Tuesday Jan 16, 2024

Maj Toure: Business Lessons From the Street Hustle

Maj wants to make sure that no one is left out of the capitalist system. He shares business and marketing secrets he learned both from his time selling shoes at Foot Locker and from selling DVDs and weed on the train in his native Philadelphia. Anything you do, he says, turn it into a free market enterprise.

Maj cites 50 Cent and actor Ryan Reynolds as shrewd businessmen who knew how to negotiate the best deals, even when it meant taking financial hits up front. The music industry is full of “culture vultures,” who profit off of other peoples’ products. Hip hop, Maj says, is the most powerful form of expression in the world, which is why it was co-opted and used to make millions which bypassed the culture that created it.

Our own internal voices send us powerful messages as well, and Maj and Bart discuss healthy versus unhealthy self-talk. Learn why he compares America to the tower of Babel, the origins of “reality rap,” and why you have the power to earn millions of dollars right in the palm of your hand.

“I don’t want my friends to continue to get lost in a system,” explains Maj Toure, rapper, social activist and founder of Black Guns Matter, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating Black Americans about gun culture and gun control in the U.S., as well as defending 2nd Amendment rights.

As Bart notes, humans are motivated to move toward pleasure and away from pain. Maj was motivated to found Black Guns Matter after losing friends to gun violence or seeing so many young Black men getting arrested for possessing a firearm. By educating Black citizens on gun ownership, he is not only putting a weapon in their hands that will help them protect their own communities, but putting the American dream–a dream many thought did not belong to them–back into their hands as well.

Quotes

“Society is targeted to a young person who says, ‘I should just buy weed and sell it.’ And I'm not mad that it's wrong. It's commerce; it's an exchange. But they won't say, ‘I want cannabis, and it should not be criminalized, and I should not have to pay licensing fees to the state to have a cannabis dispensary. I should be able to grow cannabis; that's a horticultural plant. I should be able to grow this, I should be able to cure it, I should be able to package it, and I should be able to sell it.’” (1:37 | Maj Toure)
“My job is to make sure that my demographic recognizes it is wrong to sell products that give people myocarditis. I want them to recognize that there are other ways of bringing that type of commerce and free market enterprise to your demographic that can be highly profitable, without the same risk potentially, ‘I can go to jail,’ or ‘I can get robbed,’ you know?” (3:18 | Maj Toure)
“You do what Barry Gordy did, a 60s/70s record label out of Detroit. Fast forward, you do what Master P did. You do what Phil Knight did with Nike. He worked for ASICs first, and then came up with this thing. And yes, Phil Knight sold Nikes out of the trunk of his car initially.” (9:34 | Maj Toure)
“Ryan Reynolds is a great example of the ups and downs of any career. These are lessons that come with pain. The pain of being an actor. Not knowing when I'm going to get the next gig,’ then hitting the lotto with Deadpool, right? But no one talks about when he was also Green Lantern.” (15:49 | Maj Toure)
“I’m a tyrant to myself. My inner voice is disgusting. My thoughts aren’t negative, they’re aggressive. That’s why I don’t smoke weed as much anymore. That inner voice will tell me things like, ‘Bro, you don’t have $10 million in cash or Bitcoin, yet? You’re a loser. You’re a loser.’ It can be motivating when I come down and have that moment of clarity, but I’m still calling myself a loser at that moment. It’s not a really healthy thing.” (17:53 | Maj Toure)
“We’re taking these communities that do not feel like they are part of the American dream, and they’re saying, ‘Nah, this is for me, now. The American dream is mine as well.’” (21:46 | Maj Toure)

Links

Learn more and subscribe to the Bart Show Fan Weekly Newsletter at https://thebartshow.com

Connect with Maj Toure:

https://www.instagram.com/bigdaddytoure

https://www.tiktok.com/mrmajtoure

https://www.facebook.com/majtoure

https://www.youtube.com/majtoure

Connect with Bart Baggett

https://instagram.com/bartbaggett

https://www.instagram.com/bartshowpodcast/

https://www.youtube.com/@bartshowpodcast

https://bartbaggett.com