#371: Rapper FiDi Guy on Financial Education

FiDi Guy is a New York City-based rapper who has built a significant following on social media by using hip-hop to share financial education and market insights. In this conversation, we discuss how he learned to rap, why he put out the first song at the intersection of finance and music, what the response has been so far, and what his goals around financial education are moving forward. =============================== Bybit currently has over 300,000 users, with the number growing in double-digit percentages monthly. The exchange has no overloads during volatility and low latency trading plus 24/7 customer live support. At Bybit, we listen, care, and improve to provide the best possible trading experience and create a faster, fairer, and more human trading environment. Visit Now! =============================== Pomp writes a daily letter to over 50,000 investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy to understand language, while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://www.pompletter.com

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Let's kick this thing off. Fidai Guy is a New York City-based rapper who has built a significant following on social media by using hip-hop to share financial education and market insights. In this conversation, we discuss how he learned to rap, why he put out the first song at the intersection of finance and music, what the response has been so far, and what his goals are around financial education moving forward. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you do as well. But before we get into this episode, I want to talk about our sponsors. First up is Bybit.

• 0:42Anthony Pompliano?

  They currently have over 300,000 users with a number growing in double-digit percentages every month. The exchange has no overloads during volatility and low-latency trading, plus 24/7 customer live support. At Bybit, we listen, we care, and we improve to provide the best possible trading experience and create a faster, fairer, and more human trading environment. Go check out Bybit using the link in the description for this podcast. Again, go check out Bybit if you want no overloads during volatility and low-latency trading, plus 24/7 customer live support. Go check out Bybit. Also, don't forget that I write a daily letter to over 50,000 investors about business technology and finance.

• 1:25Anthony Pompliano?

  I break down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing my personal opinion on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at pompletter.com. Again, pompletter.com. All right, let's get into this episode with FiDi Guy. I hope you guys enjoy it. Anthony Pompliano is a partner at Morgan Creek Digital. All opinions expressed by Pomp or his guests on this podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Morgan Creek Digital or Morgan Creek Capital Management. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only. All right, guys. Bang, bang. Special treat today.

• 2:10Anthony Pompliano?

  I have FiDi Guy here. What's up, man?

• 2:12Speaker 01

  What's going on? What's going on? Thanks for having me.

• 2:15Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. The first time that I came across you, uh, I was just, you know, mindlessly scrolling through Twitter and then all of a sudden I saw, I think it was a music video with a fire beat and all I remember is you were just trolling about oil going negative. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, what? And, uh, so you gotta tell us, before we get into the music, what is your background? How the hell did you get into this? Rapping about finance is not exactly the thing that I think most people grow up dreaming to do.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, totally. Um, yeah, look, I've been rapping ever since I was, you know, in middle school. I just always had, uh, you know, an interest in it. And I think the part about rap that like really interested me as like a kid and like has kind of kept me interested is not so much like, you know, the club type music. I just love, uh, you know, the people that are like truly poets that know how to take a concept and know how to talk about things in a way that, you know, using metaphors and similes, really engaging people, uh, you know, through music. And in a way, you know, for them, it's a craft and there's people that are phenomenal at that craft, you know, Nas, J. Cole. I look at these guys as like they're genuinely poets, you know, and I grew up like listening to them, uh, and I did it, you know, my whole life, but it was

• 3:31Speaker 01

  really informal, you know, it was at parties, it was hanging out with my friends, long car rides, et cetera, you know, got to college, eventually was doing it at, you know, at parties or like, you know, uh, at the frat house, whatever. Um, and eventually started working and I kind of felt like rap and, you know, the corporate Wall Street world literally had, you know, nothing in common. And so I kept it a huge secret. I kind of fell out of it a little bit, but I started to feel like, you know, there's this part of me that's this creative side that I feel like has kind of been like suppressed a little bit. I've been so focused on work and I was like, I gotta get back into this. And I'm like, I'm in New York City of all places. Like if you can't get into it here or try to make something happen here, you're shot, right?

• 4:13Speaker 01

  So there was this freestyle group, you know, a couple blocks down from me in Union Square. And a buddy of mine saw their video and he's like, you gotta go check this out. Literally went there from work. I had like the typical like midtown uniform on. I have like a dress shirt on, dress pants, like a vest. It was like the middle of October and I go there and it's a huge group of people. They just play a beat and everybody's freestyling, improvising, playing off each other. And I'm like, dude, this is sick, but like this is another level and like, I'm not sure if I'm like ready for it. But I was like, you know what? Like I've been doing this for a while. I gotta get into it. I gotta just kind of bite the bullet and go. And, uh, you know, I had a good session there and that kind of ignited this like, you know, uh, reignited my passion for it.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Uh, and I was doing the freestyle thing and eventually got to a point where I looked like, you know, I work in bank, in banking now. There's not a lot of things I can talk about that are typically in rap songs that anybody is going to resonate with if I talk about it. You know, what do I know? What worlds can I blend? Uh, kind of just fell into the, starting to blend finance into rap. And, you know, enough people kind of gravitated towards it to where, you know, I've been keeping it going and, you know, luckily I've had a lot of fun with it so far.

• 5:23Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. So what, what is this group? It's just like in the park and people just play a beat and then literally it's just a bunch of folks standing around, uh, and kind of one after the other start freestyling?

• 5:33Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yeah. It's called Legendary Cypher's. They started it probably over a decade ago. Um, every Friday from, uh, May through November, you know, they gather in the same spot in Union Square. Um, you know, anybody's welcome to go. The good part about Union Square is the high traffic area. People going to the subway commuting, leaving work. So there's always an audience. Um, and it's literally anybody that wants to step up, uh, they just play a bunch of instrumentals and people just rap back and forth. And kind of like coolest thing about it honestly is it is these people that are like, have such different lives that you would never think had things in common. All interacting together, people from Europe, people from white collar America, people from blue collar America, people from the suburbs, people from urban areas.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  Everybody's there because they love music and they share this passion. Um, and it's awesome. And people are just feeding off of each other. You know, someone brings up an idea, somebody else talks about it, it morphs into a new idea. People come, people beatbox, people sing, you know, photographers come. It's, it's like this amazing community thing. It's all built on, you know, a shared love for this, uh, you know, for this, for this art.

• 6:41Anthony Pompliano?

  I love it. So you get the renewed interest and kind of passion. And then what gave you the idea? What was the song where you mentioned the the oil prices? Was that the first one you did that wasn't kind of a freestyle was more like a produced song?

• 6:57Speaker 01

  So I actually did the one before that. It was called it was called Stocks Droppin'. So this guy, this guy, Jack Harlow, made like this incredible song, Scott Wattenham. He's like remixed it with Lil Wayne and everybody called What's Poppin', right? Song was like trending, was like one of the top songs in America. The beat was like absolutely phenomenal. And this is like peak COVID when like they basically declared, you know, New York City, everybody's working from home, right? And I was like, this is the perfect opportunity to like make a good video. There's so much going on and I basically remixed What's Poppin' with like Stocks Droppin'. And it's like this work from home anthem about working in finance and like the stock drop, the stock market dropping and ways to play it and whatnot.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  You know, it was like kind of goofy. I was wearing like a blazer with shorts. You know, we shot it outside, all the stores were closed. And I think the interest in that one really kind of, you know, gave me a pulse of, hey, like this resonates with people. You know, this is a, an underrepresented community in the hip hop world, you know, and something that a lot of people don't talk about. And I think, you know, everybody wants representation, right? And so there's this huge corporate world, finance, business world, that obviously has an identity that has an interest in music. And so I think parlaying those two together, you know, really touched on, you know, a niche that I think people, people are into. And it really kind of galvanized, you know, the momentum of, hey, people like this.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  You know, and I've kind of kept going and luckily it's gone well so far.

• 8:27Anthony Pompliano?

  When you created this song, it's you and a friend, it's just all you. Like, like, talk to me about the the process, the process of actually creating these.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's gotten a little bit more official now. But the first one was literally, you know, my best friend from college. You know, fortunately for me, he was on track to go to med school, realized that, you know, his whole family is doctors. He just realized like, you know, I've been doing it. I feel like maybe there's pressure to do it, but I don't necessarily it's not my passion. And he kind of abandoned that track and went full on uh music. It's like audio engineering, producing. Uh which is good for me because now I have someone I'm super close with who's plugged into that world, right? Um so the first song we did, it was COVID, couldn't go anywhere. I had no equipment.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  I literally recorded just the audio, the vocals um on my phone, right? Like in the iPhone record. He's enough of a stud where he was able to take that, put that on top of the beat. You know, do all of his layering and whatnot to make it sound decent. And my other roommate, literally with an iPhone, we just took like a very like low budget backyard video. Put it all together. I like downloaded a free trial of like Adobe, you know, editor, uh made it on the computer. Um and dropped it. And um, you know, we've gotten a little bit more uh. You know, official now. I bought a microphone, you know.

• 9:52Anthony Pompliano?

  You you you realize how ridiculous that sounds, right? You're saying you got official because you got a microphone.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  So it beats, it definitely beats the audio quality of a cell phone. So, you know, got a microphone, you know, got some better equipment. Um and I can do it now in person with him. So I think that's been a big help and I think it shows in the quality. And then um. You know, I've worked with a guy now that shoots legitimate video to try to up the quality of the videos. But I think there is something about that uh, you know, kind of hits people in a certain way when they can just tell it's like a backyard production, you know? Just kind of someone put this together like with five dollars. Um that that kind of hits.

• 10:30Anthony Pompliano?

  So uh, I don't know if you know this story, but um I'm assuming that you know uh Little Dicky, right?

• 10:36Speaker 01

  Of course, yeah, yeah.

• 10:37Anthony Pompliano?

  He um, a friend of mine or somebody I knew in college, not really a friend, but somebody I knew in college, uh I think was actually his roommate. Uh when he was creating like the original videos in San Francisco.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  I know a guy that was his roommate in college too.

• 10:49Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, so this was a girl.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 10:53Anthony Pompliano?

  So maybe they were all roommates at different times or whatever.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Small world though.

• 10:56Anthony Pompliano?

  But yeah, but what I remember is like, I remember seeing the video and then she told me, she's like, oh yeah, like that, like that's a, uh, my roommate and I'm pretty sure it was roommate, maybe it was friend or whatever. But what was so interesting was it was this low budget, uh, whole thing, right? It was like basically being filmed, uh, you know, with no real equipment and it was just like, hey, I've got this skill. And an interest in doing this, like, we're just gonna do it, right? And I think that you're right in that that resonates well with people when they, uh, when they just see like, oh, the, the quality of this is not in the production value, it's in actual person themselves, right?

• 11:34Speaker 01

  Totally, totally. Um, yeah, it's funny. You mentioned like Will Dickey because like before I dropped anything, I was like, all right, like who can I kind of study? That's like done this already and to kind of take some lessons. And I remember watching him on like one of the talk shows, like the late night talk shows, talking about like his process. And he basically was like, you know, he was in school. I think he went to Richmond, which is like a very good school. You know, and he has hid, he's saved up all this bar mitzvah money.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  And his parents like, what the hell are you doing? He's like, I gotta take the money. I'm gonna make this video, gotta produce it. You know, and he, he put, you know, not crazy budget, bar mitzvah money type budget, um, you know, into it, went to bed, woke up and had a million views on YouTube. And then, you know, nothing's been the same since.

• 12:19Anthony Pompliano?

  Crazy.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, insane, insane. And I think, you know, he hit it at a good time where everybody now is trying to make videos and there's, you know, the market is definitely very saturated. You know, I think he, anybody that had that insight to kind of leverage, you know, YouTube and any platform at an early, an early phase has, you know, clearly reaped the benefits of that.

• 12:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Absolutely. And so talk to me about like stocks dropping, right? You obviously got kind of the the commodity stuff. Then you recently did one where you went literally to Wall Street and you were doing like the instead of the 10 crack commandments. You were basically doing like the 10 commandments of financial education. What's kind of the goal here, right? Because it's all finance related, but is it to educate people? Is it just to make hot songs like what talking about kind of like what like what are you optimizing for?

• 13:07Speaker 01

  Totally. Um, you know, I think I definitely started it to try to have a good time, right? And you know, even going to like that freestyle group, you know, it's funny like.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  People can kind of get a sense of like who you are, you know, what you do, what you stand for. And like when you kind of touch on those things, people just kind of, uh, it resonates more, right? So, you know, I go to these rap, we're talking about whatever under the sun, right? But then like every time I would touch on like something financial, I'd mention like a 401k. Like literally, and it's in like some of the like the freestyle videos I have posted. People be like, yeah, spit that financial shit, you know, like it was just like, that's your thing, you know? So I was like, as much as like rap and finance are necessarily related, at least in, you know, a responsible way.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  You know, people fucked with it. So, uh, I always kind of kept that in the back of my mind, right? And so I was making these videos and they were all fun. And I was trying to figure out like, okay, do I appeal to like high finance? Like I think the how crude video was like, you know, you're talking about contango. You're talking about storage, supply and demand, it's not your, your layperson doesn't know that, right? And I kind of thought, you know, with the attention that it gets, the people that listen, I'm like, maybe there's an opportunity here to parlay the two interests. Parlay the rap with the finance, you know, rap is a way, much more digestible piece of information than someone trying to lecture you on finance. Right? Finance is boring. People don't know about finance because it's a lack of education, but people aren't driven to learn about it because it's boring, right?

• 14:45Speaker 01

  And so I think that, you know, that realization was like, hey, maybe there's a way to, you know, combine those two. And I think, you know, while the Biggie song obviously has certain applications, I think people derive a lot more value from learning about financial principles and learning about how to sell craft, right? And so my, you know, my thought was let's take this classic song that everyone knows about and kind of tailor it not towards high finance, but towards, you know, everybody, right? And, and what I've observed in this whole process, um, is there's so many people that are highly educated, you know, they're, they're employed, they've graduated universities, they have masters. Um, they don't know basics about investing. They don't even have any money invested. They're like, yeah, I just have my money in a savings account. They don't know what an ETF is, a mutual fund, like basic one-on-one.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  Um, and it was kind of that realization is maybe I can take, you know, the music and use that as, uh, you know, kind of an introduction to get people interested. I would love, you know, I want to make hot tracks. I want to make good music. I want to make good songs. Um, but it's also that realization that like, you know, I've been fortunate enough to be in a position to learn about these things that can enhance my quality of life, you know, it can enhance everybody's quality of life. And maybe this is the way, um, you know, the, the medium to kind of get people interested, uh, and to kind of spread that, that knowledge.

• 16:02Anthony Pompliano?

  For sure. And it feels like, uh, this is, while, while you're like really focused on it and it's kind of, you know, literally from your name to, uh, the, the actual content, uh, there's still a, a kind of macro trend, right? So when you see, you know, Jay-Z and 444, right? Talking about, you know, hey, I should have bought that building in Dumbo, right? Or talking about the appreciation of private art, uh, you, you just start to see this attitude from, uh, kind of the things that can make you money in the streets. As these guys have gotten much older, um, kind of wiser, they, they've actually got capital to invest now. Now they're actually starting to talk about, uh, maybe not personal finance, but definitely talking more about investing and, and kind of those benefits.

• 16:44Anthony Pompliano?

  And so it feels like, um, that there's always been this like, uh, reception because if the best people in the world are doing it, right? Then it kind of trickles down and then you come along and you've got, you know, this is my message. Like people are almost just like waiting for that type of content, right?

• 16:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, I agree completely. And I think a big part, you know, of why that is like more of a trending topic is because. You know, you know, the wealth disparity now is, you know, is enormous. And I think a lot of what people are realizing is what you're driving that that disparity, you know, is not people's salaries, right? It's whether they're investing in financial asset, the way that, you know, the stock market, you know, is driving, you know, the stock market, you know, growing is increasing people's wealth in a way that, you know, your paycheck or your salary or, you know, whatever a small side hustle can't necessarily do, right? And so I think people are like, wait, you know, if these people are getting uber rich, you know, mega rich,

• 17:42Speaker 01

  why aren't doing something like this? You know, the way to compete is to have those financial assets and to, you know, and to ride that trend. And I think people, you know, are realizing that now more than ever.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  And, you know, I think a big thing is too for people is this hesitation with like, you know, I've only got 500 bucks. Is that enough? And it's like, the point is like, you just got to start with anything, right? You could start with $10, right? If you can find, you know, find someone that knows some of the basics, you just get started. You know, you don't put everything in at once, but you learn like you do with anything, right? You start off slow, you don't put a ton of capital at risk. Um, but you know, you develop a plan. I'm going to put X amount a month. I'm going to buy the S and P. Once I'm comfortable with buying the S and P, maybe I'll diversify internationally, you know? But I think for people, it's just getting started. Um, you know, I've seen, you know, firsthand in a lot of ways, you know, my, both of my parents were,

• 18:34Speaker 01

  you know, entrepreneurs, you know, my dad started his own, uh, my dad was in healthcare, but started his own practice. My mom was in healthcare, started her own company. You know, there was a time where they were doing extremely well, um, you know, but they didn't know about like, you know, at that level, these are the people that are highly educated, didn't know about, you know, building a diversified portfolio, having that compound, having retirement assets, right? And I've seen that like kind of firsthand. And so for me, I've been hyper focused on, you know, starting young is at so many benefits, um, and you know, and, and kind of having that in the back of your mind, you know, creating a plan and trying to stick to that. You know, it can, it can literally change your life, you know, over, over time. Um, and I think more people need to, need to know about that.

• 19:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:19Anthony Pompliano?

  Absolutely. And and talk a little bit about, uh, you know, you mentioned how you're creating the content. Where are you distributing it and kind of where have you seen the most receptivity in terms of, uh, is it YouTube? Is it Twitter? Is it other platforms and kind of how you think about the the various platforms?

• 19:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, uh, definitely for me, it was Instagram, just because that's where I built like the initial base. Uh, have been trying to diversify out of that. Um, and you know, edit on different platforms.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  I think the, you know, what Instagram has going forward, especially for like content creators is that like it's highly visual. Um, you know, you can post longer videos, um, you know, and it's very easy for people to, uh, to share, to share content. Same with Twitter, but Twitter's, you know, inherently it's more text based, right? Instagram's highly visual. Um, um, but you know, I've, I've started to send out to, to YouTube, started to send out to Twitter. Um, you know, but a big thing too is I want to kind of create songs that are just songs and put those on Spotify. But I think, you know, in today's day and age, I really do think it's, uh, you know, a multi-dimensional approach. But for what I've been doing so far, I think the, it's resonated the most on, on Instagram for sure.

• 20:28Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. Um, and then in terms of the actual skill of rapping, like, there's a lot of people are going to listen to this and they go, you're just born with it. Like, are you born with it? Can you get better at it? You know, talk a little bit just about like the actual craft of, you know, using words and, and, uh, you know, used the word poetry earlier in terms of then layering that with music and how you think about it.

• 20:51Speaker 01

  Totally. Uh, this is actually pretty funny. So I'm like the guy that tries to get all my friends to rap, right? So like, the biggest thing that we do is like, we'll like take Ubers, like if we're going out, doing whatever, we'll take Ubers. And we're always like, all right, let's put a beat on, let's put a beat on. And like, it's not fun to just sit there and rap alone, right? So I try to get everybody comfortable. I'm like, look, it doesn't matter if you're good or bad. Like the point is like, like anything, just, just try, figure it out, right? So it's funny is like, Friends that are like not about it at all, like over the years have gotten into it to the point where like, well, we will be in the car. Let's say it's four of us. And like me and one guy like are going back and forth. The other friend is like more shy was like, dude, I do not rap. I'll never do it.

• 21:37Speaker 01

  I'll be like, all right, check it, you know, and he'll like come in out of nowhere. So it's awesome. Um, and I do think, you know, do people have a higher propensity for it? You know, sure, but I do think it's just like anything, you know, if you, I think people can get better at it. Um, he is like practicing, find people that are into it that don't like kind of beat you down. It's like, it's not that good. Uh, but I've encouraged all my friends to, to, to rap, to freestyle. I feel like, you know, I helped them get better. They helped me get better. And it's just fun, you know, it's, it's, it's fun. Um, I think the hardest part that people have is not necessarily coming up with the words. But it's figuring out how to kind of like flow and ride on the beat. And that just kind of comes in practice, comes like listening to some of the guys that are the greats.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  And like anything, you know, there's a pattern. Uh, and once you kind of figure out the, the way that beats are constructed, how there's like, you know, you know, units of measurement, you know, transitions happen at certain times. Uh, and you kind of figure that out, that'll, that'll definitely help you. But I have one buddy, um, my, my buddy needs, he's in California right now. Um, he'll, he'll get a kick out of this, but he's like, since college, you know, he's been the guy that's like, he was like, like, you know, I, I'm not bad, but like, I want to keep doing this and get better. And then now like literally he'll like, he'll call me out of the blue. I was like, hey, what's up, man? He's like, dude, I know you're busy at work. I just had to hit you up. Like I just had this rap in the shower. It was phenomenal. I got to show it to you, right? And he gets all excited about it. And I think that, you know, other people around kind of see that too. So.

• 23:06Anthony Pompliano?

  He, he's calling you after the shower while you're at work. He's telling you what raps he just hit in the shower?

• 23:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. He's like super hyped about it. I love it too. You know, it's great. It's great.

• 23:15Anthony Pompliano?

  That's awesome. Um, what, what's, what's your goal, right? In terms of, uh, where do you want this to go? Is this something that you're like, hey, you know, I want to blow this up and, uh, and have come kind of a full-time focus? Is it something that you just enjoy doing on the side, but, um, you know, see kind of a career in finance? Like how, how do you think about you and, and how you spend your day, uh, moving forward?

• 23:37Speaker 01

  Totally. Um, I think what's good about, you know, I'll call this a side hustle. I think what's good about this side hustle for me, uh, in particular is that, you know, It's not completely separated from what I do. I got my day job, right? You know, some people that, you know, they say build furniture, but then they work at a bank. It's not really much overlap. I think what's good is that, you know, working in finance, being in the industry, gives me a lot of insights. Um, it kind of helps you parlay that into, you know, excuse me, uh, into the FiDi guy stuff. So I think it'd be great to kind of try to balance the two. Ultimately, what I kind of envisioned in an ideal world, you know, would be creating a platform that is, you know, focused on music, but that kind of branches out beyond that, you know, it's having conversations like this,

• 24:22Speaker 01

  where the music is kind of the draw, you know, and hopefully I can make songs that people genuinely, you know, listen to and enjoy. And they don't all have to be super financing, right? They could touch on anything, but maybe incorporating elements of a, of business interest. Uh, by really creating a platform where people that enjoy music, you know, people that want to be educated on finance or kind of be, um, you know, kept in the loop with what's going on in the financial community. Kind of a place where they can come, uh, and experience both. And I think, you know, my reach goal, like, you know, I think the milestone where I'm like, okay, like I kind of made it is like if I can, um, you know, somehow collaborate with like David Solomon, who's a CEO of Goldman Sachs, EJ Diesel.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  Uh, he's like commented on one of my videos, you know, he's, he's answered some DMs. But I think, you know, I can get to a point where, you know, we can do something together. I think that'd be like the pinnacle of like finance and music. Um, and you know, I think that would, that would, that'd be awesome.

• 25:20Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm, I'm, uh, gonna hold you to it now. I'm expecting a Diesel FiDi guy charity, uh, concert when, uh, when all this is over.

• 25:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, trust me, I'm trying. I've DM that guy a lot. Sorry for, you know, blowing you up, but he's answered a few times, so.

• 25:34Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, hi- him and, uh, what is it? Uh, the guy at Jeffries, uh, Rich Handler, I think he, he-

• 25:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's active.

• 25:40Anthony Pompliano?

  He, he's super active on, uh, on Instagram too and, uh-

• 25:44Speaker 01

  I think it's great, you know, it's, that's for, you know, if you're trying to communicate with people and, you know, build your brand as an individual and like someone that's approachable, that's down to earth, you know. That's the way to do it. No one's gonna convey, you're not gonna convey your personality at a, at a board meeting, you know?

• 25:59Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I think I got turned on to Rich because he posted from like the trading floor, like a fit tee photo. He had like the fit tees, you know, like the Instagram models do. And he was like,

• 26:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:11Anthony Pompliano?

  Like basically, I think I made it right or whatever. And I guess his daughter got him to do it. And he was like, dude, the CEO of Jeffries is doing fit tee posts from the trading floor. I was like, that's pretty cool.

• 26:20Speaker 01

  It's awesome, right?

• 26:22Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, of course. Well, because I think also it's a, it's the authenticity. And it also just shows like, hey, look, you know, that these folks aren't kind of, you know, our parents, our parents' parents, kind of executives, meaning that it was, you know, all business all the time, right? They, they have a personality. They kind of really show that, look, like they want to have fun as well, right? And they may do it in their own way, but you know, who would have thought the CEO of Goldman Sachs would be, would be out, you know, DJing at like legit clubs and events and like, like it's not like he's doing it at home.

• 26:53Speaker 01

  Exactly. Legitimate artist. Yeah, it's awesome.

• 26:56Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. So I think all that's cool. In terms of the message, what exactly, like if you could just wave a magic wand and kind of get any message across, what do you think that is from a financial education standpoint for us?

• 27:12Speaker 01

  I think it would probably be, you know, there's basic financial principles that are easy to understand that every person should know that can radically increase your quality of life, right? I don't think finance needs to be some esoteric thing that only a few people understand that, that are in that universe. You know, finance, you know, finance is money, whatever you want to call it. Investments affects every single person, you know, in this country. You know, you should understand the basics because they have a huge impact in your life. You know, there's ways to get that information in a way that's, you know, easily digestible. And it has huge impacts in your life. You know, you may not see it today. You may not see it tomorrow.

• 27:58Speaker 01

  You know, five, 10 years down the road, you'll kind of see the value of, of being educated, you know, putting money to work, letting your money work for you. And, you know, no amount is too small. You know, the key is just to get started.

• 28:11Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I think it's a great piece of advice. And then what's kind of the next step in terms of we talked about your ultimate goal? And what's the next step down that path? Is it just creating more content and getting it out on platforms? Or anything in the works that the people should be aware of?

• 28:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think for now, you know, the focus is on still trying to make content, you know, create additional, you know, create music and create videos. But I'm also trying to create additional resources. So for example, like for the 10 commandments, you know, I also wrote a blog post where I kind of, you know, touched on all of those commandments and tried to expand upon them for anybody that was, you know, curious to learn more. And, you know, I think, you know, a great thing would be to work with, you know, certain organizations, to work with certain people that have, you know, an additional platform, you know, that have resources and to work with them to kind of further disseminate, you know, not just the content, but to kind of disseminate the information, right?

• 29:09Speaker 01

  I think it'd be great to get to a point where, you know, it's, I want to get invested, you know, how do I get started? Is there anything that, you know, is a good thing for me to do as I'm getting started? And to be able to point them in a good direction with people that are, that are happy to work with them.

• 29:23Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, that's awesome. I told you to, to bring some, some music. You got music for us? You got any, any rhymes?

• 29:31Speaker 01

  I got some bars. I got some bars.

• 29:33Anthony Pompliano?

  All right.

• 29:35Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 29:40Anthony Pompliano?

  He's currently pulling it up on his phone for those that are not watching.

• 29:43Speaker 01

  Give me, I had to talk some water for this one. Hold on.

• 29:52Speaker 01

  All right. I know just for the time sake, I'm going to hit, when I, I'm going to give you the thumbs up when I hit the, hit the play button.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  Okay, uh, listen. It's crazy what you receive when you believe. Simply roll up your sleeves and see this magic underneath. For example, I'm sitting here with Mr. Pompliano. Make me wanna celebrate as if it's Feliz Puntleano. Sitting here with Pomp, going crazy on his podcast, spitting fire, dropping bomb size, accumulating knowledge that you would never learn in college. My mission is not stopping till my current conditions abolish. I'm polished. I acknowledge that it might seem cryptic currently, but listen to this man when it comes to cryptocurrency. He's basically got a PhD in these assets. He's been on the move, pushing through these tax brackets. Money, it don't do nothing under your mattress.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  Inflation will eat away at you when the fact is everyone could benefit from information. So listen to my boss, Fuego, and some basic education. Peace.

• 31:06Anthony Pompliano?

  That is fantastic. It is very obvious that if you could do that and teach people, people will pay attention.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, thanks, man. I appreciate you. Yeah, go ahead.

• 31:16Anthony Pompliano?

  No, what were you gonna say?

• 31:17Speaker 01

  No, I was gonna just say, man, I genuinely appreciate, you know, you having me on and you, you know, reposting the videos on Twitter and helping to get the word out there and, you know, spread the content. So, you know.

• 31:28Anthony Pompliano?

  Listen, I told you before we started, I love it. I literally, when I saw the very first one, I think you were sitting in like your living room or something and you were rapping about the commodities. I was dying laughing and I was like, dude, we need more people listening to this. And I think you're right that most people probably had no clue what you were talking about, but they were just like, hey, this song's hot. All right. Uh, and then when, when I saw you came out with the, uh, the 10 commandments, I was like, oh, this is where people are gonna get educated. So it makes, uh, makes a ton of sense. And I think you're right in that it takes somebody who's got the, uh, the music kind of background, right? And, and is talented and can kind of produce good content. Uh, but then you also need people who understand, uh, finance, right? And so there's probably not that many people who, uh, who kind of have that overlap, which

• 32:12Anthony Pompliano?

  is, uh, which is a great kind of path for you to blaze.

• 32:15Speaker 01

  Totally, totally.

• 32:16Anthony Pompliano?

  Before I let you go, rapid fire questions, man. First up, most important book?

• 32:22Speaker 01

  Oh, um.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  I think a good one for me is the art of happiness by the Dalai Lama and I forget the other author.

• 32:36Anthony Pompliano?

  Why?

• 32:37Speaker 01

  I think it just sets an amazing example and gives you really good, you know, lessons for how to navigate things that are inevitable to happen in your life. You know, I thought a really good piece of that was, you know, in today's world, people see, you know, people suffer in some way or they have some challenge and they think that they're an outlier. And you know, he talks about, listen, to live and to exist is to endure, you know, some type of pain, challenge, suffering, no matter what you see online, everybody goes through that every day, right? And I thought that was just awesome advice for how to deal better with, you know, all the curveballs that life throws at you.

• 33:13Anthony Pompliano?

  That's, that's a great answer. Aliens, believer or non-believer?

• 33:17Speaker 01

  Hundred percent believe without doubt, unequivocally.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  You know, there's just too much out there. There's too many planets, too many suns, too many solar systems for, you know, the pieces not to be right in some way to create some system, either like ours or like something else. And I think our comprehension of what's in the universe and how it actually works is so small relative to what's actually out there, there's no way that somebody can say that they're not out there somewhere.

• 33:48Anthony Pompliano?

  It's very fair. I tend to, I tend to agree with that as people know. Before I let you ask me one question to finish up, shout out Tom Shaughnessy, who, who's the one who ultimately connected.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  Good boy.

• 33:59Anthony Pompliano?

  The guy who shared the video and then, and then he connected us, which I have no clue how you two know each other, but of course Tom knows you.

• 34:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, mutual friend from, from college.

• 34:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Got it. And then what question you got for me to finish up?

• 34:13Speaker 01

  Let's see.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  I guess what is your, what is your biggest motivation in, in what you do?

• 34:22Anthony Pompliano?

  I have my personal motivation and then I have like kind of the the reason why I do everything that I'm doing. Personally, like I just enjoy it, right? Like, you know, I always joke with people and they're like, what do you do? And I'm like, I'm happy. They're like, no, what do you do? And I'm like, no, you're missing the point here. Like, I'm just happy, right? And I forget where I got that quote from. But it's this this idea of like, to me, I'm going to keep doing this stuff until one day I will wake up one day and just like it's over. See you. Right? And people will be like, wait, what do you mean? And I was like, no, like, literally, I'm not creating content today.

• 34:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, it's not like, yo, in two weeks, this is gonna be over. It's like, no, today's the day. Like, see you. So I think that's it. In terms of like, the bigger motivation of like, why this stuff, I just fundamentally believe that educating people on the way money works, how the economy works, and kind of just personal finance in general, is probably the number one thing we can do to create a more equitable world, right? So like, you can do all the philanthropy in the world. Like, I just don't believe that that's how you solve the problems. I think it's by giving education to people and like, teaching them to fish is a major piece of that. Then you got to restructure the system, right? Which is why I'm so interested in Bitcoin. And then, yes, the philanthropy stuff can help. It's just that, you know, are you trying to solve kind of the

• 35:36Anthony Pompliano?

  short term and do pain mitigation? Or are you going more for long term impact and actually kind of changing, you know, the system so that you can affect more people? And I tend to be much more drawn to the larger scale things rather than just the the individual things.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  That's awesome. I thought of another question, actually.

• 35:54Anthony Pompliano?

  All right.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  What's like the the most absurd, like, DM or message that you've like, received on like, any of your platforms?

• 36:05Anthony Pompliano?

  That's a good one. Um, I mean, there's like, absurd can be defined many ways. Like, there's the like, death threat type stuff, right? Which is like, pretty absurd. I'm just like, what? So like, there's that stuff. Lately, I've been getting lots of, please, sir, can you send me, you know, $500 in big? Bitcoin and you go and you look and it's like a handle that's got like 17,000 numbers at the end of it. So it's just like, obviously a bot. But, but that.

• 36:35Anthony Pompliano?

  The most absurd one that I can probably talk about.

• 36:43Anthony Pompliano?

  I'll, I'll put it this way, there's a couple of people, I'm thinking of three in particular, they're all billionaires that. Like randomly DM'd me and these are all different times, they come from different industries, whatever, but like each time that's happened. I've just been like, what planet am I living on? Right? Like, like legitimately, like what planet am I living on? And they're absurd because it's a reminder, not so much like, like I don't get like starstruck, right? Instead, it's the exact opposite. It's just like, it's a reminder that we're all on the same playing field. But the internet is a great equalizer, right? And so it's just like, you've got an account, I've got an account and so does everybody else.

• 37:25Anthony Pompliano?

  And like, it doesn't matter who you are or whatever, like you still have quote unquote access to people. Now, does it help that somebody knows it's you versus me versus somebody else? Yeah, of course, right? But the, the idea that like this equalizer of the internet, I think it just hits me in those moments where you're like, this is crazy, you know?

• 37:44Speaker 01

  Person that directly interacted with you.

• 37:46Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah. And, and also it's like somebody that you wouldn't normally come in contact with, right? So, so even if you were like trying to get to them, like it would be weird. And then it also like you balance it with like that person who sent you like the death threat versus the person who's asking for $500 on Bitcoin versus, you know, the billionaire. They're all the same. They all just have an account, right? They come from super different walks of life, like all stuff, but it's just like the internet's great equalizer. So I think that's probably when you're just like, whoa.

• 38:12Speaker 01

  That's awesome. Yeah. I think, uh, even Gary Vee touches on that. It's like, if you were in the eighties trying to get in touch with. Some billionaire, right? You'd have to call their secretary, call their agent, your call would never get through. But it's like now, you know, you're on the internet, everyone has their profile and you can theoretically get a message from anybody, right?

• 38:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Absolutely. Where, where can we send people to, uh, to, uh, subscribe, download, consume, whatever you want them to do?

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Totally. Um, so on all the socials, it's, uh, at underscore five I guy because someone, someone took at five I guy. So if you type in five, I'm sure it'll pop up, but the actual handle is at underscore five I guy. Uh, I have a website too, where I post some additional content. It's where the blog post is with the 10 commandments explained. That's just five guy dot com and you can subscribe there as well. Uh, I've been starting a newsletter to try to again combine rap, music, you know, insights, news, uh, et cetera. So you, you can subscribe there as well. And I'm on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, uh, as the same handle. So.

• 39:14Anthony Pompliano?

  Awesome, man. Five I guy. I love the name. You're crushing it. Thank you so much for doing this.

• 39:20Speaker 01

  Thanks for having me, man. Really appreciate it.