Old Mutual On The Money
Old Mutual On The Money
Osmic Menoe on Making & Growing Money
Hip hop curator and Back to the City organiser, Osmic Menoe, has kept the music and business flame burning over the years. In this rare sit down with Head of Financial Education John Manyike, Osmic lets us in on his unique approach to making and growing money, his staying power in the industry, and shares some insightful financial tips.
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John Manyike 00:06
Hello, brother.
Osmic Menoe 00:08
How are you, big boss? Breathing in and out.
John Manyike 00:10
Awesome, awesome.
Osmic Menoe 00:11
Breathing in and out.
John Manyike 00:12
You know when I was told I'm going to be chatting to you, I said, “Wow”, you are one person who is very humble and you are not a lover of the spotlight.
Osmic Menoe 00:27
Yeah, sure.
John Manyike 00:29
So, tell me more about you. I mean, home, family background?
Osmic Menoe 00:36
Born in Tladi, that is deep Soweto, boring life, nothing exciting.
John Manyike 00:44
Yeah, that’s the before picture.
Osmic Menoe 00:46
That's just, yeah, that's just you know, born Tladi, that's where I'm from, and that's where my roots are. That's where my mom is. That's where my little brother is. It's where my family is. And yeah, I think to remain private is by design. You know, it's by design.
John Manyike 01:07
You know, it takes a man of wisdom to get to that point where it's really not about the spotlight, as long as you do your thing. And, but I want to know more about how you grew up first, because I'm interested in what were those influences, things that influenced your life to be what you are today?
Osmic Menoe 01:29
I think it's coming from a curious background number one, because a lot of the things I do now, I always say to people, I've been doing them from day one. So nothing has changed. You know, from, you know, whether spray painting at the age of like, 12, 11. And I got it even to this hip hop thing in a very early age, when I was like in, like standard one. I don't know what grade that's called but in standard one you know.
John Manyike 02:05
You know, I laugh because of people when they say standard one they can't relate.
Osmic Menoe 02:11
They'll have to Google what standard one is.
John Manyike 02:13
Okay, standard one is sub A, sub B.
Osmic Menoe 02:15
So, you also don't know. There you go. You don’t know what grade, you know and just, I think coming from my background of principals and teachers, so I think the nature of helping others, it's always, you know, it comes from there. Because my mom is a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, or the grandmother is a principal, you know, so I think that's where the principalities of my actions, or maybe my upbringings, I think that I would say that where they come from.
John Manyike 02:56
I guess you reflect a lot about concepts. Just maybe your passion on culture general.
Osmic Menoe 03:08
Well, my reflection, not just on culture, but my reflections. And I think, how do we better ourselves as black people, number one, because I always say, us as black people, we're in trouble because you know, a lot of the things that we get or receive either forth hand information. And I say that, for instance, like if you're in business, you seen business off the internet, or you hear about someone, you don't have an uncle who's like an accountant or an uncle, who's a, you know, business person, you know, if you want to be an actor, you see it on TV, you don't have anyone, right next to you to you, you know, give you those skills. So, these are the things I always reflect on. And the things that I do, the idea is how do I then contribute? Hence, not to be in the spotlight is by design because what must be in the spotlight is the work that I do.
John Manyike 04:12
So, you got into business. And you had a small shop, apparently in your town.
Osmic Menoe 04:20
Yeah. I got into business when I was 12 actually.
John Manyike 04:23
What?
Osmic Menoe 04:24
Yes, I owned a soccer club. And I own like a roller skating, so to speak. And that propelled to, around those times when I discovered this hip hop thing, I think the first time, I think I started understanding commerce in bulk and mass was when I did this mix-tape right, this is in high school. Because before myself and some friends we did, we had started a hip hop magazine when I was I think it was in standard seven. Once again, they will Google what standard seven is. And at the time, once again, the magazine was more about all these amazing things were happening around, you know, there was a spot called a club that was, you know, Ghandi square, with all these amazing things happening with all these amazing individuals. And we thought, what best way to capture those and we had started something called ritual magazine. Not knowing at the time it would be sort of one of the first hip hop magazines in Joburg. But fast forward to that was because of the graffiti pod painting walls that are getting some cold breads, and a lot of money that I would save up, bought myself some studio equipment, and was able to do a bedroom studio, where guys can come in and pay. And since then, those little monies of saving up and doing this mix-tape, we had took me all around the country, had a cool opportunity to do some graffiti work for a brand called Sprite. And that's the money that helped me start the story that you talking about 20 years ago, 21 years ago, I was in, I just finished matric.
John Manyike 06:31
So, when it comes to business, do you have a role model? I mean, who inspires you the most?
Osmic Menoe 06:37
I've never seen myself to be in business. Because I think I've found a way to make money without knowing I'm making money. So I don't, so I've never put myself where I sit down and then like, okay, cool. I need to make money. So everything I do just makes money. But I figured sort of why it makes money? Because purely it's about the energy you give. It's, this is gonna start sounding wishy-washy, but it's literally about how you sync yourself, you know with the universe because you need to understand the concept and idea of when you give you get back, because the weirdest things I've done have brought me a lot of money. And these are weird things like that, if I told you I do this, you'd be like, “No. That makes no sense”. You know. So a lot of these things that I've done over the years have been literally new, one, such as whether it was back to the city, hip hop festival that's been around for 15 years, which was a weird thing at the time. Whether it was a South African Hip-Hop awards, whether it was a South African Hip-Hop museum that's in construction now or any other weird thing that I do. The process is never to sit down to chase profit, it was always how do you feel the gap? How do you assess? How do you, you know, and I think the universe naturally will gravitate towards giving you that, you know, pushing, you know that hand.
John Manyike 08:31
I think that's profound, you know, because you'll come across as somebody who follows the passion. And you don't see it as a business because it's your passion. And in the process, you find yourself making money, but you're not after money, you know, pursuing your passion.
Osmic Menoe 08:48
That's the trick because, you know, because also you learn how to harness this energy, because a lot of times I've seen, you know, whether it's maids, whether it's other people in business, I've seen the act of chasing money versus the act of doing things that give and how the money comes in. Because I've realized that there's more money in abundance when you do that, you know, there's a reason why Bill Gates has become more richer with his foundation than he was when he was the CEO of Microsoft, right? Because if you look what he's doing, his whole thing is, I'm going to help people, right? And he says, I'm going to this African country. I'm going to this whatever place I'm going to eradicate yada-yada, takes his own money goes in. But there's someone out there that's like, you know, send Bill 500 million. There's another one send him a billion, there is another one sending this, you know what I mean? And this few people that I think, have figured that science and once again, it sounds wishy-washy, but I'm living proof of it.
John Manyike 10:10
Makes sense to me. I mean, so I would imagine that a person who follows the passion, and if I may use the term, incidentally makes money in the process.
Osmic Menoe 10:24
There is no accident.
John Manyike 10:26
I think, I guess by default.
Osmic Menoe 10:29
Not default.
John Manyike 10:30
What would you call it?
Osmic Menoe 10:32
It's the alignment.
John Manyike 10:33
Yes.
Osmic Menoe 10:34
It's the alignment. It's everything has a, you know, it’s universal laws, everything, as you know, everything has repercussions, whatever energy that you put out, you get back. So like I say that the idea is, how do you understand that science? How do you harness it, because I've just never believed in, like me doing something, and a 5 million Rand cheque comes? I'm not saying oh, that's a mistake you know.
John Manyike 11:01
It's alignment.
Osmic Menoe 11:02
That's alignment, because when the 5 million comes, you must know what to do with it. Because if it's a mistake, that's when you blow the 5 million, because you don't know where it came from. But when you understand where this money came from, and why this money is in your hands, then you understand the purpose of the money. Because once you understand what purpose money serves, I think more you'll always get it, if you understand what the purpose of money is, you know.
John Manyike 11:32
So, a person with your mindset, I would imagine, would define failure different from what most people will call it, because for you, you stop pursuing your passion.
Osmic Menoe 11:44
Yeah. Once again, I think things like that, like failure, I've just always felt, I've always said, I've never failed in anything. Purely because whatever has failed, I just needed to look at it from a different direction, right. Whether it's the hip hop awards for a long time not getting money and the money coming from my pocket. All it needed me to do was change strategy, right. Or whether it's the festival that cost millions and millions of Rands, and for the first few years, the money is coming from my pocket, what I had to do was change strategy. So I think, a lot of times people tend to do something, and when it, you know, when they hit a wall, that's like, that's it, but I think you've never looked at it…
John Manyike 12:42
From a different angle.
Osmic Menoe 12:43
From a different angle. But also, it's important to surround yourself with people that can show you the different angles, you know, and I always say is that the people that I surround myself with, literally, you know, assist me in, you know, to do all these, some of these impossible things that I do, because, you know, they are the people that will say, “Nah, look at it this way”, you know, so I think it's also very important to see who you surround yourself with, once again, everyone needs to be aligned.
John Manyike 13:15
Yeah. Have you ever lost money at trying to pursue your dream and then recovered?
Osmic Menoe 13:21
That's like last week.
John Manyike 13:24
Yeah.
Osmic Menoe 13:25
That's like last week, that's like any other week, that's like this morning. And I lose big money, like 5 million, 10 million but it doesn't depress me. Because I understand what the path is, I understand what the goal is, I understand what the mission is, because it's on paper. It's designed, right? And, you know, like, for instance, with this year's festival, there's a super big risk. We're about to take, like, it's a big risk, and everyone disagrees with it. But I'm like, the universe will fix it. Because there's a purpose of why I have to do it. You know what I mean? So losing money is part of the process. It's not a bad thing. What's the bad thing is losing money and then giving up, you know, and I always say, if you try to get to step 100, and you give up on step 60. That means all those 60 steps are pointless you know, so yeah.
John Manyike 14:27
Wow. You've got a different mind I must say
Osmic Menoe 14:31
I think I've got a normal mind.
John Manyike 14:34
No.
Osmic Menoe 14:35
I swear to..
John Manyike 14:36
It's you know, you're very few people think the way you think, you know, somebody would think, argh, I have this 5 Million why should I continue?
Osmic Menoe 14:44
I think they do think this way, but I think they scared to just go with what they mind says, I think a lot of people you know, it's the same when we started the festival and we started this museum, it was a bit weird, because in my mind, I thought that was just common sense. Why wouldn't they be a space to preserve culture?
John Manyike 15:10
Yeah.
Osmic Menoe 15:11
Isn't that like, common sense? You know, but somehow no one did it. But when I then did it, and then it's like, ah, but that's weird to me. Like, why would you give me props for something? That's common sense. Hip Hop Awards? Whenever anyone done awards? Isn't that common sense, because there's guys working, there is guys doing these things, you do a ceremony to celebrate the, right, hip hop festival. Wouldn't you put together all these amazing guys, and put them under one stage and make a big stage and make 1000s of people come together to see them? Why didn't you do that? It sounded like common sense to me.
John Manyike 15:56
What would you say to someone who says, you will make life look so simple?
Osmic Menoe 15:59
But it is simple. I just think we complicated. We overthink, we've got this you know, we care a lot about what people say. Because if you know, sometimes your environment or what surrounds you, it's what holds it's what holds you down or holds you back you know. And I think the minute you expand your mind, you gonna start seeing things very differently you know, like I say, we've got all these fears, especially the color of our skin also tends to work against us a lot of times. But I think it's important for, you know, people such as myself, and, you know, I like to do these things to give confidence to a generation, you know, that's going to come after us. Because, you know, I do the weirdest things I go, I'll take my son or my friends. And I'd be like, “Hey, man, I'm going for a house viewing”. And then they're like, “Oh okay”, and then we get there, the house is like 120 million. And then they're like, “Oh, ****.”, you know, and they scared now. And I'm like, “Oh, guys, it's just the house. Not here to buy it”, you just want to, you know, but that's the confidence. If you want to whatever it is, if you want to be a CEO of, I don't know, whatever company Old Mutual send an email to the CEO and say, “Hey, man, I'd like to visit for a day and just, you know, find a way to get yourself in that office”. So you can understand, like, also, that's how it feels to be here you know, that's that boost you know, that I think will assist you. So confidence is key.
John Manyike 18:06
Tell me about the beginning stages of the festival, how you conceptualized it, what was in your mind and your vision around that?
Osmic Menoe 18:15
At the time when I had the store. So I think started when I was, I think it was 20 years. So, at the time, I had a radio show on YFM and it's a TV show, had a club. I think it was what I doing around that time. The store was obviously the big thing. But to me, at the time, it was literally common sense because the store had become very popular at the time. It stored like exclusive sneakers, it stored like local brands and local artists at an art gallery, selling vinyl’s or DJs were all coming there and had a recording studio. And at the time, a friend of mine called Dominique Soma was into events and approached was like, “Look, I want to do this thing in this manner in this way”. Imagine we close the road, people are spraying under the pillars of M1 highway, by the way, that's the busiest road in the whole country, we're gonna spray those pillars. It's Newtown, it's a cultural hub. Once again, it sounded very weird, but to me, it was make sense, you know, add a little bit of money and say, “Let's do it, you know, let's pull resources and fast forward and I realized that the sustainability of it comes from scaling”. So if you scale it that means more people come. If more people come, that means you can attract brands and government will take you serious and if you've got government by your side, if you've got corporate by your side, it means you could have a better stage, better sound, better cameras, better everything. And if all those things are aligned, it means that talent that's on stage, you've given them a platform that they had never had before, meaning the potential becomes greater you know. Hence, a lot of big artists came from their platform, hence now, you know, my inbox is sitting at like, 600 emails, because everyone recognizes that if I get on that stage, my life will change, you know, once again, that is the responsibility of money. So you're realizing all that there was nothing to do with money. It was about how do you get it and just automatically, because of all those alignments, and the responsibility of what the purpose of what this thing is about, the money will then come?
John Manyike 21:00
So how would you define your offer? What do you offer brands who sponsored the festival? And what do you offer to people who come there?
Osmic Menoe 21:13
Insights, I offer them insights, I offer them reach. And it's built in such a way that we don't have to go knocking because we knocked for eight years, we've knocked. But now we've put it at such a scale. And it's such an offering, that the knocking comes to us. And when that happens, it means they know why they want to come in there. They're looking for the numbers, they're looking for relevancy. They're looking to attach themselves to this culture called Hip Hop. You know, and that is why we've never tried to deviate from you know, let's put RnB, let's put amapiano, let's put up Gqom you know, we've never deviated because we literally work for the culture, because we're here to improve the lives within our culture.
John Manyike 22:07
Do you consider yourself a visionary?
Osmic Menoe 22:10
No, just a normal guy from the deep Soweto.
John Manyike 22:16
Sure. And then you started the live streaming business?
Osmic Menoe 22:21
Well, that was interesting. Once again, I didn't start a live streaming business. I just, I was bored.
John Manyike 22:30
Okay.
Osmic Menoe 22:31
So…
John Manyike 22:33
And this was during Covid, right?
Osmic Menoe 22:34
Yeah, so Covid hits. And what we then do is, take, technically speaking, we should have been down and out technically speaking, because at the time, we had just announced our partnership, so Hennessy had just bought the naming rights to the festival, it's called Hennessy Back to the City. It was a super big deal, because Hennessy has never done that. In the whole wide world. This is the first time they do this, in this little country called South Africa, you know, you need to think about that one, like the importance of a brand like that, I mean, the whole president of Hennessy Global, came down here for you know, for this thing. Um, so when Covid then happens, once again, I already had the insights of Covid and started telling everybody and everyone thought I was crazy. I said, “Look, do you know, don't use any money, save up. You know, there's a storm coming.” And some people listened to me. Some people didn't listen to me, right? Because I knew that was covered. I knew what was going to happen. You ask, how did I know? Because I work a lot with the Chinese companies, right? So a lot of my suppliers, our makers of things are Chinese. So China, those companies have already gotten letters in November, from the government to say the country is going to get shut down. So they need to push out all the orders. So I already knew that's what's happening in China, right, and it's a serious thing. So cool, then it happens. And everyone was like, ah, 28 days, like, it's not gonna be 28 days. It was not 28 days with those people. There's no way because remember, there's 1.2 billion, 1.3 billion people. So I think the first month just like everyone else, you know, it was about you know, relaxing, catching up with whoever you need to catch up with, you know, but it got boring. Because I, you know, like I said, I'm curious. So sitting around and watching Netflix and watching TV doesn't really work well for me. Then I started a challenge on Facebook. And I said, “Whoever can get more diplomas or degrees on me during this time, it's going to get 10,000 Rand?” So I'll put up like Coursera, Udemy, my loggings said, is a challenge, right. Everyone is excited about the challenge, you know, but we all know, during Covid, no one was trying to be studying. So I was like, let me learn a new skill just for the hell of it. Because we are doing this, we like a little PlayStation group with some of the hip hop guys, you know, I thought it'd be so cool for people to watch our stream. So let me learn how to stream. And then I learn how to stream. It took me 256 hours to learn streaming. But I did it, consciously did it in front of everybody. So I did it. So I would give everyone an update. I'm now in 10 hours. I've learned this. I'm now on what what? You know, I've learned this, I've done this. I'm sitting here now this is what's happening until my first test. My first test obviously, backed out I think we got hacked by some Russian guy that had like 85,000 people viewing, which was the festival on the 27th of April, because obviously we're all sitting at home. But I didn't give in, right. It was bad, very bad. Everyone laughed at me everyone like made fun of me. I was the big one. I think I trended the day after it was a big joke. I just laughed as well. Okay, on to the next, and then started perfecting it little by little. And then I thought to myself, hey, a friend of mine, sitting at home, Kenzhero. Some of our famous friends in America are sitting at home. Why don't we create like an online TV show, because I've learned to scale that I don't think a lot of people can do. So I get Kenzhero to be the host. We start calling famous people in America because you know, a famous person will put you into the next famous person. And people started watching the show. And I got an inbox from one of the brands who were like, hey, our boss is looking for something like that. What company you using, right? You realize I did not chase money anyway there.
John Manyike 27:48
Yeah.
Osmic Menoe 27:49
And then I was like, okay, my company's doing it. They're like, okay, can you send us a quotation, right. And I was like, I asked around some of the companies, how much does a streaming like that cost? Like, you know, everyone was telling me 30,000, 35,000, I know, it’s okay. I don't want to pay 35000 Rand, I'd rather sit and do free things for my friends. And then the brand was like, listen, we don't have much of a budget, but we can give you 150,000 for one hour. I made over 3.5 million Rand, I'm streaming. I was doing 90% of the streaming in this country with a skill set I learned from sitting by my table during Covid. And I did that, showing everybody how I did it. So once again, it was not a thing of I'm doing something in the corners of my house. It was public. It was like, and people saw all these clients that I was doing government corporate. Because remember at the time, you couldn't go to anyone's house. So I will figure out how to stream, while you sitting at home and someone else is sitting at home. And so I said it was not a business. I was just streaming and people offered me a lot of money and then I just did the streams for them.
John Manyike 29:22
Wow. So, you're an avid traveler. I mean, you travel to the US, you go to China and…?
Osmic Menoe 29:27
Yeah, I travel a lot because I saw the trick of travelling once again. I always say this to every young person I see is that you know if black people discover China, their lives will change. Like Chinese, that country is the only way out of poverty. And I'll tell you why. Because they, anything you can think of in your head, they will make it for you. I've always said, why can you not go there, do this thing, get the skill, come back home and teach us? And then let's do it. So if you've learned how to make a sneaker in China, come back here, open a little factory, hire us to learn. If you've learned how to make a camera, come here, show us how to make a camera, we can all make cameras, you know what I mean? Because that's what they have. They've got the skill set and the knowledge and they're not stingy with them you know. So, these are things I've seen in my travel. When you go to the States, you get to understand and see, okay, this is how they think. Okay, this is saw their behaviour, you know, and you come back home. And you know, you tell the homies like, you know, this is what's happening out there. But once again, you can't do those things, if you don't have confidence.
John Manyike 30:57
Wow. You know, I was about to ask if you've ever done a masterclass, but then on second thought, I realize the kind of stuff that you do transparently. So, it's bigger than a masterclass.
Osmic Menoe 31:09
I try to be transparent, because I show everybody that there's nothing special about me, as I'm just doing it, and if I can do it, so can you. Literally there is nothing special about what I do and who I am. The only difference is that I don't overthink it, I just do it. And I try to show everybody because everyone is always asking these things. And like, for instance, look at the hip hop museum. Once the museum is open, you will laugh one day when you see it, but everybody's gonna have a museum. So the Kwaito guys are gonna have a museum of jazz people going to make a museum, the SABC is gonna make a museum, the Soccer people gonna make a museum, everybody's gonna make a museum, but you know why? Because the hip hop museum would have given them the confidence to say, if these hip hop people can do a museum, why can we not, you know what I mean? And that's my point of doing things transparently so.
John Manyike 32:10
Because now people can see that actually, this is doable.
Osmic Menoe 32:13
It’s doable. Look at awards. Since we did Hip Hop Awards, how many awards are there now? It's Kwaito awards, amapiano awards and gospel awards, and you name it awards, you know, because when someone sees it, the attitude is like, if those kids did that, why can we not? You know, because all these things, I did them in my teens, you know.
John Manyike 32:38
You're such an inspiration.
Osmic Menoe 32:41
Thank you for those kind words, my good sir.
John Manyike 32:43
I shake my head, because you hardly talk to people who think like that.
Osmic Menoe 32:49
Like I said, I think there, I think they there, a lot of amazing people doing amazing things, but I think you don't get to hear about some of the work, you don't get to see them. And I'm always hoping that one day, you know, there'll be, you know, platforms, more of such as these where you literally find, you know, young people doing next level things, you know, because I think we need to stop looking for inspiration in America and start finding inspiration within ourselves.
John Manyike 33:29
So, I mean, with the levels of poverty we have, not only in South Africa, but even in the entire continent of Africa. What sort of mindset or thinking that you think, perhaps black people in particular, well mostly, poor people in the context of what's happening in the continent with poverty and inequality and all that? What sort of thinking do you think we need to adopt? I mean, you…
Osmic Menoe 34:04
I think first, like, I think you need to ask yourself, what is poverty? What is that? Like, what’s poverty? Is that I can’t find food? I can’t find a job. Is that like poverty is? Like, what's your definition of poverty?
John Manyike 34:24
Well, I think in the simplest, perhaps form, it's just lack. You know, lack, but I know, some people that argue and say, it's not lack of money, but lack of ideas and thinking.
Osmic Menoe 34:39
There we go, right. That's what I was looking at. Because to me, poverty is not I didn't eat, I can't find a job. Because if you see a lot of able bodied people with a handout, right, everybody's out here for a handout. Because no one is thinking, right. So I'm always saying it starts first with that you need to sit and look at yourself in the mirror and find yourself because a lot of us have lost ourselves, find yourself. And once you find yourself, you will regain your confidence. And once you have that, you will see the world differently. Because there are so many things that, where opportunities are in abundance. But you can't see them. Always make an example to guys, you know, like, someone will bump into me on the street and the guy would be like, oh, can I get a picture with you? And I'm like, “No, I don't do that stuff”. Like, why would you not take a picture with me? That makes no sense. What do you do? I do yada, yada. Okay. Can you do this? Yeah, okay. Okay, email me. I've just changed his mind. He came to ask for a picture. I'm like, “Nah, did you know, what's the hustle” you know, what do you do? You know, who do you know, that I would need to know, sometimes this guy's uncle could be the brand manager of Old Mutual that I've been trying to email, you know what I mean? So, but I'm moving that way. Because I've managed to change my mindset. So I think it starts with that to say, if you see on Facebook, some amazing stories of someone making charcoal out of something, someone making furniture out of tires, someone making this out of you know what I mean? And that's a person that has confidence that has changed, you know, the other day, I saw someone who was making these very weird Ottomans. And these things are like by Google offices, they are at, you know, Apple, they you know, the person is from South Africa, right. Because the international market recognizes what they're doing. You know what I mean, because also, we need to also remember that we're a global community, you know, you're not selling to 60 million people. You're selling to billions and billions of people, you're selling to the world. How do you create conversation with a company in Sweden? How do you sell your pictures to Getty Images? How do you do? Why because in 2022, the technology allows you to travel to any parts of the world while you're sitting at your house. Like I've just said, we're interviewing all these big artists that are impossible to get, like impossible, but I was doing it in my dining room you know. So, I think technology is, it's also affording us opportunity. But I always say to artists, or young business guys will always say, “Oh, you're on Instagram but you following slay queens on Instagram”. You know, you say an artist, but I don't see you following these, when you look at the feed, the feed is all wrong. And if your feed is wrong, it means you've just fed your mind wrong things. But if you feed your mind things that will boost what you're about, then you'll go further you know. So it's in all these little ideas. And all I can hope to do is keep spreading them.
John Manyike 38:39
Yeah. If there's one thing that you could say to encourage or advise not in South Africa, and Africans in the whole continent in order to change the narrative about poverty and inequality and all these challenges that we see where people are trapped and say, but we can't do anything. I mean, you've proven you come from humble beginnings. And when you look at where you are now, and the way you approach life, what would you say to Africans?
Osmic Menoe 39:15
I think, I say to Africans, that the African Renaissance now and if you don't know what that means, go Google, the African Renaissance now. If you don't take all these opportunities, if you don't educate yourself, if you don't position yourself in a position to win, then this time is gonna pass you because everybody is taking from Africa. Yes, it's been happening over time but right now it's at height because fashion is coming out of here. Music is coming out of here. I mean, the other day I was in New York, and then I went to 6 or 7 clubs in Brooklyn. These clubs are only playing amapiano, only in Brooklyn. And in LA, I meet these two ladies. I'm a DJ. I'm like, what do you play? I’m like no, we are amapiano DJs and in LA. And I'm very confused as hell like, you are what? Again, we only play amapiano they can’t even say.
John Manyike 40:34
They can’t even pronounce it.
Osmic Menoe 40:35
But these people are headliners, right. They headliners. You know, you look at I mean, Beyoncé did that, what is it that big concert with something, we are African or something like that? There's a reason she did that. Because she saw the value in that association, right. So I would say the African Renaissance is here, and we should be the ones pushing it, we should be the ones benefiting from it. But if we don't align ourselves, if you don't educate ourselves, if you don't have the necessary skills, to be able to take those opportunities, then once again, you know, other nations are gonna come and take, you know what I mean? And it's beautiful look around, you look at what the sneaker guys are doing. You know, bathu, Drip and you know, all these guys, you know, they gave confidence to other guys to start their own brands. Because, you know, I'll send someone. I tried to start a sneaker with a store called “Rachel Sneaker” . I did a pair. I did a pair there 19 years ago, right. But the market was not there yet, right. And when I see what's happening now I'm like, that's it. This is it, you know, clothing label, you see what guys like Bhutan were doing, Amakip kip’s is back, you know, you see what some of these Rich Mnisi guys are doing and see what Black Coffee is doing. There's a lot of them. And the only thing we can do now is rally behind them, get the necessary skills. And I'm also going to go all over the world because there's no reason why we can't. And doing the handout to government also doesn't work. You know this, it just doesn't because when the powers that be see you running, they're gonna want to run with you. But when you sit in and you're doing that, they're gonna move right along, you know, whether it's brands, whether it's some of these corporates, whether that's the government, but if they see you running, when they see that you've created value by yourself, they all want to be attached to your value. So that's what you need to create your own value and see the wonders of the world.
John Manyike 43:16
Osmic, thank you so much.
Osmic Menoe 43:19
It’s all my pleasure, my big boss.
John Manyike 43:20
Through that pleasure to chat to you and quite an inspiration honestly, and hopefully we'll chat again soon.
Osmic Menoe 43:29
Oh, that I'm sure we will. Peace and Love.
John Manyike 43:31
Sure, cool.