Action Bronson on How Lessons From the Kitchen Translated to the Booth | Idea Generation

i failed daily but i try and make it up in that same moment it's the beautiful thing about life as soon as i realize i'm [ __ ] up i'm in let's get back on the horse [Music] in 2010 a 27 year old in queens new york had an idea aryan arslani was pursuing a career in the culinary arts and was actively putting in the hours but a slip in the kitchen forced him off his feet and to consider other career paths born with a natural charisma and away with words arslani had always flirted with music rapping in particular but had never taken it too seriously immobile and now with some time on his hands he adopted the moniker action bronson and started to bar up over the course of the next decade he would expand his brand into a string of acclaimed albums successful tv shows best-selling books fine art and even olive oil each animated by his unique taste and sense of humor and it all started with one idea tell me how did your parents professional life inform your creative ambitions i grew up pretty much in a restaurant so that was a major major major influence on me i always knew i wanted to be culinary that for some reason i just that was just always called me as some would say because i was a chubster but i don't think so i just think that it's within me they say that a sagittarius is a an over-sharer like really i'd love to just yeah take this take everything i just like to give i like to make people happy so when did music enter into your sort of creative space i'm a [ __ ] jukebox so i don't know like music has always been in my life being around an albanian household with all kinds of different people coming through and going to parties they would be playing music live music at every party in the basement because everyone's a musician were there any rap records that you remember being like uh this is interesting my brain works like this to be fair the first one i ever bought was a maxi single rex and effects rump shaker at green acres mall i've been into this rap forever i've been into r b hip-hop that type of music since forever who were you listening to just was on the radio yeah i mean yeah mob deep [ __ ] wu mlp nas queen cool g rap all this [ __ ] that was like mainstream but hard so in 2002 do you graduate from high school or you drop out yeah i dropped that how did that go over with your folks no one likes to [ __ ] up you know but i redeemed myself i hope in the eyes of my loved ones sometimes you gotta takes a little bit of time to find your way tell me about that period between sort of like high school and starting to rap you went to culinary school i went to the art institute on the vatican canal okay i had a good time there i learned a lot of [ __ ] but then i started i went into the real world i started working i was getting high a lot smoking a lot of weed driving around in cadillac's listening to a lot of ugk in the cadillac because i thought that that should be hand in hand how did you find your experience working in kitchens and being being a chef that's why i cut my teeth that's why i learned a lot of that's where i learned how to speak spanish that's why i learned how to work under pressure not collapse you know you can't just give up you're not gonna just walk out you gotta get it done and i was very very very like creative in the kitchen just dancing you're listening to music around like everyone's laughing you get ideas there you know i know chefs have a very particular way that they organize their time and the whole process did that inform sort of how you think about all the various other things that you do absolutely if you're on time you're late in my mind and ever in my world you know you have to be early and it's all about being prepared in the kitchen you have your mise on plus which means everything needs to be in its place so you're ready to do your job you're not preparing to do your job while you need to do your job i live life under that mantra of like make sure that you're ready so you're not scrambling what was that grind like six days a week 11 30 to sometimes midnight you know but i'm not gonna sit here like you always know sometimes i work really hard and a lot of times i [ __ ] jumped off there's no doubt that time though did that put a fire under you to figure out how to yes i wanted more for myself i come from humble beginnings so there's no doubt i have to always work for what i get for it's just the way nothing's ever handed to me so it's just the way my life is and i'm fine with that i i embrace hard work i don't know if there's such a thing as luck i've been in the right positions a lot at the right time because i've put myself there so i think it's just hard work outweighs luck all the time when did you start thinking about writing rhymes and making music my best friend my brother in life my man mayhem loren has been a rapper for a long time and i would always watch him and see him doing [ __ ] and go tag along with him and my whole career started when jadakiss would write those rhymes where he would say what car he has and then the color of it the color of hot sauce or the color of water yep that's how my rap career started trying to make my friends laugh okay with those bars just with that but how many times i could come up with a variation of that one bar how long did it take to get from there until you were starting to put together full verses and songs and it didn't really take long he was like yo just write a rap and i just wrote a rap i didn't know what i was doing i just wrote a bunch of lines similar to that but about other things about wrestling other [ __ ] i liked yeah shoes specifically new balances and the numbers i was i'm always very detail-oriented about my my depictions of things and at this time mayhem is making demos and whenever yeah i think he was just he was running around queens doing music and i just got to a point where i was just like yo i don't want to just do it during anyone else's time i kind of want to do this during my time and i started going to my man p.f cutting studio on jamaica avenue and van sicklin 35 bones 30 an hour he was hooking it up and that's all i knew do whatever i can in an hour for 30 i could make a lot of [ __ ] happen in an hour if it's already written i don't waste time a lot of the way that i work these days like not going back and doing something 100 times like it's one two times and that's it if it's not that it's over is that the process you you sort of picked up when you were under that sort of time pressure yeah you're on the clock so you gotta nail it or you have to be comfortable enough with what you've done to say five what am i what am i gonna do that's it i feel like that with a lot of things you because you're gonna go back and do it a million times something that you have to learn and you have to come to terms with no one to just be like you know what that's it that's a skill in itself so did you think you know in 2003 2004 that was gonna be your path nah i had no no clue okay no idea it wasn't until i broke my leg around 2010 where i was like this i'm not gonna go back to work i'm just gonna do this full time and that was it and you broke your leg in the kitchen yeah i just slipped did you know instantly this is an opportunity for change i felt it absolutely it's like some magic happened you know like when you break the wishbone and some spell happens that's what happened with the sudden change bronson decided to go all in on music the broken leg gave him a chance to reassess and ultimately pivot his career path between 2011 and 2013 bronson released eight projects constantly feeding his quickly growing fan base but he wasn't about to fully leave his past behind instead bronson merged his two worlds while cultivating a robust musical following he also created the iconic travel meets food meets hilarious antics tv show that's delicious and expanded his celebrity far beyond rap [Music] you shift your attention you start working on music did you have the name action bronson yet yeah how did that come to you i was doing graffiti under the moniker action already okay like writing my name in the street and like i said my man mayhem had two names so i wanted another name to like mayhem loren action bronson my grandfather's one of his favorite actors was charles bronson it just seemed right what inspired you back in end of 2009 to shoot those first in the kitchen with action videos one of my friends at the time was like yo bro you gotta you gotta do this and i always had that in my mind that i wanted to do something in television and i guess food television was something that i was always into and it just it was just natural i had the location i had unlimited product another home in mind we tried to get myspace together for me he put a couple songs up there he also added music to the video so when you're starting to put these videos on the internet you got your myspace going how are you imagining that this is going to play out and how did it actually play out people started [ __ ] me on the lower east side first one of my mans worked at chop shop frank chop shop yep a man adriel him and uncle pauly you know my man uncle paulie they were like always in everyone's ear downtown playing my [ __ ] and people started listening to them when you were making these records that didn't have hooks or bridges or just it was just lyrics and beats that was just i didn't know how to make a hook that's really what it comes from i didn't know what the [ __ ] what's that the hook no i don't know just keep repeating something i just rather say some other [ __ ] and just call for like yo yo that's where my mentality is more comedic you've done a lot of projects um that are produced by one producer from the static record to party supplies to al my man tommy maz produced the whole project the first one what is it that you are drawn to about that kind of collaboration it was first off it was it was out of necessity but it turned into relationship like i was really comfortable with time i like i've enjoyed this company the theme here is i become really good friends with these people and they become lifelong companions friends and collaborators and that's really the theme with all this stuff you find some like-minded people and you capture lightning in a bottle that's that i have so much passion every day for the things that i do whether it be painting whether it be this singing in the tub who the hell knows whatever i do i put my most in and my best foot forward and i never want to lose that childish joy that i get from all the things that i love when you first started performing live you obviously have a big personality very charismatic did you feel comfortable on stage nah i never felt comfortable on stage in the beginning but it didn't take long and is it hard to go up there and perform when you know it's not your audience it's somebody else's audience and they don't they're not familiar with you no i go hard i go even harder that's how you win fans over that's the beginnings you know you have to you don't start with [ __ ] show the fans you have to win people over do you remember a moment that you felt like this is starting to work i did a show at um south poles like one of my first headlining showcase or whatever and there was a lot of people that was sold out and i was just like damn man maybe this is something i needed some reinforcement from the outside for sure that was it you know i started just little by little meeting people in probably around 2011 and dante ross howled at me and i had never had a manager i don't know what the [ __ ] that is i don't know what's going on so i just started rolling with him it was good to be around him because he had a lot of knowledge and he's been around the game for a long time and he taught me a lot of stuff in the beginning he needed to come into my life he's like it's like part of zelda you know when you meet the guys different people they tell you things he was one of the men that was there early to tell me things from there i met with paul rosenberg and i was when things really started taking off because you know he's just like he's a g being so passionate and going hard for his people i just felt like that was the right thing to do and it was amazing for many years when you're having those first conversations about working together how sort of fleshed out were your respective ideas for what your career could look like i had some ideas for sure that wasn't until we started getting advice and tell him exactly what i wanted i always knew i wanted to do something with television as well or something recorded video wise you know i wanted a video aspect of my stuff we pretty much me along with two other esteemed people helped launch munchies which is like the biggest food situation on there and that's really when i realized it was like all right no we have this show that's delicious and i have the music as well and it's carved out and they all they help each other and how did you know to negotiate for ownership of that's delicious when you're having those first meetings poor that's paul but not only that i created the name that's they didn't name it they didn't come up with the concept it was my concept i had already done it when paul took us out for the m m tour i opened up for m in south africa new zealand i was on the show in australia i also was shooting something we called adventure time at the time with my man tom gould that turned into that's delicious it had the adventure aspect it had the culinary aspect the heart warming you know it was like a whatever vlog but like a higher version were there shows that you were looking at like bourdain i would imagine that of course we used to love watching that and andrew zimmern i love watching culinary shows essence of emerald and jacques pepin i love yann can cook so did you feel going into your major label debut on vice atlantic that there were different expectations either from the company or from the fan base yeah of course you felt that as you were getting put you know in the studio with certain people and asked to do certain things that you weren't doing before i was just rhyming over in john cougar mellencamp before you know now i'm being asked to do other things like yo try this try that so i did some of that i just i always come back to i can't i can't be held i can't be told what to do because that's automatically not gonna want me to do it i can't take any like yo maybe you should try that now man no so when you reflect back on the mr wonderful album how do you feel about it now i feel great that some things that would have changed for sure there's no doubt about that but that a lot that stuff did great things for me and when you walked away from that record what was your feeling about how you would approach what you do next yeah i never want to do that type of [ __ ] again that's what i said and i'm never doing this again so i went back into my shell and i did blue chip 7000 when i listened back to it it's definitely a great response to exactly what i needed blue chip 7000 was your last album on vice yeah was that the natural conclusion of your deal with them or did you cut it short and it would be fair i'm not sure i just know i didn't want to do it anymore and they were like we're not doing it either so no one really gave what did it matter i'm better off doing things on my own anyway because i'm not going to give them what they want yep and it's going to be a struggle the whole time and it's why are we doing this well yeah what was your experience like in the major label system i'm not really that type of guy i don't like being i don't like being [ __ ] showed around and just not into it i don't like the cycles just just just keep inserting new players keep inserting new guys same voters not for me i caught my home lane well ultimately as as the talent too it all falls on you at there's no doubt about that i want everyone to understand that don't let any company like take control of your destiny you have to write your own narrative you are the [ __ ] author of this story not gonna let anybody else write my story they can say what they want but i'm controlled i'm saying exactly what it is [Music] with the major label system in his rear view bronson was eager to continue his musical journey on his own terms his follow-up release 2018's white bronco demonstrated a new creative freedom which fueled his ever expanding personality driven brand from olive oil and natural wine ventures to writing books and painting paintings to taking that's delicious independent bronson found both success and fulfillment by leading into his most authentic interests [Music] you have that experience and it leaves you feeling not great about some parts of the music industry in the music business was taking uh that's delicious to tv like part of your reaction to that we start now we started the that's delicious it started on youtube and it was tremendous because that's all i knew but then they were like yo we're starting a cable network and we want this to be like a flagship show let's go i've never done it before think about shows man the wire it only has five seasons that's delicious had four on cable it's crazy a couple more on youtube and i'm still continuing it right out of my pocket do you plan on monetizing that's delicious at any point you know monetizing in the sense of yeah if someone wants to come on and you know be a partner with me i would love that otherwise i'm just going to continue to do it on my own i do little hoodie drops but that all just helps to promote and to to progress being able to shoot the shows and like that you know yeah just have its own self-generating thing so i just want to continue doing what i love doing and that's what i love doing i still know all these amazing chefs i go to all these amazing restaurants that's delicious that's that was great but these are also now new experiences those are old we have to continue [Music] when did you start getting into the visual art outside of obviously graffiti but like thinking about it for album covers and that kind of business i was playing in the celebrity softball game 2019. i hit a double i legged it out i felt the back of my knee pop mariano rivera scored i tore my meniscus i was supposed to go on tour the next day into europe you know i had a big like month-long festival run and i was just here i couldn't go my knee was mad swollen i so i was depressed just started painting i was like this i'm gonna use my time that i'm down on the shelf just like me creating more rap music spawned from an injury i just get hurt in shapings you're saying that you you paint over and over and over until i'm satisfied until you get to can you see it in your head when you start or not really i think i do but then it always changes there's at least 12 to 16 paintings underneath each one of these paintings so that's why i hold them so so dear it's like i never know when it's right until it's right okay there's been a lot of painting sacrifice and a lot of good paint that's why there's good texture there i grew up reading comics right so i was obsessed with dudes like frank miller and you know you look at their early stuff it's really tight every line is very purposeful and then you get to sort of the middle or the end of their career when they really get to the peak of their powers and it's much more gestural and just loose and i feel like both in your music and in the art there is this sense of kind of like the mistakes are not mistakes they're they're kind of the point of it i think it's been like that for a long time with me imperfections to me are even better than being perfect i actually hate perfect i hate when it's too nice or it's too good stale like man that has such funk and such style to it that's that's the far i like funk that's why i draw with my left hand really because my right hand is too fine i have too much control with my right hand so it gives it a little bit added childish funk so when you paint a lot of it yeah sometimes i use my right but a lot of times i use the left [Music] so tell me about when you're working on something like this how's it come together well you see like there's a lot of things here that are like whatever you just did that but then you see me meticulously doing that with a nail because i like fine detail as well mixed with garbage mixed with a big blue it's just it's what my eye sees is it done now no it's not so you have to add you know how they usually call for batman the thing oh yeah i'm going to do a light it's gonna shine right there and it's gonna have the rough rider symbol i'm dead serious [Music] it feels like your brand it grows with you and you get interested in something and then you just go down the rabbit hole until it gets to the place where you feel like you can share it yeah man that's the thing like a lot of pain things i i don't know if i'll ever show these things or maybe i will i didn't do i don't do paintings to show them i do them for therapy if i really like them it'll be my album covers and when you put out a record these days what are the goals that you have for each project i mean happiness after it's done for me reaching out to my fans having new fans appreciate things and just you know continuously give a p a part of me a chapter of whatever is on my mind at the time is it more challenging to create when you know that you have a fan base and that they have a certain expectations no i don't i don't go by anyone's expectations i have i don't give a [ __ ] i don't care i don't you know like to me everything that i've been putting out for the past however has been [ __ ] straight fire do you see an evolution in your style over time 100 and not only that like a lot of things changed where i took took control of every aspect of what i put out there the art the executive producing of all the beats like collecting you know what i mean just everything that i need i i'm so sufficient at this point is there a book you think everyone in the world should read yeah i got three of them that's delicious stoned beyond belief could i'll start tomorrow and we're going to keep going in the last few years you've started developing products outside of music and art and things like the olive oil how do you think about extending your brand into those spaces it's about passion olive oil is right up my alley the man that i work with nick coleman is a man who does not cut corners when it comes to quality knowledge know-how execution all of the above and that's the type of man i am so that's who i love working with i'm doing the artwork the newest one has my brand new child's artwork because i love the innocence of the first expression of someone's art so i just for me those things they mean something do you feel like you approach fatherhood differently now versus 15 years ago for sure i'm much more mature i would imagine okay some might say no did having a family change your ambition you always want to do better for your family so having children early there's like yo i can't there's no way that i could stop there's no i just i have to pay for them yep i have to figure it out for them so this what am i going to do there's no option for failure so i guess that that's definitely a part of it and i want to be a good example for everybody i want to be the health example as well as the you know teaching them about life i want to work out i want them to stay fit shredded i don't ever want them to have to take away because right now i'm seriously shredded it's just a lot of fat covering it what was the first step you know stop drinking sodas okay stop eating dessert at every meal and talk about it i was talk i wrote that book get out start tomorrow because that's literally you know it's what you always do yeah that's not tomorrow i wrote that book and that was really the catalyst to help me realize them i'm [ __ ] waxing poetic about [ __ ] ring things and i used to eat and taking steroids back in the day in like glory days of 15 20 years ago what am i doing now nothing what the [ __ ] am i doing i talk about how i used to be jacked how he used to work out i was an athlete what am i kidding myself i'll show you what i do and here it is i'm more athletic now than i've been in my entire life do you have an ultimate goal that you're reaching other besides just sort of general getting healthier shred one word so we're going to see out here veins popping yes i'd like that one day but now where it's like oh man this guy's on a lot of juice i might take a little bit maybe but i don't want you to know that i'm on it [Music] all these things are just tools of torture there's no machines there's nothing here that's going to be an easy thing everything is hard where did you start just start doing push-ups okay push-ups and walking whatever you could do to break a sweat which really didn't take much just gotta put a consecutive string of workouts together get your diet right you just have to build habits do you have sort of a macro plan in terms of like do you look at like at the end of the year like all right i made x amount of money this was more or less than last year or if i want to make more or less next year i need to tour more i need to do this less so i'm not i'm not fueled by that i'm not fueled by the money of course you know each year we get progressively better business is always going to be handled and i have good people that are around me for that but it can't fuel you because that's just that's not my motivation i don't get motivated by that type of [ __ ] to do certain things not creating art to then now show my art or then get now go perform what i have to do i'm motivated by that by money but to make it i have to it has to be within so when you start 2022 for example you have some loose creative goals i'd say okay to progress that's delicious to do a that's delicious festival which has been in my mind for many years and i'm trying to make that come to fruition this year to put out two projects to continue on to put out three to four olive oils i want to do a lot of different things the one thing i want to do is i want to make my mother debut in wrestling wwe i'm looking at eight i'm not gonna say no to wwe but aew i want to seriously slam someone bad but good without hurting them too bad [Music] how would you describe sort of your journey and the successes you've had has it been a linear there's always times of this and that and this and that and moments of struggle and moments of doubt and self-destruction you know sometimes you shoot yourself in the you know it's really about perseverance survival of the fittest there's not many things that are going to get me down have you ever felt that like like this could end at some point it could end at any moment you always got to realize you got to know that that's why i'm never surprised you got to save you got to understand you got to [ __ ] you got to plan how did you get that discipline i don't know it's like how did [ __ ] lizards grow arms you know when they were slithering before you needed to i don't want to slither anymore i want to walk most people are inspired by people that actually do you know i was like damn i wish i could do but you really can you just got to put your mind to it and just stop [ __ ] about i'm good at executing especially everything that i want to do that's in my mind i won't stop until i [ __ ] do it like it's it's going to haunt me but i'll get it done [Music] wow

Channel: Bloomberg Talk

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Keywords: bloomberg, bloomberg quicktake, quicktake, quicktake live, bloomberg live, business, finance, news, culture, action bronson, action bronson interview, action bronson idea generation, idea generation, action bronson rap, action bronson music, action bronson cooking, action bronson album, action bronson kitchen, actionbronson

Id: 2pkf5P1hS2k

Length: 32min 13sec (1933 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 26 2022