Trump’s Tariff Threats, Time to Buy Nvidia?, “Cheap” Stocks, & Timbaland on Music and Independence

Summary

Market Mondays - Episode Summary: "Trump’s Tariff Threats, Time to Buy Nvidia?, “Cheap” Stocks, & Timbaland on Music and Independence"

Release Date: February 4, 2025
Host/Authors: Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings, Ian Dunlap

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1. Introduction and Recent Events

The episode kicks off with hosts Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings, and Ian Dunlap expressing excitement over the eventful past two weeks. Rashad shares his recent experience attending a Mastermind event in Atlanta, highlighting its immense value for trading, investing, and networking. The hosts commend Troy's insightful presentation on AI frameworks, emphasizing the wealth of knowledge shared.

Notable Quote:
Troy Millings [02:45]: "When you hear information and it's good information, it's just advantageous. It's like you just start writing down..."

2. Upcoming Episodes and Events

Rashad announces a special Blackout episode featuring Roland Martin to discuss timely issues, alongside a YouTube live session on Thursday at 9:00 PM EST focusing on quick strategies to boost credit scores with guest Shonda Martin. Additionally, Rashad reveals plans for an exclusive event at Carnegie Hall on February 27th, celebrating his birthday with performances by legendary artists like Timbaland and Sam Smith.

Notable Quote:
Rashad Bilal [03:49]: "We're gonna be watching earnings. We'll see what happens for sure."

3. Trump’s Tariff Threats: Economic Implications

A significant portion of the discussion centers on former President Trump's recent imposition of tariffs: 25% on Mexico and Canada, and 10% on China. The hosts delve into the mechanics of tariffs, explaining how they increase costs for American businesses and consumers by forcing companies to raise prices to maintain profit margins.

Notable Quote:
Rashad Bilal [25:01]: "If you want to take a swing at AMD, even though Troy and I had a spirited debate, can't wait to see the thing pieces on it."

Economic Impact:

• American Consumers: Increased prices on imported goods like board games, lumber, avocados, and electronics.
• Retaliatory Measures: Potential tariffs from affected countries could lead to reduced exports and economic strain.
• Stock Market Reaction: Initial market drop followed by a rebound after Mexico agrees to send 10,000 troops to the border to combat fentanyl smuggling.

Notable Quote:
Ian Dunlap [32:26]: "Historically, tariffs never worked out. I think sometimes everyone there's a part of business that is dog eat dog, very malicious, very grimy."

4. Nvidia’s Earnings and Stock Market Forecast

The conversation shifts to Nvidia's upcoming earnings report scheduled for February 26th. The hosts debate whether Nvidia’s performance can stabilize or boost the broader stock market amidst the current economic tensions.

Notable Quote:
Ian Dunlap [18:23]: "If we're gonna be very honest, will it help? Yes. But I think more importantly, the political fears need to ease."

Key Points:

• Earnings Expectations: Nvidia’s ability to exceed expectations could provide a market uplift.
• Broader Market Influence: Nvidia’s performance is seen as a bellwether for tech sector health.
• Potential Risks: High expectations mean limited room for disappointment, possibly leading to volatility.

Notable Quote:
Troy Millings [55:55]: "Every analyst has kept the same average price 12 months price target. It's at 172."

5. Investing in "Cheap" and Bulletproof Stocks

The hosts discuss strategies for identifying resilient stocks amidst geopolitical risks and economic instability. They recommend investing in companies with strong fundamentals and minimal exposure to international tensions.

Recommended Stocks:

1. Visa
2. American Express
3. MasterCard
4. Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)
5. Meta
6. McDonald's
7. CrowdStrike
8. Palo Alto Networks
9. Cloudflare

Notable Quote:
Ian Dunlap [14:43]: "Visa, American Express, MasterCard, Meta, FICO and McDonald's. It doesn't matter what Deep Sea creates or however they take your intellectual property."

Investment Philosophy:

• Diversification: Building a portfolio that can withstand various threats.
• Focus on Essentials: Prioritizing companies that continue to generate cash flow regardless of external pressures.

Notable Quote:
Troy Millings [65:20]: "It's the part. Right. So when we do the, the, this timeline, right."

6. Special Guest: Timbaland on Music and AI

The episode features a special segment with renowned music producer Timbaland, who shares his insights on the intersection of music and artificial intelligence. Timbaland discusses how AI tools have revolutionized his creative process, allowing for rapid experimentation and enhancement of his music production.

Key Insights:

• AI as a Creative Tool: Timbaland emphasizes AI’s role in elevating his production capabilities and fostering creativity.
• Future of Music Production: Anticipates a significant transformation in how music is created and consumed, driven by AI advancements.
• Collaboration with Independent Artists: Highlights the importance of working with up-and-coming talent to maintain innovation and relevance.

Notable Quote:
Timbaland [81:10]: "AI is really for people that are hyper creative. It makes me feel like a kid again. It makes me rethink my own beats different."

Business and Ownership:
Timbaland touches upon the strategic structuring of his company, Versus, focusing on ownership and sustainable growth without succumbing to industry pressures.

Notable Quote:
Timbaland [88:02]: "It's about commitment, consistency and knowing that it's going to take time."

7. Closing Remarks and Future Outlook

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reiterate the importance of strategic investing amidst volatile market conditions and encourage listeners to participate in upcoming events. They emphasize the value of robust investment plans and asset protection strategies, especially in uncertain economic times.

Notable Quote:
Rashad Bilal [75:53]: "So you gotta buy good companies. Microsoft is a good company, Nvidia is a good company..."

Upcoming Highlights:

• Blackout Episode with Roland Martin: Exploring whether Democrats have compromised the black community.
• YouTube Live on Credit Scores: Practical tips for improving credit health.
• Exclusive Carnegie Hall Event: Featuring performances by top artists and discussions on financial literacy.

Final Notable Quote:
Timberland [116:31]: "Nothing was compared to you. You a thousand percent right about that."

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Conclusion

This episode of Market Mondays offers a comprehensive analysis of current economic policies, their implications on the stock market, and strategic investment insights. The inclusion of Timbaland provides a unique perspective on the evolving landscape of music and technology. With actionable advice and expert opinions, listeners gain valuable knowledge to navigate the complexities of investing and personal finance in 2025.

Transcript

[Rashad Bilal]

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[Troy Millings]

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[Ian Dunlap]

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[Troy Millings]

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[Rashad Bilal]

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[Troy Millings]

All right, we back. We back. We are back. Happy Monday.

[Ian Dunlap]

Another glorious Monday. How y'all doing?

[Troy Millings]

All right, man. These Mondays are getting more and more, more active. Last Monday, crazy. This Monday, a lot of news, a lot to talk about. A lot of talk about a ton. Everybody take a deep breath.

[Rashad Bilal]

Never at all moments.

[Troy Millings]

This has been an exciting two weeks.

[Rashad Bilal]

Mic check, mike check. One, two, one, two.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, boy. We here. Yep, we live. All right.

[Ian Dunlap]

Bet, bet, bet, bet, bet. Let's go.

[Rashad Bilal]

Mike check. All right, we got a special guest that's going to be joining us later on in the show, but there's a lot to talk about. First and foremost, shout out to everybody. I was at the Mastermind.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

In Atlanta. That was amazing. I was one of the ones. So much information when it comes to trading, investing, I AI networking was on a thousand. That. That's one of the ones, man. That was tremendously undervalued. That's from that Black Friday sale. So that's tremendously undervalued for sure. So yeah, that was one of the ones, man. You know, when it comes to so much information, man, tremendously undervalued, man. If you missed it, don't miss it again. That's all I gotta say.

[Ian Dunlap]

I think it was, everybody. Best presentation if we're gonna be honest, Troy had 90 slides. I went into all my prompts. We'll talk about, I guess, later. But he killed it on AI and AI frameworks.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, that. That was. That was great. I actually was in. I got to sit down and just be like a spectator during the AI piece. So I was taking those when you was up there. I was taking notes. It's just one of those. When you hear information and it's good information, it's just advantageous. It's like you just start writing down, like, hold on, let me type that down. And then watching everybody do it. Like, everybody had their iPad, they had their notepad, they was recording. They didn't want to miss anything. Shout out to everybody that was in the building. It was definitely, definitely a learning experience, for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. So, you know, you'll probably be seeing some Instagram clips or whatever, but, man, that was the. The information that was provided in. That was just.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yep.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. At least a hundred thousand dollars worth of information. All right, so we got a lot to talk about. It's going to be a. A great episode. This week on Blackout, we got our guy Roland Martin joining. Very timely.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm asking conversations.

[Troy Millings]

I know what y'all want to ask.

[Rashad Bilal]

And this week on Thursday, following up on our series, the live series that we've been doing, this will be a live. This will be a YouTube live at 9:00 Eastern Standard time, where we're going to go over how to boost your credit score quickly. The quickest ways to boost your credit score. Shonda Martin.

[Ian Dunlap]

Okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Last year we did an episode with her. Over 400, 000 views.

[Troy Millings]

Absolutely. She's incredible.

[Rashad Bilal]

One of the ones. So 9:00 Eastern Standard Time or early, just YouTube. How to boost your credit score quickly.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. And February is that month. I know Everybody got their W2s. Everybody's trying to file for their tax return. Before you use any of that money, let's get our affairs in order. Let's get our affairs in order, make sure our credit straight, make sure we have savings, make sure we have a budget, make sure we have a plan before we do anything. Yeah, so we have a plan.

[Rashad Bilal]

All right, let's get into it. Ian, anything you'd like to say?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, Stock club call will be tonight, 9pm Central. I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation that we have from this weekend. Go over some prompting information so you can learn how to invest in the market. I want to give a quick notice before we start for everyone who's asking if they should sell off the portfolio because Elon is going to steal all my personal data. Biggest mistake you make in your life. Just like that. TerraForGot Presidente Shine Bomb and Senior Trump for working out their affairs. You have to if you got. Hey, you got to work it out. That's a good lesson. Sometimes you have to appreciate what you have, the trade agreement and work things out.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

I mean it's war and it's not worth it.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. That's the art of war. Don't go to war. Like sometimes you don't have the leverage and you got to figure this thing out for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

And if you want to get rich from the market and want to know where to get in, where to get out. I told you about the drop in Nvidia before the deep seat information came out and that what Bitcoin was going to go to. Go to Ian invest dot com. Join the Red Panda Stock Club. Over 95 prices are in for this month. Gym of the day trading secrets how to trade the futures market. Go to ianvest.com if you want to get rich from investing in the market.

[Troy Millings]

Hey, you forgot something, man. Oh, come on.

[Timberland]

Come on.

[Troy Millings]

Don't make me do it.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, no, no. And my baby. Shout out to Xander. His birthday is on Friday. My baby's going to be 10. I love you so much. You mean the world to me. You've been my greatest muse and greatest inspiration. I can't wait to have a blast with you this weekend. Go to bed. Don't let mom come in and see that. You on YouTube right now, but I love you dearly. You mean everything to me.

[Rashad Bilal]

Happy birthday.

[Troy Millings]

Happy birthday to Xander.

[Rashad Bilal]

My dad's birthday is on Thursday too, so. Happy birthday.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh, that's dope. Yeah, yeah.

[Troy Millings]

He watching. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

[Rashad Bilal]

Happy birthday to him. 75th birthday.

[Troy Millings]

Oh man, we got amazing.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. The party.

[Rashad Bilal]

Do something.

[Ian Dunlap]

We gotta celebrate.

[Troy Millings]

Gotta celebrate that. I mean every year you gotta celebrate for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's a fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

For sure.

[Troy Millings]

75, one of them numbers, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

Almost 80. So yeah. Happy birthday. Aquarius season. Aquarius and Pisces is like family. February. It's all February love. Yeah. So shout out to all my. Everybody that I ever met that was Aquarius has been good people I never really met bad Aquarius. So Aquarius has always been good energy, good people, good vibes.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

I can't say the same thing about.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, go ahead.

[Rashad Bilal]

Put in chat.

[Ian Dunlap]

What zodiac sign he what do you.

[Troy Millings]

Have problems with the Scorpio?

[Rashad Bilal]

What's the most toxic? What's the most toxic sign. Put in chat.

[Troy Millings]

They always say Scorpio. Who you going with?

[Ian Dunlap]

I'll go with the consensus of Scorpio.

[Troy Millings]

Okay, okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Put in chat. Put in chat. January Capricorns. Just January.

[Troy Millings]

Capricorn.

[Rashad Bilal]

Man, shout out to Chris.

[Troy Millings]

I know why you said that. Oh, man. I've been here for a while, folks. I'm here for a while. Look, do your own research. In all walks of life, do your own research. Our content is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances. You should take independent financial advice from a professional in connection with or independently research and verify any information that you find on our show and wish to rely upon whether for the purpose of making an investment decision or otherwise continue the research. Shout out to everybody that pulled up on us again and showed us the actual facts from doing research. Right? What the outcome was. Portfolios. Those brokerage accounts were looking crazy, man. I was impressed. I was humbled by it. So shout out to y'all. And of course, of course, shout out to Queen Bee finally.

[Ian Dunlap]

Sure.

[Troy Millings]

She got her album of the year last night. And of course, shout out to Kendrick for five. Five Grammys for that. That song that was ringing off last year. Two hands.

[Ian Dunlap]

When Dr. Dre and Lucian, I said.

[Troy Millings]

Yo did the patty cake five. That's crazy.

[Rashad Bilal]

So we gonna get into it. There's a lot to talk about. But the first, before we gonna talk about the tariffs for sure. But before we start, can we talk about the truth about Deep Seek situation?

[Troy Millings]

Let's talk about it.

[Rashad Bilal]

And what do you think about the situation? Since last week?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, since last week. I feel like a documentary worth of information has come out. From what I was told, they have 40,000 H1 hundreds, not 50. But still a significant spin, the 6 million dollar number that's been floating around to my journalists. I love you all, but I think everyone needs to start doing better reporting and not just copying what you heard off of a block. That was for the last round of testing. My question is hypothetically and allegedly, how did they get 40,000h1 hundreds into China for this company? All the more reason when people kept being like, deep Seek's gonna kill Nvidia. If I'm selling to the competitor allegedly and I'm selling to everyone in the States, how am I going to lose? Talk about true diversification. And I find it really interesting that as this war is heated up that Sam Altman dropped 03 mini high to combat it. But it being open sourced, everything the deep seat is doing right now to be open AI was the original plan that they had when him and Elon were teamed up. Non profit, open source, open data. You're seeing the reasoning and the breakdown of why sometimes. And I don't think Sam is probably a perfect person and neither is Elon. But we, one day we have to talk about karma when you don't do good in your business relationships, how your competitors will use your advantage that you once had against you. So I think it's fascinating that he screwed Elon out of open AI and now his biggest threat is the weapon that he created with Eli.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I'm with you on it. I think one of the, the, the regulations that were put in, in place for the semiconductor space was that you can't sell to China. And then they started doing the hey, we'll give them modified. And then it was like, oh, we can't give them modified. So maybe they got in between some of that litigation. Right, but we spoke about this over the weekend, right? The one thing that we talk about, the money for the H1, the hopper is that's questionable, right? That's, that's a big spin. But some of the information that wasn't spoken about was the energy cost, right? Like how much energy did it take for them to actually get this to run at the, the level it's running. The fact that it's open source by definition means that everyone could use it, anybody can modify it and anyone can distribute it for free. Now if you leave something open source, that just to me means that more people will use it. So if more people are going strategy, more people use it, then you're going to need more energy, right? So if you need more energy, that means you're going to need more GPUs, right? Because you have to have your actual open source running at a high level. That means spend. So if you need more gpus, then you're going to need more infrastructure to house those gpus. And so you start thinking like, wait, what are they really saying? Right? At some point they're using the hoppers, but at some point, yes, Black will pass that and Reuben will pass that and then it'll be something. So they'll have to spend at some point, right? If they haven't spent already. So just be mindful, like when you hear things and you see like, obviously the market took a huge hit in semi space took a hit and MG space took a hit. Some of them have not rebounded but had a nice little bounce back up.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yep.

[Troy Millings]

Look at the keywords and take a deeper dive into what's actually being said. Right. Can this kill the space? Oh, probably not. Is it a more efficient way to do business? We'll have to see. Right. One thing that we know is that when it comes to numbers and being upfront with numbers and providing all the data and the information, they haven't done that.

[Ian Dunlap]

We know that China isn't the most revealing when it comes to the information that you may need. But the international war, this is the new arms race for sure. Whoever dominates this space is going to have a 10 or 20 year run in the market. So the competition is real. Just to spend was not accurate. And also it's a lot easier to build a model if you have two years to look and copy. I know some of y'all tried that in your business. It didn't work. I saw one of y'all creep out the little ground like Thriller. Right Back in the ground right after Black History Month. I'm gonna let you live because this is what Dr. King dreamed of. But when March come, what baby say?

[Troy Millings]

What baby face say? All right, go do that.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, go do that.

[Troy Millings]

Go do that. Go do that.

[Ian Dunlap]

And you can't be pro ESG and pro AI and chip, they conflict. We told you long ago that ESG thing was some bs. Exxon was at the top of the.

[Troy Millings]

We gonna need more than ever if we gonna win this race. Which is like you said, that's the goal. And I think that's a bipartisan like mission. Right. Like we have to win this race.

[Ian Dunlap]

Have to.

[Troy Millings]

We're going to. We're going to need more power.

[Rashad Bilal]

What. What are six Deep Seek proof stocks to invest in if someone is concerned about an AI chip crash?

[Ian Dunlap]

This is a great question and I want to be clear. Deep Seek is a threat, but it's not the biggest threat to our market by a long shot. But three that I love. Visa for sure. Go look at this stock.

[Troy Millings]

I got that.

[Ian Dunlap]

American Express. Great Monster light, American Express second, MasterCard, third Fair Isaac Corporation. So FICO will be fourth. Meta I will put at fifth. And then McDonald's would be the sixth company that I would consider would never be affected. So visa, American Express, MasterCard, Meta, FICO and McDonald's. It doesn't matter what Deep Sea creates or however they take your intellectual property. The interesting part, even about Deep Seek, like if you ran, what is the sourcing for it? Most of it was open AI modeling. It would tell you that in the prompt which is crazy as hell.

[Troy Millings]

I'm add two for sure. So we'll just make it eight because I think Visa is a strong one. In fact I had the leader. Yeah I put Visa in inside the portfolio probably in April and was was talking about just the, the stranglehold that they had on this space. Like obviously they have competitors but just then even their partnerships. I know they just announced something with, with Elon that they're going to be doing on Twitter. Visa's there. But I think especially when we're talking about hey, data, data, data. When I hear that coming from a foreign entity, I always think cyber security.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right.

[Troy Millings]

So CrowdStrike number one would be in that list for me for sure. Right. In terms of cyber security, Palo Alto would be in there as well. Those two inside that space of like, hey, if deepseek is, is able to succeed or it's able to crack some of the market, there's going to be some security definitely that's going to be put in this way. And as a barrier and as a protection, I think those type of companies make sense. Cloudfare is another one. I know that's like, that's like a sleeper but cloud would be another one of those two.

[Ian Dunlap]

On a side note, if you sit, quit coming to events, trying to shake Rashad hand, coughing in his face, trying to give them cover. 22 rude.

[Timberland]

Yo yo.

[Ian Dunlap]

I just got the bird flu but.

[Timberland]

I really a little under the weather.

[Ian Dunlap]

But stop.

[Troy Millings]

I appreciate that.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah sweaty palms but come on, please save the influenza. But a great note on investing is that you have to and I said this to Stock club last night, you have to build a portfolio. When you're looking at the SWOT analysis, start with all the threats that are there. Your portfolio has to be able to sustain any threat that is on the market. So geopolitical risk, bad leadership inside of the country, country doing better technology, technological advancements in other countries, degradation of innovation from said company that you like to invest in. Write all the threats and then like McDonald's. No matter if Deep Seek destroys open AI, McDonald's is still going to be okay. These are still going to print cash hand over hand and look at the profit margin. Probably could add Striker to that list too if you wanted to. But you need bomb proof stocks to put in your portfolio, most of which are in Red Panda Stock club. Once again go to Ian invest.com if you want to get it back from investing in the market and you don't want to have to guess and go through 40 hours of material of what to what to buy. So.

[Rashad Bilal]

All right, now let's talk about Nvidia. They got their earnings coming up soon, so they need to blow out earnings expectations to save the stock market.

[Troy Millings]

Circular calendars, February 26th, that's the date.

[Ian Dunlap]

If we're gonna be very honest, will it help? Yes. But I think more importantly, I think the political fears, intentions need to ease. Trump been going crazy with that executive order pin and the biggest lesson here is that no market likes instability. So when you're saying, hey, I'm gonna put tariffs on India and China and Singapore and every country on earth and then ultimately those costs are going to get passed on to us, that needs to ease. We need to understand what interest rates are going to do and what's really going to happen. So when you have a safe and non volatile environment, that is what is going to push the stock market higher. I think waiting for Nvidia to save the day, like how broad Polinka think LUCA is going to do for LA is a mistake.

[Troy Millings]

So yeah, no, I think they're gonna have a great, a great quarter. It's just a matter of what people determine, what grade is right. Like if we see margins that are 60% technically that's down from 87 from last quarter, is that great anymore? So that'll be interesting. Blackwell is supposed to be reporting inside of this quarter. So we'll see some of the sales from there, the increase spend. From what Meta has said, from what Amazon has said, from what Microsoft said, I'm sure it's going to help it. And all these AI prompts, right? Deep SEQ or it's open AI again, it speaks to the business that Nvidia has. When they ask what gpus that they're using, is very candid who they're using, right? They're telling you Nvidia. But I mean if you look at last week, if we watch Jensen's travel, he made a stop to 1600 Pennsylvania.

[Ian Dunlap]

Nobody bigger than the program you sold it over and you went to Singapore through a third party, come have a conversation.

[Troy Millings]

So he, you know, obviously the tariffs go into effect at I think midnight tonight. Denton made the trip to the White House last week to have a conversation with Trump. The conversation hasn't been released, so the excerpts of what had happened during the conversation. But I mean we've seen what has happened to every other CEO who's visited. So we'll see.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, we'll see. I mean the thing about it, like you said, I mean it's not really so much of if they're gonna outperform expectations, as if the market is happy with that level of outperformance. So they set the bar very high and there's nowhere, there's nowhere to go for disappointment. So it's like, it's like LeBron like. I mean, when you have, when you're excellent for so long, you only can go down as far as public opinion is concerned. So Drake is another one. So the market is not really reacting off of numbers. It's. It's more sentiment.

[Troy Millings]

It's true.

[Rashad Bilal]

Tesla was negative and they went up. So Nvidia could still be positive and still go down for sure. And if they go down, then there's going to be a domino effect for the whole industry.

[Troy Millings]

So, yeah, top and bottom line for.

[Rashad Bilal]

Tesla, we'll, We'll see. But just be prepared that just, just because they have what you think is good earnings doesn't necessarily mean that that'll be a. So just be careful.

[Ian Dunlap]

Just wait till after earnings. For sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

Speaking of the 26th of February, I forgot to mention, but February 27th, talk about it. Talk about it is my actual birthday.

[Troy Millings]

It's his birthday.

[Rashad Bilal]

Ladies and gentlemen, Pisces.

[Troy Millings]

Yes.

[Rashad Bilal]

So, you know, every year for the birthday, do something crazy. Last year was Prince and Mink's legendary party.

[Ian Dunlap]

What a time.

[Troy Millings]

That was pretty historic time to be alive.

[Rashad Bilal]

That was a pretty historic vibe. And for the last three years, we've been doing, We've been playing Carnegie hall. And for sure, two years ago this year is actually on my birthday. Again, Carnegie, if you're not familiar when I say we play Carnegie Hall. So Robert Smith, I'm not sure if you're familiar with him or not, but do tell.

[Troy Millings]

Elaborate on this. This gentleman you speak of.

[Rashad Bilal]

He's a. He's a pretty wealthy guy, man, $8 billion. I think his net worth is one of the richest black people in world history. Good friend of ours, great guy. And, you know, he's on the board of Carnegie Hall. So every, every February he does an event, financial literacy business event. And then they have a legendary rapper that. Because, you know, if you don't know Carnegie Halls is what is the opera house where they do like live musicals. So. And then they play with a live band. So two years ago was Busta Rhymes, he played with a live band. Last year it was Rick Ross, he played with a live band. Like I said, we come in and we interview people. So we interviewed Robert Smith one year we interviewed Westmoreland, we interview, we interviewed like, great. So this year, yeah, the lineup is Robert Smith. He'll be there. We will. We will be there. CEO of Louis Vuitton will be in the building. And as far as far as musical performances, we got none other than one of the greatest of all time, the Guard. Rock him.

[Troy Millings]

It's the original God mc.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Ian Dunlap]

For real.

[Rashad Bilal]

All you hip Hop Kim will be performing with a live orchestra man. Paid in full. Literally.

[Troy Millings]

That's a fact. That is a fact. Literally paid in full with the BBS's.

[Rashad Bilal]

Probably have some more. So if you want tickets but this is a situation where you gotta wear a tuxedo. This is like a tuxedo gown type vibe. This, that black excellence like you want to see Rich Lou, Dennis, all of it like this is that they all.

[Troy Millings]

In the building for this, this stuff.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like excellence fob go to carnegie hall.org power network and there is a discount code. Discount code is EYL53298 not sure how to came with that number.

[Troy Millings]

I was just thinking this.

[Rashad Bilal]

EYL 53298 Carnegie Hall.org Power Network February 27th all the movers and shakers will be in the building. It's my birthday. We're probably gonna do something afterwards as well.

[Troy Millings]

Yo, so separate. Don't even ask about that. And I don't know, so don't ask.

[Rashad Bilal]

Invite only. Don't tell us Slouch. If you get the invite, that's a ball.

[Troy Millings]

I like that. I like that.

[Rashad Bilal]

Invites for you. It's not transferable.

[Troy Millings]

Don't tell us.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, the invite's not transferable.

[Ian Dunlap]

Please can my guy go instead of me? Is crazy.

[Rashad Bilal]

Legendary crazy. If you want to bring somebody, at least bring a female. Don't bring the whole crew.

[Ian Dunlap]

Last year was a movie though. I don't know why you put up the documentary footage.

[Troy Millings]

Preferably.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, we're gonna do something again this year. You, you'll be getting the special invitation. The golden package that self destructs after you open it. It's like impossible preferred like Mission Impossible. This message will self destruct after reading. All right.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. So meet us there. Meet us there.

[Rashad Bilal]

Carnegie Hall. Shout out to Robert Smith, man. For sure.

[Troy Millings]

Shout out to Lou Lou, what's going on?

[Rashad Bilal]

Shout out to Rakim too. He got a new financial literacy platform that he just launched.

[Troy Millings]

That's a fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Troy Millings]

It's to help artists. It's called notes. So yeah, we'll be talking more about this.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so now let's get into the. To the moment of the day, the tariff war that has been launched. So okay, first it's important to understand I think what tariffs are because a lot of times people think that it's like, okay, if you put 25 tariffs on Mexico, then Mexican government or Mexican companies have to pay that tariff to send. So what happens is that like a company like Walmart, right, who gets a lot of products from China for sure. So when they get products from China now they'll have to pay that 10% to import board games made in China, right? So if they were spending $10 million on board games made from China shipped to their warehouse, now they would have to pay 10, 10, 11 million. They would have to pay $11 million because you have to have a million dollar surplus which is 10. And they, China got hit with the 10, so they would, they would pay 11 million instead of 10 million, right? So what happens is that how it affects everyday Americans is that they would increase the price. They're not going to take a loss on their profit margins, right? So if the board Games was now $50, then they would increase it, whatever they needed to increase to, to make sure they still making a profit margin. So yeah, 50 might go to 55, right? To stay in line with that 10 that they have to pay. So now you pay $5 for every board game instead of more than the 50 that you would have paid. And that's true for lumber coming from Canada, that's true from avocados coming from Mexico, that's true from technology coming from China, all of the aboard cars, all that. And then there's retaliatory tariffs that these countries said that they would levy against American products. But the problem is that American is a consumer based land where we import a lot of stuff, right? We don't really necessarily make a lot of stuff, even chips. Like we import a lot of technology, we import a lot of the consumer goods we import. If you look at fashion, sneakers, all shoe wear, all that stuff is imported. So that is, it's harmful as far as that. We would have to like redesign our economy to start making things here in America as opposed to shipping it. But it affects these other countries because what also happens is that they will probably start to order less of something. So that would hurt the local businesses in those particular countries. So it's been said that it actually could send Canada and Mexico into a recession for sure. So on news of that, the stock market dropped pretty drastically overnight. And it was a lot of information about how, you know, tariffs don't really work historically. The last time we had a real massive tariff plan, the country went into a great Recession, the Great Depression and then after that when the country started booming, that was when you hear this term free trade, that's what America started to free trade, right. Where they realized that it doesn't work to tax other countries. We have to do free trade and bring the products in. And that's actually what made the economy the number, the biggest economy in the world. But they're saying that it's going too far now and that they have to then just fit in all things interesting because usually if tariffs is because of economic situations or people feel like they, you know, usually it's not because of illegal drugs. But Trump has made a major push on immigration, illegal immigration and fentanyl. So long story short, he, he announced 25 tariffs on Mexico, 25 tariffs on Canada and 10 tariffs on China in.

[Troy Millings]

Addition to the 10 that he put.

[Rashad Bilal]

The last time to start tomorrow Tuesday. And market reacted negatively but it kind of rebounded a little bit, especially when news broke that from Mexico it would be a 30 day extension on this because the president of Mexico agreed to send 10000 troops to the border immediately try to carve the smuggling of fentanyl amongst other things. So now it becomes a situation where because he said like this will cause some short term pain, but it's gonna, it's gonna be long term, it's gonna be good for the country. So is this a situation of bad governance as far as starting wars with our allies, or is it a situation of great deal making and chicken, Right. The winner, the winner of the game of chicken is the person who has the strongest nerves and the biggest gun, right? Like if you pull out a pistol and I got a bazooka, 9 times out of 10 the bazooka is going to win. So you play bully ball with Mexico and Canada. China's might be a little tough, but it's still some level of negotiation. It leaves some level of negotiation. If, if you can actually think, if they think that you're serious about something then, then we have to sit at a table and try to figure this thing out.

[Ian Dunlap]

Is it an issue of bad governance? I'll go to Milton Friedman's quote, if we're in a boat together and I shoot into the bottom of the boat with tariffs, would it be smart for the other countries to retaliate and then shoot in the boat again to add in, in terms of retaliation, we all end up losing and drowning together. I've never sat in the president's seat, of course, so I don't know how stressful that job could be. But if you look historically, like you said, it's never worked out. I think sometimes everyone there's a part of business that is dog eat dog, very malicious, very grimy. The higher you ascend, though, you have to find a way to say, hey, this isn't good for either country. And I think Presidente Shine Bomb extended an offer to say, hey, I'm going to send some people to the border because we don't want to go out to allout war. The Mexican peso, the value dropped. The value of the Canadian dollar dropped as well. But at the highest level, how brill business has done is saying, hey, this is going to end badly for both of us. What can we do to mitigate this? And what concessions can I make that you need on my end and what concessions can you make so no one suffers? When we get into this jousting between countries and nations and leaderships, it hurts our country really bad. And a lot of short term decision making hurts us long term. Going back to the post you guys made a couple weeks ago, like Chicago selling out that parking garage for a short term need for the city. And now another country is making billions off of that. So I pray that they find a way to come to a resolution so that we can get along. Because China is the real enemy or bully that we have to worry about.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

And I think the direct people who are going to be affected is the American people for sure. You're talking about prices going up, you're talking about groceries, you're talking about, they said the average car, obviously, because we import a lot of car. Average car price is going to go up by 3 to $5,000. Electronics for sure are going to go up in price. People are looking at Best Buy stock as a company that like they may take the toughest hit because a lot of their stuff comes from overseas, the toy market. So you're talking about Target and all these consumer discretionary stores. 85% of the toys that come in America are made in China. So like you said, these companies are going to say, hey, we'll just pay this. They're just going to raise the prices. And obviously the American population is going to have to take those prices. So the first thing is like, yeah, we'll make more stuff here. Well, it's going to cost you more to make more stuff here. And then if they think people are making domestic products and they have no international barriers, they're going to say, all right, well if we have no competition, then we can just price gauge, we'll make it to a price where we think that it should be. There is no competition coming from anywhere else, which hurts. On the opposite end is like if you're looking at it from the Fed standpoint, if we see people watch prices go up and they stop spending, well, those are indications that hey, if people are slowing down on spending, can we bring down inflation? Right. So like there's a, there's a big game to play. But it ultimately comes down to a leverage situation. Right. Who can withstand this longer? When you look at the GDP for Mexico, 35 of its GDP comes from exports from the US how long can you withstand going to war with them? You can't. Like that's nearly half of your gross domestic is coming from the U.S. canada, 22 of their GDP comes from U. S. Exports. So you're talking about a quarter of whatever the country brings in. A quarter of it is coming from the US in terms of exports.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yep.

[Troy Millings]

On the inverse, 1% of the GDP for the United States comes from Mexico. Mexico and 1.5 from Canada. So if we, if we're going to play this like the long game, I know the president is saying, hey, it's going to be some short term pain, but eventually we'll get to this point where, hey, we're now back in the position where we need to be. Where we're, we're not getting quote unquote bullied. It's dangerous. Right. Because how long countries can do this. But the individual person, like you're putting a lot of things in jeopardy for the everyday person.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, we think of the same thing. Go ahead.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's either two ways how this is going to play out. Either the tariffs go through and it's probably going to be harmful or he's, he's negotiating and it's going to be helpful because he's going to be able to get what he wants. So Brick, I mean Trump, he's not stupid. You don't get to this level of life without being intelligent. Now you can say I'm a MAGA supporter if you want to, but I'm just a rational person. I don't think that he's stupid. That's just my opinion.

[Ian Dunlap]

And not to cut you off, but is he too short sighted and too transactional to not think about what will happen in three or four years?

[Rashad Bilal]

Here's what I think he's doing. I think that he's, he's bullying his way to get what he wants. There's a few ways to get what you want in life. There's a diplomatic way to go about it. And then there's a bully way to go about it. The quickest way to get what you want in life is a bully way. But that, that usually leads to problems later on for sure. If I want something out of you, I can sit, I can have a conversation and we can come to an understanding. Or I could beat you to a. And take. Take the money out of your pocket. I can get it that way. But six months down the line, you're gonna remember this. Right. And when.

[Troy Millings]

Six years, six years, ten.

[Rashad Bilal]

However long it takes years, your son might remember whatever. Like I publicly humiliated you.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yep.

[Rashad Bilal]

There's going to be some level of repercussions for that. I don't think he cares about that though. But I think that he can't be getting what he wants right now in this moment.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

And you can't, you can't argue with. I mean, you can't argue with it. He wanted to. You have more fights for fentanyl and they get 10, 000 troops now. He got what he wanted in less than 24 hours. So.

[Troy Millings]

Right. Right.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's worked. Canada cannot survive. Yeah. Mexico cannot survive this. So he gotta get what he wants. Now the thing about it too is like it's fitting all the biggest thing in the world. Now I am sensitive to drug abusers for sure. But I also understand that a country's appetite for drugs will not change unless it's morally based. Meaning you look at the countries that have low drugs. That's these. These countries are not democratic countries. They're not. These countries are based on moral standards of society. Like even if they are democratically based, they're still like. Japan is a morally standard based country. Right. Saudi Arabia, the uae, like you go to Asia, these countries are based on moral standards that supersede military might. Japan, Japan doesn't even have a military. Really. So we can do everything. Drugs. The war on drugs has never worked and it never will work because this.

[Ian Dunlap]

Work for who it's supposed to work for. That's another.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm saying as far as stopping drugs in America.

[Timberland]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's not going to work. You could send 20, 000 troops to the border. It's not going to work because Americans have an insatiable appetite for drugs.

[Ian Dunlap]

Who planted that here though? And truth be told. So you're sending troops to the wrong border because you're afraid of Gigi Ping.

[Troy Millings]

Well, that's the part. Right. So when we do the, the, this timeline, right. You look at where. So fentanyl is, is the drug. Well, fentanyl is made in what country?

[Ian Dunlap]

Been telling you China. Even the COVID which now everyone knows is a bioweapon that was sent to destroy our economy. And Trump fumbled how to handle that.

[Troy Millings]

I see where you're going with it, right? So, like, he put.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's why he put. He included China 10.

[Troy Millings]

Well, that's what I'm saying.

[Rashad Bilal]

So the triangle, it comes.

[Troy Millings]

I see where you're going with it, Right? Like, how many times are they gonna. We're gonna see, like, hey, this is an intentional attack, Right? So, yeah, Covet, we know where it started in Wuhan, right? Fake fentanyl created in China. You tie Mexico into it by saying it's being illegally snuck into the country from their border. Right. And so rather than saying, let's send troops there, let's send troops to the border to stop smuggling it in. Not to say, like, hey, let's stop. We're not going to the source.

[Rashad Bilal]

We can't. We don't have a border with China.

[Troy Millings]

Well, that's true. No, I'm saying not send them to the border.

[Ian Dunlap]

We won't go to war with them because we're afraid.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, but I'm saying he's putting tariffs on China, and part of that is that they have to try to stop the, the, the export. And they said that they've already done a lot to try to stop the export. But what I'm saying is this. A war on drugs is not going to work. Because a warrant. If as long as people want drugs, they're going to get it. And a society that has no normal social equity, as far as what we have, standards, you've seen somebody. We got all kinds of degradation in this society. The other countries don't have that. We've normalized. So we've degraded our moral compass so low as a, as a country, of course, we always gonna have a drug problem. Like, it's normalized. So you go to these other countries, you see that they don't have drugs. There's no drugs in Singapore. Like, that ain't gonna be like, yeah, of course, you might have one or two people that can get whatever, you know, a pill here, some weed here. But as a whole, there's no drugs in Singapore. There's really no drugs in Japan. Like, I seen Jim Jones, he said he was sober for the first time in 30 years when he was in Tokyo.

[Ian Dunlap]

There's no planet here, though.

[Rashad Bilal]

But what I'm saying is that there's drugs planted in other places, but the society has not Normalized it. So what I'm saying, all I'm saying is that I'm, I'm, I'm not against what Trump is doing. I just don't think it's going to work.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I agree.

[Ian Dunlap]

Because we won't go to the sort like China is investing into the port of Manzanillo. Nobody's talking about it. So when they bring them other H100 hopper gpus in the fentanyl is going to be there.

[Troy Millings]

I mean that's, that's three attacks. Right. Like you think about that we know of. Allegedly. Allegedly. Right. There might be more cyber attacks that we don't know. But like you think about Kovid, you're thinking about obviously fentanyl. And then last week with the potential like, hey, let's crack the economy, AI, they're going to win this race now here. Let's crack this economy. We have something that's going to change everything.

[Ian Dunlap]

Right.

[Troy Millings]

We're going to do this, we're going to do this more efficiently. Yeah, there's, there's a pattern here.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, the problem is that we can't live without China. China can live without us. And even if go back to the leverage, you look at the apps, there is no Twitter in China.

[Ian Dunlap]

No.

[Rashad Bilal]

There's no Instagram, there's no meta in China. There's no Facebook in China. When we lost Tik Tok, people was calling 911 for medical emergencies.

[Troy Millings]

Leverage.

[Rashad Bilal]

We can't. But it also goes back to the opening the social construct of the country. They've built their country to be self sufficient. They built their country from a standpoint of China first. Really? China, we say American first and doesn't mean anything because everything is American last. They've built themselves through a communist construct that is China versus the world. They understand that they are self sufficient people. They, they fall in line. They respect leadership. These are all things that are, you can't change that with just money. That got to be in you as a people.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah, right. As a society.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah. So it's like when he's saying like a short term pain. People don't want to hear that. They want Tick Tock. They don't care about. It's not, it's. They're taking all your information, they're reading your eyeballs. They're doing this.

[Ian Dunlap]

This is her financial data.

[Rashad Bilal]

I want to see people twerking on Tick Tock. That's more important to me.

[Troy Millings]

But that can be a considered effort too. The argument can be made that that's been done intentionally. Right. Because the Tik Tok and the version that they have is completely different than the one that they've served to our people.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's a thing called accountability in life.

[Troy Millings]

I know that. I know I said argument can be.

[Rashad Bilal]

Going to keep ducking accountability, we never going to move forward.

[Troy Millings]

I'm not saying that. I'm saying that.

[Ian Dunlap]

And talk about the politicians who have sold our country away in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. And this is part of the reason of the degradation of our country. Yeah, it's like bridges, infrastructure, even the Mexico argument. It's a lot of Mexican influence here and a bunch of these cities and political ramps and nobody wants to talk about it. Who you think's the biggest beneficiary of avocado sales going up and down the last 15 years? It ain't Tostitos in Jersey.

[Troy Millings]

91 of avocados come from soldiers. Yeah, 91. It's a lot.

[Ian Dunlap]

We've been infiltrated, y'all. Like I'm surprised this country like even for people to say, well Nvidia earnings determine the value and health of the stock market. Tells you how we should not be dependent upon one country for all the gains or movement in the market. You've been infiltrated. But I agree on accountability. But the politicians who help cause this problem are not talked about.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, we'll see. We're gonna see if this actually works out or if it doesn't work.

[Troy Millings]

You think Trudeau comes to the table?

[Rashad Bilal]

He has no choice.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, sit down, lay down.

[Troy Millings]

Right before, by the end of the. Before the end of the week, I would assume.

[Ian Dunlap]

And you can talk firm in Quebec when you get on the phone, you better be hot. Nice to meet you. Glad to see you back. And I better be getting the best behavior.

[Troy Millings]

What would you like from us?

[Ian Dunlap]

Because if we're gonna be honest, Toronto's economy, I mean, excuse me, Canada's economy is in a soft recession right now anyway. You got a big ass banking crisis that nobody's talking about. Same with our bond market.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I mean for them there's a lot there. Right. If you look at based on their market, for the majority of the companies that are profitable are the financials. Like us as technology, them as financial. So if there's crisis, well, even going.

[Rashad Bilal]

Back to China, right. When I said we can live, China can live without us, we can't live without China. Who makes all the shoes like we stopped make. We stopped manufacturing shoes year ago, years ago. And they said it was too costly labor. It's too labor intensive. When China China had one incentive 60 years ago just to become a manufacturing power. That was their one thing. They just said, all we need to do is become a manufacturing power. And by that, they became who they are now just by manufacturing. So they can live without. Without our clothes. Because they don't get. We get the clothes from them. They can live without our technology. They.

[Troy Millings]

We.

[Rashad Bilal]

We import the tech. Even American companies, Apple, all of those things are made in Asia.

[Ian Dunlap]

And they're way ahead of us. Talk about it. He's cooking like, even America's the leader. Innovation. No, no, no, no, no. If you've been to Japan or China, light years ahead.

[Troy Millings]

Japan for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Even chips.

[Ian Dunlap]

America.

[Rashad Bilal]

America created the chips, and now we make less than 8% of the world's chips. So now.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, it was. Now it's like, oh, what have we done? Let's bring it back here. Let's create fabrics here.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, well, why you have a South African in office leading? And then the chip makers are. What are we talking about, Joe? The country been infiltrated. It's like when they let HOV go take over that jam. It's like Roc Nation in the building. Shout the rock nation. Shout out the ho. Shout out to be. It's too late. Yo, if we are like, think about this. We've been on the show five years. We won't mention the Russell 2000. Why? Because all the value there has gone. It should be a national uproar. Like, we talked to one of the guys at the. At the Mastermind. He said, yo, what's going on with the bond market? Everybody I talked to at Citadel, Goldman, JP Morgan won't give me a straight answer about what's going on with our bond market. For those you don't know, it's damn near like real estate being under or flat for five years nationwide. And they're not calling it a recession. There's some scary going on. Back to you, Rashad. Like, China is outpacing us, and they're our financial parent. And the culture that they have there is much stronger than ours because we have sold ours off for pennies on the dollar to other countries while we built up India's middle class, which has beat our middle class in China, and them are teaming up and J, a little cousin at the little kitty table at Thanksgiving preparing to do the 20v one versus us.

[Troy Millings]

You think the Indian middle class has.

[Ian Dunlap]

Passed us for sure? For sure. I told everybody, yo, y'all got all them VAs and you're sending intellectual property over to let them manage and all of a sudden your data and listing companies are being built to resemble American companies in India. Better check your terms of service.

[Troy Millings]

I'm only. I asked that because there was going to be a follow up to it. But what we saw this weekend in terms of artificial intelligence, especially when we think vas.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Completely disruptive.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Right. So now what does that do for economy? If you're saying like a lot of this is coming from that type of business. Yeah, it nearly wipes it out.

[Ian Dunlap]

Part of the war that we are facing. There's a technological and software war. We can't go into Indian bomb. But if open AI and the super agents was that I hear they're moving faster on will for sure degrade that economy with VAs. Because now if the super agents can make the calls for you like he illustrated and sent emails for you. And even when I was playing with 03 mini when I was getting ready for the presentation, getting faster and better every day for sure. So we have to fight back on we. I can't say biologically, but China has weaponized that the software they're using and tech we're using, we have to do that. We have to pull a lot of things back into our country that have been outsourced for 30 or 40 years.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

There's a war at the highest level.

[Rashad Bilal]

There will be some areas that could potentially benefit from tariffs though. Domestic manufacturing. Caterpillar, Deer.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

General Electric.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, we told them that.

[Rashad Bilal]

Defense in aerospace. No, because that's a question.

[Troy Millings]

No, I'm saying defense in aerospace. Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Lockheed Martin.

[Troy Millings]

Yep.

[Rashad Bilal]

Raytheon.

[Troy Millings]

Yep.

[Rashad Bilal]

North Front, Grumman, U.S. energy and commodities. ExxonMobil, Chevron, agricultural and food pressing. Archer Daniels, Tyson Steel and Aluminum.

[Troy Millings]

Still questionable.

[Rashad Bilal]

Domestic. Domestic retailers. Dollar General, Costco's, Home Depot. Costco.

[Ian Dunlap]

Sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

Technology. Software companies. Well, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce.

[Troy Millings]

The retail ones are questionable. Right. Because we know from an agricultural standpoint and I got the stats here, 40 of. Of vegetables are imported from Canada and Mexico.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, what they did last time is. So what they did was the money we made money on tariffs last time from agriculture.

[Troy Millings]

And they said.

[Rashad Bilal]

And what they did was ended up pretty much giving that money to US farmers for subsidies.

[Troy Millings]

Right.

[Rashad Bilal]

To actually help the farming industry in America. So you Rob Peter to pay Paul.

[Troy Millings]

Right. And then inside of those like even a Costco, right. Not only do they sell food, but they actually sell clothing. And so we know that most of the manufacturing is coming from overseas as well. So it, it's tricky. But those first key areas and we've been Saying this for the past couple of weeks. Yeah, Domestic, domestic, Caterpillar is going to be there, right. Rtx, these are companies like again these are going to be tariff proof type situations. But it's gonna be interesting, man. That's why I said this has been.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

The first 14 days of this administration.

[Ian Dunlap]

Has been crazy, crazy, crazy interesting.

[Troy Millings]

But he told us these things. It's not like he didn't say these things were gonna happen. It's just like oh, they're happening like today. Like yeah, he's not playing.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay. Bitcoin was also down heavy so and then it rebounded. The problem with. And they're gonna have to really figure out this 24 hour trading thing because especially like something like IBIT is that you really can't catch the dips too much because they happen overnight a lot of times. So when it can't. Huh.

[Ian Dunlap]

Set a pending order.

[Rashad Bilal]

I know but I'm saying by the time the market opens it's so volatile like the volatility. Right. So it's like Bitcoin was at 92000 in the middle of the night and then it was like 98000 shortly after the market opens. So I mean you know it affects the price if you're really trying to get at the lowest price possible. Because I've noticed that that's always been a trend though, especially like in the Asian, Asian influx that comes in. Yeah, but we, we have seen bitcoin drop drastically but we've also seen a lot of altcoins drop hit a lot. 25:30.

[Troy Millings]

So yeah, yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

I mean Trump coin with what I said it was gonna go like now can we be honest? Just stick with the main ones. All of you trying to get into fartcoin and all this other like yo, what do you expect and why are we panicking over a 10, a 5% drop in Bitcoin.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, bitcoin didn't really drop that much. But like I said it's the other coins that really took a major hit.

[Troy Millings]

Trump coin is down 30 over the past seven days.

[Ian Dunlap]

Told you.

[Troy Millings]

You got XRP. I mean that's back down under 260. A lot of them took a hit, man. So that and we talked about that proportionally, right. When bitcoin obviously the dominance that it has, if it drops 4% you're gonna see some of these other ones drop 15, 20 and like you said, sometimes 30%. And so that's the leader, follow the leader.

[Timberland]

Yep.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Michael Seller was on the COVID of what Fortune magazine.

[Troy Millings]

He's on a cover of Forbes. They said that they might. So they said like you know, there was a Madden curse every time somebody's been on a cover.

[Ian Dunlap]

I remember Bill Ackman was on there as the next baby Buffett.

[Troy Millings]

And yeah, Sam Bankman Free was on the COVID of Forbes.

[Rashad Bilal]

I mean there's a lot of people.

[Troy Millings]

No, I'm talking about in terms when it comes to bitcoin.

[Ian Dunlap]

Like when I get to nighting people.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, when they get to night people in the cryptocurrency space. So they, they had. What's my man's name who was the CEO of Binance. Oh yeah, when he was on the, on the COVID then bitcoin dropped and then when Bankman freed, obviously we saw what happened with him. And now Sailors on the COVID and he's been selling like I said, remember? I'm like hey, well how are they going to get the money to start buying more bitcoin? And what did they do? They started selling shares to buy more bitcoin. Yeah, that's what I said.

[Rashad Bilal]

But the thing about it is, yeah, bitcoin in the 90s is you can't be mad at that. But in the 80s you really got to like bitcoin.

[Ian Dunlap]

You got to love it.

[Rashad Bilal]

In the 80s for sure, you gotta, we gotta really like it if you believe in the space. But a lot of stocks have been down. So out of all the stocks that's down, what's the best buying up, what's the best one?

[Ian Dunlap]

Nvidia. Stop asking me for the rest of the audience. Nvidia. If Microsoft dips like once, I always said, and I said it on stage. I am focused on the companies that are going to move the GDP of the United States of America because of Nvidia or Microsoft goes down, we are screwed. Shout out to the parent watching with your child. Do I give any credit?

[Timberland]

That's.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

No. I don't care about G O or IOMQ or dog. It's time like with the Lakers. It's time to put up championships or you gonna get moves around. Shout to Adam Silver foot. David Stern would never would have vetoed that in his sleep. Nope. Just like they did Chris Paul. Nope. Go back. Now it's time for mega market cap companies to buy. The issue is are you playing around? I'll talk to some of you privately. You keep trying to reinvent the wheel and get exceptional gains out of non exceptional companies.

[Troy Millings]

That's a bar.

[Ian Dunlap]

Can't do it.

[Troy Millings]

It's a bar. Oh, I think that's the. That's the obvious choice, right? Like we see it sitting at 115, 116. And we're watching it. And most people will say, well, it might go lower.

[Ian Dunlap]

Well, I'll.

[Troy Millings]

I'll wait till it goes lower. Well, it was at 152amonth ago.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

How. How much lower do you want it to go? Right. Every. It's great as the, the stock has fallen like nobody. I don't want to catch the fallen knife. No, that's, that's not this. Right. Every analyst, we talk about outperforming, underperforming. Every analyst has kept the same average price. 12 months price target. It's at 172.

[Ian Dunlap]

You're going three months. And when invest fest come around, I'm screaming, you deserve to be broke because you ain't listening. You gonna be hella upset. No buy. And if you want to know where to get in and where to get out, Swing, trade price, quick entry or load the boat, go to Ian invest.com and join Stock club. If I made you money, Stock club, please put yes in chat. Let me get some pandas in chat. It's not that hard. You know what the hard part is like, okay. When I first started doing media, I was like, yo, what's the blueprint? Just show up and don't miss no shows. 99 of y'all podcasters, yo, got a lot to say. A lot of y'all in spaces got a lot to say. You're not showing up every day when you're supposed to. A lot of. Can we just be honest? The companies that are doing the the best are the ones who get the team to execute on time and the fastest consistently. I don't know what the hell is going on with Salesforce. Don't know. Love Mark Benioff. But the team, they were way behind on AI, way behind on innovation. Please go call Johnny. I've Apple and bring him back into the fold.

[Rashad Bilal]

The company that hasn't. That hasn't kept his ratings amd they have not. So that's a company that's been talked about. So what's the deal with that?

[Ian Dunlap]

In every space you have a leader. Shout out to Scotty Pippen. I know you met Satoshi in 92 when you was on the south side of Chicago or allegedly, whatever you say now for your rollout, I'm gonna go back to what we did year one. Nvidia is Michael Jordan. Everybody else is cool coach and pippin. We got AMD is is cool coach.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's at his 52 week low right now, it's definitely Pippin. All right, let's keep it in perspective. It's. It dropped 50. It says 52 week low.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Is, is this. There's only, there's only one or two options here. That means that it's, it's a bad company is free falling and it's time to sell it and cut your losses if you're in or. This is a pivotal moment where you can't act for anything better. Where it's a good company. Number two in the space. I mean. No, I'm saying I'm painting the picture.

[Troy Millings]

Yes, it is.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm painting the picture. So it's like, yeah, there's only one LeBron James. But you're not gonna be mad if you get Dwyane Wade, right? Or you're not gonna be mad if you're able to get.

[Troy Millings]

Yes, they are.

[Rashad Bilal]

So.

[Troy Millings]

Stop, man, stop.

[Ian Dunlap]

So is AMD better than tsmc?

[Troy Millings]

Two different things? No, it's two different things.

[Ian Dunlap]

So remember Sicario was running around, I sounded like.

[Rashad Bilal]

To get. To get it at a 52 week low.

[Troy Millings]

What he's saying is correct.

[Rashad Bilal]

Is this a good time to buy or is this a good time to sell? The only two options that there is.

[Troy Millings]

I'll let him go first, then I'll go.

[Ian Dunlap]

But Yes, I have AMD going to 98 is in stock club that was put out two and a half weeks ago. Three weeks ago. AMD, of course, which I love dearly. Amazing company, but mismanaged. They missed the moment. Sometimes you can be in pole position, get too comfortable. AMD like, okay, you got 80 and a B tier. Salesforce, B tier, intel, bottom of B, amd, B tier. They're not A class.

[Troy Millings]

Who's A class?

[Ian Dunlap]

Nvidia, TS and C. But here's what I'm saying.

[Troy Millings]

It's two different things, right? Like TMC is manufacturing, right? They're designing. Right. The companies design it, they manufacture it. So it's two different things. When you, when you got it, when you compare an amd, you got to compare it to its class, Right? If we're talking about GPUs, it's Nvidia we know that by far, hands down 85 of the market share.

[Ian Dunlap]

Who's number two and GPU. Yeah, to me.

[Troy Millings]

Not you. No, no, not to you. Based on sales number. Number two is AMD. It's not even close. Okay, so if they have 85, they have 13 to 15. So that, that's pretty much the GPU market. Yes. Are they catching Nvidia. They're not going to catch Infinity in the GPU.

[Ian Dunlap]

No.

[Troy Millings]

And, but they also do. And this is why that Nvidia. You know when they would talk, when Jensen had that press conference, when he starts talking about the CPU market and how they trying to come back into that. That's concerning because for sure AMD has now passed intel in the CPU market. Right. Which they are now becoming the more so the leader in that space. So they're not cool coats. They're. They're.

[Ian Dunlap]

They are a D wave at best.

[Troy Millings]

That's what I.

[Timberland]

They're.

[Troy Millings]

Pippin.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm not leading my team with Scotty Pippin.

[Troy Millings]

I'm not. I'm not saying you should, but that doesn't mean it's a bad company. Right? This is still a whole. He's still a. You still win chips with them at this level? Yeah, I don't. Even if it's 98 is the number. Right? It's at 113. Like we're not. If you're talking about holding this long term, is this a good place to buy? Yeah, it's a good place to buy. If you look at the history.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

If you look at the history since. Since 2020, look at how it's traded. We've seen it run up from. And I had it at 57. I watched it run up to 151. I watched it pull back down to 75. We watch it run up again, it's pulled back. It has these. These moments, these cycles. Tomorrow is a big day for its earnings, so we'll see what happens. But I'm still. I'm still. I gotta love hate relationships right now.

[Ian Dunlap]

AMD since 2017, I have the Ryzen chip and my personal desktop computer. I probably spent 40 or $50,000 and upgrades with AMD over the last four or five years. Scotty Pippen, at best.

[Troy Millings]

Are you mad at that?

[Ian Dunlap]

No.

[Rashad Bilal]

They report earnings tomorrow.

[Troy Millings]

Tomorrow. Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

So. But most people are bullish already on their earnings. So. Yeah, the sentiment is negative. But.

[Troy Millings]

But wait, bullish you said.

[Rashad Bilal]

I mean bearish.

[Ian Dunlap]

But below 98. I love it. Well, 98 or below, love it. 98 degrees.

[Rashad Bilal]

All right, so we got a special special guest.

[Troy Millings]

Thanks.

[Rashad Bilal]

Now we're gonna bring in.

[Ian Dunlap]

And for the record, Troy, Rashad and I are getting along perfectly. Flying for y'all. Do y'all little think pieces while they battling like this over equity today.

[Rashad Bilal]

Are there any stocks under a hundred dollars that's worth buying?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. Nvidia under. When it gets like I'm being Serious. But all jokes aside, please write this down. Look for the best asset at the cheapest price and leave everything else alone. You guys do it. When you go car shopping, you don't even get no discount at Louis. Shout out to the CEO, gonna be there February 27th. Get a ticket now. But when the best assets in the world are on sale, that's what you should look to buy. Before the sock split, everyone was complaining that it's too high. And now that it's a 118, people have concerns. And in three years when it's at 350, what will the excuse be? So if it dips underneath, I don't know, 100 flat 98 bucks at some point.

[Troy Millings]

Cool.

[Ian Dunlap]

If you want to take a swing at amd, even though Troy and I had a spirited debate, can't wait to see the thing pieces on it. AMD in the video will be two, two great ones. The question is, will you execute and hold it for the next five years? Stop talking about everything in a short term framework.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, that, that'll be the part. Right. Like people need to have that long term vision. Since you said those two, I will give two different ones. I will go with Micron, which is sitting at 90. Now obviously we talked about Nvidia. They are partnered with Nvidia in terms of storage. So like when these GPUs and all this AI needs to figure out where it's being stored, data storage is going to be important. So Micron sitting at 90 in Dell. We spoke about Dell. I spoke about that. In terms of the data center infrastructure, in terms of cooling, in terms of racks, Dell is sitting at 100. This is one of those, those companies that's just been here for a long time, but they're changing the way they're operating. Obviously now with the revolution AI, those are two that I would put obviously the ones you said for sure. And then Those two are 190. So those are. Those are two months.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Some best practices. You should definitely not risk more than 10 of your portfolio if you're trading. That's important because that's going to lead to you making irrational decisions. If you got a hundred thousand dollars to invest in the stock market, you should. And trade $50,000.

[Ian Dunlap]

Mistake.

[Rashad Bilal]

Trade $10,000.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Any disagreement with that? No.

[Troy Millings]

It speaks to a bigger issue of having a plan before you invest. Right. Like what is your plan?

[Ian Dunlap]

That's the part. Yeah. Isn't a place where you can think day to day or week to week. You need to have Your plan mapped out for the next five years. I said it at the mastermind like do you have your trading plan mapped out for the year and your investment plan for the next five or ten.

[Troy Millings]

Right.

[Rashad Bilal]

And then also as your account especially but even earlier you might want to consider using the llc.

[Troy Millings]

For sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

For sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

So you can change your registration like if you would Charles Schwab or Fidelity. You can create an LLC and move the registration of your trading account to an llc. That would help potentially if you ever got sued lawsuit. You know you don't, you don't really want to keep stuff in your personal name.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's important.

[Troy Millings]

This is called asset protection. Especially when you and we saw a couple brokerage accounts that you should be listening to this vice. Once you start hitting that fifty over a hundred thousand inside of that broker.

[Ian Dunlap]

Protect yourself at least that's people will try it.

[Troy Millings]

Let's talk us.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, for sure. So that's something that's something to consider as well. Definitely. Yeah. And then you don't want to overextend yourself in too many position stocks. That's gonna water down your performance. You got 389 different companies. Even if it goes up a hundred percent or you made 300.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah. You won't make any real money.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Safe bets defense wins championships.

[Troy Millings]

That's. That's what the Dallas GM said.

[Ian Dunlap]

Oh Mark keeping we need you.

[Troy Millings]

I saw this in the notes man. I'm interested to hear your take. So Tempest AI we if you haven't been paying attention to that Nancy Pelosi, you saw the things that she invested in. A lot of option calls she had, she had 10 AI in her portfolio. So is this a good long term investment considering she obviously Nancy Pelosi has revealed that she's trading it. What's your thoughts?

[Ian Dunlap]

I think we need to understand that there's a difference between a great trade and a good long term investment. In 2024 tempest was at 27 bucks. It's currently at 60. This year got back down to 3132 range. So it's a good trade. I want to ask a couple questions real quick to the audience. Who is the CEO of Tempest? What do they do and what competitive advantage do they have over others in their space? If you can't answer any3 I would not invest in the long term. Most people who were asking me this had no clue what the company did. Everything in AI is not created equal. Now this the Pete Myers section of the Shanti Myers of the Mansion. Like no, no, no no, we're going too deep into the rabbit hole. Like no. Maybe.

[Timberland]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Jeff Bushler. Yeah. Yeah, come on. We cannot.

[Troy Millings]

It. I think the, the, the space is interesting. This is like AI and healthcare combined. And so when you hear the president talk about healthcare and being able to cure disease, this is one of those companies that probably be. Will be involved in it. She's not the only one. Nancy Pelosi is not the only person that invested though. Kathy Wood, I think bought 600,000 shares into one of her, her ARC funds. But it's new. I mean, just if you look back and I know one of those things, like let's look back to the inception of the company. It only goes back to. I think it started trading last year, last June. So it's fairly new, which is interesting. But the fact that she's investing in it already and the fact that Kathy Wood has put a substantial amount in there, it's just something that I'm definitely going to watch because I think AI and healthcare, that is one of those spaces. I watched a documentary with, with Bill Gates and he said the two industries that will be able to disrupt and revolutionize would be education and healthcare from a standpoint of getting all the medical data, figuring out treatment that are more. Treatments that are more efficient, finding out medicine that is more efficient and potentially cures for diseases and terminals diseases at that. So definitely an industry. But yeah, I don't think they'll be the only one that'll be like, what's the competitive advantage? But definitely a space to look at.

[Ian Dunlap]

Hypothetically, if he finds a cure, does he keep a patent on it and keep it to himself or do they actually release it to the public? Allegedly.

[Troy Millings]

You know, the money is in the treatment, man, never in the cure.

[Rashad Bilal]

Allegedly.

[Troy Millings]

Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly.

[Ian Dunlap]

We talked about it before, but we talked about it this weekend. Profit margin. So gross profit margin for Tempest AI is 53.18. Amazing. Net profit margin. Negative 116. Capex. I get it. Oh, Capex. They bought the Singapore H100 Hopper chips. Gotcha. But, but if a negative. This is on CNBC. Negative 116.

[Troy Millings]

Well, technically still in year one. So let's see. Like that would be. That's the homework assignment. Go find companies who have made money but have overspent. Uber would be in that category, right? They had a negative, but they've turned that around recently. Find companies that have done that successfully.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yes, Difference between the hotline and the hot song.

[Rashad Bilal]

And Trump has already threatened tariffs on EU as well. So gotta get, gotta get Them in line for sure.

[Troy Millings]

Everybody.

[Rashad Bilal]

But whenever you see opportunities to buy, you gotta buy good companies. Microsoft is a good company, Nvidia is a good company, things like that. And then there's the ETF plays, always good choice as well. Qqq, xlk, smh, stuff like that. And it's never a bad time to buy index funds, S, P500, Bitcoin. Anytime you see a dip in 90s, you gotta, you gotta think that that's something that's beneficial. And then if it ever gets to the 80s, then that's gonna be great. Yeah, yeah, sure, for sure. But, yeah, Trump's thing seems to be working so far.

[Troy Millings]

They're coming to the doorstep.

[Ian Dunlap]

I mean, he paused the tariffs on Mexico, so maybe he'll pause on EU as well.

[Troy Millings]

They got a month to figure this out.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, that's why I said it's working.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Did he pause it or did they concede?

[Troy Millings]

No, he gave him. They offered. They asked for an extension for a month to figure it out.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

And then after that, he paused it.

[Rashad Bilal]

They conceded to his demands. They put 10,000 troops on the border.

[Ian Dunlap]

My thing is, if you have a grievance with somebody, go to the person with the head of the grievance. Nothing. Look, cousin in eighth grade, well, a.

[Rashad Bilal]

Bully'S only as strong as his opponent. You know that.

[Ian Dunlap]

That's true, Very true. It's a great lesson.

[Rashad Bilal]

We, we deal. We deal with. How you deal with somebody depends on their strength. That's just the result of intelligence. Honestly, if, if you're going to try to be Rambo and deal, you're going to get killed. I mean, you can go out like a kamikaze, but that's not, that's not intelligent, you know, I'm not going to deal with somebody that's five, two the same way I deal with somebody that's seven feet.

[Ian Dunlap]

You can't give me grace.

[Troy Millings]

I'm trying to give you grace.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's a fact.

[Ian Dunlap]

Imani bags who.

[Rashad Bilal]

You can't give me grace until a person that's five, two knocks you out for sure.

[Ian Dunlap]

Or pull a Draco out.

[Rashad Bilal]

Suge Knight.

[Ian Dunlap]

A couple times.

[Rashad Bilal]

Every. Everybody, everybody can lose.

[Troy Millings]

That's a fact.

[Ian Dunlap]

Anytime, at any time. Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Nobody, nobody's bulletproof in this world. But in the moment, it seems to be working. He seems to be working. All of these Fortune 500 companies have.

[Troy Millings]

Yo, Donnie.

[Rashad Bilal]

Moving like bulletproof, though they've obliged.

[Troy Millings]

I'm saying he's moving like it. I'm not saying he is, but he's.

[Rashad Bilal]

Moving like well, he is. He is bulletproof until he's not.

[Troy Millings]

Until he's not. He's.

[Rashad Bilal]

He's Teflon.

[Troy Millings]

They try to take him off it.

[Rashad Bilal]

Achilles was bulletproof until they found out that he had one part that was vulnerable. Yeah, he's definitely. He's. It's been working so far, so we'll see, we'll see. But gotta invest in these strong companies. When you see drastic dips in the market, this.

[Troy Millings]

This is what you waited for. This is what you waited for, right? We said we're not going to invest at the 52 week highs. We watch these companies run up. Well, now they pull back. Now what? Now what do you do? The decisions you make now will be indicative of how the end of your year will look and why right now?

[Rashad Bilal]

Why hedge funds? Why hedge funds selling off stock before you bring on our guests.

[Ian Dunlap]

Two part reasons, all partially to take gains. And I know it's like salacious when you see it, it's very intriguing. But they have a different schedule than us as retail investors. So some of them are taking profit, of course. Some sold off because of the reversal of fortune, but most are really taking profit to secure things for their client. And a lot of money starts to get dispersed in March for hedge funds as well. So that's part of the reason as well. Sometimes even when they're like, Jensen sold off $83 million worth of stock. Well, it's like the reasons are different than our reasons for wanting to sell or take profit. The incentive structure is different. And some of these funds have to sell off by a certain time for certain client bases for different reasons. So, and I'll say it, if we ever come to a point where the market is just going to fall apart, I'll be the first one. Come on here and scream it Friday night live. Sell everything like Michael Burton did two years ago. And was wrong. We're not. We're. No, not even close.

[Rashad Bilal]

Not even close.

[Ian Dunlap]

Not even close.

[Rashad Bilal]

All right. All right, guys. We got a special treat for you. One of the greatest of all time, okay? A legend in two games. We're gonna bring on our guy, Timbaland. Timbo the King Timbo.

[Ian Dunlap]

What's the deal, my brother?

[Timberland]

Happy, happy Monday. Happy Monday.

[Troy Millings]

How you feeling, my brother?

[Timberland]

I'm feeling blessed. How y'all feeling?

[Troy Millings]

Very happy to be here with you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Good, man. That's fresh off the grip. Did you go to Grammys?

[Timberland]

No.

[Troy Millings]

Strong, though.

[Rashad Bilal]

Strong though. First and foremost. What's up, my brother? How you doing?

[Timberland]

I'm blessed, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

I can't complain for sure, man. Thank you.

[Timberland]

How y'all doing?

[Ian Dunlap]

Very good, man.

[Troy Millings]

Doing good, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

Same Tim, man, obviously a legend when it comes to music, but just a brilliant mind and business. And we've been seeing you all over in the business world. Like, people don't really even know. Like, Tim's been making a lot of moves, moving around, really, really tapped in and extremely educated. Even when we spoke with you in Miami a few years ago, like, you know, just talking about valuations and IPOs and stuff like that. Like, really, really smart, smart guys. So thought it'd just be good to have a conversation about a few different things. But I wanted to start with the obvious question. It's a two part question. Is versus are we gonna see versus again? And then also, I know you made the deal with X, this is before all of this stuff happened, but we've been seeing Elon on a rampage right now. So has that affected your thought process as far as working with Elon? All of the stuff that we've been seeing over the last six months, you.

[Timberland]

Know, to be honest with, I think versus is like a separate, you know, it's. We, you know, still. It's still about verses, you know what I'm saying? And we really don't really pay attention to the other stuff, you know, because it's more about the core of what we have. And it's really about, you know, live performance. And we haven't got across that bridge yet of like, you know, four as like, I guess, talking to Elon and anything like that. But we're more focused on the core of what versus is and really ramping it back up.

[Rashad Bilal]

So we're gonna see it. We're gonna see in 2025.

[Timberland]

Oh, yeah, we definitely. You definitely gonna see it in 2025. That's the whole thing. It's more, you know, like, greatness. Take time to make it all tie together and make sense of the whole bigger picture of what. What we trying to build in the ecosystem. And sometimes you can rush things and jump out the window too fast and now you playing catch up. I'd rather just hold back, fix all as many, patch up as many holes as you possibly can before coming out. Because I see that we're in a different time and we are. We do own our company. And it's like, you know, we got to be very strategic and smart on how we launch coming back out. And I think y'all guys know about that. And I just think this as our culture, you know, sometimes we got to educate. It's better to be patient than to rush things, know all your stuff because what happens when you rush, you find yourself in a crisis later on and sometimes better just you never gonna fix everything but fix all the stuff that you possibly can fix and tighten up everything.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, it's definitely the different time and, and I know one of the things that you guys have been stringent on is ownership. Ownership, ownership. And happy to hear that you guys are back in ownership when versus returns here in this year 2025. I know ownership was something that was provided to a lot of the artists that were coming on to, to the Versus platform. Is it structurally similar or we've seen something different? Because we've seen and a lot of people have, you know, catapulted their careers and restarted and re innovated, integrated their careers to a place where now they can actually go on tour. So what, what does that structure look like now for the people that are going to take place in Versus going forward?

[Timberland]

We still like, you know, it's still like kind of the same kind of way, but we restructuring a lot of different ways now. So it's like we're really trying to make it a serious event. I'm not trying to get too much away, but it's going to be, it's gonna be something serious. I'm just let you know that like.

[Rashad Bilal]

Like an in person, in person tour type thing.

[Timberland]

I know you're trying to pick my brain.

[Troy Millings]

I'm just trying to figure out when.

[Timberland]

We can pull ideas there. Just know it's gonna be great. Just know you're gonna be like wow. That's all you gotta say, like wow, that's it. Because you, you know what it is, it's like. And I just keep it 100. I know my brother be like this sometimes, you know, like we are very quiet on what we do, you know what I'm saying? We move in silence. We don't talk about it, we don't hype it up, we don't post. But we let you know that the signals in the air, you see, we change our logo, we back to V. So it's let you know that we, you know, we mean business but it's we minding our business, you know what I'm saying? We stand out of everybody business and, and get into our business, you know what I'm saying? We don't really like to. I don't like that. I don't talk about it, I just be about it.

[Ian Dunlap]

You just see it on the AI side. Can you talk to us about how you're using AI to produce and generate the next sound. I saw a clip on, I think it was on Instagram, where you took the vocals and you made like eight different beats around the vocals. Can you talk to us about how you think music is going to change over the next four or five years due to AI?

[Timberland]

I think. I think it's definitely going to be a change, a big switch. The major switches, I think is, you know, adaptation. I think the. I think AI is really for people that are hyper creative. Like, I'm a hyper creative person. So that means I can do a lot of stuff without traveling a lot of places. Because this tool allows me to rethink my whole production. You know what I'm saying? It makes me say, okay, well, what if I add this to it and then take it back over here, put it back over there, back. It's like, you know, it's. It's. It's a tool for me that elevates my production. It makes me feel like a kid again. I feel like I'm 19 again. It makes me rethink my own beats different, you know what I'm saying? Because the way I use it in the way, you know, I think. And that's the beauty about it, because everybody's gonna use it in their own way and how they use it. And I think the way I'm looking at it and what I'm trying to build with it is a whole, like, ecosystem, you know what I'm saying? Not just you got. You got characters, you got cartoons, you got this. It's a multiverse, a multitude of things. That's why you have these tools to 10x your business and to build out your business. And I feel like when I look at, you know, AI, I look at, like, at first it was like, because I'm a creative, and I'm like, man, I don't know about this. But once it got. Because, you know, it's just getting better. It's learning every day. Every day is just getting better and better. So now it's like, wow, if I might say, I want to do this Latin beat, right. But I know my. I know musicality and I know my music tastes. I know what to do in my. The Timbo way. But now I have a tool that I can grab inspiration from to make that the right way.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Timberland]

Before I probably have to make phone calls and do certain things if I, you know, tap in. And I still would do that. But to get that idea, to get that, what I'm feeling out, I Don't have to wait no more. You know what I'm saying? So me, I, I love that it's here. This is what I always was waiting for since I was a, a kid, you know what I'm saying? Because it's almost like playing, you know, ping pong or something like. Or playing a video game, first player, you know what I'm saying? You challenging the computer, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, for me, it's like it's gonna take, it's taking mine, it's taking my creativity to, to the max. Now I'm like, I'm on. I'm like, thanos, when it come to music now. So it's like now I got, they got the ring, like, you know what I'm saying? And it's like for me, it's like I know what it is versus some people, you know. I know some people got their things about it and against it. But the, the, what you gotta understand is, is AI doesn't work without the human component.

[Ian Dunlap]

Absolutely.

[Timberland]

That's what people got to realize. It's like a code. It might say, oh, it's gonna take my job. No, you know how to code. So I don't know how to code. But you're gonna know how to talk to it, to code what you're looking for. So look at it that way. Which would take you two weeks to do something now you could do it in a day.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Timberland]

So it's like, who wouldn't want that? Like you, you're still operating it, but you don't have to go do all these things to probably make this functionality work. You have a tool that you can do it at the drop of a dime and still get back to you to tighten up what the tool didn't. So to me it's like, man, who wouldn't want that? You know what I'm saying? I'm seeing people having agents, creating jobs, making crazy money with this stuff. So I'm like, man, the future is here, like at a high rate.

[Rashad Bilal]

So you know, we had Swiss on our show. Assets over liabilities. Like I think last year, two years ago, when he had to explain when you guys first sold the company or portion to Thriller and it was a lot of misconfusion as far as the community. So he kind of explained it in detail. The company is supposed to go public. It never actually went public. And then you guys retained ownership back. So what was that process of actually that deal? It didn't work. I'm assuming then you got the ownership back. Like, how was you able to go about doing that?

[Timberland]

I'm gonna say this. We got a documentary, and I'm gonna let the documentary speak.

[Ian Dunlap]

Smart move. Can't give on everything on the Internet for free.

[Troy Millings]

Ah, man. He said document the process.

[Timberland]

I leave that on that note.

[Troy Millings]

I listen. You just said that you're like, thanos now in my brain, I'm like, you've always been that. But that's interesting to hear you say, right? And so we grew up with you and that sound, right? And we saw that sound be lent to plenty of artists from, obviously, from Aaliyah to Genuine Missy J and then Justin Timberlake. There was that sound. When you look at the landscape of music now, like, is there an artist that you're like, wait, that person would be dope with that Timberland sound? Like, what? What? How do you look at the landscape right now?

[Timberland]

I love all the indie artists. So it's like. It's like, you know, like, I think I'd be almost. I'll be on them first. Like, Sail. I think she dope. There's a lot of people I think is dope that Helly Knox. There's a lot of people that are indie people that I think is super dope. And I feel like, you know, that's how. That's what, you know, those are things I want to work on. The stuff that, you know, the people don't know about. But it's about a feeling because music still is getting back to that feeling. That's why, like, you got Dolce out here. She bringing that feeling back. Is that. It's that. It's that boom bap. Is that bop. So that lets you know people want that feeling. So it's not about how big you are, is about who gonna give you that feeling. And I'm like, it's a lot of new cats out here to give me that feeling that I just want to work with. And I'm working with them as you see. I do my show. I. I work with them. I do my thing. And so that's what I'm excited about is working with the new indies and just being a part of that world and watching. Because I feel like we're in the era of we gonna see who. I don't really think it's gonna be a super, super superstar, but I think it's going to be stars. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. We might see the next super superstar. I know we usually, like that. Usually come around every five to 10 years of that superstar, that big, big one to shake up the world. Like how the weekend, Drake, Travis, you know what I'm saying? I think. I don't know if we might see those again right away, but we're going to see stars now. I, I say those are mega stars and we'll see superstars.

[Ian Dunlap]

For you off of that question, like what. What are the components that make a superstar artist or superstar company like the one you have in versus.

[Timberland]

What makes the artist a superstar? Like. Like. Yeah, versus.

[Ian Dunlap]

No, no, I'm saying like what makes a superstar company? Like versus. And from building artists up, like what makes a superstar artist in today's climate, landscape.

[Timberland]

You know what I think just content engagement. I think that's really what and, and really work ethic, you know what I'm saying? And how bad do you want it? And I think who, who has that and showing. Showing everybody for real how it's done is the Russell. The Russell. If you don't follow the Russell. I mean, I don't. I mean that's what it takes. It takes commitment, consistency and knowing that it's going to take time. The beauty is you don't. The marketing is. Can be on you. It's on about the algorithm that we have today with all the technology and using that to your best ability, you know what I'm saying? Before we had to go, which I think you still have to once you get, you know, on a major and do you and do your thing is to hit the streets. But since you don't. Since you can't hit the streets like that, people don't, you don't, you don't have that money to have a street team. Then you got to do it digital. And I think it's about the work ethic and how much time you, you know, put into your craft. I don't think nothing is. It's all the same. Just work different. You know, I think it's all work. You all gotta. It's how much you work, consistency. When you don't see nothing and you still working, that's that to me makes a superstar. The baby is like that. I mean no matter what he gonna keep going. And that's what. That's. You don't find that in a lot. A lot of artists, you know what I'm saying? So to me it's like you can point them out. Just they're very simple. And that's why I say the Russell color Russell. I don't think nobody go as hard as him right now.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, we see the largest artist in the. In the game with a lawsuit. And it did bring up some interesting points as far as a level of collusion that people are saying as far as a record label working with Spotify and how much a record label actually has their hands in dictating whether the artist is successful or if an artist is not successful. So, I mean, just the lawsuit aside, do you think that the music label needs to be some level of broken up, or are you kind of like.

[Timberland]

Fine, what happened again, to the label stuff and all that? I get. I just stay in the craft of music, you know what I'm saying? Like, I kind of stay away from all of that stuff, you know what I'm saying? Because that kind of take away from the love of what you do. And I. I just know that you know, what's meant to be, what's in God's hand, and work yourself out, you know what I'm saying? I don't get caught into all what's going on or what this. And no, I just, just, hey, when your stuff is great, it's just gonna flourish and it's gonna work itself out.

[Rashad Bilal]

But you're working with a lot of independent artists though, right? Like, I'm assuming that. That we've never seen an independent artist become successful. Like, even the Russell, that's our guy. We've. We feature the Russell a million times, but we've never seen an independent artist.

[Timberland]

Well, it depends on what you call success.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, no, not six. We never seen an independent artist become a star, a superstar. We've never seen that.

[Timberland]

They are stars. What do you mean? They can sell a ticket. They can sell. Look, even Russell, he ain't the. He ain't on the. He ain't the number one artist on the chart, but he sell out a state arena. I mean, to me, I mean, what, what are we saying? Like, what is. What is a star? Like, you know, what is a superstar? I think today we in a young world. I feel like if you ain't up to the times today, you're gonna be left behind. The youth is taking over and they dictating what to me is what a star is and what's not a star. You know, I'm saying I don't think it's what you used to think a star is. I think we moved on to that. We in the future, it's 20, 25, we're gonna see different things on, on, on, on, on in the world. Like right now, superstar is a screamer. That's the new rapper, period. That's just what it is.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, that's, that's. That's a fact from a context.

[Timberland]

You know, I was keeping it 100. So the things that a superstar. Superstar is different now. It ain't what you think it used to be like if, if you go Kai and it's just a different world.

[Rashad Bilal]

Kai is bigger than any actor. He's bigger than any black actor.

[Timberland]

But if I try to. If I'd have said that last year when I saw it coming, everybody. Oh, you crazy artists. It's like it's. It's a whole nother. We have to rewire what we used to know and train ourselves to what's going to be and take what we used to know and apply some of that to what's going to be. It ain't gonna be everything from this, from the past. You have to like, okay, that ingredient works over here. Well, because I see where it's going. They don't know about this ingredient.

[Rashad Bilal]

But, you know, but you know why Kyle was able to become. Because there was no barrier. Like, there's no content gatekeeper. Right. At least not now. So that's why the YouTubers, the streamers, the podcasters, there's really no ceiling on how far they can go. The music industry still has some level of gatekeeper. So what I mean by star is like Macklemore. He's the last probably independent artist that I've seen sell out arenas. I haven't seen Madison School. Like, he sold out Madison Square Garden. Like Macklemore.

[Timberland]

Russell out arenas.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, no, not. Not basketball arenas.

[Timberland]

Yeah, bro. Yeah. Not. Not Russ.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Russ for sure.

[Timberland]

Russell.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, yes, absolutely.

[Rashad Bilal]

Absolutely.

[Troy Millings]

No, he's want to know here's the thing, and I'll go to the Russell, because that is our guy. And this is a fine balance. And I'm not sure if there is one. It. At some point. Can you oversaturate the audience? Because I know my boy got 35 albums, right, but he's putting out so much content. So much content. And his theory is like, I'm just gonna keep working, keep working. And if something pops, it does. If it doesn't, great. I'm creating new stuff. Is there a balance on how much you should be given to the audience or just put out the work as you do it? Future.

[Timberland]

I think, I think, I think. I mean, I think the balance of days, it. It works for certain people, but it really, you can tell that it's kind of like fading off because the world is moving so fast. So I want to Say, I would say yes yesterday, but I got to say no today because I think think is just. And it's short songs. It's not like. And music is not long no more. So it's like the after five. Five can be 30 minutes or five can be 10 minutes. So those 30 songs could only equal up to maybe 20 minutes of listening time. Yeah, that's not a lot of time. That's. It's a lot of songs, but it's not a lot of listening time. So it's like he gave you so much. He's giving you so much of him in a short, In a, In a small window. So it's kind of genius in a way, because if you look at it, you watching that young man get better and better.

[Troy Millings]

He's.

[Timberland]

He, he's showing you the process of. Okay, you're not. You don't think I'm great today, but I'm going to be great tomorrow. And I'm gonna show you the steps along the way. And if you don't document that he's given to you live. Because I'm listening to his bars and I don't work with the Russell. I listen to his bars and I'm just to where his bars at today. There's a major growth now for a song structure and all that how we used to hearing it. Some things we not. It's, it's, it's a taste. It's what you, you know, what you like, you know. But I think there is a crowd that loves that. You know what I'm saying? I think. Could it be some tweaks? Yeah, it could be some tweaks. But he's at a point, he's buil it to a point. Pointed. I feel like he's building. He's built an ecosystem that you can buy into and structure. It's worth investing into because he's built it so big. And now if he brought in a money guy or a market, whatever he might want to bring in, he has built his ecosystem to a valuable place.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I'm with you on that. I, I, I, I'm thinking about Boss Mandelo. He said the same thing. Like, he's making one verse and that's the song.

[Timberland]

But that's what these kids want. My daughter like, they not, they not, you know, don't get me wrong. It's. It's all taste, you know what I'm saying? Certain songs you got to just know on the content that's being made. Do you want to hear three minutes of this? You Know what I'm saying? Do you want to hear four minutes of this? You know, just the subject matter. You'd be like, you know what? That was cool. Rewind that back. What do you say? You know what I'm saying? Oh, man. And it's like, certain things require longer than others, but I. I agree. Like, I. I don't. It's funny because I can listen to an instrumental a little longer than I can listen to a whole song of that length. I could probably listen to an instrumental maybe three minutes and four minutes, because it has dynamics. It got a lot of ear candy. But an actual song for four minutes is, I think. I don't know. I mean, I made songs seven minutes, you know, I'm saying, don't get me wrong, five minutes. It. But I just. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.

[Ian Dunlap]

Who are the top three most talented people you've ever worked with and what made each of those people special, in your opinion?

[Timberland]

You said talented.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yes.

[Timberland]

Artists?

[Troy Millings]

Yes.

[Timberland]

Man. I would say Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott. Jay Z was like, one of the first time I seen somebody not write down the lyrics and keep all that information in his head. And scrap can scrap a verse and go to a whole nother verse and still remember the verse that he strapped in his head. Like, I'm like, that's human. Like, you know, how do you remember a verse that you scrapped in your head that you never wrote down and then start on a new verse? And I'm like, yo, well, what you saying? Oh, I said this. I'm like, oh, that's different. And then with. With Missy, she just taught me everything. Like, she just. She knew I had a gift, but she made me understand my gift. Meaning, like, she would point out things that I maybe didn't see for drum sounds, sonics, harmonies, which I didn't know about. She saw something in me. She's like, yo, yo, Beat's different. And then as I start watching her, how she create it made me just be. Like, it just tightened me up. And then she made me not settle for. For anything. And, like, I didn't know, like, because I was such a producer, I would put too much on the beat. So she always kind of remind me, like, that's cool for a rapper, but I'm a girl. Like, you know, say, I got. I want to make people move, dance. And then she kind of. She kind of, like, gave me. The understanding of a song is based on just simplicity, you know what I'm saying? And as producers. As a producer, you want. You want to do so much more because you feel like that's just too simple. You're not really showing off your skills. But in reality, a song is about a feel good and making you repeat it and sing along. That's what song structure is. And she really made me understand that. And then Justin, he kind of was, like, his discipline in the studio, the way he hear music, his beat, his rhythm just in his pen game, like, how much he really just thought about the song before the song was done. And then he got to a point to where he didn't write down anything. I think he started off kind of like that, like a lot of songs we was doing. You know what? He never wrote down his songs either. He started adapting that whole. That whole thing too. And I was like to watch him piece it together and put the harmonies and then say, okay, I'm gonna do this. But he might sometimes hum the melody first and then go back and fill in the. You know, and write the song. He's like, okay, I want to do a different melody, or I change this melody. Then he'll just go keep walking around the studio and just be writing the song like, all right, let's go. You know, I'm saying, I thought that was, like, you know, genius activity right there, because that shows, like, they. You know, just the memory of how they can retain how much they were sinking into the music. And it's. To all the instrumentation and the instrumentation of that. Of the songs help them help him to write, you know, those. Those lyrics and come up with those sounds. And his. And actually, all these people I'm talking about, their voice was a big part of the. Of the. Of the beats, because they voices our instrument. So, you know, I didn't say Beyonce. You know, you say three, but her voice. Her vocals are one. Top tier. I don't know. I don't know what you would call it. Is it her? Because it's a. It's. It's like she giving you an instrument you ain't never heard before. You know what I'm saying? Like, it ain't a trumpet. I don't know what it is. You know what I'm saying? So it's like shout out to all the artists I work with, because they voices with instruments, you know, because I go by tone when I do a beat. I think that's what make my beat stand out, is the tones on those drums.

[Rashad Bilal]

So from just. You've worked with some of the most talented people. As you just said, Beyonce Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Aaliyah, Nas. And on the producer side, I mean, you worked with Kanye. You worked with obviously Swiss Pharrell.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

What. Yes. Yourself included. Like, what's some. Some things that you've learned, common denominators outside of music that you notice from these type of people that had, you know, some level of similarities as far as, like, okay, like, I can understand why they successful. It's a great question.

[Timberland]

Terrell always was fashion. He did music. He always was very, like, he all, like, I was against the grain when it comes to my beats. He was against the grain when it comes to not just the music, but the lifestyle, you know what I'm saying? Like, when people maybe thought it was weird, the whole world adapted to it, you know what I'm saying? So it's like. And he stayed 10 toes down since high school on everything, like forever. Wear a hot. A bomber jacket in the summertime, you know what I'm saying? Like, like, like his fashion game always been like that. So. And the way he just. I look at for reals, like Alana Richie, like, he writes those songs that stay around for decades, you know? Like, you think about line of Richie, like, hello, is it me? He write though? Like, he's that guy, but very fat. Like, his. His music fits his fashion. Same with Kanye. Kanye was just more what I learned from Kanye. Just believe in yourself. Like, Kanye is a true leader of like just knowing your value and your worth, you know what I'm saying? And then like, not ashamed to tell people what the real is. I don't have this. I don't do this, I don't do that. You know, he went to the club, said he was in debt, you know what I'm saying? Like, his. His way of communicating is the. The not. He don't have no fear, you know what I'm saying? A lot of art, we artists have a lot of fear. Kanye is. He is one of like the. The one. One of the best to ever do it. Not just. Not like music wise, but just how to push past a note and make the world see. Yes, you know what I'm saying? To me, it's like people talk about it, but Kanye, somebody who do it, you know what I'm saying? And to me, that's. You can't find that, you know what I'm saying? And you could tell that like, he. He wouldn't. He wouldn't stop until it would. Until the world knew, you know what I'm saying? I think Jay Z, you know, he took his his what he was and just transferred over to the music and the business, and he just. It was a bigger asset for him. And he really, like, monopolized the whole industry. He really learned the ends out and being around great ones like Jimmy and all these other people. Lior is like, Jay is like a sponge, man. Like, his memory is insane. So it's like anything that he see in business, he gonna take it in 10x. He gonna be like, okay, if I get the best producer and I get this and I get that, okay, I'm multiply. I know I'm gonna do this. So x200. Okay, yeah, we good. Like, he's like, you'd be like, what? Because, you know, he know he. He is the culture. So it's like, like, if I got this, I got that. I'm gonna move this because I got these pieces. You know, he's that type. He's very strategist, you know what I'm saying? So I learned a lot from, you know, those. Those guys like Pharrell, Kanye, Swiss, definitely. Swiss was. Swiss came in there with a. With a crew and directed the crew. Like, he, he, he, he, he. He showed me that he was a fierce leader, you know what I'm saying? Because he had dmx, he had the locks, and I believe Swizz had, like, they all respected his ear, and they all follow to the beat of Swiss, you know what I'm saying? I think that is. You can't. A lot of people can't do that either, you know what I'm saying? Like, those are like, in just the leadership. I watch him just really be a voice even when it came for. When it came to me, like, when we used to kick it, he always gave me a lot of encouragement on, like, yo, man, you. You Timbo. Like, you know, he just broke. Broke me down in a different way where I didn't see myself. And that's why, you know, like, we best friends and we got a business together. You know, I. I wouldn't thought in a million years that we had, you know, you know, but the best business partner I could ever ask God for, you know what I'm saying? Because we. We brothers at the same time, you know what I'm saying? It's like we really have talks on. You know, I tell them about my personal things and vice versa. And he's always been a guy that's been there and listen and say, yo, we're gonna make this. I'm gonna make that. We gonna. We're gonna do this. We're Gonna do that. You know, I just. And I just follow, you know what I'm saying? Because I. I understand his leadership.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. There's been a lineage. Like, even. Like the class that you're speaking of. You Swiss. Yay, Pharrell. That feels like a class of producers that we grew up on and we listened to, and that comes from a lineage pre. Y'all, right? It's Teddy Riley, the Q tips of the world, like the Prince Paul's of the world. Like, just hip hop producers that have gone global. When you listen to music now, especially in hip hop, like, who is the. The. The. The core group that you're saying? Like, oh, these guys are up next. Let me lend them an air. Let me give them some advice on how to navigate this space. Like, do you. Do you look at the landscape and say, like, oh, Metro, that guy's good. Or even like a guy like Cash who. Who's killing New York right now? Like, what's your ear for the producers that are.

[Timberland]

Oh, all the young producers? I. I've been with Cash. I've been. I've been on Cash line for the minute before. You know what I'm saying? I just know. And the thing with Cash is, doing he love music. That's what I'm saying. Like, when you talk about the business, when you love something, everything finds itself to the right place. You know what I'm saying? Like you said, Cash is running New York. He been running it. It's just now that you just hearing it, like, I've been seeing it from the underground with the other artists and other little things, but it just. When you stay consistent on something, that's when it flares up to, like. To the. Our generation where we be like, okay, who is this young guy? Metro Always been like that. Metro to me, always been like that. 808 mafia wheezy out of here, Turbo. I call. I call them guys out of Atlanta, the five deadly venoms, you know what I'm saying? Because them boys is nasty. You know what I'm saying? Like, them boys is nasty, boy. You know what I'm saying? Like, they just. They just. They are. They have a sound that's very unique and you could. It just feels good. Same thing with Mustard. Mustard has a bop. That's just. He just changed. He took what LA was and made it new. And I think that's just like, you know, that ain't easy to do. Mike Will did something. He broke an artist. He broke race from, you know what I'm saying? Like, Mike Will had A sound. Like, he still got a sound. Like, these guys I all, like, love and look up to, you know, being. Being a creative and being a producer. Like, I look up to all up and coming producers because it's looking at their mind and how they think. So when they put the beat together, I'm like, damn, what made them put that snare right there? Because I wouldn't put it right there. So it's like. Then you start asking questions like, hey, do you. Like, what? Kind of. Like, do you play? Do you do crypto? Do you do certain things because of, like, certain ways a person might do something? You'd be like, oh, he got to be into this. He got to be into. Because, yeah, yeah, put that right there. Like, that's just different. Like, so I'm gonna ask him about other things in life, you know what I'm saying? Because everybody just don't put the snare right there. You know what I'm saying? So it. It. It brings on other conversations, you know what I'm saying? So I love all the new creatives out there. You know, I think they're doing their thing. The only thing I, I. That kind of like, every dude that kind of, like, bothered me a little bit, some stuff do sound like right now, music is kind of like. It's kind of dead. Everything do kind of sound alike.

[Ian Dunlap]

Sounds like they do.

[Timberland]

I ain't gonna sit there and hold you on that. Like, that's why I love Cash. Cash. Cash got a sound. It's just like, it just. It stands out on its own. It's either you love it or you. It ain't caught up to you yet, you know what I'm saying? So. And I like that he's just getting better with it, you know what I'm saying? But other than that, it ain't really nothing. That's like, everything sound the same kind of. I mean, I don't know. I could be tripping, but I don't think I am.

[Ian Dunlap]

As a creator and entrepreneur, how do you stay in love with the craft without letting the politics of the industry take that love away?

[Timberland]

Because that's how I came into the game, the love of the craft, you know what I'm saying? Like, you. If you don't love the craft, like, you can't be in the game. You just can't. You can't talk about a game. You gotta love it. If you lose the love, then all the other stuff is out the window too. So for me, it's like I always fall. I'm just in love with music. If I didn't do music or just be around it. Even the talks, sometimes it's like just being in different talks because music is all around us every day. So, you know, so it's just being in the vicinity of just music, good music. I can. I have to do that, but. And then I always have to just make it, you know, just because it's therapy for me. You know what I'm saying? Music. Music was my therapy. Just growing up, period, just was, you know what I'm saying? I. I know. I know I go to school. I know I'll go to college, you know, certain. Certain things. And I'm just like, okay, life gets real. What's going on? And as a teenager, you know, my parents going through, you know, certain, you know, as a. As a black, you know, family, you know, it's hard times, but then it became good times. Right? But during a hard time was the love of. The love of music that had that bubble around me where I didn't feel anything because I always loved what I did. And that just. God just put that in my spirit. Like, that's just a part of me. When I do music, a lot of things go away. A lot of problems that we think about the everyday person. You know, you guys exercising and talking to God.

[Rashad Bilal]

Thank you for your time, bro. I know you're busy, man, but thank you for taking some time out of your day to chop it up with us and. Yeah, man, looking forward to. To verses and everything else you got going on. For sure.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. The return.

[Timberland]

All right.

[Ian Dunlap]

I got one last question, though, and I'm upset. All in New York and the verses between Future and Nas. Timbo, who you think wins?

[Troy Millings]

Here you go, man.

[Ian Dunlap]

I got. He. I know all of New York mad at me. I don't think Future gets enough credit for being a new goat. And I'm enough.

[Timberland]

No, no, no, no. Future is the goat.

[Troy Millings]

Vigo.

[Ian Dunlap]

Talk about it.

[Timberland]

Future. That boy catalog. You better. You better. Come on now. Like I said, everybody. I said Future is the only guy probably can make an album. He could be 60 years old and still, and you still gonna bop to it like he's 20, 20 years old. It's. It's like Future has a formula that you don't get tired of.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Timberland]

You just don't. I don't get tired of it. I love it. I think that man, what he's doing. You're right. He don't. Well, he do get the credit because everybody give him.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. That's why I said Down. Down south. They. They say he is Deagle, but I still. I don't think Nas is the best one. I think a Wayne future situation would make more sense.

[Ian Dunlap]

Wayne out on that level. I love Wayne. Wayne, Wayne. No.

[Troy Millings]

Yo, Ian, be careful, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay. Yeah, that's great.

[Troy Millings]

No, be careful, man. Be careful.

[Ian Dunlap]

Come on, y'all.

[Troy Millings]

That's still the Wayne Carter.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's crazy.

[Troy Millings]

That's still the Wayne Carter.

[Timberland]

Don't do that to Lil Wayne, man. I don't even know why you brought him up, man.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's great.

[Timberland]

Like, Little Wayne, bro. Like, what are we talking about?

[Ian Dunlap]

That's.

[Timberland]

Wayne taught her, bro.

[Troy Millings]

That's the Wayne car.

[Timberland]

Like, when you talk about these high level people, that's. This is not a conversation you have on camera. This is when you go to the back room.

[Ian Dunlap]

My bad.

[Timberland]

You know these. No, this is when you go to the back room. Like, you know, like the trade just happened.

[Troy Millings]

Lucas.

[Timberland]

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it got to be like the high level people we talk about, it's like, oh, you gotta go on the drawing board, like, write this out. Yeah, right?

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

But.

[Timberland]

But it's like Cadet. Cadet that they topped here.

[Troy Millings]

That's top 10.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's a fact. Like I said. We actually went to two verses. We was. We was front row for the Dipset Locks battle.

[Troy Millings]

That's a fact.

[Rashad Bilal]

Legendary. We was there and then we was at LA for the.

[Troy Millings]

The Ray J joint.

[Rashad Bilal]

No, Ray J wasn't the headliner, though. It was.

[Troy Millings]

But that's big.

[Timberland]

People remember that.

[Troy Millings]

Omarion brought the watermelon out. I was like, oh, man, that was crazy.

[Timberland]

How was that one?

[Rashad Bilal]

Wow.

[Timberland]

Yeah, we were there. Yeah. Did y'all catch COVID and that dissect one, people?

[Troy Millings]

I did. I did. I ended up in the hospital after that.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

For real.

[Troy Millings]

Covid was definitely in the building.

[Timberland]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Full effect.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'll tell you this.

[Timberland]

Everybody watched it.

[Rashad Bilal]

The energy that you saw from it wasn't comparable to the in person experience.

[Timberland]

Now that what I will say, nothing was compared to you. Right? You a thousand percent right about that.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Timberland]

We were sitting there like, even it was popping. I still kept that mask tight.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Troy Millings]

That could have went a couple of ways, man. We were sitting there like, this could. This is. This is still all good, right?

[Rashad Bilal]

No, that was. That was. That was a great, great, great, great night.

[Timberland]

But, man, because that's the first time people really got outside. For real. For real.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was.

[Timberland]

It was just. It was a great fellowship night. It Was just. Everything just lined up that. That night, you know what I'm saying, is people really coming outside. And it was. It was a great event. I never felt that. That the last time I felt like that was Summer Jam when Jay Z did it back in the day.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

That was. That was a moment. That was a hip hop moment that's gonna live forever.

[Troy Millings]

That was a moment.

[Rashad Bilal]

Hip hop moment. All right, my brother. Thank you again.

[Ian Dunlap]

We appreciate you, bro.

[Timberland]

Pete.

[Rashad Bilal]

Timbo, the Kid King. Shout out to Timberland.

[Ian Dunlap]

Man, I was tripping the Wayne comment.

[Troy Millings]

Thank you for the clarification.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, baby.

[Timberland]

All right.

[Rashad Bilal]

Well, it's been real, ladies and gentlemen. Well, we'll be watching earnings. We'll see what happens for sure.

[Troy Millings]

Fact. And the super bowl weekend. I know who you got winning. Did you want to give me a score?

[Rashad Bilal]

No, I don't do the scores. But you know, we know we definitely go with Pat Mahomes and we know that that's easy to ride it out, you know, three. Three p. First time ever. NFL history.

[Ian Dunlap]

Ever.

[Rashad Bilal]

Shout out to. To the goat. But yeah, man, shout out to Larry. The whole city of New Orleans. That's gonna be. That's gonna be a big vibe. Kendrick Lamar looking forward to that. Bring out scissors.

[Ian Dunlap]

Is Wayne gonna come out?

[Rashad Bilal]

50. 50.

[Troy Millings]

50.

[Rashad Bilal]

50.

[Troy Millings]

I hope not. I just hope not.

[Ian Dunlap]

I'm just.

[Troy Millings]

I'm just saying I hope you spoke.

[Rashad Bilal]

So it's no problem.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Ian Dunlap]

Is that public? Yeah, I heard that too.

[Rashad Bilal]

He better. He better kill it. So. I mean, they already had the conversation, so I'm sure he asked him. At the very least, I'm sure he asked them. It's just a matter of way if Wayne accepted it or not.

[Troy Millings]

I did hope he doesn't come out.

[Rashad Bilal]

But gotta do it. Gotta do it. New Orleans Emergency Blackout Episode 6 Foot 7 Foot. I mean, I think he's gonna do it, but like I said, I put it at 50. 50. But I. I had to. If I had to bet. I say he gonna do it because why not? It's in New Orleans. They obviously don't have no problem because.

[Troy Millings]

He spoke to him on the phone and Wayne wasn't. Was one of the finalists. They Des. Des Perez, who was ahead of Roc Nation. She had an interview and said that Wayne was one of the finalists. It was. It came down to him. Kendrick and another artist and some. Some guy decided to choose Kendrick. I got you. Fill in the blanks. Shout out to. Shout out to that guy for sure. Yeah. Who you got, man?

[Ian Dunlap]

I got Chief Spa.

[Rashad Bilal]

1010 at least.

[Troy Millings]

Damn.

[Ian Dunlap]

Even with slow Kelsey, we're gonna have a conversation about if him growing out that hair like that. And my boy Asian likes spoiled milk. Yo, I. I don't like to go.

[Troy Millings]

Against my homes, but since y'all both picked Kansas City and they beat my team, I can't go against the home. But I would not be surprised if Philly wins and they win by at least five or six. They went by six. I think a 3024 score.

[Rashad Bilal]

Shout out to Philly. No. Oh, love, but you know you can't.

[Ian Dunlap]

Go to my guy Drew. Yo, I'm still. I want your team to win, but the refs like if you put a shoulder on. On Mahomes. Oh, unnecessary roughness. Roughing the passer 15 yards.

[Rashad Bilal]

Can't go against.

[Troy Millings]

Should be a good one.

[Rashad Bilal]

Can't go against the family. But it's been real. It's been real. Blackout Wednesday. We got Roland Martin, 10 o'clock. We're gonna be asking if the Democrats sold out black for sure. First question, tune in and then 11. I mean, 9 o'clock on Thursday. YouTube live how to how to improve your credit score quickly with Sandra Martin. That's going to be a really, really, really important episode. Eyl. Nine o'clock on Thursday. Anything else?

[Troy Millings]

I think you got it all, man. I got February 27th.

[Rashad Bilal]

Carnegie Hall.

[Troy Millings]

Carnegie Hall. Pull up on us in the building.

[Rashad Bilal]

Shout out to Robert Smith.

[Troy Millings]

Have your finest attire laid out. Go get it now. Get it tailored now.

[Ian Dunlap]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Keynote. Get it tailored.

[Timberland]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Stop shopping at Macy's.

[Rashad Bilal]

Thanks.

[Ian Dunlap]

For sure.

[Troy Millings]

I'm sorry. I didn't mean that, y'all. They got me talking crazy.

[Ian Dunlap]

Macy's dead in the company too. Dead man walking. Dead.

[Troy Millings]

Dead.

[Rashad Bilal]

All right, y'all.

[Timberland]

Stay real.

[Troy Millings]

Love.

[Ian Dunlap]

Love is love.

[Rashad Bilal]

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[Ian Dunlap]

Are now boarding group A, please have.

[Troy Millings]

Your boarding passes ready to scan.

[Timberland]

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[Ian Dunlap]

For the new Samsung Galaxy S25 plus.

[Timberland]

With Galaxy AI on Unlimited ultimate and a watch or tap also on them.

[Troy Millings]

Service plan required for watch or Tap. Trade in and additional terms apply.

[Rashad Bilal]

See verizon.com for details.