guests
Japanese food to you know, to like a republic. It
(05:33):
became a success, and you know the rest of sister
firm eventually to a public. So when I I grew up,
I was born in seventy seven. At that time, my
dad was he was he was like he was hip hop.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
He was already established. He was already Yeah, the mazing
he was.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Like you, I think you were in public he was
buying cars, he had chains, I mean yeah, like club
it was like single, but he was married. You know.
My mom eventually realized that and divorced and fled to
the other side of the country and raised me in
Newport Beach, California. So I grew up on the other
(06:14):
side of America. And uh, but you know, I grew
up under the shadow of a successful fodder, you know,
who wrote like books on making in America things like that.
And as I grew up, my mom raised me in
a very did a completely different lifestyle. You know, I
didn't I didn't see I didn't get raised in the
(06:36):
New Jersey mansion.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I was raised in a very comfortable, upper class neighborhood
Newport Beach, in the suburbs. So don't worry. It's not
like I was like saying I'm broke, but like it's
definitely comfortable and definitely living in in a very upper
class neighborhood. And I grew up and you know, I,
you know, I faced my whole level of dealing with
(07:01):
discrimination and racism, and you know, at that at an
early age, but that that level, that feeling of being
of not being part of the status quo or like
the normal kids whatever. The normal kids were pushed me
to eventually find other marginalized kids that that all kind
(07:24):
of came together like, we don't care if those kids
don't like us, We're gonna like find our We're gonna
do our own thing.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And was this a newport and yeah, this was a
newport of it.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And and then that's where I found this, Like we're
talking about this or this this hardcore punk lifestyle. So
like whatever we became, I became vegetarian. I like started
like educating myself in that world. I was going to
shows and pump shows and.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
These are punk shows.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Now I know that, and you know, listen, there's no
there's no no way should have a prown again. So
what a child is born into, whether it's you know,
it's family of wealth or as of a family that
at the.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Moment doesn't have any money.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I know that the people that are generally wealthy, there's
two forms of how they may raise their children.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
There is either I work for it very.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Hard and I want you to to follow the same
disciplines I'm not going to give you anything, or there
is Hey, I had to work so or it's so
hard that I don't ever want you to do that,
and I want to give you the education right going
into that punk world is a very rebellious world. It
it's its own version of hip hop, it's its own
version of you know, you know whatever it is. They
(08:39):
generally frowned upon the kids that you know that had it.
Yea had resource access and how did you manage to
navigate that and gain respect?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And you know why did they value you in the world?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And in that world, it's all about like how much
you give back to the community. So the people that
don't give back to the community are just not really respected.
So whether you are created, whether you're in a band,
you make music, whether you write a fancy whether you
organize events so that bands can come play, it was
(09:19):
all based around kind of promoting the lifestyle of that community.
So I was doing whatever I could without having to
actually say, oh yeah, I want to get my rich
dad to pay for it, because like that's that's the
wrong approach. It's like, you know what we're going to do.
We're going to go to Kinko's, which is a copy center,
(09:41):
and we would steal all the copies and make our
own zines and be creative. We'd always find different tools
what was in front of us to create music, to
be part of the community. And the more you did
that and the more you were showed that, that's that's
where the respect came in.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Did you ever did you ever take or ask or
was offered, uh, you know, some of the money or
some resources from your parents or these things.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well, my father he.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Would never He never invested it.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And actually not in any of this, in any of
these kids. And that's where like, there's there's two. I
think there's two big, like two big mental moments that
that helped shape me to where I'm where I am now,
where I'm utilizing the tools in front of me and
figuring out how to get from point to point. B
(10:53):
One was my father's struggle on on how he made
it from really nothing to you know, to his empire
and and translating that to his kids. I mean I remember, like,
you know, when I started my label, and this is
years later, I was like in my mid early twice
and I was going to his house and he would
(11:14):
never pay for a flight, Like, Dad, can you pay
for a flag on a DJ? Giggs? Like paying me
five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
That really was the truth.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
It's like, why do you want being paid? You need
to work, you know. So like I would always pay
for the flights and I was like, oh Dad, I
need I need this uh FedEx?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
But how much needs a flight?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
How much?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Would the fight five hundred dollars and the and the
gig was five hunre hours?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, so I would traveled from California to New York
to New York and then then he had to pay
for the hotel. You probably stayed some days and I
hated my dad's so it would be just it'll be
it'll be a washer about something, right.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
But like he you know, he never actually ever invested
in Denmark. He never gave me any money. He never
really yeah, I got me even presents. I've heard that.
It was like he was very much like.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You know, he really.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Taught me the hard way with and I never asked
him because you just don't ask him because he just
doesn't do that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So did he value that you were doing it or
did he just not understand you were doing it? I mean,
what was his outlook on what you were doing? Because
you know, everybody knows you now from you know, you know,
being one of the one of the world's most recognized
EDM DJs, and we all hear about the you know, rockings,
thirty thousand people and all this money, but I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I don't think people may understand.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You know that, how long did it take where you
didn't have anything and you never knew that you were
going to make anything.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I'll tell you that from okay to give like a
like a ten year period really as brief as possible. Yeah,
I started my label in nineteen I was in college.
I started with four hundred dollars and right will for
do four hundred dollars. It's all the money that I
made in my summer, like my summer night.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
How much it costs us to go three days to
see you at a coachwum.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, And so I started the label with four dollars.
I parted with two of my friends that put four
hour dollars and we put out a seven inch and
the idea, it was all about the ideas, like we
don't ere money, but we're just gonna go Kinkos. We're
gonna steal all the copies. We're gonna find this. We're
gonna get a friend to help us here. We're gonna
sell ourselves literally like from the trunk of our cars
(13:31):
to the shows, and we're gonna make seventy five cents
per every single sevench we sell, and we're gonna literally
piggy bake this money to have that money to put
out all the record until we get to the point
where we can get a distributor to pay for it.
And so from that point on ninety six to two
(13:52):
thousand and four, when the Denmark became a business, I
was I finally founded a way of using other people
to help me out without ever having to reach out
a handout for my father. So that was not really
important for me Zach to know that I could do
that and show him I could actually, So.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I would say that that was a very exercise that
I broke. It was eight years.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You did not have resources to have a label, marketing,
distributing and selling your goods. But you exercise that. That's
a good exercise, and the power broke. You took a
small army and you incrementally rule over the course of
eight years. But you also understood the genre very well.
(14:39):
So it was people buying into you, or they were
buying into the music, which one was it both, So you.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Know how that goes. It's like, oh, it's like you
really are Like I was literally giving block Party CDs
to like every one that I saw. I mean it
was I was that guy. I was literally that guy.
And this was even before I was even into DJ
really and so see I got a DJing in two
thousand and three, So a lot like two thousand and three,
two thousand and four was a really kind of like
(15:08):
a robust time for me to like all these things
were taken off. Dimlock was turning into a business. The
same time, I was knocked out in ten credit cards,
over ninety thousand dollars in debt, and I had no
idea how her figure out of pay that off. There's
no way to figure out.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
But then, what kept you? What kept you going when okay,
you were selling these records. We weren't making money, but
you was selling these records. It was six eight years in,
you had ninety thousand dollars in debt, you were borrowing
Robin Peter to paypole right, you have a bunch of
friends believe in you. What kept you going to this
day because now twenty and fourteen, well, by some time, there's.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
A lot of things, like in two thousand and four,
you know, you have to keep a perception that you're
you're doing great, you know, like so so like people
believe the brand is powerful, right, So the brand had
this idea it was this big company.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So I was seeing a movement.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, it's like we we sold over eighty thousand units
of block Party. We just did a deal with Advice
ended up so like three or fifty thousand albums through
a BCE that like access to a block Party's album.
Same time, I actually was still only hiring interns at
thirteen interns in my apartment nine iver square foot apartment,
I was spending five hundred dollars a lenth share it
with my girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Of the tib and your girl was living there. Yeah,
did you keep her? Did she stay with you?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
And she stay with me for a long period of time.
I eventually we broke up, but I mean the amount
of money I was expending was minimal, like five hundred
dollars for rent, car, insurance, and.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
And an office at the same time. Yeah, yeah, I
went all right.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And at thirteen in terms from around the world, like
I had no idea what some of these people were doing.
Like you're like, yo, can you cook something? Because I
don't know what wise, you know, and records piled up everywhere. Mean,
it was like it was kind of a really beautiful mess.
And you know, it's like thinking back into that little
square foot apartment that was broke out of my mind.
(17:03):
And I would dare never to even show this my
father because he would immediately say, run away from that.
You need to get a real job. I'll help you
by introducing you to people to work for, not at
Benny Hannas, all right, because he didn't want me to
work if he wanted me to like learn at other companies.
And I was like, no, I'm gonna do this. I
(17:23):
like to I'm just gonna keep the perception up that
things are all good. And the thing that saved me
was DJing two hundred dollars a gig, sometimes one hundred
dollars a gig every day than it possibly could and honestly,
got those little one hundred to two hundred dollars gigs
saved me.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Well, how but how easy was it to get a
hundred dollars gig? A turn? If theyd doors get slammed
on you, ever, did they? Did?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You just people started following you. What normal days of
getting a thousand, you would accept two hundred. What was
the reason why they would give you a hundred two hundred?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
The only way I could even DJ, because that was
really bad. I was this pretra or pre digital, playing
final and fairly learning how to beat match. Okay, the
only way I could even get into a bar is
if I threw the party myself. So I have to
actually be the promoter, the DJ, the organizer, everything. And
(18:17):
then I'm on the streets handing out flyers. I mean,
imagine Steve Aoki, Gord oh Man come to the show.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I was saying the same me.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It's just like we're all there were Like that's what
people don't realize, see Davy Jo like all this. You know,
it's the same kind of thing. Like I was there
making the flyers at Kinko's, stealing them. You know, I
keep saying that, sorry Kikos, but you know.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It's okay, but you know that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And then and literally just handing out flyers like okay,
So I got like my friends to come DJ, but
they were all in these famous bands. Because I already
had the experience of throwing bads in my living room
and Santa Barbara four and or fifty bass playing.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
My literary Wow in the nine on the squarefoot no
in my apartment in Santa Barbara.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Out of guy again.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So when I started throwing these these these parties and
these small eighty capacity bars, it would be like these
famous bands are coming through, like yeah, yeahs or Airpule
or you know, the Killers, and they would DJ for
one hundred dollars because we literally were only making like
three hundred dollars. So sometimes I'll be like, we just
(19:30):
beat two water doors. Oh man, I'm like, you know,
then I do that three times a week. I'm like,
I just be six hundred dollars. I just paid rent,
like and I just was like, okay, I need to
saw another party. And all of a sudden, like I was,
I became like Denmark became the hipster like at the
(19:52):
Times in two thousand and four, we became the hipster
like that that party, that that that spoke about this music.
There's no one else that could do what we did.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And let me ask you something on the flip side
of that, I'm looking back now of what it took
(20:27):
to get here. If your father would have gave you
a million dollars and said, please spend it on this label.
Do you think you could have accomplished the same movement
or the same energy and belief with it at the
same following at that time if you just bought a
(20:47):
bigger venue, paid all the bands.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Absolutely not right. I would have squattered it. I would
have lost it all. I mean, I would have been like,
what a failure. But when you have well, you really
are in a place where you have to figure out how.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
To ma add how to perform.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
You have to perform, and it's it's that's about the
mighty you're losing. It's about the reputation and consistency that
you want to continue to do. It's like, more about
your reputation on the line, then you're gonna you're going
to really do your best. And I realized it's also consistency.
You know, you have to be consistent and showing that like, Okay,
(21:27):
we're out doing this one time, we're out here like
flushed the pen. Yeah, I'm going to represent this culture.
I don't represent it every single week and yeah, and
to the point where people are like, Okay, now I
want to go to Aoki's party or Demock Dimmock's party,
and then eventually then I went from throwing parties to
(21:49):
learning how to produce, and I started with doing remixes
and that was baby stuffs as well.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You know what I and I think that and I'll
give you you know, I had a record label or
Google Records and Fatty Girl on a couple other things.
But I think that you brought up something that's very
very valid point in regards to the power broke.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Consistency.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
You see when when people have money and things, they say, well,
I liked it this time, but you know what, I
gotta fly someplace. I'm gonna have somebody else throw the
party from me while I'm gone, and or I don't
know if the creatives good. I'm the hired of an agency,
and that translation gets diluted and the customer sees right
through it. So I mean you're a perfect example of
(22:27):
the power broke, which is of course you saw it
with you know nothing. You had to gain your respect
from a community. Then the business you had to do
what we call proof of concept. You had to sell
one record and then sell another one and sell another
one and fix each one, and then you basically got
this level of confidence in you to then start throwing
(22:48):
parties and then seeing where else you can contribute. And
you know, everybody always says, you know, every overnight success
has taken fifteen years. And you know when people look
at you now, I want them to know that you
put in your work and that you exercise the power broke.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So you know, it's it's like you said this too.
You have to eat ship. You have to eat it.
But like the most important thing is getting up and
brushing the dirt off and figuring out how to get
back on the market.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
And then and then.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You're gonna eat it again. And then you just gotta
get it back up and learn from that, because then
you'll learn from that. Then you're just gonna I mean,
you know, you're gonna always fumble. Yeah, it's just human
errors happened.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, I mean I think you said something that I
think that.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
All entrepreneurs and uh you know people go through. I
think that you you hit something that's so real it
was cool. You basically said it was a beautiful mess.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah. How do you how do you describe a beautiful mess?
You know, it's wasn't beautiful at the time?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, no, no, no, because it's it's uh, well see
that there's something it's there's something about it where yeah,
I'm sorry. It it's absolutely beautiful because you're driven by
passion and you don't care how much money that you've
that you've sunk into it or that you're investing into
(24:11):
it because you love it so much and you'll do
absolutely anything to make it succeed. Yeah, and and there's
so many times, oh my god, sobody tells when everyone
around me is like, stop doing that, what are you doing?
You just mas up with the mill the card. And
I didn't have business managers, I didn't have lawyers. I
(24:31):
was like, I didn't have anything. I have a manager.
It was just me.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
And it's those small milestone So you just maxed that
in the part.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yes, but it's those small milestone that do we have
as those beautiful message right right?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Two hundred dollars and then you do it three times
and those six hundred dollars right. Yeah. Yeah, it's a mess.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It's a mess, and it's chaotic, and you don't know,
you really, you really truly don't know if you're gonna
get you do make it out alive, you know what
you mean? She's driving you're like, I can't let this go,
and you know, like I guess there is there is
that moment where okay, all right, right, you need let
go back. You know there is that vote like you
(25:13):
can't say that to everyone.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, but well, you know what, I think, there's somewhat
other ways to describe it. It's almost like being in
love with somebody and it's just a mad love, like
it's it's ups and downs.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Or even have having children.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You know, you come home, the houses is a mess,
but it's so beautiful and you know, you know what
I mean, the special rewards. So I like that saying
a beautiful mess. And now now I want to close
it out with when you say a beautiful message. It
immediately makes me think of when I when I roll
with you concerts, the pretty girl in front who has
a sign saying cake me and you you hit her
(25:47):
with a three pound cake that she's wearing the rest
of the night. That's a beautiful message the star. Where
did the cake concept come up?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
But I know, oh oh absolutely, Okay, Uh, the most
important thing beyond the k concept is is uh just
the level of entertainment that I Because I was DJing
for a while you know, and I remember I played Coachella.
This is the second time I played Coachello two thousand
and nine, and that's the first time that I thought
(26:17):
of bringing entertainment to my show. And I brought out
these rafts and I had like I was jumping in
them and people were jumping in them. And I remember, like,
you know, the next issue of Rolling Stone magazine, it
shows up like this coachelle is spread and it was
a small DJ, right, So I'm like, there's no way
I'm going to being roy Stone. But all of a sudden,
there's Paul McCartney, there's like, you know, some other big star.
(26:40):
Then there's me in a raft. I'm like, I made
the Rolling Stone spread, Like wow, small DJ hiking the
spread and and I was like, you know, people love
like seeing this. It's a spectacle and it it brings
this level of energy and entertainment to the show. So
I started doing raft every show and I did that
(27:02):
for years, and in twenty eleven, I was like, I
need to bring a new element to the show. And
I saw this music video of these cakes exploding in
people's spaces and super solw motion cinematic amazingness because it's
just like you know when people bowing up the candles out.
I'm like, I am going to cake someone at a
(27:23):
show while playing that music video, Like that song in
a music video, it'll be a great like tie it
all right. The thing is that no one really got
that like they they like when I played the song,
I was promoting one of my artists, and.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I'm thinking, who was the first person to see you
up there with a cake and go right hit me
with it?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well, the good thing is is that I wanted to
make it viral, so I remember, I think this might
not be the first time, but there is, like there
is a video back in twenty eleven, I think it
was May, and I like showed the video to my
videographer and I walked around and people at this time
(28:02):
in twenty eleven, they did not know what I was
doing with the cake. But you walk around enough and
you show people the cake, there's gonna be one crazy
wants it. And there he was right there, and no,
it was like, all right, let's make this special. So
I got my video guys there and I was just like,
and everyone's just like watching what's going to happen? Everyone
(28:26):
stops to stop conversation to see like this, like what's
going to happen?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Right?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
So I cake him. He's going wild and then that's
like the ultimate. The ultimate is like you want to
see what he looks like afterwards?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, exactly asks what you want to see?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Like the act is cool, but it's like the aftermath
is what's the best part. So and then we posted
that video up.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
What viral and then it just started, you know, becoming
you know, por the show man. You know what in
the show you excide the power broke all the time. Listen,
either I have to spend ninety thousand dollars to get
a page in Rolling Stone, or I have to sell
five million records and you know as you did you
bought a rafts right? Uh? Why? And Wayne not as
(29:11):
many people knew you now they feel like you are
broke and the KPE people, I love it all right, man.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Good, thanks very far.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to and rate the show and of course
you didn't all connect with me on any of my
(29:41):
social media platforms. At the Shark, Damon spelled like Raymond,
But what a d
It was kind of a really beautiful mess. And you know,
it's like thinking back into that little square foot apartment
that was broke out of my mind. DJing two hundred
dollars a gig, sometimes a hundred dollars a gig every
day than it possibly could. Honestly, got those little one
hundred to two hundred dollars gigs saved me, saved me,
(00:21):
saved me.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
What if I told you there was more to the
story behind game changing events?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Get ready for my new.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Podcast, That Moment with Damon John will jump into the
personal stories of some of the most influential people on
the planet, from business mobiles and celebrities to athletes and artists.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
What's up, everybody, It is Damon Johnn here now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm actually traveling and creating a lot of those that
Moment special times of my family because one of the
things I do with Red is that earlier in my career,
I never traveled with my family. I never took that
time out. And the biggest question of the his challenge.
You're always going to ask yourself or have his work
life balance, and if you don't have both of those,
(01:07):
you're in trouble. But I don't want to forget about you,
because I'm going to play for you something that I
pulled out of the vault, something that I actually use
often and listen to myself, probably every three or four months.
It is an interview with my buddy Steve Aoki. Steve
is the cake throwing superstar DJ that performs all around
(01:29):
the world for hundreds of thousands of people at a time.
And maybe you've gotten hit by him with the cake,
or maybe you've seen him on social media, or maybe
you've seen.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Him in person. But let me tell you something about
this man.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
He is no joke. He's a global phenomenon. But here's
the challenge Steve had. Steve grew up with money, his
parents had money, and that actually hindered him. Now, if
you would talk about yourself, you would say to yourself,
right now, you know what if I had.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Unlimited money, what would I do? Well?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Sometimes that can be your biggest problem. And people don't
want to do anything for you. They want you to
pay for everything. And even when you pay for everything,
they want to take it from you and say you.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Didn't deserve it. And Steve had to activate the power broke.
So here you go.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Check out my interview of that moment with Steve Aoki
that I still reflect on and I go and listen
to from time to time to energize me, and I'm
sure it will energize you. And by the way, some
of these pieces in this interview I've never put out
at all to anybody, but the pieces that I did
put in the Power Broke ended up becoming a chapter
(02:34):
and the book became a New York Times best selling books.
So trustfully, they are going to be nuggets in there
that you are going to absolutely love. Thank you for
listening to that moment with David John piece. What's uf
I'm Damon John, and I'm sitting here on my buddy,
Steve Aoki, the world famous EDM DJ and producer and
(02:56):
everything else and an amazing individual that I've gotten to know,
and one I want to highlight individuals in my Power
Broke book. I wanted to really talk to individuals from
all walks of life. And the beautiful thing about Steve
is that Steve made it on his own exercise of
power broke from day one to even now when he
(03:18):
decides to go into new ventures. But I want to
just ask him a couple of questions and let you
get to know him and see how he exercised the
power broth. So thanks Steve, thanks for thanks for being
here at grant Meme dated View. Now, you know, tell
me a little story. I don't know if everybody knows,
but you know, you have a pretty rich background, and
I know that your parents, you know your dad especially
(03:39):
I create a business. And can you just talk to
us a little bit about the business that he had. Yeah,
uh so I followed you found at Benning.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
At a restaurant and done my bravest spot.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
And his story is incredible. So he let's give a
brief that really quick because that that his story really
ends up becoming a big, big like play into my life.
So he came to Japan to New York to wrestle
(04:11):
for Japan, I think for the Olympics, and he I'm
not sure if he defected, but he ended up staying
in New York I think illegally. So for some point,
he's young, he's in his twenties, and he wanted to
be he wanted to live in America. So I mean,
he was an ice cream man. He was living in
(04:31):
Harlem for a couple of years of ice cream out there,
and he went through a lot of hardship. This is
like in the forties or I don't know what what
years like long years and years ago or maybe I'm
not sure that the year, uh it was. It was definitely
at a time when World War two passed and and
there was like a lot of discrimination as Japanese obviously
(04:53):
during that time of the Bobbies. So he was out
there on his own, and he was broke, and he
he would find tools, whatever way he could make money.
And eventually he raised enough money, he made enough money,
got some help from his father to come and and
(05:13):
open up Beni Hannas in New York and and his
father came out, brought the chefs out and they they
actually created that concept tep on yaki in America for
the very first time, the idea of cooking, entertaining guests
Japanese food to you know, to like a republic. It
(05:33):
became a success, and you know the rest of sister
firm eventually to a public. So when I I grew up,
I was born in seventy seven. At that time, my
dad was he was he was like he was hip hop.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
He was already established. He was already Yeah, the mazing
he was.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Like you, I think you were in public he was
buying cars, he had chains, I mean yeah, like club
it was like single, but he was married. You know.
My mom eventually realized that and divorced and fled to
the other side of the country and raised me in
Newport Beach, California. So I grew up on the other
(06:14):
side of America. And uh, but you know, I grew
up under the shadow of a successful fodder, you know,
who wrote like books on making in America things like that.
And as I grew up, my mom raised me in
a very did a completely different lifestyle. You know, I
didn't I didn't see I didn't get raised in the
(06:36):
New Jersey mansion.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I was raised in a very comfortable, upper class neighborhood
Newport Beach, in the suburbs. So don't worry. It's not
like I was like saying I'm broke, but like it's
definitely comfortable and definitely living in in a very upper
class neighborhood. And I grew up and you know, I,
you know, I faced my whole level of dealing with
(07:01):
discrimination and racism, and you know, at that at an
early age, but that that level, that feeling of being
of not being part of the status quo or like
the normal kids whatever. The normal kids were pushed me
to eventually find other marginalized kids that that all kind
(07:24):
of came together like, we don't care if those kids
don't like us, We're gonna like find our We're gonna
do our own thing.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And was this a newport and yeah, this was a
newport of it.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And and then that's where I found this, Like we're
talking about this or this this hardcore punk lifestyle. So
like whatever we became, I became vegetarian. I like started
like educating myself in that world. I was going to
shows and pump shows and.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
These are punk shows.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Now I know that, and you know, listen, there's no
there's no no way should have a prown again. So
what a child is born into, whether it's you know,
it's family of wealth or as of a family that
at the.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Moment doesn't have any money.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I know that the people that are generally wealthy, there's
two forms of how they may raise their children.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
There is either I work for it very.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Hard and I want you to to follow the same
disciplines I'm not going to give you anything, or there
is Hey, I had to work so or it's so
hard that I don't ever want you to do that,
and I want to give you the education right going
into that punk world is a very rebellious world. It
it's its own version of hip hop, it's its own
version of you know, you know whatever it is. They
(08:39):
generally frowned upon the kids that you know that had it.
Yea had resource access and how did you manage to
navigate that and gain respect?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And you know why did they value you in the world?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And in that world, it's all about like how much
you give back to the community. So the people that
don't give back to the community are just not really respected.
So whether you are created, whether you're in a band,
you make music, whether you write a fancy whether you
organize events so that bands can come play, it was
(09:19):
all based around kind of promoting the lifestyle of that community.
So I was doing whatever I could without having to
actually say, oh yeah, I want to get my rich
dad to pay for it, because like that's that's the
wrong approach. It's like, you know what we're going to do.
We're going to go to Kinko's, which is a copy center,
(09:41):
and we would steal all the copies and make our
own zines and be creative. We'd always find different tools
what was in front of us to create music, to
be part of the community. And the more you did
that and the more you were showed that, that's that's
where the respect came in.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Did you ever did you ever take or ask or
was offered, uh, you know, some of the money or
some resources from your parents or these things.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well, my father he.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Would never He never invested it.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And actually not in any of this, in any of
these kids. And that's where like, there's there's two. I
think there's two big, like two big mental moments that
that helped shape me to where I'm where I am now,
where I'm utilizing the tools in front of me and
figuring out how to get from point to point. B
(10:53):
One was my father's struggle on on how he made
it from really nothing to you know, to his empire
and and translating that to his kids. I mean I remember, like,
you know, when I started my label, and this is
years later, I was like in my mid early twice
and I was going to his house and he would
(11:14):
never pay for a flight, Like, Dad, can you pay
for a flag on a DJ? Giggs? Like paying me
five hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
That really was the truth.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
It's like, why do you want being paid? You need
to work, you know. So like I would always pay
for the flights and I was like, oh Dad, I
need I need this uh FedEx?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
But how much needs a flight?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
How much?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Would the fight five hundred dollars and the and the
gig was five hunre hours?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, so I would traveled from California to New York
to New York and then then he had to pay
for the hotel. You probably stayed some days and I
hated my dad's so it would be just it'll be
it'll be a washer about something, right.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
But like he you know, he never actually ever invested
in Denmark. He never gave me any money. He never
really yeah, I got me even presents. I've heard that.
It was like he was very much like.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
You know, he really.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Taught me the hard way with and I never asked
him because you just don't ask him because he just
doesn't do that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So did he value that you were doing it or
did he just not understand you were doing it? I mean,
what was his outlook on what you were doing? Because
you know, everybody knows you now from you know, you know,
being one of the one of the world's most recognized
EDM DJs, and we all hear about the you know, rockings,
thirty thousand people and all this money, but I don't.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I don't think people may understand.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You know that, how long did it take where you
didn't have anything and you never knew that you were
going to make anything.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I'll tell you that from okay to give like a
like a ten year period really as brief as possible. Yeah,
I started my label in nineteen I was in college.
I started with four hundred dollars and right will for
do four hundred dollars. It's all the money that I
made in my summer, like my summer night.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
How much it costs us to go three days to
see you at a coachwum.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, And so I started the label with four dollars.
I parted with two of my friends that put four
hour dollars and we put out a seven inch and
the idea, it was all about the ideas, like we
don't ere money, but we're just gonna go Kinkos. We're
gonna steal all the copies. We're gonna find this. We're
gonna get a friend to help us here. We're gonna
sell ourselves literally like from the trunk of our cars
(13:31):
to the shows, and we're gonna make seventy five cents
per every single sevench we sell, and we're gonna literally
piggy bake this money to have that money to put
out all the record until we get to the point
where we can get a distributor to pay for it.
And so from that point on ninety six to two
(13:52):
thousand and four, when the Denmark became a business, I
was I finally founded a way of using other people
to help me out without ever having to reach out
a handout for my father. So that was not really
important for me Zach to know that I could do
that and show him I could actually, So.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I would say that that was a very exercise that
I broke. It was eight years.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
You did not have resources to have a label, marketing,
distributing and selling your goods. But you exercise that. That's
a good exercise, and the power broke. You took a
small army and you incrementally rule over the course of
eight years. But you also understood the genre very well.
(14:39):
So it was people buying into you, or they were
buying into the music, which one was it both, So you.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Know how that goes. It's like, oh, it's like you
really are Like I was literally giving block Party CDs
to like every one that I saw. I mean it
was I was that guy. I was literally that guy.
And this was even before I was even into DJ
really and so see I got a DJing in two
thousand and three, So a lot like two thousand and three,
two thousand and four was a really kind of like
(15:08):
a robust time for me to like all these things
were taken off. Dimlock was turning into a business. The
same time, I was knocked out in ten credit cards,
over ninety thousand dollars in debt, and I had no
idea how her figure out of pay that off. There's
no way to figure out.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
But then, what kept you? What kept you going when okay,
you were selling these records. We weren't making money, but
you was selling these records. It was six eight years in,
you had ninety thousand dollars in debt, you were borrowing
Robin Peter to paypole right, you have a bunch of
friends believe in you. What kept you going to this
day because now twenty and fourteen, well, by some time, there's.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
A lot of things, like in two thousand and four,
you know, you have to keep a perception that you're
you're doing great, you know, like so so like people
believe the brand is powerful, right, So the brand had
this idea it was this big company.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So I was seeing a movement.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, it's like we we sold over eighty thousand units
of block Party. We just did a deal with Advice
ended up so like three or fifty thousand albums through
a BCE that like access to a block Party's album.
Same time, I actually was still only hiring interns at
thirteen interns in my apartment nine iver square foot apartment,
I was spending five hundred dollars a lenth share it
with my girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Of the tib and your girl was living there. Yeah,
did you keep her? Did she stay with you?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
And she stay with me for a long period of time.
I eventually we broke up, but I mean the amount
of money I was expending was minimal, like five hundred
dollars for rent, car, insurance, and.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
And an office at the same time. Yeah, yeah, I
went all right.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
And at thirteen in terms from around the world, like
I had no idea what some of these people were doing.
Like you're like, yo, can you cook something? Because I
don't know what wise, you know, and records piled up everywhere. Mean,
it was like it was kind of a really beautiful mess.
And you know, it's like thinking back into that little
square foot apartment that was broke out of my mind.
(17:03):
And I would dare never to even show this my
father because he would immediately say, run away from that.
You need to get a real job. I'll help you
by introducing you to people to work for, not at
Benny Hannas, all right, because he didn't want me to
work if he wanted me to like learn at other companies.
And I was like, no, I'm gonna do this. I
(17:23):
like to I'm just gonna keep the perception up that
things are all good. And the thing that saved me
was DJing two hundred dollars a gig, sometimes one hundred
dollars a gig every day than it possibly could and honestly,
got those little one hundred to two hundred dollars gigs
saved me.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Well, how but how easy was it to get a
hundred dollars gig? A turn? If theyd doors get slammed
on you, ever, did they? Did?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You just people started following you. What normal days of
getting a thousand, you would accept two hundred. What was
the reason why they would give you a hundred two hundred?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
The only way I could even DJ, because that was
really bad. I was this pretra or pre digital, playing
final and fairly learning how to beat match. Okay, the
only way I could even get into a bar is
if I threw the party myself. So I have to
actually be the promoter, the DJ, the organizer, everything. And
(18:17):
then I'm on the streets handing out flyers. I mean,
imagine Steve Aoki, Gord oh Man come to the show.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I was saying the same me.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
It's just like we're all there were Like that's what
people don't realize, see Davy Jo like all this. You know,
it's the same kind of thing. Like I was there
making the flyers at Kinko's, stealing them. You know, I
keep saying that, sorry Kikos, but you know.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It's okay, but you know that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And then and literally just handing out flyers like okay,
So I got like my friends to come DJ, but
they were all in these famous bands. Because I already
had the experience of throwing bads in my living room
and Santa Barbara four and or fifty bass playing.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
My literary Wow in the nine on the squarefoot no
in my apartment in Santa Barbara.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Out of guy again.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So when I started throwing these these these parties and
these small eighty capacity bars, it would be like these
famous bands are coming through, like yeah, yeahs or Airpule
or you know, the Killers, and they would DJ for
one hundred dollars because we literally were only making like
three hundred dollars. So sometimes I'll be like, we just
(19:30):
beat two water doors. Oh man, I'm like, you know,
then I do that three times a week. I'm like,
I just be six hundred dollars. I just paid rent,
like and I just was like, okay, I need to
saw another party. And all of a sudden, like I was,
I became like Denmark became the hipster like at the
(19:52):
Times in two thousand and four, we became the hipster
like that that party, that that that spoke about this music.
There's no one else that could do what we did.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And let me ask you something on the flip side
of that, I'm looking back now of what it took
(20:27):
to get here. If your father would have gave you
a million dollars and said, please spend it on this label.
Do you think you could have accomplished the same movement
or the same energy and belief with it at the
same following at that time if you just bought a
(20:47):
bigger venue, paid all the bands.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Absolutely not right. I would have squattered it. I would
have lost it all. I mean, I would have been like,
what a failure. But when you have well, you really
are in a place where you have to figure out how.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
To ma add how to perform.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
You have to perform, and it's it's that's about the
mighty you're losing. It's about the reputation and consistency that
you want to continue to do. It's like, more about
your reputation on the line, then you're gonna you're going
to really do your best. And I realized it's also consistency.
You know, you have to be consistent and showing that like, Okay,
(21:27):
we're out doing this one time, we're out here like
flushed the pen. Yeah, I'm going to represent this culture.
I don't represent it every single week and yeah, and
to the point where people are like, Okay, now I
want to go to Aoki's party or Demock Dimmock's party,
and then eventually then I went from throwing parties to
(21:49):
learning how to produce, and I started with doing remixes
and that was baby stuffs as well.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You know what I and I think that and I'll
give you you know, I had a record label or
Google Records and Fatty Girl on a couple other things.
But I think that you brought up something that's very
very valid point in regards to the power broke.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Consistency.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
You see when when people have money and things, they say, well,
I liked it this time, but you know what, I
gotta fly someplace. I'm gonna have somebody else throw the
party from me while I'm gone, and or I don't
know if the creatives good. I'm the hired of an agency,
and that translation gets diluted and the customer sees right
through it. So I mean you're a perfect example of
(22:27):
the power broke, which is of course you saw it
with you know nothing. You had to gain your respect
from a community. Then the business you had to do
what we call proof of concept. You had to sell
one record and then sell another one and sell another
one and fix each one, and then you basically got
this level of confidence in you to then start throwing
(22:48):
parties and then seeing where else you can contribute. And
you know, everybody always says, you know, every overnight success
has taken fifteen years. And you know when people look
at you now, I want them to know that you
put in your work and that you exercise the power broke.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So you know, it's it's like you said this too.
You have to eat ship. You have to eat it.
But like the most important thing is getting up and
brushing the dirt off and figuring out how to get
back on the market.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
And then and then.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
You're gonna eat it again. And then you just gotta
get it back up and learn from that, because then
you'll learn from that. Then you're just gonna I mean,
you know, you're gonna always fumble. Yeah, it's just human
errors happened.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, I mean I think you said something that I
think that.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
All entrepreneurs and uh you know people go through. I
think that you you hit something that's so real it
was cool. You basically said it was a beautiful mess.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah. How do you how do you describe a beautiful mess?
You know, it's wasn't beautiful at the time?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, no, no, no, because it's it's uh, well see
that there's something it's there's something about it where yeah,
I'm sorry. It it's absolutely beautiful because you're driven by
passion and you don't care how much money that you've
that you've sunk into it or that you're investing into
(24:11):
it because you love it so much and you'll do
absolutely anything to make it succeed. Yeah, and and there's
so many times, oh my god, sobody tells when everyone
around me is like, stop doing that, what are you doing?
You just mas up with the mill the card. And
I didn't have business managers, I didn't have lawyers. I
(24:31):
was like, I didn't have anything. I have a manager.
It was just me.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
And it's those small milestone So you just maxed that
in the part.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yes, but it's those small milestone that do we have
as those beautiful message right right?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Two hundred dollars and then you do it three times
and those six hundred dollars right. Yeah. Yeah, it's a mess.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It's a mess, and it's chaotic, and you don't know,
you really, you really truly don't know if you're gonna
get you do make it out alive, you know what
you mean? She's driving you're like, I can't let this go,
and you know, like I guess there is there is
that moment where okay, all right, right, you need let
go back. You know there is that vote like you
(25:13):
can't say that to everyone.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, but well, you know what, I think, there's somewhat
other ways to describe it. It's almost like being in
love with somebody and it's just a mad love, like
it's it's ups and downs.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Or even have having children.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You know, you come home, the houses is a mess,
but it's so beautiful and you know, you know what
I mean, the special rewards. So I like that saying
a beautiful mess. And now now I want to close
it out with when you say a beautiful message. It
immediately makes me think of when I when I roll
with you concerts, the pretty girl in front who has
a sign saying cake me and you you hit her
(25:47):
with a three pound cake that she's wearing the rest
of the night. That's a beautiful message the star. Where
did the cake concept come up?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
But I know, oh oh absolutely, Okay, Uh, the most
important thing beyond the k concept is is uh just
the level of entertainment that I Because I was DJing
for a while you know, and I remember I played Coachella.
This is the second time I played Coachello two thousand
and nine, and that's the first time that I thought
(26:17):
of bringing entertainment to my show. And I brought out
these rafts and I had like I was jumping in
them and people were jumping in them. And I remember, like,
you know, the next issue of Rolling Stone magazine, it
shows up like this coachelle is spread and it was
a small DJ, right, So I'm like, there's no way
I'm going to being roy Stone. But all of a sudden,
there's Paul McCartney, there's like, you know, some other big star.
(26:40):
Then there's me in a raft. I'm like, I made
the Rolling Stone spread, Like wow, small DJ hiking the
spread and and I was like, you know, people love
like seeing this. It's a spectacle and it it brings
this level of energy and entertainment to the show. So
I started doing raft every show and I did that
(27:02):
for years, and in twenty eleven, I was like, I
need to bring a new element to the show. And
I saw this music video of these cakes exploding in
people's spaces and super solw motion cinematic amazingness because it's
just like you know when people bowing up the candles out.
I'm like, I am going to cake someone at a
(27:23):
show while playing that music video, Like that song in
a music video, it'll be a great like tie it
all right. The thing is that no one really got
that like they they like when I played the song,
I was promoting one of my artists, and.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I'm thinking, who was the first person to see you
up there with a cake and go right hit me
with it?
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well, the good thing is is that I wanted to
make it viral, so I remember, I think this might
not be the first time, but there is, like there
is a video back in twenty eleven, I think it
was May, and I like showed the video to my
videographer and I walked around and people at this time
(28:02):
in twenty eleven, they did not know what I was
doing with the cake. But you walk around enough and
you show people the cake, there's gonna be one crazy
wants it. And there he was right there, and no,
it was like, all right, let's make this special. So
I got my video guys there and I was just like,
and everyone's just like watching what's going to happen? Everyone
(28:26):
stops to stop conversation to see like this, like what's
going to happen?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Right?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
So I cake him. He's going wild and then that's
like the ultimate. The ultimate is like you want to
see what he looks like afterwards?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Yeah, exactly asks what you want to see?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Like the act is cool, but it's like the aftermath
is what's the best part. So and then we posted
that video up.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
What viral and then it just started, you know, becoming
you know, por the show man. You know what in
the show you excide the power broke all the time. Listen,
either I have to spend ninety thousand dollars to get
a page in Rolling Stone, or I have to sell
five million records and you know as you did you
bought a rafts right? Uh? Why? And Wayne not as
(29:11):
many people knew you now they feel like you are
broke and the KPE people, I love it all right, man.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Good, thanks very far.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black
Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't forget
to subscribe to and rate the show and of course
you didn't all connect with me on any of my
(29:41):
social media platforms. At the Shark, Damon spelled like Raymond,
But what a d
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.