0:00 thank you [Music] welcome back to Hot Seat show at the heart seat and even harder questions today we got Anthony Lee the head of the kinjas maintenance he's also a Shoemaker Creator a cobbler a cobbler he's also a noodle salesman and uh yeah we take it away these are all false statements you don't make noodles you don't make noodles you don't Market noodles you personally do not make them myself okay but he has a Noodle Factory I'm not the head of the kids you're a noodle Pusher what are you then what are you the figurehead you're the leader you're the head we're an amazing all right since uh this is your more than second time there's no cold question we did get some question submissions from a
0:50 a loyal follower his name's Mitchell shout out Mitchell shout out to Mitchell my brother do you watch this um so one of the questions he asked is in the dance crew who is the best uh choreographer learner who's the best freestyler and who is the most Alpha cool so many can you remember that all who's the least Alpha that's that's so much of that subjective but the leadership yeah we have some leadership the leader of the community and they just go bam let's memorize that ████ uh well I would say right now it's Jason Lin he's our Young Gun he's literally 12 years younger than me and Mike uh we were training him when he was like 10 11 years old he's the guy he who
1:40 can like learn almost everybody's style the absolute quickest wow and he'll even remember so he's actually even like uh you know definitely he's my number one assistant right now because he's also like when you're a choreographer when you create uh a lot of the times you're kind of like in it you're in the zone so you don't uh have the same goggles on as a third party person yeah it's like when you're brainstorming versus the notetaker exactly so you you also get sensitive and you start judging your own ████ quicker but because he picks up choreography and he understands my style so quick he can get the move that I think I'm trying to do and then he can do it at such high quality movement that I don't have to sit in my move and do it well enough that I feel good I can see it and be like I understand that it'll look good does he know your move so well that he rolls his eyes because he knows it he's like Anthony is so predictable but guys I know he's gonna do the ████ he's
2:30 gonna do the things no he's not going [Laughter] nothing he's like I know he's definitely not going to innovate so we're just gonna do what we always do right now again subjective but for me I'll say Tony Tran uh Tony's the guy the hat maker the hat maker dude they have a whole suit maker in their group yeah everything he's the best person he's the guy who Tony doesn't enter battles but even all the guys who enter battles who have like battled Tony internally at like our own events yeah or our own parties and stuff like that Tony's beat almost everybody Wow Let's beat someone in a battle well is it from the crowd reaction with the format of like when we do like
3:21 internal battles at like our Crusades or like weekend Retreats or whatever like that uh at the end of the day everybody's either drunk or whatever and we're all sessioning and everybody's sitting in a circle and then it'll just be like some sort of like are you and then versus you because we just want to be entertained everybody nobody's nobody's safe and everybody can get called out no one's taking it seriously right it's just fun it's always fun but you always know when it starts to matter oh yeah I mean like because at the end of the day yeah like even like me and Mike like I don't battle at all but every single time they always call out like me and Mike to battle anyway yeah but like I don't battle but you also know that we work so closely together yeah yeah that it's not just like an exchange of rounds at the end of the day you're still like you still got to Puff your chest and you still got to do what you got to do yeah so so when Mario Lopez pops out and then everyone starts chanting head to head
4:12 head to head that twin like it's really Showdown time I love that that was two different dance shows are chosen one that's great but but it is it's actually your peers when your peers are around that it feels more pressure than when it's like random people sometimes you know what I'm saying so but Tony specifically the guy who doesn't train for battles or doesn't enter battles has literally like beat everyone if he's like if he's the best why does a new battle Yeah do you say that's such a waste because you're like the sickest yeah why doesn't he want to lose yeah his personality so he's really good at making hats though he made my hat so he's maybe known as a hat maker kind of like how he's all cap yeah and like like Anthony's known as a Shoemaker yeah Shoemaker even though he's a great dancer
5:02 the last one is uh he wants to know like who's the most Alpha who's the most out I think it's Mike song dude how do you guys Define Alpha I think what he was trying to ask guys oh yeah not that I know Mitchell or anything but I think what he's trying to ask is like who's the uh the influencer of the group Take the Lead yeah the person can just come in and like like if he's gonna do it everyone no question will fall yeah everyone's like oh I think I love oranges and he goes nah you know I kind of like peaches and I'm like oh I think peaches are the other ████ who's giving the coaches speech before you guys do a big dance yeah yeah I think I know the answer is it's it's it's either me or Mike oh so you are the leader of the kinjaz why don't you just call yourself Alpha dude I'm Alpha I always calls himself Alpha you will say tight guys do yeah just be
5:53 alphanely alphanely I like that oh yeah very good that's really good how come you don't have like a jacket with a patch that says president I I just don't feel like that's the way that maybe it's because I've been in a lot of other organizations and groups where like there always has been such clear hierarchy um that the type of energy when we were creating kinjaz wasn't about that hmm because all a lot of it yeah a lot of the people in Kansas especially when we were for real starting to come up we're directors of other dance teams so in other organizations in other dance teams you're already so clearly the captain the coordinator the director the alpha whatever the ████ yeah that when all these different Alphas came to one group nobody needed to be like that's the leader blah blah in a serious way I think it became that in both a joke and its own seriousness but at the end of the day it's like everybody wanted to uh
6:44 originally use kindreds as kind of their escape from needing to be the leader yeah you know what I'm saying and myself included even though me and Mike were like organizing the rehearsals or the event or like kind of Ringling and bringing people together like it was everybody's a leader so you just kind of wanted to like uh enjoy that space for water whiz what it was because once you left that space and you went back to your respective teams you had to be the regular leader again oh okay and so I think we built the culture in that way so even like Fast Forward the dance crew culture the the rehearsals all that stuff we don't need to say or want it to be like we're the leaders therefore everybody has to listen I think everybody respects it like that um the business is different the business definitely there's a Clarity in like leadership there's you know officers organizational structure
7:34 there is an executive decision makers manager you know what I'm saying but from the dance crew stuff the chemistry and the way that we orchestrate the way that we want to facilitate even the representation of the crew it's like we're just we're just homies you know everybody's on the same page yeah for the most part what's the biggest fight you have my cat and not a dance way yeah no dance battles no head to see guys ████ like spitting around and ████ to express how angry they are no no that ████ honestly Mike and I don't really fight I think when we kind of start getting into things like he's Korean you're telling me you guys never fight Mike is definitely not that type of Korean oh he's very very important Korean yeah he's very um rational Monica's very rational wow and I think I'm pretty logical too so I
8:25 feel like me and him are and we know each other so well that even if things are about to get to a certain level we already like know the next nine steps that are possible so we're already like shutting down and disclaiming the other thing that somebody's about to say about us and then once we get into that point where it's like all right either way this is going nowhere we might as well you know find the answer versus the emotions in each other yeah it's on the fire extinguisher when there's not even a fire around kind of it's empty rooms just blowing the fire extinguisher and if anything we get so good at that that starts to frustrate us because then we can't even like say our piece because we already know how to deny and debunk the other person bro no you say it they say it say it well you could just kind of tell yeah so and before you guys get into a fight are you guys like five six seven eight and then choreographed arguments yeah say your
9:15 opinion on one there's definitely times where it's like you know that this would be a normal grounds for an argument yeah but then like one of us will still be like we're gonna talk about this later because you know like it's either emotional right now and it's like there's no point like have you guys both completely agreed with the direction that kinjaz is like is supposed to go in or is there has there ever been like an idea of like what your Brand's supposed to mean and all that kind of stuff I think they're definitely like every year or two we're always refinding something I don't think it's ever been linear you know what I mean and very clear I think maybe our intentions or Ambitions might have been like linear but like things always happen so we're always needing to re-check in with each other do you find it like Ouija board style like you guys are doing it together or is it like hey someone comes in with like I think you should go this now and then like and then you guys talk it through like
10:06 someone kind of has a a general direction already we always have a general direction but the problem is like we're already in like a lot of like gig related opportunity and work yeah that we could be like oh this is the this is the game plan and then a giant gig will come in a huge performance opportunity a giant client that like needs some major scale project that's going to take one or both of us away out of the country for three months because somebody's working on a tour or a show or or whatever and that kind of derails so much momentum so then now you have to focus all in on that kind of yeah so and if it's like maybe it's his job maybe it's my job maybe it's you know somebody else we were relying on in the crew and so a lot of it is just kind of adapting and then holding on to General Direction but not being married to anything did you have you and Mike ever liked the same girl we want kenja tea bro where is it at me
10:58 and I have never liked the same girl but we've definitely like because we're definitely not Eskimo brothers that's official why not what just chances but but I mean we've we've randomly as best friends like you know like hooked up with other best friends and that's ████ funny to us wow and found out after the fact Eskimos step Bros huh Step Brothers um but no me and Mike's relationship has pretty much been conflict-free yeah it's kind of boring do you think that the relationship or like your guys's relationship has been so good because you guys are friends for so long before you started kinjas does that help out in any way or not um definitely yeah I mean we were living together for almost like our entire College Journeys before we even started Kendra so like we we like we're like butt to butt you know what I'm saying like a lot of spent time I was like I've nearly lived at his house in Torrance
11:49 when I was couch crashing and didn't have a spot to live like we we spent a lot of time together it ████ it that's boring if if my song and Nina had to switch places for some reason right what are the biggest conflicts of each so now you're running hinges with Nina and now is ████ your fiance what are the biggest conflict that's gonna happen from that it's a good scenario that's good yeah that's so good and you guys are still butt to butt butt let's start let's start with Nina he's like talking about why like that or no God I remember you tell me something similar like that last time off camera [Laughter] the sad
12:40 was there any uh like ever any like oh no no you answer that incident you got that's so complex there's no answer to that was there any moment where like maybe Ken just was gonna like break up at some point um there there have been moments where it's like uh if our like I think there was a pocket when me and Mike's solo Journey because Canada started in 2010 before we even turned into a business and again like I said the original like thing of it was us being able to just come together with the homies and do something that we couldn't do as directors of our respective teams this was dance to Naruto music according to this website which was yeah thank you yeah yeah dancing to just whatever like not competing with each other but just uh just like getting on stage and doing whatever right um and then we our solo career started taking off he had done like ABDC with called modern so like he was ████
13:31 blowing up it was it was on some first of its kind type ████ you know what I'm saying and I was also just uh I was never on TV or anything like that with that kind of notoriety so I kind of just had to figure out my own lane in my own Direction and obviously when you put in time to something like it manifests so we were definitely building something very separate even though in the same world uh even though we were like kind of doing hinges on the side and then we were about to do ABDC season and seven in 2012. WoW right we had like gone together and this is before they like canceled ABDC for like a few years um we were about to do it we were like rehearsing for it some ████ happened with the crew and like people like had to leave and and stuff like that and so we were like ████ We're not gonna do ABDC and for that moment there was a point where me and Mike were gonna be like all right like just we weren't focus on kids at all so
14:21 it was kind of like do our own thing and then when we did our own thing for a few years and like you know the Anthony Lee brand was growing the mic song Brand was growing outside of Kaaba both of us had our own like logos our own t-shirts our own YouTube channels our own a bunch of other ████ right yeah but I remember just like we started just as we were getting older started feeling that like I remember one time like I got injured so I couldn't teach my classes so Mike had to go and teach my classes and then there's that feeling where it's like oh like what what brand am I building you know what I mean if I if the Anthony Lee brand if I like break my ankle it's like the company's dead you know there's no longevity there's no what's the Legacy how does this go on Beyond and we're just constantly thinking bigger but didn't have the the formula for it and then we kind of you know light bulb dinged on us that was just like well kinjaz is something bigger than ourselves can just like a flag some
15:12 something that people can stand Beyond whether it's like the mantras of like respect all fear none or moving in the chat whatever it is which I love by the way respect all of your none does that include Adolf Hitler whoever needs it but uh there was a moment where we're like you know if we if we stop pushing our individual stuff then we can probably come together and make something bigger and then uh in 2014 we were like I forget the work we turned down work we did a cross-country road trip together to just kind of like figure ████ out and kind of bring bring the energy into one spot it ended up being like the sickest trip of Our Lives um and then it was YouTube me Mike John she and then one of our at the time wasn't but now as a crewmate uh Nick Kim and he was mainly driving Kim just Nick him um
16:04 no no not uh Adolf Hitler oh okay cool yeah it took a while to answer that took a while to answer yeah yeah yeah that's when you have to think about it seems like you were dodging that question yeah he's just respecting all in the modern world like Jeffrey Dahmer dead Bundy come on [Laughter] do you think if uh if it ever gets there like um I know you're trying to build your family and stuff in the next like three to five years do you if you had to pick is it one of those where like uh I need to build kinjas this is my career because I know a lot of stand-up comedians are like that right where they're like on the road so much that they're like like fatherhood is technically and logistically gonna have to take a back seat yeah is it one of those or do you think family is going to be the main priority and kinjaz will
16:55 have to make that uh kinjas will have to be like adjusting to your family building that it's really interesting you bring that up because this is I swear last week we were kind of having a conversation just like this wow was it you and Nina or you and Mike song uh specifically about Mike song the fiance or Mike's on the Kindle yeah are we back in the real world or still in the universe [Laughter] um we were just talking about the future in general and uh it's because uh we happen to be in a really fortunate season right now and I say fortunate season right now because even like uh q1 and Q2 earlier this year was not so busy for us you know what I mean like we never know whether coronavirus is going to be impacting the clients and or
17:45 whatever that we're working with and there was like you know there's dry spells there's just straight up dry seasons now we finally happen to be in a really really heavy like very booked and blessed kind of opportunity where me and Mike are canceling jobs because we have to take bigger jobs so we have to replace ourselves and the group is spread thin we're running to logistical scheduling nightmare but it's a dope problem to have right yeah yeah um but it just highlighted again that we're so responsive sometimes as a company and as a business you don't want to be like Ultra risk but you don't want to be the catcher all the time sometimes you want to be the pitcher yeah you know what I'm saying but like again if a fastball is coming at you you're just like I have to catch this thing so we're constantly putting ourselves in that position but as the years go by right especially imagine you start trying to cast your your old crewmates it's like well we can't hit up this guy anymore because this guy's a dad of two we can't you know what I mean it's like what happens
18:35 when you're gonna have children and it's like if we don't pivot and spend the time and Pitch instead of just catch if we don't figure out how to turn this thing into something way beyond the scope of what we're already so skilled at then when one of us has a kid we're ████ do you guys have to check in about that like if if you and you know we're like gonna have kids you have to talk to Mike song and be like Yo dude just so you know we're gonna we're about to start trying because that could affect your business a little bit yeah yeah me and Mike are are close enough that we're we have to very much so stay in tune with the rhythm of like where our life in general is going because that um that's huge you know what I mean like one of the things that was crazy is I remember just coping with like his you know when he got married and his wife came uh uh and I love her you know I call her sill for Sil sister-in-law she
19:27 calls me Bill even though my name's Anthony for brother-in-law but people think it's funny because it's like Bill how is his name Bill anyways it's cute thank you it's very cute nobody thinks it's weird when you call her soul though I guess no because it sounds but that's weird like a weird name too I guess it sounds like Italian mobster oh hey still yeah yeah but um so so I just think like you know we're really really tight and stuff like that but I wasn't ready the very first time when like Mike brought his wife into the business and then suddenly something that me and him had built you know what I mean like the just the dynamic was changing changing for the better in the grand but in the in the just what me and Mike had Energy's just totally different yeah yeah yeah now there's another person you have to check in with yeah and even if it's positive it's just another element that you're not used to the routine The Habit has to be built exactly you know
20:17 and and just as much as I have to go through that so does he so does she like you know everybody's trying to be respectful of like it's changed you gotta mature and we understand that that happens but it doesn't mean that you you know you're not going through it yeah so me and him have gotten really really evolved in our way of communicating with each other at such deep life levels you know what I mean because that's it we know that those things are going to affect us like like whatever he does in his life is somehow directly indirectly going to affect my life and vice versa and if we don't kind of like over communicate sometimes then we don't know when like step a leads into step like Z and and months later you're like well how did I get here and just because it's because of this thing that happened over here you know what I'm saying so so we try our best to stay constantly communicative because the journey is
21:07 going to take us somewhere and we we don't want to ever stop that momentum even for each other as individuals we want to support each other you know what I'm saying and let each other fly we don't want to be like held back by Kansas either but the natural thing is like it's the biggest thing that we've created and it's the thing that brings in constant opportunity notoriety like what it is that like has put our life where it is because of what we built with kinjaz um and that was something that like we had built together you know what I mean so everything that we do on on the outside effects like me ████ sitting here answering these questions I'm now talking about my song like that right you know what I'm saying that's gonna affect both of those conversations are always kind of overlapping somehow always it's a Venn diagram of life and and so we have to just be over communicative otherwise we'll run into problems later when we had Bobby hundreds sitting in that chair right there he was telling us about how he basically wakes up every day and feels
21:57 like he has to reinvent himself do you feel that way I feel like when I don't reinvent myself all the time is when I run into my lows in life okay and how do you how do you go about doing that how do you go about Reinventing yourself oh man I never know where it's going to come from you just get like a New Perm or something it's like I guess it's a new me now like let's let's actually analyze what happened even in like the last year for for all of y'all who are like really close to me and actually know this right whether it be becoming a regular on this show that actually happened at a time frame at a time where we were closing down our Studios and that was happening when like other avenues of the business structure for kinjaz was Bleak because the the pandemic was doing things that we just didn't know where it was going to go um whether or not it was the right time for me to join this irregardless of that like that all happened at the same time and that put me in a different like
22:48 mindset mood like a of honestly hope you know what I'm saying I was like oh there's other things that I can do as well outside of just my own crew right and then even like being into the Rhythm here and like being able to get a lot closer to you and then starting to dive into like the blockchain and stuff and same thing granted was like Bull Run and whatnot but like that gave me a totally different mentality I was like wait a minute there's other things that I can still do in pursue and whether that's the answer in that moment it's like necessary in terms of that idea of the journey or even us sitting here now still dedicating ourselves at a 40 pay cut it's a big time 14. you know what I mean but like recognizing that like oh this is an important and pivotal part of me now and then me going taking that same energy that we have here and then even going back to like Mike in my own company let's say he's free all the time he's like hey we got to do this rehearsal I'm like oh I can't these days because these are my JK days I'm
23:40 dedicated now before I was a guest but like now I'm like I'm dedicated yeah thank you and that changes even with a forty percent payoff yeah yeah thank you it's early Black Friday so yeah it's nice it's actually a good thing I wouldn't have known a year or two ago that that would be the situation I would have probably been like Ken just 100 all the way you know hey somebody send this to somebody send this to the anti-definition league you have to shoot it out as a wave you have to wave it out and then wave it back in I was like oh ████ dude number five [Laughter]
24:31 I would have never known a year or two ago that like this that would have been the situation so when it comes to even like you know Reinventing yourself like I I feel like that's a constant Journey even if it's not uh your conscious choice at that time so why does it take 24 months to do spicy noodles when you guys had regular noodles like just doing spicy noodles like shouldn't take that much longer if you're eating add Sriracha liability he's just looking at us it's hard for him to ask you guys are Reinventing yourselves daily though it creates you just ████ makes plates and noodles like quicker than 27 months you're not even gonna be like hey you guys reinvented yourself you made noodles well no everyone knows you made noodles you did like two years ago but now you have spices it took a long time it just took a long time that's all kinja's noodles are only in Costco yeah yeah
25:21 what do you think about that I apologize and we're working on it [Music] foreign [Music]
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