Ep. 6: Bobby Hundreds

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Tiffany: GM and welcome to episode six of Probably Nothing.

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I'm TZ CEO of islands, and together with my cohost Alexis Ohanian, we're uncovering how NFTs and web three are changing community commerce and content online by talking directly with the people building in the space.

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Our guest today is Bobby Hundreds co-founder and creator of the streetwear brand, The Hundreds.

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The Hundreds was founded in 2003, and in 2011 it was named as the fifth greatest street wear brand ever by complex magazine.

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Bobby is not only a successful creator and entrepreneur, but he's also an incredible writer, thinker, and community builder.

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His book, "This is not a T-shirt", and essays on a variety of topics are extremely thoughtful observations about community culture and other trends that shape our world.

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Earlier this year, Bobby and his partners from the hundreds launched the atom bomb squad project, which has traded over 12,000 ETH worth of NFTs today, making it one of the most successful NFT projects.

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We wanted to sit down with Bobby because he is one of the few people who has been able to successfully bridge the gap through web one, web two and web three.

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He brings a wealth of knowledge about building community and pioneering new trends as he's done for his whole career.

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Don't forget to like subscribe and share this on social media to help others learn more about web three, feel free to tag me @TZhongg and @AlexisOhanian.

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I hope you enjoy this conversation with the one and only Bobby Hundreds.

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Well, We're excited to have you here.

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Welcome to episode six with the one and only Bobby Hundreds.

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Do you want to introduce yourself?

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I mean, we know a little bit about you or a lot actually, but...

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Alexis: A lot don't be weirded out.

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We know a lot.

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Tiffany: Wow.

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That wasn't creepy at all.

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Alexis.

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Bobby: Um, I don't know.

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Where do I begin?

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I don't know what, w w who am I?

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What are, who are we?

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Who are we?

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Alexis: Thats profound.

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Bobby: What is this because how I would have answered this question a year ago before NFTs, right.

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And before all this ha- like that would have been a completely different answer.

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Tiffany: Um, so now with NFTs, what's, what's the, what's the new answer?

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Bobby: Well, I mean, I guess it's still, I, as far as me being an artist and illustrator, writer, streetwear guy, uh, author, I'm still all those things, but, um, I don't know what my job is anymore.

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And it's something that I've, I still say, I say it all the time, especially the younger people who are seeking some type of advice or guidance.

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I'm like, I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

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And this last year for most people.

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I know that have immersed themselves in this space.

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They went from having a regular day job, a consistent job like myself, where they were known and identified as one thing and are now saying I pretty much allocate the entirety of myself to NFTs web three, de-centralization trying to figure out what this next thing is for all of us.

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And so I'm a community builder and I guess I'm just a, uh, I'm here for the conversation and just show up every day for the conversation.

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Tiffany: Identity is interesting now with webs three, because I think it also allows people work and jump in between so many different projects as well.

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So it's like to your point, a short bio is harder to have now because it's, it's so diverse.

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Bobby: Totally.

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I apologize for interrupting, but it just seems that the things that intent and emphatic about a year ago, especially two years ago are from another time and from a distant planet and just seemed very, almost obsolete or antiquated in comparison to what we're building right now.

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And, um, I don't know what that, I feel like no matter what industry you're in, if you're delving into this technology and the opportunities that can afford.

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Whatever you were doing in the past.

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It's not that it's dead, but it might find a newer second life in, in this future that we're, we're trying to figure out.

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So it just like the old way of doing things.

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It just seems so old, not, not a year old or two years old.

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Now it seems like that was from 20 years ago.

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That's how much information I feel has been passed around over the last 12 months.

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Tiffany: It's hard to go back.

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Bobby: It's impossible to unring that bell.

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We'll never be able to unsee what I've seen.

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Right.

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Alexis: Well, and so what, what is that specifically?

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Because you've been a culture creator and curator for a really long time.

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And I think you all represent the first real NFT project that like, I think bridges a lot of cultural intersections that is not pure Internet.

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That is actually has authenticity and legitimacy in like streetwear culture in so many other parts.

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Like I, I actually believe, and you all are maybe the exception that proves the rule, or this is what I'd like to dig into.

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I actually think having a legacy brand is weirdly a liability in web three, because you feel like there's something to lose.

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Because, and this is where you're seeing video game companies right now terrified at the prospect, even social media companies terrified at the prospect of adapting or adopting rather web three may because their user base is upset, maybe because, well, for all kinds of reasons, but how have you brought your original community, the true believers along for this ride.

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What are the things that you all have had to think about and do that?

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Like, if I were starting just a simple profile pic project tomorrow, I wouldn't have to think about, because I wouldn't have an audience that already sort of loved my brand and everything else.

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Bobby: It's- so it's Alexis, everything you said is very accurate.

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We came into this space, thinking that because we have a legacy and a history where we have experience, um, having built this brand over the last 18 years, that would be to our greatest advantage and in many ways it is.

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And, and the ways of look, we, you have trust built into the system.

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We have a, something to lose.

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And so this isn't a cash grab for us.

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All of these other NFT projects are trying to move into being brands.

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You know, whether it's through producing soft goods, merchant apparel, to establishing infrastructure of a company and, and figuring out how staffing works management.

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And we already have all of that.

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And so if you're going to bet on anyone.

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You know, if you're gonna, if you're going to collect anyone's project, why wouldn't it be ours?

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The artwork comes with a rich history.

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There's already associations tied to most of the art people have been collecting them since they were children around the world.

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If there's a strong, emotional connection.

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So all of these attributes of the hundreds and our experience and our knowledge, we were bringing to the table where like, this is all to our benefit, but.

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What we underestimated and I think didn't necessarily appreciate as much to now is that we are also entering and treading into a space where all of those things were not necessarily antithetical, but weren't exactly the most conducive to a web three philosophy, right?

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Because there are founder led companies, founder led brands that were established around essentially being walled gardens.

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Like these gaming company.

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And that was how the philosophy went, especially during web2, but what people also don't realize.

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Maybe if they're new to the hundreds are to us.

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And they're learning about us really just on Adam Bomb Squad is that we're actually a web one company.

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Uh, we are entirely founded on decentralized principles.

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And we went through web too, but I never really felt comfortable in what to, or felt like we were our true realized selves in web two.

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It never really necessarily aligned, especially with social cause we're really built on blogs.

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And the way that our initial blogging system was set up was that it was my direct voice with the people.

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And then we gave, gave the people their own blogs.

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And so it was, we were all on the same page.

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And me growing up in the punk and the hardcore scene.

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I didn't want the stage.

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I wanted to be on the floor in the mosh pit with everyone else.

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And the microphone gets shared and passed around.

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I just didn't have the means or the technological know-how on how we could all participate and rise up together.

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And so I was doing it from within our brand and other brands trying to establish our community.

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And so if there's any web to.

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We're not even a web to brand.

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If there's any web to company that I feel is not only sympathetic to what's happening with web three and decentralization, but really embodies that spirit.

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I think it's us.

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I literally wrote the book on building brands around community, right?

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And so when you get inside of The Hundreds and you're figuring out how our wheels turn, what really makes us tick, the entire thing is established on building community.

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We wouldn't be here if we hadn't said the company, the community though.

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Um, on Fairfax with all the other competitor brands of ours, it was never about us just being the winner.

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Um, us investing so heavily in collaborations since we started was entirely, that was that in telling someone else's story, we tell a little bit of our story and we are all, uh, symbiotic.

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We are all part of this ecosystem together.

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And so as the tide rises, you know, we lift all the boats together.

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It was, that's always been the mindset.

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We were doing it within the industry, and now we're doing it within our actual immediate communities and customer bases.

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And so just to bring it full circle to your point about, you know, having to a lot of these companies, established legacy brands are looking at web three and NFTs, and they're scared because they have something to lose.

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And for me, it's actually quite galvanizing and inspiring to, to think that every single day I might lose this company entirely to the community.

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Right.

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Like that to me is electrifying that thought.

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And I want to get to a point where that, I don't know if that's tomorrow.

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I don't know if that's in a hundred year.

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But that's the most beautiful moment when we can fully lose ourselves, you know, to the community and everything is entirely decentralized.

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Um, and-

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Alexis: So like Reddit vibes.

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I'm feeling you, man.

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Yeah.

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Bobby: Yeah.

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It has to get there.

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It has to, it's the only way all signs point in that direction.

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They tried so hard to make it the other way for the last 10, 15 years.

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And it caused a lot of distress and was entirely unnatural.

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And you know, it was, it made me unhappy.

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I live, I've lived with a lot of guilt and a lot weighing on my conscious over the last, you know, 10, 15 years.

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And I talk about this at length.

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I talk about it in my book.

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I've spoken about it for years that here I am just convincing young people that they aren't enough unless they have this product.

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And it's great streetwear fashion design.

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What that lends to humans is invaluable, right?

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I'm a big believer in all of these things, but when it's a one-way exchange, you know, it's a completely asymmetrical exchange between a consumer and a brand, um, that never really quite sat right with me, even when I was a kid wearing t-shirt brands.

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Yeah, here I am being a walking billboard for someone else's company

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Alexis: So my version of this was telling startup CEOs to take Merch really seriously and know that it's a privilege to have someone be willing to take and wear your merch, let alone paid for it.

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Right.

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But even back in oh five startup founders would be thrown out shirts to people being like, here you go.

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And it'd be crappy quality.

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They'd look bad.

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Like, and it's, it's so disrespect-

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Tiffany: It's the difference between swag and merch.

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Like, I think there's a fundamental difference between companies we'll just call it schwag versus companies that call it merch.

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It's like it has to be high quality.

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So if that represent, this represents your brand.

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And if you're going to put really bad quality things out there, that's what youre promoting your brand to be.

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Bobby: And we've always, um, you know, endowed upon the community, the sense of ownership.

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They always felt like they own this brand.

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Right?

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That's I talk about this in my white paper, but why do people buy brands?

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Right.

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They buy it for a community.

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They buy it for identity and they buy it because they have a sense of ownership, but not real true ownership.

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And so when young people are getting my logo tattooed on them, which has happened since we started thousands of kids around the world.

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Travis.

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Scott, why YG they all have our logo tattooed on them.

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It's not that they're a huge supporter or fan necessarily just of me.

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They feel like the brand belongs to them, but in reality it never did.

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It always belonged to me.

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Right.

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And so I'm out there proselytizing the brand as, oh, we're a community, we're a community.

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I wrote a book about it, but really I was still the owner.

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So, how is it?

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Is there a way where we can all feel, not just feel, but actually half or maintain some sense of real ownership in a brand's upside and success.

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And when it's having hard times that we all go through together, because I can not do it alone, it's such a lonely journey to build these brands and to be entrepreneurs.

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And there's great upsides.

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And in terms of, oh, you're going to make a lot of money for yourself, whatever.

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It's not most entrepreneurs aren't doing it just for that.

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They're doing it because they really believe in a vision.

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Something is missing if the community isn't there to help them and to be there alongside them.

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It's one of the most wonderful parts of doing this project.

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We're only a couple months in, but the work is overwhelming.

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It's, I'm not enough, right?

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One body.

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Like I'm not enough to hold this thing up.

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And so to watch the community come through and they're setting up their own podcast series that run alongside.

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Right.

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They're having their own events.

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They're setting up their own games within Discord and build- there's one person in our community who's developed an entire app.

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Right.

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And it's like an amazing app that's gamifying Adam Bomb Squad.

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Things I could have never done.

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I could have never imagined let alone I could have never physically done it myself and they're doing it and they're doing it.

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Not because they're trying at first I felt, oh my God, I felt a little bit guilty.

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Like, why are you doing this all for me?

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Why all for me?

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Yeah.

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All for you?

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F%$@ you,, I'm sorry if I can, like, you know, screw you.

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It's not for you.

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This is for us.

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This is for all of us.

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This is for the community.

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Like we need to all chip in.

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We're all rowing the boat.

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Oh my God.

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That's so powerful to hear as a business, as a brand owner, as an entrepreneur.

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People are alongside you saying I don't work for you.

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I don't, I'm not your fan.

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We're all in this together.

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We're all equally invested.

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Whether I dropped $5 in here, 0.05 ETH or I dropped five ETH in here, we're all equally invested because that meant something to us and my time and my energy and attention spent in this Discord following a lot, like we're all in this together.

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Like, wow.

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Then I feel invincible.

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I feel invincible because the scariest thing to me.

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When Steve jobs died.

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I said, holy crap, this is a problem because the entire brand and company at that point in time, in my opinion, as a consumer was centered and scaffolded around one, man.

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And I said, at some point I'm going to die, right?

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I'm not getting any younger.

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Right.

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And I want this thing to live for hundreds of years.

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Right.

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And at some point I'm going to leave.

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00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:57,750
And does that mean that it disappears with me?

210
00:15:57,900 --> 00:16:02,670
I think for some founders and entrepreneurs, that might be the exact thing that they want.

211
00:16:02,670 --> 00:16:07,110
They want the whole thing to come crashing down with them because they want everyone to remember how amazing they were.

212
00:16:07,140 --> 00:16:09,510
I'm the opposite, right?

213
00:16:09,540 --> 00:16:12,450
Like I'm, I'm, I'm a mirror person.

214
00:16:12,450 --> 00:16:18,810
I'm not, I'm really not that interesting or exciting of the human, but I think what the brand is and the community.

215
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,140
It's very special and unique in history.

216
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:23,939
And I don't ever want that to die.

217
00:16:23,970 --> 00:16:24,210
Right?

218
00:16:24,210 --> 00:16:26,490
Like I'm as much of a fan of it as anyone else.

219
00:16:27,060 --> 00:16:28,470
What happens if I leave?

220
00:16:28,590 --> 00:16:30,870
What happens if I burn out, I have a mental breakdown.

221
00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:32,400
What happens if I get sick?

222
00:16:32,610 --> 00:16:33,090
Unhealthy?

223
00:16:33,090 --> 00:16:33,650
What if I leave?

224
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,650
What happens to this, that scares the crap out of me.

225
00:16:38,550 --> 00:16:40,890
And now I don't ever have to worry about that.

226
00:16:41,340 --> 00:16:42,600
That's how I feel right now.

227
00:16:42,900 --> 00:16:48,630
I feel I'm I'm I feel like the brand is immortal because it's not just going to be, and it will be, it's not just me.

228
00:16:48,630 --> 00:16:52,050
It's not just these community members it'll get passed down through generations.

229
00:16:52,140 --> 00:16:53,310
The technology lives forever.

230
00:16:53,310 --> 00:16:54,330
So the brand lives forever.

231
00:16:54,330 --> 00:16:54,570
Now.

232
00:16:54,690 --> 00:16:55,290
That's how I feel.

233
00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:55,950
Alexis: I love that.

234
00:16:56,130 --> 00:16:56,580
Yes.

235
00:16:57,865 --> 00:17:08,365
Tiffany: I want to, I want to dig into how you're thinking about building this into a more decentralized organization, but first to rewind Bobby how'd you first get into NFT.

236
00:17:09,300 --> 00:17:10,740
And what helped you understand them?

237
00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:11,099
Bobby: Yeah.

238
00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:25,500
Uh, this time, last year, almost to the day, there was some news about Beeple and his sale and Trevor , um, who everyone knows now, as Friends With Benefits back then everyone knew him.

239
00:17:25,530 --> 00:17:26,550
Then if for different reasons,

240
00:17:27,940 --> 00:17:29,990
Tiffany: McKayla and other, all the cool things.

241
00:17:31,409 --> 00:17:35,070
Bobby: I know I'm just as Trevor and skeet, because he's the hangout at the shop.

242
00:17:35,764 --> 00:17:36,604
Yeah, when we started.

243
00:17:36,604 --> 00:17:48,514
So he's, he's been a part of the crew since the start and Trevor tweeted it, you know, we're coming off of the election and there's a little bit of a vacuum in terms of the Twitter discourse at that time.

244
00:17:48,514 --> 00:17:48,844
Right.

245
00:17:48,935 --> 00:17:55,485
Because for four years, arguably longer, it had been centered around one type of conversation.

246
00:17:55,544 --> 00:17:57,074
And so I'm still on Twitter every day.

247
00:17:57,074 --> 00:17:58,064
I still love Twitter.

248
00:17:58,064 --> 00:18:00,435
I feel like it's the alpha and omega of all social.

249
00:18:00,794 --> 00:18:13,995
And he drops that tweet in and I'm open and receptive to it in a way where I think the month before, which was around the election, I wouldn't have been receptive to it, but I was open and it's talking about the Beeple sale and it doesn't make any sense to me.

250
00:18:14,745 --> 00:18:16,845
And it scared me.

251
00:18:16,965 --> 00:18:17,415
Right.

252
00:18:17,504 --> 00:18:21,764
Well, first of all, I got mad about it, right?

253
00:18:22,115 --> 00:18:22,784
It was so big.

254
00:18:23,085 --> 00:18:28,365
The number was so big, which compared, you know, I think there was this a $10 million punk sale.

255
00:18:28,365 --> 00:18:31,274
So nothing is now that's relative.

256
00:18:31,304 --> 00:18:33,495
What's big in terms of NFT stuff.

257
00:18:33,495 --> 00:18:39,915
It's just like, oh, $10 million punk sound for a JPEG selling for X, you know, what was it?

258
00:18:39,915 --> 00:18:40,875
$6 million just on.

259
00:18:41,540 --> 00:18:42,530
It was number one.

260
00:18:42,530 --> 00:18:45,500
It, it, it, it made me a little upset and mad.

261
00:18:46,290 --> 00:18:47,790
And then it made me a little scared.

262
00:18:47,790 --> 00:18:52,410
And that's when I was curious, because I was just like, okay, I'm feeling a certain way reading this.

263
00:18:52,830 --> 00:18:57,870
I need to know more to either get ahead of it, to dismiss it for my mind-

264
00:18:58,110 --> 00:19:00,240
Alexis: I love you for thinking that way.

265
00:19:00,510 --> 00:19:10,770
Bobby: I think, I think like that with everything, nothing makes me more freaked out than young people because they make me feel irrelevant and they're pushing me out of the relevance window.

266
00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:11,310
Every single.

267
00:19:12,034 --> 00:19:15,725
Um, and so I dive in and I spend as much time with them, right.

268
00:19:15,905 --> 00:19:18,754
Because I need to know they need to help me understand.

269
00:19:18,784 --> 00:19:22,955
And I have all my fears in life or drowning, public speaking, and going to the dentist.

270
00:19:22,955 --> 00:19:25,475
And so I go to the dentist twice a year, surf every single day.

271
00:19:25,475 --> 00:19:27,365
And I do as much public speaking as possible.

272
00:19:27,485 --> 00:19:29,495
Like what I'm doing with you right now, it's frightening.

273
00:19:29,495 --> 00:19:37,235
Like my whole back is sweating, but I forced myself to do it so that I feel some semblance of control over the situation.

274
00:19:37,294 --> 00:19:38,044
Alexis: I love it.

275
00:19:38,945 --> 00:19:39,574
Bobby: But the same thing.

276
00:19:41,590 --> 00:19:46,630
But the same thing happened with the people sale, where I was like, it's making my back a little sweaty.

277
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,000
I feel like I don't understand.

278
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:50,710
Am I aged out of this?

279
00:19:50,710 --> 00:19:52,570
Am I, am I not in the conversation?

280
00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:53,350
Let me in.

281
00:19:53,410 --> 00:19:54,910
And I hit up Trevor.

282
00:19:54,910 --> 00:19:55,900
I said, explain this to me.

283
00:19:55,900 --> 00:19:56,590
And he explained it.

284
00:19:56,590 --> 00:19:59,650
I was more confused and I got even more angry about it.

285
00:20:00,375 --> 00:20:01,995
And then I said, let me talk to someone else.

286
00:20:01,995 --> 00:20:03,315
And he said, talk to Dee from Zuora.

287
00:20:03,315 --> 00:20:15,765
And I sat with Dee, from Zuora and I think my entry point in and what really started to inspire, well, there was a number of things, but one of them was, I was just looking at it as an artist first.

288
00:20:15,765 --> 00:20:24,115
And I think a lot of people were at that time, it wasn't NFTs weren't this day trady investment stock type thing it turned into over the summer at that time.

289
00:20:24,945 --> 00:20:36,045
Uh, resource for a lot of artists to be able to get their work, seen circumvent the gatekeepers, and then also like provenance and then also, uh, maintain some royalties right in secondary sales.

290
00:20:36,135 --> 00:20:41,325
And so there was a lot of frustration that I had felt as an artist, my entire life.

291
00:20:41,415 --> 00:20:43,125
I've been trying to build my art.

292
00:20:43,935 --> 00:20:59,145
I had to pivot and use a street wear brand to do it, but I want to be known and remembered as an artist, as a photographer, all these things, but there were all these gates in between that kept me out and NFTs from what I was seeing were breaking down a lot of those holes.

293
00:20:59,879 --> 00:21:09,689
So then I was in, I was just like, not only is it going to help me, it's going to help all the other young artists that we work with, that we surround ourselves with, that I see are also being kept out of the room.

294
00:21:09,870 --> 00:21:10,290
Right.

295
00:21:10,470 --> 00:21:21,990
So if it's going to help me in the community, all right, I'm in, I looked at it also because of what I touched on earlier, I always felt this imbalanced relationship between myself and my consumers.

296
00:21:22,110 --> 00:21:29,629
And I was like, maybe this is a way where we can all share in the upside of a brand success and we can all be in it together.

297
00:21:29,689 --> 00:21:34,639
Like truly, truly have some ownership instead of, oh, I feel like I'm a part of the brand.

298
00:21:34,909 --> 00:21:35,300
Right.

299
00:21:35,510 --> 00:21:41,750
And, and, and then I think third, I've always been a little bit curious about tech because I'm not a tech guy.

300
00:21:41,959 --> 00:21:42,469
Right.

301
00:21:42,530 --> 00:21:48,959
And the NFT or crypto up until that point to me represented two things that I was highly allergic.

302
00:21:49,625 --> 00:21:52,055
Number one was tech and number two is finance.

303
00:21:52,385 --> 00:21:53,855
I hate both of those things.

304
00:21:54,125 --> 00:21:57,545
I feel I'm the stupidest person in the room with both of those subjects.

305
00:21:57,754 --> 00:22:05,555
And so NFTs has made it palatable to me because it was spoken through the lens of art and collected and collecting and culture and community.

306
00:22:05,555 --> 00:22:07,264
And I was like those things I do.

307
00:22:07,264 --> 00:22:08,105
And I know, and I understand.

308
00:22:08,649 --> 00:22:12,520
And so if I can understand these other parts, maybe it'll help me understand this part.

309
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:20,440
And so I think looking at it from a lens of, I don't understand tech or finance art, it's going to help me community and culture are going to help me get there.

310
00:22:20,500 --> 00:22:21,850
That was very appealing.

311
00:22:22,825 --> 00:22:24,045
That's where I'm at today.

312
00:22:24,075 --> 00:22:27,735
Love the 12 months later, I feel like I've moved an inch

313
00:22:27,855 --> 00:22:35,505
Tiffany: 12 months later, and you have Adam Bomb Squad, which is an incredible community that you've built with what?

314
00:22:35,505 --> 00:22:38,985
Over 48 million in total sales volume now.

315
00:22:40,350 --> 00:22:44,750
How's that compared to building The Hundreds as a brand.

316
00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:50,760
Cause this is a whole new brand that lives under kind of The Hundreds brand that you've built in the past.

317
00:22:50,790 --> 00:22:55,860
But how have you seen like the big stark differences in building these brands?

318
00:22:57,150 --> 00:22:59,700
Bobby: I, I paused to say that it's.

319
00:23:00,524 --> 00:23:04,155
Uh, brand and the way that I've always, always understood brands and branding.

320
00:23:04,155 --> 00:23:10,875
When I see a lot of NFT projects out there and they're striving to be brands, or they liken themselves to other brands, right.

321
00:23:10,875 --> 00:23:12,375
There's a lot of Supreme comparisons.

322
00:23:12,375 --> 00:23:13,514
Like who's the Supreme.

323
00:23:13,725 --> 00:23:17,774
It's really hard for me to reconcile those two things because.

324
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:19,310
The way I've always understood.

325
00:23:19,310 --> 00:23:20,180
Brands is brands.

326
00:23:20,210 --> 00:23:23,030
Number one, they take time and there's been no time.

327
00:23:23,210 --> 00:23:23,720
Right.

328
00:23:23,750 --> 00:23:27,200
And brands just have certain narratives and arcs.

329
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,090
And there's a lot that goes into brands.

330
00:23:29,090 --> 00:23:30,980
A lot of, a lot of branding is about discipline.

331
00:23:30,980 --> 00:23:36,470
A lot of branding is about saying no, a lot of branding is about, um, just really like measured breaths.

332
00:23:36,980 --> 00:23:37,340
Right.

333
00:23:37,370 --> 00:23:39,770
And I haven't seen any of that really this year.

334
00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:52,139
And so Adam Bomb Squad is a brand more or less, but I'll be more keen to say that in a few years time, if not like 10 years, I think right now what it is, it's, it's a community aspect.

335
00:23:52,139 --> 00:23:53,280
It's a culture aspect.

336
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,700
It's a movement aspect associated under The Hundred.

337
00:23:57,479 --> 00:24:02,129
And The Hundreds, when we speak on it has never just been about clothing.

338
00:24:02,129 --> 00:24:03,120
It's not just street wear.

339
00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:04,229
That's why my book is called.

340
00:24:04,229 --> 00:24:07,350
This is not a t-shirt, it's really not to do with the cotton.

341
00:24:07,379 --> 00:24:09,750
The Hundreds is a lifestyle.

342
00:24:09,750 --> 00:24:11,189
We always called it the lifestyle.

343
00:24:11,399 --> 00:24:14,669
The Hundreds is the people, The Hundreds is an attitude, right?

344
00:24:14,699 --> 00:24:20,969
And so Adam Bombsquad is a way of congealing the culture side, the community aspect.

345
00:24:21,795 --> 00:24:28,125
Where there's, again, those three things, those three things associated with branding, community identity and ownership.

346
00:24:28,365 --> 00:24:37,785
Like we can actually realize all three of the things within Atom Bomb Squad, but over time yes uh, do I want Adam Bomb Squad to be known as a brand for sure.

347
00:24:37,815 --> 00:24:37,995
But.

348
00:24:38,715 --> 00:24:49,995
It's, I'm not kidding anyone just because some people within the NFT echo chamber know what the Atom Bomb Squad is, um, does not mean, first of all, most people on NFTs have never heard of it.

349
00:24:50,024 --> 00:24:50,625
Still.

350
00:24:50,685 --> 00:24:54,524
Most people from within The Hundreds of universe have never heard of it.

351
00:24:54,764 --> 00:24:57,524
Even my own personal friends who I talk to regularly.

352
00:24:58,290 --> 00:25:01,260
Hit me up every day and say, Hey, have you heard about NFTs?

353
00:25:01,500 --> 00:25:02,880
When are you guys going to do an NFTs?

354
00:25:03,420 --> 00:25:04,500
It's shocking to me.

355
00:25:04,980 --> 00:25:08,160
We're still so early, still so early.

356
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,230
So they don't know what Atom Bomb Squad is.

357
00:25:10,260 --> 00:25:12,090
The world does it and it'll take time.

358
00:25:12,150 --> 00:25:18,780
And if you really want to speak on brands, they just required time and discipline, passion and patience is what I always say.

359
00:25:18,780 --> 00:25:20,010
You need passion and patience.

360
00:25:20,190 --> 00:25:26,440
And can you sustain the passion over long periods of time, especially long drought, then you have a brand.

361
00:25:26,770 --> 00:25:33,284
But the way that a lot of projects are going right now, which is to me, fast rise, fast demise.

362
00:25:33,615 --> 00:25:35,024
Everything's very frothy.

363
00:25:35,084 --> 00:25:39,074
Everything is excitable excited, hight fueled.

364
00:25:39,135 --> 00:25:40,185
We seen all that.

365
00:25:40,514 --> 00:25:42,675
I'd done that before fashion has done that.

366
00:25:42,675 --> 00:25:46,155
It's even faster now because of the technology it's expedited.

367
00:25:46,514 --> 00:25:50,115
I've seen it all with street wear and there are seasons where you're like, this is it.

368
00:25:50,115 --> 00:25:51,105
This brand is forever.

369
00:25:51,105 --> 00:25:51,524
This is the.

370
00:25:52,210 --> 00:25:55,180
And two years later, I'll see you at the next stop.

371
00:25:55,210 --> 00:25:57,370
And half of those brands won't be there.

372
00:25:57,460 --> 00:26:02,170
And so I'm not interested in calling Adam Bomb Squad, necessarily a brand yet.

373
00:26:02,170 --> 00:26:06,640
Like I called The hundreds of brand because we've been around for 18 years.

374
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,160
And to me that's still not nearly enough.

375
00:26:11,685 --> 00:26:14,565
Alexis: But I think that's the mindset you got to have and that you're bringing to it.

376
00:26:14,565 --> 00:26:17,745
That the average project isn't like there's to be clear, right?

377
00:26:17,745 --> 00:26:23,895
There are so, so, so many of these NFT projects that are.

378
00:26:24,355 --> 00:26:32,485
They're they're short-term, they're Cash at grabs, you know, 99.9% of them in a few years even are going to be worthless.

379
00:26:32,755 --> 00:26:45,895
And, and, and that's going to give you, unfortunately, that's going to give a reputation to the broader space that is unfair, but it's going to malign it just because, you know, there are short-term greedy folks who are just doing this to make, make a quick buck.

380
00:26:46,105 --> 00:26:47,995
Bobby: We thought again with streetwear.

381
00:26:48,195 --> 00:26:53,020
Our generation, which was arguably the third or the second or third wave of streetwear.

382
00:26:53,110 --> 00:26:54,699
It was very cash grabby.

383
00:26:54,729 --> 00:26:58,659
There are people who are genuine, genuinely interested in building lifelong brands.

384
00:26:58,659 --> 00:27:02,649
Like when we started, we said, oh, we want to be like, Levi's we never took outside money.

385
00:27:02,649 --> 00:27:10,389
You know, we fully bootstrapped a thing because we wanted to move very organically and authentically, and we wanted to maintain some kind of control over the brand.

386
00:27:10,479 --> 00:27:16,840
And then we saw a lot of people sell out and a lot of people grabbed that cash and I'll say in their defense.

387
00:27:17,399 --> 00:27:20,580
And I see it still, even within this space with a lot of things.

388
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:27,060
A lot of them aren't even maliciously doing so they think that this is what you're supposed to do.

389
00:27:27,060 --> 00:27:37,320
You're supposed to take this money in, and this is how it moves and we're supposed to move this fast and they are going to burn out and it will look cache grabby, but I don't think they came into it necessarily thinking about it.

390
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:43,080
I think they have a drop and they get on the other side of that trop and are like, oh my gosh, this is.

391
00:27:43,775 --> 00:27:46,235
A giant mountain that we have to climb.

392
00:27:46,655 --> 00:27:51,275
And they think that leading up to the drop that this is all that matters is I got to get over this little hill.

393
00:27:51,275 --> 00:27:58,325
It's like, um, there's a meme of a surfer going over one small wave and, and there's like a hundred foot wave coming up.

394
00:27:59,220 --> 00:28:00,570
Yeah, that's what this is.

395
00:28:00,870 --> 00:28:07,500
And most people don't know that I didn't even fully appreciate what was on the other side of that release until I got over that first hill.

396
00:28:07,500 --> 00:28:11,160
And I was like, oh my gosh, I just opened up a whole can of worms.

397
00:28:11,190 --> 00:28:13,440
I'm I'm starting at zero.

398
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:19,200
I'm actually starting behind zero and I got a hundred 50 years, 75 years to build into this.

399
00:28:19,230 --> 00:28:24,840
But for me, since I've already gone through that, I was just like, okay, I'm already doing that anyways.

400
00:28:25,350 --> 00:28:33,660
And I'm accustomed to this lifestyle where 24 hours, seven days a week, I'm pouring myself into the project and constantly innovating and adapting.

401
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,830
But I think for a lot of people who were like, oh, the sale is the big hit.

402
00:28:38,250 --> 00:28:39,810
And then, you know, a success.

403
00:28:40,919 --> 00:28:55,980
We sold out of them or we sold a certain amount of them and that's the successI don't think that they were prepared and I don't think they'll ever quite be prepared because building a brand in reverse, uh, I would have never been able to do it when I was 23 years old.

404
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:58,070
If at 23 years old, someone came along.

405
00:28:58,905 --> 00:29:05,355
Here's a hundred million dollars and now builds your brand in reverse, and now prove yourself to that a hundred million dollars.

406
00:29:06,015 --> 00:29:06,645
Wow.

407
00:29:06,975 --> 00:29:10,745
We never had that pressure, never had that type of scrutiny.

408
00:29:10,745 --> 00:29:18,195
Alexis: Thats the liability of having the high expectations and all the sort of money up front, the same way.

409
00:29:18,345 --> 00:29:25,515
Bobby: It's near impossible, in my opinion, for artists to be able to perform to their full potential under the weight of that.

410
00:29:26,429 --> 00:29:30,060
Under the scrutiny of shareholders, let alone thousands of them.

411
00:29:30,149 --> 00:29:43,820
And third, which is probably the hardest part of it all because we didn't grow up under this, like my partner, Ben and die, but the watchful gaze of the internet, 24 hours a day, and you're hearing all the feedback all the time.

412
00:29:44,020 --> 00:29:47,010
It's the greatest thing that ever happened for the a hundred.

413
00:29:47,745 --> 00:29:50,115
We started a few years before social started.

414
00:29:50,295 --> 00:29:51,885
So we were singing in the shower.

415
00:29:51,945 --> 00:29:52,275
Right.

416
00:29:52,305 --> 00:29:55,455
We had blinders on, we, we didn't know what we sounded like.

417
00:29:55,605 --> 00:29:57,405
We did it because we believed in it.

418
00:29:57,405 --> 00:29:59,055
We didn't listen to anyone's thoughts.

419
00:29:59,055 --> 00:30:02,045
We had one hater every now and then that would pop up on a message.

420
00:30:02,970 --> 00:30:05,460
And that was enough to disrupt my entire day.

421
00:30:05,699 --> 00:30:20,250
Now, starting a brand, let alone being given a hundred, a million dollars, a hundred million dollars of someone's money and being like now prove yourself and thousands of people going like, where's my money on top of you, how is an artist supposed to perform an execute anything that they want?

422
00:30:20,870 --> 00:30:33,740
Because they have to sit, sit there and do social maintenance, calm people's fears, alleviate FUD when the artist's job and the creator's job is to sit in a dark room and dream and realize, and think positively and crate.

423
00:30:34,460 --> 00:30:43,670
So it's, it's, it's very hard and I feel, I feel it for a lot of NFT projects out there and, you know, I know it's hard to feel bad for people.

424
00:30:43,670 --> 00:30:45,050
Who've made a lot of money, but.

425
00:30:45,870 --> 00:30:52,020
I'm telling you for some of these people that I've talked to behind these projects, they would turn it all back in, in a heartbeat.

426
00:30:52,110 --> 00:30:54,040
You know, they would, they really would.

427
00:30:54,629 --> 00:31:01,620
Tiffany: It's interesting because to your point, it's like these creators, these artists, they don't have time to create anymore.

428
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:03,270
Like they're managing comms.

429
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:06,810
Full-time now they have to, they have to be the face of it.

430
00:31:07,710 --> 00:31:12,240
Otherwise the community is going to be mad if you're not responding, but also it's like the sale isn't the end.

431
00:31:12,990 --> 00:31:18,120
The sale means, you owe everyone something, right?

432
00:31:18,270 --> 00:31:19,230
That's the difference.

433
00:31:20,220 --> 00:31:23,550
It's just the start and you, right?

434
00:31:23,580 --> 00:31:24,690
Bobby: No one thinks about this.

435
00:31:24,690 --> 00:31:33,180
When they get into creating an empty project, all they think about is the bag, but we couldn't do that because when we are coming in, we have a reputation to uphold.

436
00:31:33,180 --> 00:31:33,730
Right, right.

437
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:39,920
This is the case, the gears, my credibility in this space and my life is on, like, I'm not an anon.

438
00:31:40,195 --> 00:31:41,965
You see my face, I put it out there.

439
00:31:42,715 --> 00:31:45,175
Like, if you want to know where I am, you can find me every single day.

440
00:31:45,175 --> 00:31:46,044
Like I'm here.

441
00:31:46,044 --> 00:31:50,245
I can't disappear and nor do I want to, but I'm not going anywhere.

442
00:31:50,274 --> 00:31:56,905
And I have 18 years of work that I'm very proud of that I don't want, you know, any negativity to eclipse.

443
00:31:56,995 --> 00:32:05,425
And so that to us was, is a real blessing because we are held accountable every day in this work, we are held accountable.

444
00:32:05,425 --> 00:32:13,345
We have to show up and not because the community's breathing down our neck and telling us and screaming at us that we have to do XYZ.

445
00:32:14,065 --> 00:32:17,455
We show up because we show up for ourself because we have to prove it to ourselves.

446
00:32:17,485 --> 00:32:18,655
Like I need to sleep at night now.

447
00:32:19,385 --> 00:32:22,565
I upset someone in the community, but I don't want to upset myself.

448
00:32:22,655 --> 00:32:24,215
Like I don't want to disappoint my family.

449
00:32:24,395 --> 00:32:26,105
And so we have that.

450
00:32:26,315 --> 00:32:27,725
And to me, it's a gift.

451
00:32:27,905 --> 00:32:33,485
I think it can be crippling for some people, but for us, it's a real gift because I show up to perform, right.

452
00:32:33,514 --> 00:32:34,835
Like I do it for me.

453
00:32:35,165 --> 00:32:40,264
And then I think that trickles down to the rest of the community, but I'm out here every day to prove it to me that I can do it.

454
00:32:41,235 --> 00:32:58,575
Tiffany: As you guys become more decentralized or aim to do so, how do you think about maintaining that brand quality and that box of super, super curated brand control that you've done over the past decade of building?

455
00:32:59,335 --> 00:33:01,855
Your brand, because I think that's the biggest question.

456
00:33:01,855 --> 00:33:02,215
Right?

457
00:33:02,455 --> 00:33:08,125
And it goes back to what you were saying earlier, where this is the most important thing projects or companies that have started this year.

458
00:33:08,335 --> 00:33:20,335
Uh, I guess their company, technically companies now these like NFT projects, uh, with the amount of money they have in treasury, it's still too early for them to be considered, uh, a brand per your definition.

459
00:33:20,425 --> 00:33:24,805
And so how do you think about that as this becomes more and more decentralized?

460
00:33:25,725 --> 00:33:34,905
Bobby: I remember when we started the company, um, it was a very selfish project and I think many young entrepreneurs, they start their projects.

461
00:33:34,935 --> 00:33:36,854
It's coming from a very selfish place.

462
00:33:37,155 --> 00:33:40,185
They don't hear their voice necessarily out there.

463
00:33:40,185 --> 00:33:42,074
They don't see themselves represented.

464
00:33:42,104 --> 00:33:45,195
They have an opinion on something that's not being warranted or received.

465
00:33:46,065 --> 00:33:49,005
And so they step up and say, Hey, my art belongs here.

466
00:33:49,215 --> 00:33:52,005
I'm just as good as anyone else I can do that better.

467
00:33:52,035 --> 00:33:53,205
No, one's listening to me.

468
00:33:53,235 --> 00:33:53,505
Right.

469
00:33:53,535 --> 00:33:59,535
That's why I started even building this brand was I was like, everything else that's out there is garbage.

470
00:33:59,745 --> 00:34:00,945
My art is better.

471
00:34:01,065 --> 00:34:02,115
It needs to be seen.

472
00:34:02,145 --> 00:34:02,865
It's a shame.

473
00:34:02,925 --> 00:34:04,665
And it's a disservice, right?

474
00:34:04,845 --> 00:34:07,935
This is my ego telling me like the world needs you.

475
00:34:08,205 --> 00:34:09,585
The world is not enough without you.

476
00:34:10,665 --> 00:34:16,094
And so I start this project from a purely egotistical, selfish point of view, right?

477
00:34:16,335 --> 00:34:24,105
As a creator, as a creator and as artists, and one day Ben, my business partner comes over and is just like, you need to hire someone to help you do your art.

478
00:34:24,195 --> 00:34:25,995
And I said, no, this is my art.

479
00:34:25,995 --> 00:34:31,395
And he said, well, you're holding us back because you're only turning out 10 t-shirt graphics a week.

480
00:34:31,545 --> 00:34:32,384
I need 20.

481
00:34:32,594 --> 00:34:35,235
And I was just like, no, I don't want to compromise my art.

482
00:34:35,505 --> 00:34:38,745
I'd rather hold us back and keep it slow and keep it pure.

483
00:34:38,835 --> 00:34:41,505
And he's just like, that's fine, but we're never going to grow.

484
00:34:41,745 --> 00:34:47,775
And we're never going to be the successful brand you want to be, unless you hire someone and you train someone to take on some of your duties.

485
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:51,480
And it took me a while to finally do it.

486
00:34:51,569 --> 00:34:55,170
And I started hiring designers under me and started building a team.

487
00:34:55,409 --> 00:34:57,240
And the work was never good enough.

488
00:34:57,270 --> 00:35:02,129
And to this day, it's never exactly held up to the standards that I've wanted.

489
00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:02,400
Right.

490
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:13,890
It's frustrating as an artist owner, because you're never going to get the results that you want, the 110% exactly how you would do it because there's no one else like you, you hire these people.

491
00:35:14,595 --> 00:35:22,875
To come work with you, not for you because they collaborate with you on their versions and interpretations of what those designs should be.

492
00:35:23,205 --> 00:35:28,605
And so then I didn't appreciate this until years in for the first few years, I was like, this is not good.

493
00:35:28,605 --> 00:35:30,345
This is kind of like a sub standard.

494
00:35:30,345 --> 00:35:32,564
This is a sub Bobby version of The Hundreds.

495
00:35:32,564 --> 00:35:34,754
This is not exactly how I do it, bro.

496
00:35:34,814 --> 00:35:36,225
It was never about you.

497
00:35:36,734 --> 00:35:38,595
This project was never about you.

498
00:35:38,714 --> 00:35:42,855
It left your mind and entered the universe and the day that you sell one t-shirt.

499
00:35:43,665 --> 00:35:44,924
We sell one NFT out there.

500
00:35:44,955 --> 00:35:46,995
It doesn't belong to you anymore.

501
00:35:47,174 --> 00:35:50,055
You think it belongs to you because the money comes to you.

502
00:35:50,205 --> 00:35:51,555
The brand does not belong to you.

503
00:35:51,555 --> 00:35:53,595
That's why people get a tattoo tattooed on you.

504
00:35:53,595 --> 00:35:54,944
It has nothing to do with you, dude.

505
00:35:55,634 --> 00:36:00,915
It has to do with their emotional associations, with whatever they were going through that time in high school.

506
00:36:00,915 --> 00:36:03,375
And they were wearing that t-shirt and they're like, I want to get that tattooed on me.

507
00:36:03,555 --> 00:36:04,395
That has nothing to do with you.

508
00:36:05,205 --> 00:36:05,445
Right.

509
00:36:05,475 --> 00:36:11,835
So you have to get past that as a founder and as a creator, you have to understand that it has nothing to do with you.

510
00:36:11,835 --> 00:36:16,725
And so I started looking at the brand and the breadth of work that we were putting out.

511
00:36:16,905 --> 00:36:17,925
And I was just like, you know what?

512
00:36:17,925 --> 00:36:19,935
I would have never designed that jacket that way.

513
00:36:20,055 --> 00:36:23,170
That was a compromise that I had with some of the design team here.

514
00:36:23,170 --> 00:36:23,980
They wanted it green.

515
00:36:23,980 --> 00:36:24,819
I wanted it red.

516
00:36:25,359 --> 00:36:27,730
It's not a compromise, it's a collaboration, right?

517
00:36:28,270 --> 00:36:40,960
And now the brand is stronger because it's a mosaic of my vision and all these other talented people who are honestly better at their jobs, younger, their ears are to the ground are fresher.

518
00:36:41,020 --> 00:36:43,060
They're more spirited and engaged and inspired.

519
00:36:43,935 --> 00:36:52,634
To do the work than I could ever be being a 41 year old washed up dad, you know, trying to run a business, still trying to be the cool artists like out in the streets.

520
00:36:52,634 --> 00:36:54,795
Like, no, of course you don't want that.

521
00:36:54,825 --> 00:36:57,555
You want to know what kind of clothing I'm going to design by myself.

522
00:36:57,585 --> 00:36:58,365
It's awful.

523
00:36:59,174 --> 00:37:00,285
Thank God I have a team.

524
00:37:00,345 --> 00:37:07,500
And so I only bring that story up that ended up the anecdote because I think the same way with this project, right?

525
00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:11,850
The more decentralized we get, they're going to look to me as a north star, right?

526
00:37:12,029 --> 00:37:14,580
I'm the inspiration, I'm the Walt Disney of it.

527
00:37:14,700 --> 00:37:21,210
What would Walt do, not Walt, get down and you do it yourself, but what would walk through and what in my mind would walk.

528
00:37:21,825 --> 00:37:25,455
And whatever you think what Walt Disney would do is not necessarily what he would do.

529
00:37:25,485 --> 00:37:25,755
Right?

530
00:37:25,755 --> 00:37:30,435
Like for all we know Walt Disney was like a horrible person by some accounts he was right.

531
00:37:30,525 --> 00:37:30,795
Yeah.

532
00:37:31,445 --> 00:37:32,265
Right, right, right.

533
00:37:32,665 --> 00:37:34,575
I read, I read a lot about Walt Disney.

534
00:37:34,785 --> 00:37:35,205
Yeah.

535
00:37:35,415 --> 00:37:37,365
We don't really want wall to do what Walt does.

536
00:37:37,425 --> 00:37:42,154
We want to do what you Tiffany, and what you, Alexis would think Walt would do and do that.

537
00:37:42,495 --> 00:37:42,855
Right.

538
00:37:42,884 --> 00:37:45,555
And so I'm only one small piece.

539
00:37:45,674 --> 00:37:53,024
I represent like a north star where it's like, okay, try to stay within that realm, but we want your voice is in here, man.

540
00:37:53,024 --> 00:37:55,395
Like, this is what makes the brand so strong.

541
00:37:55,455 --> 00:38:03,734
And the coolest part about the Hundreds is in every season, every generation have different staff, you know, who was working at that time, it's moved.

542
00:38:04,274 --> 00:38:06,375
The personality of it has changed.

543
00:38:06,404 --> 00:38:07,575
The texture of it has changed.

544
00:38:08,325 --> 00:38:09,015
I love that.

545
00:38:09,225 --> 00:38:10,395
It's not just a story of me.

546
00:38:10,395 --> 00:38:11,865
It's really the story of the community.

547
00:38:12,045 --> 00:38:13,875
It was a small staff at the time.

548
00:38:14,325 --> 00:38:19,725
And now with Adam Bomb Squad, we have thousands of people who are lending their voices and adding to the texture of what it is.

549
00:38:19,875 --> 00:38:22,214
And I'm just kind of like an idea right.

550
00:38:22,845 --> 00:38:23,775
In the floating in head.

551
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:28,560
Tiffany: It's really about building something greater than yourself.

552
00:38:29,070 --> 00:38:34,800
Ultimately, whether you're a startup founder, whether you're creating an NFT project, whether you're creating a brand.

553
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:46,770
And I say this to a lot of content creators as well, because a lot of content creators, they think very one dimensional and they're like, Hey, I assume my shelf life is going to be a few years.

554
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:47,700
And that's that?

555
00:38:47,730 --> 00:38:49,890
I'm like, no, you have to think about your community.

556
00:38:50,190 --> 00:38:51,540
If you want this to be a longterm.

557
00:38:52,245 --> 00:38:55,815
Like you have to think holistically about this and you have to make this greater than yourself.

558
00:38:56,205 --> 00:39:03,045
They can't just come to this community because it's you, but because you represent something that they're passionate about,

559
00:39:03,495 --> 00:39:07,095
Bobby: It's romantic to think so, but it's, it's transcendent, right?

560
00:39:07,305 --> 00:39:07,935
It's transcended.

561
00:39:07,995 --> 00:39:10,725
If you want to do an art project.

562
00:39:10,725 --> 00:39:14,475
That's just, you selfish, you stay in your basement and do that.

563
00:39:14,625 --> 00:39:15,795
Those are called hobbies.

564
00:39:16,785 --> 00:39:18,855
Those are hob- those are hobbies.

565
00:39:19,424 --> 00:39:20,964
We all have a hobby, right,right?

566
00:39:22,634 --> 00:39:23,325
Do that.

567
00:39:23,355 --> 00:39:23,815
Do that.

568
00:39:23,835 --> 00:39:25,365
That's self satisfying.

569
00:39:25,395 --> 00:39:28,785
That's for you to have a release, but if you're out here.

570
00:39:29,565 --> 00:39:33,464
To create something that everyone can partake in and benefits the world.

571
00:39:33,585 --> 00:39:37,095
Like I have a line that real artists make the world look better than not themselves.

572
00:39:37,125 --> 00:39:38,924
Like your job is to make the world look better.

573
00:39:38,955 --> 00:39:39,884
That's why we have art.

574
00:39:40,125 --> 00:39:40,964
It's not for you.

575
00:39:41,234 --> 00:39:42,075
It's for everyone.

576
00:39:42,105 --> 00:39:46,815
So you have to think in terms of that in building companies to now, in my opinion,

577
00:39:47,265 --> 00:39:50,535
Tiffany: I love that basement hobby example.

578
00:39:50,595 --> 00:39:52,634
You just said it makes a lot of sense.

579
00:39:53,025 --> 00:39:59,985
And with that, we have one last question, which is if you're stranded on an island, What NFT would you bring?

580
00:40:00,195 --> 00:40:03,645
It can be your collection or any NFT in the world.

581
00:40:04,575 --> 00:40:05,625
Bobby: Oh my gosh.

582
00:40:05,715 --> 00:40:09,615
Um, I mean, I would never leave Adam Bomb Squad.

583
00:40:10,215 --> 00:40:15,615
I have, um, there's an essay I wrote, uh, it's called The Robots.

584
00:40:15,674 --> 00:40:17,235
I minted it early in the year.

585
00:40:17,295 --> 00:40:29,520
It's one of my favorite things I've ever written and it just kind of shares my point of view on what makes human being special in contrast to AI and machines and robots.

586
00:40:30,029 --> 00:40:35,100
And, um, and the, the moral of the story is it's, it's really our imperfections.

587
00:40:35,129 --> 00:40:35,430
Right?

588
00:40:35,730 --> 00:40:39,419
And, um, we have those in order to help heal each other.

589
00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:41,939
And robots don't need that because robots are perfect.

590
00:40:41,939 --> 00:40:45,990
And we always think we want perfection, but really what makes us special is that we're imperfect.

591
00:40:46,319 --> 00:40:50,120
So I wrote this essay and it doesn't, it never really went far ive been shopping around.

592
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:51,920
I try to get it sold through publisher.

593
00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:52,880
I put it up.

594
00:40:52,940 --> 00:40:55,130
As I mentioned, as the NFT, I got a couple of bids.

595
00:40:55,130 --> 00:40:55,940
It kind of died.

596
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:58,790
And I still read that thing all the time and I love it.

597
00:40:58,790 --> 00:41:04,890
And a few people really understood, like Hotson min Hodge, like DMd me once and was like, dude, this thing is crazy.

598
00:41:05,220 --> 00:41:11,654
And I'm like, yeah, that's the one piece of writing that I'm most proud of that one day I'll get recognized for it.

599
00:41:11,685 --> 00:41:13,215
And it's just buried somewhere.

600
00:41:13,634 --> 00:41:15,645
You can see it on my OpenSea but it's just buried there.

601
00:41:15,674 --> 00:41:17,654
And, um, I'm really proud of it.

602
00:41:17,775 --> 00:41:21,875
And I'm not proud of it because it sold for $10 million, like a crypto punk.

603
00:41:22,785 --> 00:41:28,515
You know, I'm not proud of it because I sold 25,000 of them, like Adam Bomb Squad and they sold on dates and nothing to do with that.

604
00:41:28,665 --> 00:41:31,335
I'm proud of it because it really means something to me.

605
00:41:31,335 --> 00:41:33,035
And, and, um, and I believe.

606
00:41:33,950 --> 00:41:35,390
Know, so I love it.

607
00:41:35,720 --> 00:41:37,100
It's probably the robot's essay.

608
00:41:37,610 --> 00:41:38,660
Tiffany: I will go and read that.

609
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:40,640
It sounds amazing.

610
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:43,820
Um, thank you guys for the time today.

611
00:41:43,850 --> 00:41:44,720
This is a lot of fun.

612
00:41:45,260 --> 00:41:47,600
I have a lot of, I have a lot of questions for you.

613
00:41:47,930 --> 00:41:49,040
We'll kick it in LA.

614
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:51,884
Um, yeah.

615
00:41:51,884 --> 00:41:54,194
Alexis: I'm going to buy some more, uh, Adam Bomb Squads.

616
00:41:57,705 --> 00:41:59,685
Tiffany: Alexis, you got to find the robot now.

617
00:41:59,714 --> 00:42:02,835
Like you gotta go by the story, right?

618
00:42:03,015 --> 00:42:03,794
Bobby: I'll never sell it.

619
00:42:03,825 --> 00:42:04,875
Maybe that's what it is too.

620
00:42:04,875 --> 00:42:07,194
I'm like, I want accept any bit it's priceless

621
00:42:07,214 --> 00:42:07,484
Alexis: Okay.

622
00:42:07,484 --> 00:42:08,415
Challenge accepted.

623
00:42:11,835 --> 00:42:12,944
But seriously, thank you, Bobby.

624
00:42:12,944 --> 00:42:13,515
This is great.

625
00:42:13,544 --> 00:42:16,095
Bobby: I love you guys so much.

626
00:42:16,095 --> 00:42:16,544
Thank you.