FROM THE BLOCK TO THE BOARDROOM | J. Alexander Martin
INTERVIEW @KBTINDAL TALENT @J.ALEXANDERMARTIN @FUBU CREATIVE DIRECTOR @MACINTOSHX PRODUCTION MANAGER @IAM_JAYMARIE PHOTOGRAPHER @SLIPPERSNOSOCKS
Validated Magazine is known for its exceptional coverage of legends and tastemakers that have shaped and molded our culture with original blueprints to success, and the man highlighted in this interview is no exception. He is a business mogul that hails from Hollis, Queens. He's a fashion visionary that serves as the executive vice president, creative director, and co-founder of one the most iconic clothing brands in history, known as FUBU - For Us By Us . He is an author of multiple books, and he has served as a license holder and a consultant for several multi-million dollar companies such as Samsung, COOGI, LRG, Sean John, Crown Holder, Kappa, and Ted Baker, just to name a few. He is also the founder and CEO of the For Us By Us Network and has plans on bringing you multiple shows of streaming entertainment for your pleasure. He is a tech mogul, a United States Navy Desert Storm veteran and a humanitarian. He deserves a high salute and honors, This is a brother that I have known and respected for more than 40 years. Validated Magazine welcomes Mr. J. Alexander Martin.
J. Alexander Martin: Wow. This is one of those things where you feel like this is an out of body experience. This man is about to ask me questions one, that he already knows the answers to, and two, he has known me since I was 10. So let's figure out how this is going to go. And he dated my sister. So, let's go. (Laughs)
Validated: That's right. I definitely did. We go back like that. That's crazy.
J. Alexander Martin: I should be asking you questions.
Validated: I know, right. All right, man. Let's jump right into it. What's your first memory of Hip-Hop and fashion?
J. Alexander Martin: I mean, you got to go back to the Run-D.M.C. era. “My Adidas,” we grew up together in Hollis, Queens.
Validated: Right.
J. Alexander Martin: Literally like, you know, down the block the castle was right there and you could go to Hollis Ave. or you go to Farmers Blvd. So we had the best of both worlds. So we had Farmers hanging out by The Rock and they were wearing the freshest gear. Let's use the words from back then. And we just looked at them in their cars and all that. Or you can go to Hollis where Run-D.M.C. were wearing the freshest gear. So we had it from both angles. Because again when you go to Farmers, it wasn't just people from Farmers coming up there selling drugs or talking, doing whatever. It was people from all over. So we had people from Harlem, you have people from Brooklyn, The Bronx, and probably maybe even from out of state that came up there and kind of parlayed and talked. So you could see what people wore and know where they're from. So from that I just was like, "Yo, I kind of like this." And I didn't even have the money. So my mom and pop wasn't hearing that, paying a million dollars for no sneakers and no jeans or whatever, or no gold chain, especially no gold chain. So I had to be looking from afar. So when you finally make it where you can kind of set your tone and do what you want to do, again, of course, I took it to the highest level.
Validated: Those are priceless days, man. I often reminisce on those days, man. And we had an upbringing unlike any other. Like you said, we were right in the middle of the best of both worlds, man. You've had an illustrious career. You've been doing this for a long time, but what has been one of your most memorable moments since you broke into the fashion game back in 1992?
J. Alexander Martin: They're all great moments and I can't really pinpoint anything that can just say that's the best moment, because again, me I teamed up with three other partners, Keith, Carl, and Damon and they took the ride with me to kind of make this happen and I knew this was going to happen. So everything was planned, ordained for it to happen. So for them, they could point out, "Oh my god, when we did this and we did that." For me, everything is the same. Because I'm a constant visionary, constant like a guy that just keeps going and going regardless of what is happening around me. It could be fire, it could be brimstone, it could be whatever it is. It could be great, it could be good, it could be sort of okay, it could be whatever it is, but I'mma still constantly keep moving and moving and moving into what I'm ordained to do, which is business.
Validated: Absolutely.
J. Alexander Martin: Again, I just know I'm never going to have to say the right answers as people would say because my answer is different because I'm a different human being.
Validated: But it's your experience, man.
J. Alexander Martin: My experience because all my experience was the best. If I pinpoint one that means, the other one wasn't as good but this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
Validated: Yeah. Even growing up, you never followed trends. You always were on your own shit.
J. Alexander Martin: That was due to my parents. Shout out to my parents.
Validated: Right.
J. Alexander Martin: I was always looking to see, looking to see what they were doing because I had a vision of what I wanted to do.
Validated: At what age did you know you wanted to be in the fashion business particularly?
J. Alexander Martin: I want to say what right before I was in the military. I worked at the Gertz Mall.
Validated: Gertz. Wow.
J. Alexander Martin: Yeah, bro. I worked at what's the mall in Long Island?
Validated: Green Acres.
J. Alexander Martin: Green Acres. Not Green, I think I worked at Green Acres too.
Validated: Valley Stream. Green Acres.
J. Alexander Martin: I worked at Valley Stream. I worked at Macy’s there when I was a kid early in my my fashion, I guess, “career” because I kept getting fashion jobs and fashion retail jobs and it kind of taught me that okay, I figured I can't get the clothes on my own, so let me get a job and then be able to take buy the clothes at a discount from where I'm at. So I was learning merchandise and I was learning retail and all that from a young age. I want to say as soon as you are able to get a job it's 15, 16 and I had to get a job because again you weren't getting no girls if you had no money.
Validated: Got that right. What year did you enlist into the Navy?
J. Alexander Martin: 1989.
Validated: Ok I went in 1988.
J. Alexander Martin: I went in and I asked him, did they have any jobs in fashion? I said, “I finally know what I really want to do. And I just kind of looked at all the stuff that I've done, you know, previously it was in fashion”. I said, “I want to be in fashion”. He's like, “I ain't paying for you to go to school. So you either go into the military or you're going to go into the military.” So that was two options and they both were the same. So I picked one, right? I asked them, “Hey, is there anything you could do in fashion?” “You can go to school.” You know what I'm saying? But you know, they are lying to you or whatever. You went in anyway. But actually it was a school because in turn when I was in the military, I was meeting people from all over because again when we are younger you know the world's big as our block.
Validated: Definitely.
J. Alexander Martin: And you know we had neighborhoods. We live in Queens. We got neighborhoods so you can know a lot of people in the neighborhood. You were big. You were somebody. So, you travel to Manhattan, travel to Brooklyn, but now you're outside of that, you know, outside of your own bubble. And you meet people from Texas, you meet people from Missouri, you meet people from Houston and all this. So, you look at them and you're watching them and you're saying to yourself, “Well, why do you wear that? And why do you wear it the way you wear it? ” And you could tell who's from where because of what they wear, right? So I was just really taking in that knowledge and then I got to understand why people buy, why people wear what they wear and all that. And that's what made me a better I guess businessman when it came to fashion.
Validated: Absolutely. Yeah. You went in in '89. I went in in ‘88 and I went to the army in ‘88. I went the same path a little bit.
J. Alexander Martin: Thank you for your service as everybody says right. Thank you for your service.
Validated: Yeah. Thank you for your service. Absolutely. So like I said, I did some research. I watched a few interviews and stuff like that and you were in a car accident when you were on the Navy base, right? I heard you say that you had a slip disc and a swelled disc and the accident left you paralyzed.
J. Alexander Martin: Yes.
Validated: That's something that can be, you know, super discouraging. Was it a situation where the doctors told you that you wouldn't walk again or that you would, or was it just that you fought through it so that you knew that you were going to be able to do it?
J. Alexander Martin: Well, I mean, God willing, they said it was temporary. It was swollen. That's what happened. And the swelling would have to go down. You didn't really panic, but you panicked. And for a while, I was going through rehab and things like that. I had to go to Bethesda, Maryland to go through all my rehab and then I was walking much better and everything was fine. But everything was never fine. I always lived with pain. I'm actually disabled right now. I can get a couple thousand dollars a month, for life because of that accident and things like that. Again, I kind of wish it never happened because again, living through pain. People be like, "Oh man, you walk around, you act like you fine." But like when I got to get up in the morning, they’re not with me to see what I got to do to get up. You know what I mean? Not of my own volition per say. It's because of something happening when you're serving.
Validated: Right. So, you come home from the military, Damon's got this thing going on, and he’s got these hats and whatnot, and you walk in and you and you check this out. And you made the decision right away. I heard you say that you had six grand and you gave him five and was like, "Boom, let's go for it." What made you make that decision so quickly? Did you just feel it? Did you just know it was going to happen? Like what made you make that decision so quick?
J. Alexander Martin: To give him credit it was more the name and because marketing is a special part of fashion and I went to school for fashion. So when I saw that, I'm looking at that, I'm like, “Wait, this is what I'm being taught.” And I'm like, “This can actually go a long way.” And it just snapped because it was perfect, perfect timing. I had the money. I wanted to be in the business. I had just got out of working at Macy's and well, that's actually a little later. I eventually quit to actually work really extensively on the brand. But for me, it was a no-brainer. I mean, FUBU was For Us By Us and we couldn't find anything that was really for us that was by us. So, this is perfect. So, you know who made it? You know who did the logo?
Validated: Shameek did the logo.
J. Alexander Martin: Sammy did the logo.
Validated: Yes Sammy.
J. Alexander Martin: Shameek did the logo.
Validated: Yeah. I remember. I think probably in one of my crates or something somewhere I got one of those old business cards with that original logo. Yeah. Absolutely.
J. Alexander Martin: Yeah. Audience, you got to understand we go back since I was 10 and he was 13. So when you ask about people they don't know, we know them because they lived around our neighborhood.
Validated: Absolutely. I remember when it kind of took off, well, at least in the public eye, when you guys did Video Music Box with Ralph McDaniels. I believe you guys had hats and t-shirts at that time. Ralph he was the shit back then, man. Like everything went through Ralph.
J. Alexander Martin: It was BET, MTV, everything all at once. It was a good show.
Validated: Absolutely. For those that don't know, Video Music Box was a show that came on in New York City way before the MTV phase and stuff like that, and Ralph McDaniels was the host of that show. So, we all tuned in to that show to watch the latest videos and so on and so forth. Did doing that show at that time kick things off at a higher level for you guys?
J. Alexander Martin: Oh, yes. Because again, that was the first taste; fame was one hell of a drug. The first taste. I'm not even necessarily saying it more in the realm of fame but it was more of marketing, because again when you have viewers and those viewers tell someone else and tell someone else and that show goes over and over and over again that's advertising. So that was your first bit of advertising of your brand and what you can do. And again, I was nervous as heck. Still to this day, I don't know how I got any words out. And I was never a man of any words because I always was really into the brand and doing everything as far as the fashion was concerned. Now I'm a little more talkative. Sometimes I'm chatty catty like I'mma just keep talking-talking. But I guess it's because I didn't really say things back then. But yeah, that really took us to like, plateauing us to the second level. Then of course next to that you got the LL Cool J's.
Validated: I'm gonna get to that too. Now tell me what were those early days like for you Damon, Carl and Keith. What I mean by that is I know Damon was always more of a hustler, right? He was always out there doing everything that he could possibly do to get some money, and you were the creative visionary. So, how long did it take for you guys to kind of settle into your roles or even figure out what those roles would actually be and where Carl and Keith would also fit into the equation?
J. Alexander Martin: Well, Carl and Keith they wouldn't really, I don't want to say they didn't fit in the equation as yet like as that early. They were more helping because again they had other things to do. This was my job and then Damon was working at Red Lobster.
Validated: I remember that. Yep.
J. Alexander Martin: We could also do the things that I could do because I worked at Red Lobster as well, but I didn't have the same type of shift. I was more so into the clothing. He had more shifts, but I would be doing more of the work because again, like I was going to school. He didn't know the business. I'm going to school. I'm learning. I'm actually failing classes because I'm using the situations that I have and that are working in like my tests or if I test. I'm using those answers and it didn't really fit because what we were doing was not traditional in textbooks. The things that were making it happen weren't documented back then. Now of course it’s in textbooks. I wrote books and everything like that. So, hindsight is 20-20 back then. Maybe I should have just left that part out because I really get pissed off at myself that I didn't get my degree, but that's neither here nor there.
Validated: Okay. Got you. I noticed in the past decade or so, I saw that FUBU teamed up with a bunch of different brands because you guys kinda left the spotlight a while, and then came back with Puma and Forever 21 and Actively Black was a dope collaboration that I really liked. You guys did some work with Marvel and Black Panther. Did coming back and doing those collaborations put you guys back at a level where you kind of like missed being at that level? Were those collaborations good for the brand?
J. Alexander Martin: It was definitely good for the brand. Business is weird because it's not even that we changed. The business changed. The people changed. Again you got to understand we were at our peak at 450 million, 350 million in sales and we had tons of stores out there. It wasn't all about this online stuff and people really supported it. Again, we go back to you. I've known you since forever. You're supporting, I'm supporting you and what you're doing. LL and all these people supported me to help it go. Now, it's not so much that people support each other, per se, and now, too, there's tons and tons and tons of things that you could do, tons of brands you could buy. I mean, everybody has a shirt line, everybody has a hat line, everybody has some kind of line, or endorses some type of line. So it got so saturated that even though who we are and how big we were, we still kind of fell to the back. And then when the bottom fell out of the market as far as open-to-buy sales went when all these stores couldn't really purchase a lot of goods, we had to kind of like, I like total quality and then I had to bring my quality down. So that brought us down and then we had to go into more of the low, I don't want to call them low value because they're not saying low value. They're just a lower market, lower tier clothing store. All the mom and pop started disappearing out of the business. So the business just changed.
Again Damon’s my boy, he has his way of explaining. I have another way of explaining. I have a level of explaining. We never actually left anything. It's just the market kind of left us.
Validated: Okay.
J. Alexander Martin: We've always still stayed in business. So when people say, "Oh, you know, y'all coming back out?" Like, "I never left."
Validated: Never left. Right.
J. Alexander Martin: It's just that today there's so many more. And now people have brands like Kith or Supreme. And a lot of the hip-hop people that we served then, they flipped the script and now they want to wear the Kith’s and the Supreme’s, right? And they have our customers and they're called “urban.” The game is a little twisted. Game is a little fucked up. You just got to ride your wave.
Now, this year coming up in a couple of weeks, I'm starting all brand new stuff. Start to see the stories again and I’m going to do my line personally that I put out. I'm going to put it out in September for back to school. During spring we're going to just start putting some stuff out and you're going to start seeing it everywhere at this point.
Validated: Along your journey, you've consulted for a lot of brands.. What was one brand that kind of challenged you that was outside of urban-wear that kind of challenged you a little bit?
J. Alexander Martin: Honestly, here's my other answer. It's going to sound kind of cocky. Nothing challenges me because I can go from five to 55 in the demographic. I can go from uptown to downtown. I was wearing suits when nobody ever wore suits. So I have a huge spectrum. The reason it goes back to my heritage of when you asked me the question about the military was because I was able to see what everybody wanted to buy. I understand what you want to buy. I understand your region. I study when I go to clubs. I go away. I go out just to go out. I go to places I'm not supposed to be at. I go to places where I can go. I go to places where, why would you even want to go there? Just to look and see what the next trends are. So, I'm always going to know because I know what we want because I am the customer.
Validated: All right so was there ever a brand that was an inspiration for you where you said, "I want to be able to do it on that level"?
J. Alexander Martin: Me.
Validated: You.
J. Alexander Martin: I don't have any inspiration. I don't have mentors. I don't.
Validated: That's deep.
J. Alexander Martin: I told you my answers are crazy.
Validated: No, I feel you though, bro.
J. Alexander Martin: Let me explain it. This is not really an analogy, but I’ll try to squeeze it in because it's hard to explain the fact to a person when they've always been programmed to hear mentor-mentor-mentor-mentor-mentor. One day I'm driving a Porsche, I’m getting it. Granted, I just learned how to drive this Porsche. I couldn't even drive off the lot because I didn't know how to drive a stick. So I had to learn how to drive it. So I finally kind of get it. So I'm driving and I'm getting it. I'm breaking it down, whatever. I see a cop. I'm like, “Damn, he got me. He caught a player.” I pull over. I ain't even let him pull me over. I pulled over. What happened? He kept going and looking for me. So then I pull back on the road. I could tell he's like, "Where did he go?" He's going that fast?” So it means if you're a mentor and you're in front of me and I'm in back, you can't catch me. The only way I can work, maneuver and do what I need to do is get off the road and go around.
Remember we used to go to the toll booth back then? Remember we used to come up to the toll booth when we were driving?
Validated: Yeah.
J. Alexander Martin: Anybody online and you look ain't nobody on that line and you like “What am I on this line for?” And you go over. It's the same kind of concept. So for me, if you're going to try to tell me what I need to do, you can't tell me what I need to do because you haven't done what I've done. You're not me and I'm not you. Now I can't tell you what to do. I could tell you I failed in one aspect. I didn't fail because I actually learned that now you can't do it that way or you can do it this way. So that goes in my repertoire of knowledge. So, I didn't miss a beat. I want to know more. So you're going to tell me how to do something when you're not going my way. If you're going my way and you think that I'm going your way, then you're in front of me. So I can't get around. I can't. You're going to keep trying to block me. So I’m a vision guy, not a goal guy. Goals are straight ahead like that's all you see. But if I had a goal, I would never be doing what I'm doing because I wanted to be in my goal or vision. So I see everything in front of me. It may take a little longer sometimes. You just went there and that's all you know. You don't know nothing else behind that. That's all you can get there. Me, I care about the entire picture because sometimes when you think that's the right thing to do, it's not and you can't see it because you're blinded because it has to work.
People back against the wall and they are like, “Man, this got to work.” And somebody comes with them with some bogus something. And they are just so busy trying to tell you that it's right and saying, "Yo, it's right." And then you ask me for advice. I'm telling you, “I don't know, bro. You might want to look at it a different way. I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. I'm going to just say, "Hey, look at it this way." And then you make your own decision. You're going to make it right regardless because your back is against the wall. So, those are things I kind of watch out for.
Validated: Okay. Got you. A lot of people might not know this and those that know, know but you were working at Macy's. Was this Macy's on 34th Street in the city?
J. Alexander Martin: Valley Stream.
Validated: Ok, so, the guy that you're working with tries to accuse you of stealing this cheap ass tie and and you end up quitting. You came back. FUBU is now in the window at Macy's. Did you ever get a chance to like not I mean, for lack of a better terminology, did you ever get a chance to rub it in his fucking face?
J. Alexander Martin: No but I did meet the merchandising manager that I mentioned every time I told that story and I saw it and he was like, "Oh my god." Shaking my hand like, "Hey," wishing he could have kept me. Keep me around. Because he was the one that said, "Yo, you're going to be somebody. I like what you are doing. Keep going." I would walk in at the Macy's on 34th Street and I would walk in every once in a while looking around trying to see what the new fashion was and he would always come shake my hand and say, “How are you doing?” I never saw him again. He probably saw me and was like “Motherfucker”.
Validated: He probably didn’t want to see you. (Laughs)
J. Alexander Martin: These things happen for a reason but if you're stuck on a goal, you're like, "Man, my goal is done. I don't know what to do next." Me, I was on. I was actually doing something else and I pivoted but I'm still going straight. Now, also, I have to admit, sometimes you have to go five steps backwards. And there's nothing wrong with that, but that's like going and you’re on step 3A, 3B, 3C and then you go back to four and then you go 4A, 4B. And sometimes you might have to go backwards because you missed a step. You advanced a step you shouldn't have. So you might have to go back to two. You got 2A, 2B. But you constantly got to keep going forward regardless like a slingshot. All these things you learn, by the time you finish learning everything and you let that thing go, how far are you going to go? You're going to go really far because you learned all the things that you needed to do, needed to know to achieve whatever that vision was. The vision never stops. It's endless. A goal stops.
Validated: Yes. All right. Now, those who know, know about this, we all know how LL slid the For Us By Us on the low in the Gap commercial. One of the most iconic Hip-hop commercials ever made. I think everybody in Queens probably jumped up out of their seat when they saw that. You know what I mean? Because it was so slick the way he did it, you know? Do you remember where you were at when you first saw that?
J. Alexander Martin: No, I actually don't. I assume I was in the house but um that to this day like every time I see him, I thank him for that because he didn’t have to do that. They wanted him to do this advertising sponsorship I should say. He said, "Well, look, I got these guys I'm working with and I ain't going to leave them behind." In his head, like, "Listen, if I'm going to do this, I got to wear my own stuff." Like, I had no problem. But then again, you got to think about how big he must have been. You know what I'm saying? If you’re looking from the outside looking in, he must have been that big to tell the Gap, what I'm going to do, not what you want to do. So, hats off to him, man.
Validated: Yeah, that's a priceless moment, man. How did you guys manage to stay together all these years with no public drama? You kept the brand intact without selling it. Today's the day and age of canceling people, drama and all of that. How did you guys manage to do it, man?
J. Alexander Martin: Well, I can't lie, because I'm not a liar and I just don't like to lie because that is not my thing. I'm a moral type of guy. My moral compass is really high. So, I can't say that we haven't been without drama. I haven't said we haven't been without wanting to kill this motherfucker. I can't say that. I'm never going to be able to say that. But what we do do is keep that shit in the house. And that's the thing that I think people need to understand and need to do. We don't need no clicks. I don't need no “I'm trying to do it for the Gram.” We ain't doing that. If we have a problem, it's in the house. Now, some people may know what it is because they kinda around the house. But we make sure they shut up because that's not it. It ain't about that. You got what's in the house and it's what we do and that's that. And we don't put our business out there like that because again it's the brand and you have to protect the brand.
Validated: We kind of come from that generation too like what goes on in this house stays in this house. We weren't from that generation where you put your business in the streets.
J. Alexander Martin: Right. I mean every time you get on the Gram you see somebody talking about if you dated the dude you liked him then, now it’s like he’s… then what did you date him for? Stop it. I mean like yo what are we doing and then you wonder why people look at us like that.
Validated: Yep. I agree with you 100% on that one.
J. Alexander Martin: But I digress because I don't want to get the youngins on me.
Validated: It's all good.
J. Alexander Martin: I'm 55. I'm probably an OG at this point.
Validated: Yeah. We definitely OG's. That's a fact. I was reading your bio. Did you go back to school to acquire your doctorate in philosophy?
J. Alexander Martin: No, I got an honorary doctorate.
Validated: You got an honorary. Okay. Got you. You've written several books, but in your book “Money Drives Me Crazy,” you talk about how you squandered a lot of money, millions and so on and so forth. I know people have asked you this before, but if you could look back on something that you purchased and right after you purchased it, you was like, "Why the fuck did I buy this? Because I don't need it." What would that thing be?
J. Alexander Martin: Well, it wouldn't be the four cars. Maybe the 12 karat ring.
Validated: 12 karat ring. Okay.
J. Alexander Martin: I was like the Liberachi. I had so many diamonds after a while it was so ridiculous. I had a stupid diamond belt buckle, all that. What made me give myself the 12 karat ring was, I would just make excuses and say I'm just hoping for the girl of my dreams or some shit when I met her. I went to Houston and I met with Lil J from Rapalot. He had a 15 or so karat and it made mine look small and I was like man I ain't jumping to no 20 to get it. That's it.” And I was like “Man I shouldn't have worn this. I shouldn't have worn this.”
Validated: Yeah. It's one of those purchases.
J. Alexander Martin: The cars I had to have.
Validated: No, I feel you on the cars. Absolutely. You did it. Damon did it. I'm assuming all you guys did it at some point. You guys were buying out bars and spending all this money on these marketing campaigns. Not really even a marketing campaign, but just more or less like, “Well, if I buy the bar out, people will buy our clothes”.
J. Alexander Martin: That’s our philosophy. That's what I was doing.
Validated: You were doing that. Okay.
J. Alexander Martin: That's what I was doing.
Validated: Was it beneficial at all or was it just money lost at the end of the day?
J. Alexander Martin: 1000%. It was money lost because I didn't do it the right way. I didn't do it the right way. I just did it like, okay, because it keeps coming. I didn't put it through the right channels per se to put it through, taxes and marketing and things like that. I just went off willy-nilly because it was working and people were thanking me. We come from, well me, how I was raised, I was raised as a good person and was doing something good for you and trying to do something good for them. It kind of went too far.
Validated: Okay. That was kind of like the tail end of my that same question like were you able to write it off on taxes or anything like that or it was just gone?
J. Alexander Martin: I wasn't doing Jack. I wasn't doing jack. I was in a zone. Bro you're 20 something more money than God. I got the equivalent of the Rolls-Royce at the time which was the Bentley Arnage and security. Come on man. I'm living.
Validated: No, I feel you.
J. Alexander Martin: No, you can't tell me nothing.
Validated: I know that's right. Shit. When did your relationship with money change from wasting money to making money work for you? What was that defining moment where you said, "Wait a minute, man. I don't ever want to go back to being broke, so I need to change how I think about money." When did that happen for you?
J. Alexander Martin: I had a couple of tax problems. I got audited and didn't know and then all of a sudden years later, I got audited and I was like, whoa. Of course they have this thing called penalties that they tack on just as well. I went in with Bert Padell. Maybe your viewers or some of them know Bert Padell. He’s in every rap song. He sat me down and said, "Bro, what you want to do? Where you want to be? You know, you don't want to do this." So, he put me on almost like an allowance, per se. That's when I started kind of thinking like, okay, I need to figure this shit out.
Validated: Tell me about your involvement and your role with Smart Ledger.
J. Alexander Martin: So, Smart Ledger is a tech company. I was always into everything advanced, per se. I have to know what's going to happen 6 months, 8 months, nine months, 10 months down the road. I knew way back then that tech was AI and the like were it. So I kind of cozied up to a company and they wound up making me the chief creative officer and why they did that is because I'm very creative. I mean when I say I'm creative I'm a little weird when it comes to creativity because I could create anything. I could take a shoe horn and make a line out of it somehow. But long story short is that they found that these tech guys, they can sit and talk tech all day, but they can't break it down in the simplest sense. They can’t break the ideas down in the simplest sense. So they had tons of patents and tons of technology that worked in a big macro, but it didn't work in a micro sense. They needed someone to come in and be able to speak for them and actually be able to take their stuff and make it for everyday use if I can say.
Validated: Got you. I'm jumping around a little bit here.
J. Alexander Martin: I also own a piece.
Validated: Of course you do.
J. Alexander Martin: They say Damon is a shark. I'm the Dolphin.
Validated: Okay.
J. Alexander Martin: If you see me posting it or talking about it, guaranteed I own a piece.
Validated: I'm going back a little bit because I remember you talking in another interview and you were talking about how the Good Life album that dropped on 9/11. That was kind of like part of the reason why it didn't do that great. And then you guys had some discrepancies with the label with Universal and so on and so forth. I just wanted to say that it was a dope album. You guys dropped on a day when some classics came out. Jay Z’s Blueprint came out that day and Fabolous's Ghetto Fabulous came out that day, too. Yeah. Those two albums came out on that same day, man. So, you guys dropped with some heavy company.
J. Alexander Martin: We still went gold.
Validated: Yeah. And y'all still went gold. That was an accomplishment. I'm not going to lie. I wish y'all had done more with the music but that kind of like leads me to my next question. Which business do you think is more treacherous? The fashion business or the music business?
J. Alexander Martin: Definitely the music business.
Validated: Definitely the music business. Yeah, I would think so.
J. Alexander Martin: Definitely. That's not for the faint of heart.
Validated: Yeah.
J. Alexander Martin: And again, right now with the For Us By Us Network I have a publishing deal with BMG. So when I have content in my shows, then I can pick up publishing on that. I'm working out a deal to where if I do have an artist and that artist actually blows up through me putting it in a show and that show blows up and people want it I can also do like a single deal or something like that.
Validated: Okay, that's dope.
J. Alexander Martin: I don't want to say, am I back in the music industry 100%. No, I can say my foot is back in the water. Now my deals are kind of finite like cookie cutter. I can only deal with people that are signed to my shows that are in my show. I can't go off of and get some artist that I heard from wherever. I don't mention it much. I do have a show coming out. We're closing up this deal. We have tons and tons of music. So, we're looking to do that. We have a whole movement with them. Next year we’ll start seeing some music coming out of me.
Validated: Gotcha. Now you guys met Nelson Mandela.
J. Alexander Martin: Oh gosh.
Validated: Back in South Africa when you guys were invited to come there. I was in South Africa a couple of years ago. Just an amazing journey, amazing trip.
J. Alexander Martin: I know you are interviewing me, but I got to ask you one question.
Validated: Yeah.
J. Alexander Martin: Did your body feel different?
Validated: I mean as soon as I got there yeah. I felt like wow this is this motherland. I felt that in my spirit. You know what I mean?
J. Alexander Martin: I don't even know what the hell what it was, but it was something that was like why do I feel this way? It was weird. In a minute it goes away. But when you first started getting there the first couple days this thing was over you that you couldn't figure out. I wonder if it happened to you.
Validated: I kind of felt that peace. I also went to Robben Island, the prison where Mandela was at and everything and I did all of that. It just felt right, for lack of a better word. It felt right. What was that like for you guys to meet such a revolutionary, especially at that time? Like this is the 90s when he just came home. How was that?
J. Alexander Martin: We almost missed it because we met one of his nephews in New York. So we went out there to do a bunch of marketing runs. We were opening stores in South Africa. So we went out there to do store runs, go to the stores and do press and all that. He heard that we were there. So he said “Look, I want to meet them.” So they took us around, showed us different places. Of course we didn't go to the prison. We went to, I went to I think it's an old house, something like that. Then we went around and it was like okay, let’s go back to the hotel and then we went to eat. They kept saying we're going to meet but the schedules didn't work up. So we had a choice of where we were going to go to the Safari or to; I forgot the name of the other place, the party place. It's a party place where everybody has fun. I forgot what it's called. We picked the Safari. So we went to the Safari and then we got a call while we were at the Safari that he's back and he wants to meet us. Packed up, like forget the rest of the trip and we shot back, went to his house, and we went inside, sat and talked, and it was like an out of body experience because it's like talking to God. So, he's like, "All right, it's time for pictures." He said, "No pictures in the house." We just took pictures outside. And when I got back, every cab I got into I'm showing the African guy driving and he's talking. He's trying to act funny. I'm pulling out the picture like, “look, look. see!” But he was fucking with me. And now all of a sudden he is acting differently. I'm like, "Yeah." As they say, cap. That ain't no cap. That's real.
Validated: Yep. That's an actual fact.
J. Alexander Martin: A lot of things we did first. Nobody knows. If they do know, they don't register as we did it first because some new guy that just started yesterday, he did it. So I'm like, bro, been there, done that. Wrote the book. Four of them. What are you talking about? I got more than you know. What are you talking about?”
Validated: You're like, "You’re the blueprint of this shit”.
J. Alexander Martin: Get out of here. Listen, your mom was in line, but the other girl jumped in front of her. What are you talking about? Do you really want to go there? (Laughs)
Validated: Yeah. You got receipts all day.
J. Alexander Martin: Stop it.
Validated: Absolutely.
J. Alexander Martin: I'm sorry. I'm gonna make your viewers laugh. I see some girls, some women now, and I'm like, "Oh, you look familiar." Oh, man. I knocked down your grandmother. You don't even know it. Like, come on. All right. Enough jokes. Yeah. Go ahead.
Validated: But that's the truth though.
J. Alexander Martin: So, my point is I'm not trying to be vulgar and disgusting and whatever. I'm just trying to make the point that it's hard because you're not supposed to ask for it. It’s not just supposed to happen but we got a lot of accolades. So, I can't front and say we don’t get accolades. But today's accolades that people get as if they first it pisses me off when I hear it because it's like bro. Let's talk about veneers. I see that I’m like man, I had veneers for over 30 years.
Validated: But now all of a sudden it’s a thing.
J. Alexander Martin: Back then it was 100,000.
Validated: Yeah.
J. Alexander Martin: You can go to Tijuana and get a pair.
Validated: Yep. You can get 'em for five racks now.
J. Alexander Martin: Of course.
Validated: Yeah. When is the biopic or the documentary coming, man? Because we need that, bro.
J. Alexander Martin: I know. But that's a whole nother thing--
Validated: It's got to be done. It's got to be done right. Like it can't be done half ass. Not a Lifetime special. It's got to be done, bro.
J. Alexander Martin: I can't even talk about that because we can’t go in depth. That's one of those inside things that you ask about like if we ever got problems. That I can't speak about. I can't speak about that because that's a problem right there. There's a little tug of war going on in that whole situation.
Validated: Okay. But are you guys trying to make it happen?
J. Alexander Martin: Something's going to happen. It's just how and who it's going to be with. Is it going to be through somebody else's eyes? You can get some of the news out of it when Damon went off and told the TMZ that I wasn't authorized. I'm supposed to be doing something and he doesn't know anything about it. I'm not authorized to do a movie or series or anything. I'm not authorized. I'm the one that fucking started this shit. I'm not authorized. So, there's a lot of little fighting going on.
Validated: I mean, that's a little bit of in-house bickering.
J. Alexander Martin: Yeah. Because, you know, who wants to tell it and how they want to tell it, but that's going to be anybody. So once we clear that, which we always do, then we'll be able to do it.
Validated: Okay. Got you.
J. Alexander Martin: Those guys are married and they have a lot of skeletons. I got a lot of skeletons, but I don't care about my skeletons coming out because it's a part of life. It becomes a little tedious.
Validated: Yeah. That can cause some shit.
J. Alexander Martin: Then everything is on me that I did, that I was all over the place and y'all was sitting there like church boys, nah, come on.
Validated: I know that wasn't the truth. Definitely not.
J. Alexander Martin: You know how we tell it, who's going to tell it. Again, don't take it like bickering. It's not even bickering. It's just, oh man, you know, and again, when you're with your brothers, you know, brothers are going to fight regardless.
Validated: Yeah. You're still family regardless.
J. Alexander Martin: You just have to know how to deal with it.
Validated: What are some of the causes that you donate time and finances to on the humanitarian side of things that are really important to you? Are there any organizations that you want to just mention that are really important to you?
J. Alexander Martin: I mean, the biggest one to me, there's tons of them. I try to help out, but there's tons of them. The one that I've been on the longest is the National Black Chamber of Commerce to help entrepreneurs, help businessmen help get them contracts and things like that or just help them and entrepreneurs achieve what they want to achieve. Again, I have a weird way of helping because if you come up to me talking about how to be an entrepreneur, I'm gonna tell you, get out of my face because an entrepreneur doesn't want to ask that question. I want to talk about what I'm doing and let you talk about what you're doing because they just want to hear another angle. That's it. They are not looking for any leeway. They ain't looking for nothing. They are just looking to just talk. Like if you're around people that like money, I want to talk about people who have money, that's what it is. So they want to be around like-minded people. And that's what an entrepreneur would come up to me and say.
Validated: That kind of jumps into my next question because I was going to ask you to briefly touch on that National Black Chamber of Commerce, but you did. Tell me about being a representative of the Urban League Young Professionals.
J. Alexander Martin: That is a little more up to date that I help out as well. Urban League-- how do I say this? They constantly impress me because it's the Urban League. When you say young professionals, I'm gonna sound really weird to people because most people are stuck on TikTok and they're stuck on Instagram as a vice, as a medium, or your phone to express yourself, market, do whatever. But there's different ways to look at these kinds of platforms. When I'm sitting down and I'm talking to someone and they say, "What's your LinkedIn?" That's a different kind of kid. He ain’t looking at Instagram. He's like, "What's your LinkedIn?" He's ready for the boardroom. He's ready for business. He's like, "This is not what's happening with no Instagram." I mean, Tik Tok, you can sell some stuff and you can do whatever and you can chat and do silly dances. Instagram, you can try to be an influencer, but none of that's happening on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, it's about business and that's what the Young Urban Professionals are bringing. So, it impresses me every time I talk to them.
Validated: That's dope. Tell me about the For Us By Network, man. What are some of the shows you got in the pipeline? You screamed on me because I made a comment on Instagram. (Laughs)
J. Alexander Martin: Yeah. (Laughs)
Validated: But I get it though and I'm glad that you did because that's why we are sitting here talking right now. So tell me about the For Us By Network, man, and what we should be expecting.
J. Alexander Martin: Well, the For Us By Network has been around for a little while now. It's been a couple of hiccups here because when it comes to media and it’s entirety as far as streaming is concerned, to get content to keep getting content, it takes a lot of money. It takes a lot of time, takes a lot of effort. Plus, I also have a lot of different other ventures. So, it's kind of hard to kind of keep it going. Although, I'm reestablishing it back again in January. I have a distribution deal with a company called Cineverse that I distribute all my content with. They have my apps and all that stuff like that. We were just in the middle of building an app prior to the holiday. So, then of course everything is on the holiday break and I have to wait till next year to finish it up. But, we're looking. I can't even tell you what's new on the slate yet. But it’s about 250 hours of content, along with reality shows along with documentaries, movies, and the like.
Validated: Are you keeping any of the shows that you previously had like the Side Chick show or Mr. Papers or any of that kind of stuff?
J. Alexander Martin: Yes, I'm definitely keeping some of them. It's just to figure out which one I'm going to bring back. Even with Side Chicks, it did very well for me. It wasn't something I really was gung-ho to do because with the For Us By Network you want something. You have to have content for everyone period, that everyone likes. You have to tell stories from all different kinds of angles. So that's how I've remedied myself from not going crazy and not being mad saying, "Hey, listen, you're messing up the culture." What I try to do is even when I do some type of show like that, I make sure if there's going to be a fight, it's a real fight but not a real fight, but you understand why they're fighting, but then they're also going to reconcile. So it's almost like a story arc. It goes up and down. They're not just walking in and everybody's going crazy and doing stuff and making it look bad for the culture.
I understand it exists because gossip and all that exists. Ratchetness exists. You have to tell it, but you have to tell it with a cleaner lens than a lot of other people are doing. And they make a lot of money telling about the ratchetness. They don't care. I just have to hold myself at a higher level. I'm not sure if you even watched it, but if you look at it, it's not even what you really think it is. A plot twist. It's not as bad as what you think it is because it's side chicks, I won't tell the story because somebody might be here that never watched it. It is what you think, but it's not what you think.
Validated: It's not what you think. I agree with you on that too, man, because that For Us By name is held to a higher standard, man. I agree, man when you see a bunch of ratchetness, it kind of influences the young girls to be ratchet. So, you don't want to promote just that. You want to promote that, but you also want to have, like you said, have an ending to it where it's like that may not be the thing you want to do, and this is why.
J. Alexander Martin: Right. And you may go back to doing it anyway.
Validated: Is there anything else that we didn't cover that you want the viewers and the readers of Validated Magazine to know that we haven't talked about?
J. Alexander Martin: No, I think we hit, we hit everything. I don't know what else I can tell you.
Validated: Okay.
J. Alexander Martin: This is one of the most thorough interviews I ever had in my life.
Validated: Well, thank you, man. I appreciate that.
J. Alexander Martin: I've been in some interviews where I had to do the interview. I'm asking myself some questions but yo I appreciate it. Again if I had to have a mentor then I would pick you man.
Validated: No, man. Stop it bro.
J. Alexander Martin: You were the man bro. You are the man. We all looked up to you.
Validated: Oh man thank you man. Thank you bro. I've been keeping my feet wet in this industry for a long time, but now I'm at a point where I do what I want to do. Like I'm not chasing anything. I'm not beholden to anybody. I'm just doing what I like to do and what makes me happy. I have a couple more questions before you go. Do you have any kids or no?
J. Alexander Martin: No, kids out of wedlock.
Validated: Okay. Got you. How do you want your legacy to be remembered?
J. Alexander Martin: I keep writing it over and over and over again because I feel that what I'm doing is not for me, it's for everyone else. So I'm going through everything because there has to be that sacrifice in the family or in a group or whatever to deal with all of the pain, all the fight, all the strife, everything to make it better for everybody else. And they might hate him because he ain't come around. You might not like him because he didn't do this. So whatever it is, he's only doing that to sacrifice. So then everyone else can have a better life down the line. Because again, if you look at us in entirety as a culture, as a group, we don't get to hand anything down to anybody half the time. And if we do get to hand it, they sell it. You look around our way, look at all the houses that were around. We knew everybody's grandmother that lived there. Remember, my grandmother lived around the corner from me. Luckily, we have that house and we own property up at the old folks home. We sold half of it. We still have some of it, but we sold half of that. They left the church. Keeping stuff in the family, right? Somebody sacrificing, doing all the work, busting their butt, working hard so that the family and the family and the family's family and the family's-family's-family could always have trust and always have money and they can keep going, going, going. And that way it just keeps building, building, building. That's the legacy.
Validated: There you go. Last question, man.
J. Alexander Martin: People say, “I want the legacy. Oh, yeah. Because I want to be remembered.” No, bro. The legacy for us to be able to provide and that will keep providing forever for all of us, not just us period, but even our friends and fellow families or whatever because we can bring them into the fold as well.
Validated: Gotcha. Last question, man. What does fashion and Hip-hop mean to you?
J. Alexander Martin: Well, fashion and Hip-hop are the same word.
Validated: Right.
J. Alexander Martin: I can't have hip-hop without fashion. Fashion without hip-hop. You ain't gonna ride naked because it's a part of your uniform. You know what I'm saying?
Validated: Absolutely.
J. Alexander Martin: The first check I got, somebody asked me, I’m surprised you didn't ask me. The first thing I got when I got a check was some Cartier glasses.
Validated: I heard an interview where you said that you bought Cartier glasses and you bought a house and you didn't even live in the house for like a year because you were remodeling it.
J. Alexander Martin: Redoing it.
Validated: Yeah. Crazy, man. Yo, Alex, man, it's crazy.
J. Alexander Martin: Crazy you call me Alex too.
Validated: Yes, ‘cause everybody calls you J. Alexander. I know you.
J. Alexander Martin: You do you. You do what you do. I’m going to answer.
Validated: I thank you for sitting down with me, man. I know you are busy as hell, man. And I know you got a lot of things going on. I think it was just meant to be. I made that comment, you reached out, I reached back and we made this happen, man.
J. Alexander Martin: I appreciate that.
Validated: But thank you for taking your time out, man. Thank you for the legacy that you're building. Thank you for giving us something to look at from the ‘90s, man because nobody was doing what you guys did. You guys were the first. Of course, you had Karl Kani and Cross Colors.
J. Alexander Martin: Karl Kani and Cross Colors
Validated: Gotta give them their props and their just due. Absolutely. But you guys were from Hollis, Queens. You were right down the block from us, man. So to see what you guys did and and to see what you guys built that is still here today, like I said, with no dirt on your name in the public eye and the brand still flourishing, that is amazing, bro. It is amazing. A lot of people don't get to do that. Even though they get in the spotlight a little bit, they don't stick around like you guys. I commend y'all.
J. Alexander Martin: That's because they're looking on the internet and they're seeing these phrases and words. They're seeing videos. They're seeing people regurgitate what they think they know. They're looking at the shiny object, but they don't know how that shit got shiny. They're looking at this. They're looking at a PR phrase that says, “All press is good press”. Well, that's what a press person told that person they work for to keep that check.
Validated: Yeah. That makes sense.
J. Alexander Martin: That's what they told them. You know what I'm saying? So if you want to tell me all press is good press. Okay. When you are in jail for 20 years, is that good press?
Validated: That's not good press. Not at all.
J. Alexander Martin: What are you talking about? Talking nonsense and these things that you hear and understand when it's like I'm giving you, you think you got the answer to the test, but you can't prove your worth. So I think when I do these things, I like to talk. I like to give you these little proverbs or whatever you want to call them. And I want people to please hear this because we're going the wrong way. We're not gonna keep going. You're going the wrong way. You want to know what's really popping and what it really is and somebody telling real answers, people like myself, people like you. Without the cap because I'mma tell you what I’m talking about. They are not telling you they failed when they were wrong or what happened. Like today you said, "Yo, I shouldn't have did that.” You ain't had to say that. We can act like it didn't happen but you did. But that's the people that you need to listen to because we're going to come and give it to you straight.
Validated: Yep. Always, man. And that's a testament to how we grew up, man. The majority of us came from two parent households where both parents worked or struggled to make a life that was better for us and gave us some morals and some values. Today you don't really see a lot of that because a lot of these kids are chasing that five minutes of fame, not knowing that that five minutes of fame could damage the rest of your life.
J. Alexander Martin: Right.
Validated: Yeah. So, thank you, my brother. It's been a pleasure. I appreciate you, man. And I'm always gonna be on the lookout for what you're doing, man. Absolutely.
J. Alexander Martin: Thank you. I appreciate the chance to be on this.
Validated: Yes, sir.