America Behind the Color Line (10 page)

Our kids have a new entrepreneurial spirit. They’re doing it. It’s happening right now. That’s all they’re talking about. Getting money. Owning companies. They’re not talking about how brilliant they rap; they’re talking about how much money they’re making and how they’re making it. Legal money. You hear the Jay-Z song. He said, “Who would have thought I’d own a clothing company, who the fuck would have thought,” he said. I’m doing my thing in every area. It’s a business thing.

We’re creating a culture that promotes entrepreneurship, and that’s a very dramatic change that hip-hop has given America. Hip-hop culture is the driving force in mainstream American culture. Not only mainstream American culture, but in luxury brands. There was a Bentley that came out, a big silly Bentley. I say silly, but really whatever you want is fine. My wife had it; Jay-Z had it; Puffy had it. I remember when the Franck Mueller diamond platinum watch came out, ’cause I ended up buying one for my wife, a very expensive new watch. The next thing I see, Puffy had one and Jay-Z had one. My brother the reverend, he’s never outdone by nothing glamorous. Even though he’s a reverend and God-fearing, God’s given it all to him as well. The reverend says you can’t help the poor if you’re one of them. He had a watch. That’s where I first saw the Franck Mueller diamond platinum watch. I first saw it on my brother, even though all my partners, from different facets of the Jewish community and lawyers who are in a group—the Syrian Jews, over on Ocean Parkway—are very in touch with what’s hot with a watch. The company always advertises in
Lifestyles
magazine ’cause it’s such a great group for choosing the next hot watch. My brother and I argue whether his wife or my wife had that watch first. My wife saw more white watches than his wife, that’s for sure, and she had it first, and that’s the argument and I’ve won and I’m right. Don’t care what he says.

I recognize all of the very serious civil rights issues that still exist. And I work on them. But I get criticized all the time, for example for supporting Andy Cuomo in the New York governor’s race. There’s a whole chorus of civil rights leaders who are criticizing me. One friend told me I was a traitor to the race for not supporting Carl McCall. Carl is a very nice guy. He has a lot of integrity.

People are always beating up on me about the Minister Farrakhan business. I stood next to him ’cause the rest of the politicians won’t go anywhere near him. But I watch his speeches and he sounds like a yogi to me. When he’s talking about how he wants to be a great Jew and a great Christian, he reminds me of what I love hearing. I repeat it all the time. Muhammad wasn’t a Muslim or a Christian. Christ wasn’t a Christian. Abraham wasn’t a Jew, and Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist. For me, that stuff really resonates. I don’t like organized religion so much. But I like Farrakhan. I like 99 percent of what he says. I don’t agree with 99 percent of almost anything that anybody says, but most everything out of his mouth seems heartfelt to me. A lot of times it’s true and people are uncomfortable with it.

But I’m trying not to deal with the anger. I read yoga scriptures every morning. I try to connect with my highest self, with the best I can be. But I still live at the same time. I still have this whole justice thing. On the Phat classic sneakers, the flag is upside down in the Phat Farm flag, the Phat Farmer image. The flag is not upside down because we don’t love America. It’s because we do love America. It’s because we can make a greater America. For ten years, that flag has been that way.

I’m very active in the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, with Rabbi Marc Schneier. It does outreach, but what it really does is fight anti-Semitism and antiblack racism and other forms of bigotry. So why are you on the board? people ask me. Why are you a senior member on the board, and why did you raise all that money to fund them this year? Because it’s a great out-reach and it’s important for them to have that outreach and it’s important for the black community and the Jewish community to be in sync.

Harlem was abandoned, and Jewish people invested in it. Why is anyone upset with that? Nobody else wanted it, obviously. People have to realize that when they talk about relationships with blacks and Jews. Don’t be mad at them because they’re there. They’re there because other people aren’t. They’ve been there for the Civil Rights Movement, and we’ve been there a lot for their causes and issues. Martin Luther King was certainly a big supporter of the Jewish initiative to protect themselves and to have a homeland. And Jews were big supporters of Martin Luther King. So we’ve been big supporters and they’ve been big supporters. We need that collaboration. We have a lot of the same issues today still.

So I’m not black when I’m flirting with Rabbi Schneier ’cause, you know, why are you doing it? ’Cause it’s common sense. I love people. I try to live with a respect for what’s in my heart as opposed to which way the climate blows. That’s my answer as to whether I’m still black or just famous. I do what I think makes sense, and I do think I’m black. I know that the choices I make benefit my community when I talk about the poor people’s revolution or ideals. I always talk about poor people and the reasons I make these choices. I believe the way our society is judged is based on how we treat those people in our community, and their suffering. So when I chose to support Andy Cuomo, which I’ve been badgered a lot about, I said, why are you telling me I shouldn’t do it? No one can tell me. People who are much more sophisticated, I go to them first. I went to Hugh Price, president of the National Urban League. I went to some of the leaders who are not so political, and I went to Farrakhan even. I said, here’s what I’m going to do, ’cause from what I can tell this makes sense. No one said a word. There are issues I take on and people don’t understand, but I try to take on ones that suit my heart.

The reparations movement, which I’m so fond of and I’m pushing heavy on, no one knows the kind of effect we’re going to have across this country on the level of dialogue about reparations. No one has any idea. I can see it very clearly. That whole rap, forty acres and a Bentley, that whole thing’s going to happen. That whole rap is going to really resonate nicely. I don’t know what I’m doing right; I don’t know where it’s going to go. The idea of reparations has been criticized as a way for black intellectuals to take advantage of white corporations. That’s a stupid concept. Why are they white corporations? They’re American and they’re public. I’m assuming that blacks own some percentage of them. Reparations has also been criticized as a polarizing idea. Well, shit, man, Martin Luther King was a polarizing idea too, wasn’t he?

The thing about reparations is they try to make it racial, but it’s not a racial issue at all in my opinion; it’s an American justice issue. There’s not a soul alive in America who’s responsible for reparations for the slave trade. There’s not a soul alive who personally made any money off the slave trade. The fact remains that you invest your money in corporations because they have longer lives than people. That’s the reason you do it. That being the case, the karma and business responsibility of whatever it is that you did during your life lasts as long as the company is alive. Let reparations come in the form of education or affirmative action, let them come in the form of health care, let them come in the form of leveling the playing field. We are going to start a campaign that’s going to rattle America.

The type of remedy depends on whether a corporation or the government is involved. If a corporation says, we want to fund literacy programs all over the country and that endears them to the community and they somehow make more money because of it, then it was smart for them and for the community, and God bless us all. I’m hopeful that what I’m doing will inspire other people to do the same. I believe the more you give, the more you get. That’s my spiritual thing. It works out that way in this case. It works out that way in almost every case. A lot of social and political causes that affect our community are the driving force behind my businesses.

I think keeping our community together is about communication. There are successful people who disappear from the community and people who are apathetic and separate from the community, and who don’t realize that they have separation from the people, a separation from God. I think it’s about spirit first, though I hate to say it, because people say, oh, man, you mean that? Spirit first. We are all connected. We breathe; we compromise someone’s air space. And everything we do is political. Something was told to me and I never got it out of my head, ’cause it’s very true: everything we do is political and has social implications. So long as we realize that, we’ll start to support each other in our efforts to become better and happier.

People like Richard Parsons at AOL Time Warner are great. They show people we can make it and all that, and that’s good. But there’s an issue of language. How important is it that those people speak the language of the ’hood? They couldn’t have forgotten their language. Or maybe they did. Maybe they’re different. They do not speak their language. All these cultural levels we communicate naturally on, and we have to communicate more on those levels so that people can really feel connected to those who succeed. There’s a disconnect between the successful, educated, and sophisticated, on the one hand, and the unsophisticated—in some ways unsophisticated, but in other ways much more sophisticated than others. There’s a disconnect between the undereducated and the educated, and that disconnect has everything to do with how people aspire to success in America, with how they define success.

You learn a language when you’re young and you learn language when you get older; but you don’t forget the language you learned when you were young. It’s a very cool language, very expressive. It’s beautiful. But how the fuck we forget it when we get a nickel. Of course, when in Rome, you do the fuck what the Romans do. It’s the marketplace. But you learn that when you go to school and they teach you the King’s English. Then you go back to the ’hood, where you can be comfortable—where you can speak a dialect of this language too. You’ve got to communicate with people, encourage them, and be honest. I’m not knocking Richard Parsons, besides him being a Republican, which is none of my business and which is okay by me too. We need all kinds to reform this world. You need people on all sides. Parsons and Ken Chenault and people like them are huge role models. They work inside institutions; they haven’t built institutions. They have jobs, and they’re great. But Puffy’s a much greater hero, a much greater inspiration. He’s self-made. The same sophistication and education that guys like Parsons and Chenault have can come from some of our kids who will have enough experience to take on businesses that have smaller margins.

It’s great to be able to speak the King’s English, and it’s good to be able to work in a corporate structure. Having relationships or having the ability to communicate in a certain way is important. You learn that when you go to school anyway, you hope. You speak a couple of languages. You speak street, but you also had to pass English tests. So you move around. You’ve got to be able to speak to who you’re speaking to. But being an entrepreneur is outside the building in the beginning.

I don’t think that young kids feel so much like they’re selling out in learning to speak the King’s English. I read something that Puffy said which I thought was brilliant. He said, what about his street credibility? He says street credibility is about hustling, not about being a gangsta rapper. He said he can’t really live up to that image and he’s not trying to. He’s trying to get some money. He said it more simply and much smarter than that, about how they respect you if you’re doing your thing and if you’re building your life and you’re building your career.

I believe that it depends on how you bring it back. A lot of people are so offended by you bettering yourself. I spoke at a seminar in front of three thousand people, with Irv Gotti and Kevin Liles, about entrepreneurship. I see the way young people are so excited about being entrepreneurs, and I believe that’s the climate that will make a difference economically in our community. And the education part of it, they all recognize it’s necessary. Some don’t have an education and want economic success right now. But a lot of them will get an education, and the group that’s coming along now will be more sophisticated.

At Harvard and Howard, rap is what black kids are talking about. They’ll all come out of school and they can read and write. But if not for Cash Money Crew and Master P and the rest of those street kids setting an example, the cultural phenomenon of hip-hop wouldn’t have been able to continue to evolve. All my Syrian partners, a lot of their kids don’t go to college, because by the time you come out of school, you could’ve made millions. Look at so-and-so who made 30 or 40 million bucks and you’re still in school, arsehole. That’s the cultural space they live in, over on Ocean Parkway, the Syrian Jewish community, who are my partners in many businesses, who are my friends and my community in many ways. First of all, they own everything on every block in every ghetto in New York. Jimmy Jazz, S&D’s, Ashley Stewart, the WIZ, Crazy Eddie, Dr. J’s; I can go on. And they own most of the real estate and most of the retail businesses and all the electronic businesses. They all live at one little block at Ocean Parkway. They’re there because the Wasps didn’t want to be there. That’s first. To all those who are going, well, they’re exploiting us, they’re there in space that you didn’t buy, that the Wasps didn’t want. It’s not their fault, except that it’s a cultural phenomenon. They are merchants. They rub off on us when we’re their partners.

A great number of my partners are from the Syrian Jewish community, and they are very good partners. People used to say that a black dollar wasn’t worth as much to white people as a white dollar. People still say a black dollar is worth ninety-four cents to a white person. But it’s worth ninety-nine cents or a dollar to people in the Jewish community, who have suffered so much and who understand our plight. All my partners in the bags and belts and leather and shoes and underwear are all separate companies; they’re all separate families. Some are Orthodox. Some are Hollywood Jews, not really the practicing sort. My partner Lyor Cohen is a CEO of Island/Def Jam. We’ve been partners for twenty years. We’re going to be old together; we’ve been partners forever. Jimmy Jazz is a Syrian businessman. He did $100,000 of our sneakers last year, and he’s already done $2 million this year. One set of stores. Jimmy Jazz in Brooklyn and Harlem. They have stores all over the city. They’ve done $2 million already, with just one sneaker. That line is just developing, and we donate the profits for reparations work. Certainly I’ve learned a lot from my Syrian business partners.