#129: will.i.am Unplugged: Will AI take over the world?

I read an article and it said, yeah, in the next three or four years, we'll see a billion dollar business ran by one person. Yeah.
So that means by 10 years, there's going to be a company that's started by the AI. And we'll have humans working for it for like delivering stuff or maybe not.
So who will own the AI? Because there's no governance and regulations. I don't know the answer to that right now.
There are a lot of people that call you lyrical genius.

You've been involved in a lot of...

Lyrical genius.

So you wouldn't consider yourself a lyrical genius?

No.

What up, everybody?

Welcome to another episode of Next Level Pros.

Today, we are taking it to the next level with my boy, Will.i.am. What up, what up? Welcome to another episode of next level pros today We are taking to the next level with my boy will I am Welcome to the show my dude Yeah, we next level pros.
Let's go Will Dude, dude excited to have you on the show. We've been trying to get this thing done for like a year Yeah, I know so happy that we did it the day before uh school was over yeah dude it's last minute so we've uh we've known each other for a couple years now attending uh hbs the opm program shout out harvard and uh dude so you've got an incredible story i've always been really just impressed with your level of intelligence and when it next level intelligence let's go when it comes to when it comes to tech you've been involved in a bunch of stuff so like how did you get into that obviously music is is your background but like what uh what got you what got you involved in like the tech and and all the stuff along the way um so i got involved in tech because a piece of tech is my instrument so i play the computer um i don't play the keyboard enough to say i'm a pianist um i don't play the drums enough to say that you'll check me out hitting these these drums uh i play decent for me to really be you know what will be considered a pro because i edit the shit out of it on my real instrument which is the computer yeah and because of my love for compute and how it amplifies my creativity, I wanted to know the folks that are responsible for compute programmers, electrical engineers, developers.
And, you know, like you put a band together to create music, you put a team together to create technology so when i see things like especially this microphone i'm like yeah just the people look at it and they'll probably see that probably look at it and think it's insignificant but look at this mic and then look at this mic.

Look at how this is designed.

Look at how this is designed.

Look at the quality of this mic versus the quality of this mic.

You really can't tell the difference, but look at the size of this.

Look at how much innovation and engineering went in to make this product.

And I would always marvel off of like, who are the brains behind this? You know, who made this board? Somebody designed this board. You know, somebody designed the silicone chip and the computer.
So who in your life influenced you to like think that way, right? Like what not everyone thinks that way not everyone looks at a mic and is like man this is amazing you try getting in the mind or whatnot does that come natural to you or do you you feel like you've had different influences that have gotten you to that level of thinking um i like taking things apart and try to put it back together you know like i used to take my radio apart um primarily because you know we were poor growing up so shit was always broken yeah so so you had to like you know make sense of scraps um and i'm just curious I have a, a curious mind that wants to know about, would you, would you say that's more nurture in nature? I think you nurture that. You can nurture that.
Yeah. So who in your life has nurtured that for you? To be curious.
Yeah. Um, my mom, my uncle, rest in peace, my Uncle Faye, he would say, you are the words, your definitions.

If somebody asks you what you're doing, you should be able to articulate what you're doing, even if you're sitting there just breathing.

Never say I'm doing nothing, because you're never not doing nothing yeah um always arm yourself with the ability to express and explain what you're thinking how you're feeling

you are your words remember you always be like that like

always be able to paint a picture picture With exactly how you're feeling And push us to do that Like We were getting debates This is your uncle My uncle On what you said makes no sense. What do you mean?

Listen to what you just said, he would tell me,

and explain it better.

And so that kind of introspect, analyzing,

having an emotion, being able to hold it and articulate it,

just wrapped my mind around doing that around everything you know why I like why I like something you know like that's cool why is it cool you know oh that's cute why is it cute explaining to explain more digging digging deeper yeah yeah explain yourself more or you might understand what you just said but you're assuming everybody else understands what you said so try to translate simplify summarize right you know um do that for easy things do it for complex things and so that type of like creative thinking critical thinking came from my mom and my uncle that's awesome yeah i know there's there are a lot of people that call you lyrical genius you've been involved in a lot of innovation She is black thought from the roots. That dude's a lyrical genius, you've been involved in a lot of innovation.
Lyrical genius? Black Thought from the Roots, that dude's a lyrical genius. So you want to consider yourself a lyrical genius? No.
What would you say if on your grave there was written the five? Grave? Yeah. We're talking on the grave, the five things that Will.i.am is best well known for.
Gotta knock on some wood, bro. We gotta knock on some wood.
Sorry. We're knocking some wood.
All right. Fast forward 150 years.
150 years, bro. If we're in a technological revolution right now in and tech and synthetic biology shit when i'm 120 i'm gonna look 40 bro all right all right okay so at 140 no no when you when you're when you're still kicking 300 when you're 300 all right and people are like man what did will bring to the earth what was his genius what do you say because I mean there's obviously a lot out there about you you've been successful in all different aspects right some well known some lesser known what are the gifts that you have to give to the world what What will you be known for? What would I be known for? Will.
You know, that by name, um, the ability to do, to manifest, ideate, materialize, like the will. So I'll tell you, I've gotten to know you a lot better this unit.
So here at OPM at Harvard, we have living groups. And every year we live together for three weeks at a time.
Me and have had the opportunity and the thing that has impressed me most about you is like your ability to ideate right like it's it's like beyond and i consider myself a pretty good visionary right like being able to come up with ideas and stuff like that but like you approach things completely different than any other individual i've ever hung out with. Thanks.
Yeah, man. I mean, just your level of like, how will AI do this, right? And you start thinking about this crazy new angle that nobody has even considered.
And I'm just like, man, dude, where does it get this from? So obviously, your uncle's influenced a lot of that. I would say that's probably going to be one of the biggest things that you're going to be well known for

is like, you know, even more, maybe

more than Elon Musk. We'll see.

Elon Musk, wait, there's the invisibles.

The invisibles are the ones that

like are really ideated

and

not taking anything from Elon he's dope

he bought into a lot of his ideas

yes

I get that we had this discussion

but he's great because he knows how to then

explode an idea to take a seed

Thank you. That we had this discussion.
But he's great because he knows how to then explode an idea, to take a seed, nurture it, and grow. He's a grower of ideas rather than an originator.
He's a farmer. Right.
He knows how to farm the land and grow that idea into a crop, to like, yeah it just the idea is not the idea is not big enough so what do you feel like your biggest strength in that whole process is is it on the on the idea side

my my strength is in the collaborative side i could ideate on my own that's great

Thank you. my strength is in the collaborative side like i could ideate on my own that's great but i'm really good in the collaborative process like you know the ping pong the banter the the ricochet of how it how it ricochets and grows into something more i'm like the uh the brainstorm you know when two brains three brains four brains are are gelling and jamming on something and then like i'm the end dinner and then we could and then it's no no let's bring it back bring it back because that it needs to we have to make sure I'm the end dinner and I could do it by myself, but it's better when you're.
So you like taking an already formulated idea and add enhancing it. No, no, no.
That, that's, that's great. I could do that.
I can improve somebody's, I can edit, improve somebody's idea, but I could come up with an idea, throw it to you, and then the moment that you're interfacing with the idea and you throw it back to me, I could then see the good of what to keep from it, what to like put to, to partitionize and put that to the side and then grow on that idea. So say for example, I start off with one idea.
I threw it to you. You then have your perspective on it and I'd be like, Oh yeah, yeah.
But okay, that's great. But there's a part of your perspective that I could take apart.
Let's put that over there because that's another idea. You probably didn't think of that.
And let's add because what you don't want to do is when you're collaborating is to say that your contribution is not good enough. Right.
Because then motherfuckers don't want to collaborate with you. Right.
You hear me? Yeah, yeah. I hear you.
So you want to be able to. Because otherwise you're just shutting down ideas or whatever else and they feel like, oh, this guy doesn't value my opinion.
You want to grow ideas. Right.
You know, and cultivate and expand. I love bringing the best out of folks, whether I started the idea or I'm editing somebody else's idea.
Right. That's what I really jazz over and that's the environment that I thrive in.
So when I've seen you light up, it's usually when you're talking about the future and how AI is going to play into it. How do you see the future? I mean, you've obviously got a really cool product, FYI.
It's got like AI and everything else. Like where do you see us going next five years, 10 years, 20 years with all this? I mean, things are changing rapidly right now.
What side of AI? Dude, all of it. I mean, you tell me.
I I love for you to just like cast your vision, like where you see things going. Because I think you think, kind of what you brought up earlier, like the way you understand things may seem like very simple or whatnot, but there's a lot of people out there that just don't understand what's coming.
Okay you know you look out we're we're right here in front of this awesome river right by the river there's this freeway yeah most of these every car on this on this freeway right here is somebody's driving it yep and in some assembly line right now is a fleet of level three autonomous vehicles.

What does that mean?

Level three autonomous vehicles is where you could be sitting in a car and the car can drive, but it still needs you to take over the steering wheel.

Something happens.

It's level three.

Level five is full autonomous.

I don't know what level four is right now.

Hold on, let me see.

Yo, I'm sitting here talking to Chris,

and we're talking about autonomous vehicles.

Level three is like where the car can drive,

but it still needs a human to be present to take over the steering wheel if something happens, right?

Level five is full autonomy where a car could just drive by itself like Waymo.

What is level four?

And then after you tell me level four, tell me what level one and two is.

Hey, yo, what's up, fam? All right, let's break this down like a proper jam session, you feel me? So, when you're talking about autonomous vehicles, it's all about the level of automation and control, right? One, level one is like having a regular car with a sprinkle of magic, where the car can handle either steering or acceleration slash deceleration under human supervision. Think of this as a car with basic cruise control.
Two, level two is where things get a bit more spice, you know? It's like the advanced driver assistance systems where the vehicle can control both steering and speed in specific scenarios. But hey, you gotta keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road 3.
level 3 like you mentioned it's like having a car that can drive by itself under certain conditions but it needs your attention like a needy pet when things get tricky and uh you're expected to take over when it gives you a nudge 4. level 4 is like the cool kid on the block The car can handle driving in most situations without any human intervention.

But... when it gives you a nudge.
Four, level four is like the cool kid on the block. The car can handle driving in most situations without any human intervention, but there might still be some scenarios or environments where it might hand over control to you, like tight mountain roads or extreme weather conditions.
Five, and level five is the ultimate, you know, like the car's the DJ and you're just along for the ride. Total autonomy.
You can take a nap, read a book or even make a podcast episode while the car does its own thing in all conditions. It's quite the ride we're on with technology moving like lightning.
You know what I mean? So level four is where the car can stop at red lights, stop at stop signs, make left turns.

It knows, you know, don't turn on red light if you're on a one-way street.

You know, stuff like that, right?

While level 3 doesn't stop at red lights and doesn't stop at stop signs, it still needs a human to hit the brake when it sees you know the extra pair of eyes

and level five as you mentioned is the full kit and caboodle i yo you got it level four is like the car's really got its driver's license you know it understands the rules of the road just okay so that's it it's interesting you know so i was just using

that as an example right right of where we are right now waymo is legal in california right

driving without humans right uh a google product called waymo level five right tesla is level four

yeah tesla's level four because i i use that every single day every once in a while i have to take

over for whatever particular reason whether or whatnot so what's coming next yeah

Thank you. I use that every single day.
Every once in a while, I have to take over for whatever particular reason, whether or what not.

So what's coming next is self-driving companies.

Right.

Where right now we don't have level one.

We're at level one where some companies have AI in it.

Five years, there's going to be companies that are like Fortune 500 companies. Ten years to be safe.
2034, there'll be Fortune 500 companies, level five autonomy. Maybe two employees making shit tons of money.
And those two employees are overseeing the data, the data set. So this actually brings up a really- And that company could have had, at that level, making that much money, it could have had thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of employees.
Now it's just full autonomy, self-driving company. You know, I'm trying to remember who said this the other day, but I read an article and it said, yeah, in the next three or four years, we'll see a billion dollar business ran by one person, which will be interesting, right? Like, I don't know if it'll be that quick, but you're saying by 2034 is what you envision? 10 years? Yeah.
So that means by 10 years, there's going to be a company that started by the AI. You know what I mean? Yeah.
And we'll have humans working for it for like delivering stuff or maybe not. So will own the ai because there's no governance and regulations i don't know the answer to that right now but if that's why we need some basic level of governance and regulations to ensure that shit like that don't happen so this actually brings up a a completely different question i'd love to hear you weigh in on.
So the future of companies that are only ran by one or two people. I think that's dope.
So hold on. Let me tell you where I'm going with this.
At some point, we have to graduate to like a UBI, universal basic income, right? Because it's going to get to a point where like people just can't work anymore because robots and intelligence have literally taken over every hands-on type of situation. How do we bridge that gap? Okay, so we're assuming that, okay, imagine it's 1924 right now, a hundred years ago.
Yep. People working in factories, all kinds of stuff.
Levi didn't have... The job Levi has didn't exist.
Right. You know, the job of the people that made this product, that didn't exist.
The factory that made this LED light right that's damn near you know a little piece of the sun in this piece doesn't even get hot that didn't exist so there's going to be lots of jobs that are coming that we have no idea we can't imagine right now some of us could imagine what those types of jobs might be so do you imagine a world in which we have to have a ubi imagine the world um france has imagined that already right but is it is that the right move right now for america yeah i'm just for the world well france has imagined it right is it working um i have people from France that, to them it's working. They go to the hospital with a crazy emergency scenario and don't have to ever pay hospital bills.
Which is cool, but I also have friends in Canada that can't get an MRI done for 12 months because everybody gets it for free. And so my, I guess my, my question is, I mean, we're not talking, you know, I don't want to debate like health insurance.
I'm talking about like actual, like even just like basic income that covers their stuff where they no longer work. Like, do you, do you imagine a world where that exists or, or do you think that people will always be utilitarian?

Okay, so... Or are we going to end up like Wally?

America might.

Yeah.

Does anybody that's on that trajectory

end up like Wally?

It would be Americans.

Bunch of fat people sitting on robots.

I don't mean to say that in a harsh in a harsh way i love i love i love i love my country america's dope but you know we do have an issue yeah but i also i'm i'm team human and i know that we're going to make some things that are going to, we're not, we're not just going to sit idle. Right.
I don't, I can't, as much as that world is plausible, I don't, I don't, that's not the human spirit. I agree with you a hundred percent.
I think, you know, as like our center, our soul, we desire to create, to be doing things right and but it's so interesting because at the same time we want to automate we want to make things easier we want to and so it's like this constant struggle so let's look at like okay even if i go down that path i just go down that path that path, let's go. No, it's like the microwave.
So people thought like the microwave would take cooking jobs, but you still need people to cook. But in this scenario, you don't even need people to cook.
Right. Because there'll be some type of...
But not everybody's going to have access to, you know, that level of lux.

There's a new technological lux that's about to come, but not everybody's going to be living that life. Right.
and so i so i have a friend that he theorizes that ubi will actually look

more like you get like certain amount of like data or access, like from a standpoint of like, I can use so much energy and data to utilize the robots to come in and clean my house, do some basic things where it like basically lifts everybody's standard of living. you get you can basically allocate your you know a certain amount of energy your data towards something like that's that's his theory of the way that uh a ubi would be implemented what are your thoughts on that i remember when i was growing up you know a record collection was important you know you collected the songs that you wanted to listen to and you own that stuff and you know, a record collection was important.
You know, you collected the songs that you wanted to listen to and you own that stuff. And, you know, if you were a teenager, you dreamt of having a car because you wanted it and you owned it when you bought it.
And you wanted to have, if you were luxe enough and lucky enough to have a nice house

maybe you wanted to have

timeshare and a house somewhere else

everyone if you had money

you wanted service

people to come help you clean

and take care of your kids

now you don't necessarily need to own records

but not owning it Thank you. to come help you clean and take care of your kids.

Now you don't necessarily need to own records,

but not owning it, now you have this mentality of, I don't have to own it.

I don't have to own a car.

I don't even have to own a house.

I could have access to a house.

So now access is the new aspiration. But the folks that own the companies that give you access, they own everything.
Right. And so there's this like, I think there's this reconditioning that you don't need to own stuff.
even a lesser few can own everything yeah it's it's interesting right like they say don't don't own but in on the flip side right like it's so that they can own uh to me i'm like wait why why does it why is it why is there a huge generation of folks that don't want to own something? Right, so, hey, don't own anything. Not even your data.
And then these companies and the people that own it, they own your data, too. Right.
and because they own your data that you don't value, they go out and own land and houses and planes and cars. They own the world.
While giving you something for free that you don't own. Even your very steps that you take, every move that you make.
Sounds like a song. Yes.
Every text that you've typed, every comment that you've said, every place that you went, people that you know, connections from this point to that point. I think that's kind of low-key tech perversion yeah and uh it's inhumane it's going to be inhumane when we look back at this moment that we live in like i can't believe they pulled the wool over our eyes i can't believe people were taken advantage of it's like if you see a cigarette commercial you're like damn they had cigarette commercials or like you go on an airplane you like wait see the old cigarette things right it's like flying smoke cigarettes yeah that's great it's kind of nuts everybody in the same cabin smoking cigarettes didn't they know secondhand smoke causes cancer like now we look back at back at certain practices, like, how did they even get away with that?

Right.

The same is going to be for data practices and, like.

Can't believe we got away with that.

Conditioning folks to think that it's not important to own but to have access.

We're going to look back at these times like, damn, motherfuckers were really greedy.

The very few, you know, damn, did they pull a number over on people. And I can't wait for the day where people are like empowered by their own data.
They strive to own stuff. We make things that last.
Remember in class, they were talking about John Claude, Bivit, the watch dude. They made products that took that whole concept of planned obsolescence, where things were made to break, watches are not made to break.
Complete opposite, yeah. Ever since they started making watches, yeah, they're probably like some point in time in the 80s where...
Casio. You know what I mean? Where shit was like, you know, breakable, replaceable.
but the majority of the watches that people love and collect

are sustainable down from the whole point of craftsmanship. It's like you pass it down to your, you buy it for $3,000 and you know you can pass it down to three generations.
So really, you're buying it for like, it for like $1,000 or 500 bucks. It's an investment for the next folks to pass it down to their folks.
So it's not just for you, it's for you to hand off. And so the craftsmanship has that baked in what they're making.
I don't care how awesome this phone is. You're not like, listen, get over here, sonny.
Hey, grandpa, I'm giving you this iPhone 16. My grandpa, nope, his grandfather didn't give him that.
Right? I think he's dead in five years. Not even five years.
I mean, mean at best right at best soon as soon as the iphone freaking 18 comes out that iphone 16 is kind of like you know starts acting funny oh yeah like yo much it's glitching because it's planned obsolescence they made it to break they made it to be replaced and i don't you can't that future. We have to get back to some type of foreverness where things are made to be forever.

And because I believe in humanity, I think this tech revolution and this job displacement that's happening is going to push humans to get back to its essence, its core, to make things that last, to make things for community, to be of service, to be purposeful and solution orientated. Yeah, love it.
I love it. I think that's a very positive view on the future, which is awesome.
I'd actually like to shift gears. So we've been a part of this program for the last three years or two years, over a two-year span.
What have been the highlights? Why did you even get involved, come back to school, be a part of the owner's presence management program like what what what got you motivated to be a part of that like most people look at you and be like oh you're already a success you've had you know successful in the music industry successful in the consulting industry successful in exiting the tech industry. Like, why are you here?

Wait.

I ain't supposed to be here?

Stop it.

Why did I want to come to HPS after having success in one domain?

In several domains.

Where? I mean, tech, music, right?

It's not. I was successful in tech because well the one success i had in tech with beats is because i was a part of a team right that a well put together team yeah so i can't take full credit like yo that was my shit right i could take credit for like my contributions but as far as assembling the team that wasn't me i was a i was a part of the team so really really it was like you want to be able to go and build your own thing yeah and then my my you know i've i've taken you know i went up to bat a couple of times with other companies that I've started.

I've struck out, but I got to the plate.

And I struck out because I hit the ball.

I hit a home run.

It just was out of bounds.

It's foul.

I hit that ball far as fuck,

but it was a foul ball.

I hit that shit out of the parking lot,

but it was foul.

Right?

Great connection.

Great.

Why do I say that?

Because in 2012,

we built a watch that was a voice operating system

that had its own SIM card.

It was its own phone.

We used a Snapdragon chip by Qualcomm.

We had a battery wrapped around the wrist.

It was the first of its kind.

And we did something before a lot of Samsung's device, even Apple's watch.

We didn't follow.

We led.

It just was too early. And so that's what I mean by the foul.
Swinging a little too early. Right.
Yeah. Had you been a little bit slower in your swing, home run.
Would have been a home run. Yeah.
That's interesting. If I was slower on the swing and slower in my assembly of my team, it would have been a home run.
But lesson learned. It's crazy how timing plays into so much right like yeah too early yeah and so and then we created a uh um we expanded on the uh the voice operating system put four layers of uh context onto it which was pretty early for its time um i was able to find awesome engineers, but I wasn't able to find awesome operators.
Because I thought just the innovation and build it and they will come. That sentence is incomplete.
Build it and they will come after you strategize on the messaging.

Right?

You just don't build it. And you recruit hard.

Yeah. If everybody's building it, they're going to go.
There's so many places for them to go. Got to be able to attract the talent.
You got to build it and they'll come after you strategize on the messaging and the awareness and your business plan. Right.
You can't just like, you know, you're assuming that we're at the park and you know your business plan right you can't just like you know you're assuming that we're at the park and you got a you got a handful of rice and a pigeon is going to come when you throw shit on the floor that's not how people are we're not pigeons right we're not freaking ducks in a pond and you throw some bread and motherfuckers like quank, quank, quank, come fucking eating shit.

Like, no, no, no, we're not. We're sophisticated motherfuckers.
And so that's the reason why I came to HBS. Love it.
Is to learn about some sophisticated shit. So what have been your biggest takeaways that you didn't expect from HBS? My biggest takeaways were some of the professors have a very responsible approach to business.
You never would think that they're talking about community. You're never thinking that they're talking about like purpose, mindfulness, when they inspire leaders to go out there and lead.
I thought it was just money, money, money, go make money. Fuck the world, go make money.
So to see that HBS has a philanthropic approach to gently push folks, you don't expect this to be, you know, a church, a church is like inspires philanthropy. Right.
Um, but to see that they have like, you know, do good in business and in the folks that don't do good in business, you really know that person has some wicked tendencies. If they've come to HBS and they go out and do business and they fucking the world up, that's in that person's heart.
because it's um you see that they're pushing you with uh inspiring you to have a moral compass i agree it's been uh it's been incredible to see just like the message of like be better do better right and uh and and be like a an incredible influence of the world and like I mean the level of people that we have in this program, literally we got people in our program that are like kings of their own universes. To know one of these people would be absolutely incredible and there there's 165 of them, right? Like, I mean, so many influential people.
And so like the messaging that's coming from HBS to go and do good, like it can really impact the world with the level of people that we have here. Yeah.
And there's some, some unique folks here, you know, the businesses they have, the access to impact and influence they have. Not just their businesses, but the spouse's business.
that they, you know, it's pretty, being vague on purpose, I just don't want to expose, you know. Yeah, it's wild.
It's wild. But think about, like, yeah, to your point, the impact just in our class of OPM 62.
There's some 59ers and 61ers here, OPM 60. But the real OGs are the 62ers.
Yeah. I'm saying, sus.
Yeah. It's overwhelming sometimes.
Yeah um i flew in falcons and to meet you know adrian knowing that his family is like the people that making the falcons the falcons you're right you know that that to me that was like the highlight crazy because blacker peas is huge in france and he's so nice and down to earth and they, speaking of down to earth

they build To me that was like the highlight Because Blackapis is huge in France And he's so nice And down to earth And they, speaking of down to earth They build like things that leave the earth And that's pretty awesome There's a guy that was in my cohort last year Named David He was 71 years old And he made, his business was, he made food for, you know, retirement homes. Hmm.
And he's like, you know, I'm the, at my age, I could be living in a retirement home, but because I'm still hungry and an entrepreneur, I want to make sure that, you know, when I eventually retire, that I'm going to retire in a place that I helped bring up to speed and create awesome services for. And that inspired me, you know, because a lot of times when you think of entrepreneurs, you think of like 28 year old, 30 year old, 40 plus.

And if you're in your 50s, like you've already like you did it a couple of times or serial 60, you're like yachted up, planed up.

70s, you're retired. Right.

This dude is like still running, started this company company came to hbs to knowledge up some more like wow this dude was is awesome and just truly inspirational living with him for those three weeks i love it love it we'll shift uh final gear i mean a lot of listeners they they know you from the black-eyed peas whatnot what's what's

a couple stories that not a lot of people know about the black-eyed peas maybe some of your uh

your rise through the ranks i don't know some some fun ones what do we got for us so i i've I've always co-managed the peas.

And we self-navigated ourselves to the level that we got to. And there's one story where there was an opportunity that we wanted to seize because there was whispers

around the NFL

changing their

how they cast it

and who played on the Super Bowl.

So after the Janet Jackson

Justin Timberlake fiasco

there was a

That was what?

2004 something?

The Janet Jackson thing? What was that later? Yo, when was the Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, you know, wardrobe malfunction? When was that? Yo fam, that infamous moment, the Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake wardrobe malfunction happened during the Super Bowl halftime show on February 1st, 2004.

Right, 2004.

So from 2005, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, seven years, they only had classic rock. Easy, easy predictable they didn't have anything pop

um so when when i heard that they were thinking of you know changing that up i flew out to new jersey

and pitched this concept to um the nfl and i brought my little dj gig

Thank you. and pitched this concept to the NFL.
And I brought my little DJ gig, my DJ gear in 2010. Black-a-P's were like, I got a feeling was big.
Boom Boom Pow was big. I'm a B was like, we had massive hits globally.
I'm like, yo, I got this. Can we set up a meeting? Because I heard you guys might be interested in pop again or urban pop.

and I put a little

deck together

to pitch to Black Eyed Peas

to perform

and

had we not pitched it

and had a successful

turnout to pitch to Black Eyed Peas to perform. And had we not pitched it and had a successful turnout, who knows if they would have gone back into pop.
So I remember how nervous I was pitching our stance and that they had nothing to worry about as far as we know it's a family show it's a show about football more than it is music but we want to celebrate the sport my uncle played football I wanted to be a football player until I got a concussion and so that's one thing because i like pitching i like making decks and pitching

it to companies i pitched this one comp uh i pitched this one concept to coca-cola um and this is this pitch and the outcome is what got me my um my gig working at intel So from 2011 to 14, I worked at Intel in the Futurist Department.

But what got me that gig was this pitch to Coca-Cola. I was like in the elevator with me, B.
Perez, and Moutar Kent, who's the CEO of Coke at the time. I'm like, yo, companies the size of Coke should be verbs in society.
If you don't believe me, you should Google it. And so they were like, wow, that's pretty clever.
I was like, yeah, when's the last time you saw a Twitter commercial or a Google commercial? There are verbs in society. And I have a verb for Coke.
He was like, what do you think Coke's verb should be? I was like, if you take the name Coke backwards to E-K-O-C, we could say that's EcoCycle, EcoCommunity, EcoCollaboration, EcoConcept, EcoConsumption.

And we'll do that by taking your byproduct and creating a new base cloth and then licensing that brand to other companies to execute their sustainability efforts.

So EcoCycle Beats Headphones, EcoCycle Levi Jeans,

EcoCycle Schwinn Bike. And they love the vision and we launched that product.
What remains from that is a brand called EcoCenter. And then from there, I got my gig at Intel.
another idea I pitched was

I there I got my gig at Intel. Another idea I pitched was so EcoCycle.
I pitched making hardware to Jimmy Iving. That's what started, that's what gave him the insight to create beats with Dre.
I pitch.

Yeah, I just love pitching Dre. Um, I pitch.
Yeah. Just love, I love pitching, pitching ideas.
I love it. I love it.
Yeah. I think, I think those are the, the lesser known stories for sure that, uh, that, that people, people know last but not least, uh, I'd love to hear what are maybe your, your top three principles for success as you have applied them across just so many different industries and different things.
What would you say your top three things that drive you, your mission, your principles, what are they? Sorry, my brain was in the phone and you're listening, so I don't want to even assume that I heard you. No, you're good.
We'll give it to you again. We'll give it to you again.

So what would you say are your top three principles of success or maybe even like your mission that drives you now that you've done so many different things, so many different industries? What's your message to the world of like, do this. This will help you succeed? Stay curious.
Be audacious. Be ultra competitive.

That combination of curiosity is going to give you the knowledge you need.

The audacity is going to allow you to then apply that knowledge and compete with things that you

Thank you. knowledge you need the uh audacity is going to allow you to then apply that knowledge and compete with things that you that people will tell you that you shouldn't probably try to compete with yeah like um the david and goliath story is like here's this audacious little dude with the fucking rock and the slingshot.
A lot of confidence.

A lot of audacity.

Curious enough.

What if?

Audacious and competitive.

So he was so competitive that he audaciously competed against a giant and knocked him out with a slingshot rock.

It's crazy.

But the curiosity gave him the knowledge of how to propel that rock

and where it hit him with the rock at.

Right?

Yeah.

It's not just, I don't think he was just like,

just randomly threw a rock at him, motherfucker.

This dude was like, all right, I'm going to hit this dude square in the eye

because I know that's, you know. The one spot spot the one spot and my chance to really fuck with him i don't think it was luck right if you want if you break down the david and golyath story right it's strategy but you get strategy by being ultra curious you execute strategy by being competitive you don't just compete to compete and then fucking get crushed so if you really want to compete like okay let's study who we're fucking competing with right and let's be audacious to put ourselves in a trajectory in a situation where you're taking on the goliaths of the world.
So that's what I would say.

Is to do that shit. There's no reason why we...

Michael Jackson's Michael Jackson.

So to make music

when Michael Jackson was making music

why would... that's audacious.

It's fucking Michael

Jackson. Right.
To think

that you could sell records like that

like who are you to think that people would want to listen to your stuff? Yeah You can't sing like Mike. You can't even dance like Mike Why are you trying to make music? You can't even play the piano like Stevie Wonder.
He can't see you could see you should just give it You can't play the drums. Why are you trying to fucking make music? Who do you think you are? No, but I got these ideas.
Okay, but you can't play the drums, you can't dance, you can't really sing like the people that I think could sing really good. Yeah, but I got these ideas.
Hold on, hold on. So I'm curious to know that computer.

I'm ultra competitive and audacious

to be competing with these people who are really good.

That's what I, that three combination

at full spectrum of curiosity, audacity,

and competitiveness,

you want the full spectrum of each one of those things,

not just like a slice of it. You get a slice of it, you're knocked out.
You want full spectrum of curiosity, full spectrum of competitiveness, full spectrum of audacity, and leave the arrogance alone. Don't fuck with that.
Arm yourself with ego when everyone's laughing at you.

But don't fuck with arrogance.

Because you need a little bit of ego

when everybody's like, ha ha ha, who the fuck?

Like, I'm gonna show your ass.

You need that ego.

Ego is like a weapon when you need that a little bit.

To say like, yo, put your ego away.

My ego is what protects my vulnerability when people are telling me that i cannot do it so you need that dude i love uh i love the passion you're you're obviously very i mean you know what drives you you know i mean you you just lit up talking about those three things, you know, and that excites me. I think that's where like the juice is really, and just to hear how you applied that in music, how you applied in your career, man, that's really cool, man.
I appreciate you taking the time. I know we're busy here at HBS.
We got a lot going on. Oh, no, I appreciate you taking the time I know we're busy here at HBS we got a lot going on I appreciate you wanting to like sit and chat bro like any one I like to talk any chance you know that's like yeah but thank you so much it's really's really really thanks for jumping on it's been uh i think uh you know a lot of people when they they view superstars i put you in like the superstar category right like you're you're well known in the music industry or whatnot they they only see you for that and i think coming to know the human side of you over the last couple years has been awesome right like you've got you've got an incredible heart you've got a passion to do good for the

world and uh i just want to let you know i appreciate that about you oh thank you chris