1
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I got it.

2
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So are you guys going to mute when I talk

3
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so nothing interrupts it?

4
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(Audio) Yes.

5
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Because once I'm in the flow,
I like to stay in the flow.

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Having some type of support

7
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is very necessary when you are creative.

8
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You know, there has to be something
that's fueling that creativity,

9
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that's fueling that fire
that you have inside.

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My love for music and creativity
starts way back, way back.

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Back in the South Bronx where I grew up,

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building 700, apartment 2E.

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I would go outside
and all I would hear is music.

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You go around to the back park,
the DJs are playing,

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there's a basketball game going on,

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but then you would look
at the handball court,

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and that handball court
would have an amazing graffiti mural,

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I don't know if it's from
Keith Haring or Fab 5 Freddy.

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I was instantly attracted to the creative.

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Music has been my therapy since day one.

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Anytime I get stressed out,

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I go to the arts,
I go to creativity, I go to music.

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Music makes people feel hugged,
people feel loved.

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And then I remember
one of my uncles saying,

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"You should get into producing,"
I'm like, "What's producing?"

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You know, it started
as a family-owned business,

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because Ruff Ryders
was created by my family.

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It gave you DMX, it gave you Eve,

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it gave you Drag-On, it gave you The LOX.

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I've gotten every accolade
in music that one can get.

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It just came to the point
where I was like, "You know what?

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I'm no longer going to have fun with this
unless I'm able to give back."

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You know, The Dean Collection started
for me to create a museum for my family

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and our name.

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Something that my kids
would have to be responsible

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to pass through generations.

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I said, "Wait a minute,

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The Dean Collection is not just
for The Dean Collection,

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The Dean Collection is for everyone."

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There are some galleries now
and places you walk in,

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if you don't have 50,000,
there's nothing to talk about.

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And I felt that a lot of people
were using that as an excuse

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to exit art.

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They feel that art
is only for rich people.

45
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Whoa.

46
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We've got to stop this,
we've got to fix this.

47
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And that's what made me and my wife say,

48
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you know, we have to create an entry point
to the younger generation

49
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that didn't understand the art world,

50
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didn't have their seat at the table,

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and then we started "No Commissions."

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It's a big event,

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you got 30-something-thousand
RSVPs a night.

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The drinks are free, the food is free,

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the concert's free.

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The education is free,

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and I feel that education should be free.

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We went to Shanghai, we went to London,

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we went to Berlin,

60
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we did it right in my backyard
if the South Bronx.

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You can come in to "No Commissions"

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and get something for a couple of bucks,

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or a couple hundred thousand.

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There's a tier for every person
that has love for art.

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And what we're doing is something
totally different from a gallery.

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The artists keep 100 percent of the sales.

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But what about after "No Commissions,"

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how can you sustain,
how can you move forward

69
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without having to be trapped
to sell your soul?

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I was a part of the sale with my brother
Sean Diddy Combs,

71
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the 21-million-dollar purchase,

72
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which made Kerry James Marshall

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the highest-selling African American
living artist to today.

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I'm like, "Man,
you just broke the record,"

75
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and the artist was like,

76
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"Yeah, I don't know whether
to be happy or to be sad."

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[When] He first sold that work,
it was under 100,000.

78
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So imagine a work that you made
for under 100,000

79
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is now being sold for 21 million,

80
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and you had to sit home and watch this.

81
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And you couldn't even
participate five percent.

82
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When you look at it,

83
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I'm a producer, I'm a songwriter,

84
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every time it's played on the radio,

85
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I get paid.

86
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Every time it's played in a movie,

87
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I get paid.

88
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Every time it plays, period,

89
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I get paid.

90
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Visual artists, they only get paid once.

91
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How, when paintings are sold
and traded multiple times?

92
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And that's that artist's lifetime work,

93
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that other people are making 10, 15,

94
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sometimes 100 times more
than the artist that created it.

95
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So I created something
called the Dean's Choice,

96
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where if you're a seller,

97
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or a collector,

98
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and you bring in your work
into, let's say, Sotheby's,

99
00:04:23,792 --> 00:04:26,684
there's a paper that's there
that says, "Hey, guys, you know,

100
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this artist is still living.

101
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You've made 300 percent on your investment

102
00:04:32,375 --> 00:04:34,726
by working with this artist.

103
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You can choose to give the artist
whatever you want of the sale."

104
00:04:38,125 --> 00:04:40,684
I think that even if five people did it,

105
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it would start to change
everything in the arts.

106
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And this is happening in Europe already.

107
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It happens in the music industry,

108
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it's called publishing.

109
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And artists are able to survive,

110
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musicians are able to survive,

111
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years after years,

112
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off of the residual income
of their publishing.

113
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So how can we take something
that brings creatives together,

114
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and celebrate each other?

115
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Myself and Timbaland
have been working on this idea

116
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called Verzuz for about three years now.

117
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Then this trying time came,

118
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and everybody started
going to social media

119
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to express themselves.

120
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So what we did was I played my top songs,

121
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he played his top songs,

122
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and we went on Instagram Live.

123
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(Video) (Laughter)

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Timbaland: You having fun?

125
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This is so good for the culture, let's go.

126
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A lot of people like to say "battle,"

127
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we pulled back off of that word "battle,"

128
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because we're battling enough
in the world today.

129
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We call it educational celebration.

130
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I think we're on our ninth or tenth one.

131
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Me and Timbaland started out
with 20,000 people.

132
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As of yesterday,
750,000 people in one room.

133
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So, we have this thing
called the "Verzuz Effect."

134
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And the "Verzuz Effect"
is what happens to the artist

135
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after they contribute to Verzuz.

136
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We can go to the Baby Face
and Teddy Riley.

137
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They both went up millions of views.

138
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Both of their songs re-entered the charts.

139
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And then we look
at the first ladies Verzuz,

140
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and both Erykah Badu and Jill Scott

141
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have seven positions in the top 20 charts.

142
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This is the Verzuz Effect.

143
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You know, billions and billions
and billions of impressions.

144
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This is something I've never seen before.

145
00:06:30,167 --> 00:06:34,934
And I felt that these artists
are getting their flowers today,

146
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which is a great thing,
while they can smell them.

147
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This was personal for me,

148
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because many a times
I've been counted out,

149
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I've been hot and cold 100 times.

150
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You still have to understand
the business as an artist,

151
00:06:48,417 --> 00:06:52,851
to elevate to your level
that you deserve to be.

152
00:06:52,875 --> 00:06:56,434
Because most creatives,
we're very emotional,

153
00:06:56,458 --> 00:07:00,851
we're very "let somebody else handle that,
I want to stick to this."

154
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But not only creativity is key,
education is key,

155
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which is the reason
why I went back to school

156
00:07:06,708 --> 00:07:10,143
to sharpen my pencil in my mid-30s.

157
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We have to know our business.

158
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But it's going to take us
digging in a little deeper,

159
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and pulling out the knowledge
that we need to prepare ourselves

160
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for this world that's waiting
to take advantage of the creatives.

161
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Then we can make better choices,

162
00:07:23,881 --> 00:07:27,768
then we can end that conversation
of artists dying poor.

163
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If we're not protecting the arts,

164
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we're not protecting our future,

165
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we're not protecting this world.

166
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Creativity heals us.

167
00:07:36,625 --> 00:07:39,476
What's these shades closing for?

168
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Time out.

169
00:07:41,083 --> 00:07:42,333
(Scoffs)

170
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(Voice) I kind of like that.

171
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SB: (Laughs)