“I want to be a participant in hip hop and not just a voyeur,” says Romane Armand, entrepreneur and creator of Book of Rhymes, a rhyming self-help manual.

Armand has achieved the Guinness World Record for the longest freestyle rap. He is a businessman with an innovative mindset; one who says today is the age for the creative.

As Romane sees it, everything can be outsourced except creativity. With Book of Rhymes, he has created a guide for aspiring musicians, orators, authors, and songwriters that didn’t exist previously.

Now, there is a manual for what to rhyme with Beyoncé, Google, and even the word orange. Peep the rhyming self-help manual here.

But Armand’s keen mindset and intrepid work ethic was not always this distinguished. Here is his journey in full:

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Early life

Romane is a Haitian immigrant. He and his family moved to the U.S. when he was about to turn four years old. Specifically, they moved to Roxbury, Boston, which, in his autobiography, Malcolm X called “the Harlem of Boston.”

“I grew up in a Haitian household within a Black community, while assimilating to the US. You’re not only learning a new country, but there’s also a subculture that you’re learning in the inner city. You’re learning black culture too.”

Romane explained that his father tried to shelter him from a lot of things growing up. The dichotomy between a two-parent Haitian household and the urban American streets was stark. But, inquisitive as he was, Romane found his own relationship to his surroundings.

“What I was able to connect with the most as far as American culture was Hip-Hop. The culture was fascinating, not just the slang and the speech, but also the attire and style.

As a teen, I wanted to be more than just a voyeur of Hip-Hop. I wanted to be a participant. I tried other elements of the culture, but it was rapping that I connected with and enjoyed the most.”

Romane Armand

Romane explained to me that he wasn’t really a college-bound student in high school. He was the kid that went to school late, went to two lunches, three gyms, and also left early. “And that’s when I actually went to school,” he said with a self-deprecating chuckle, aware of how far he has come.

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An innate love for rap & rhymes

Sometimes in class, he would slide a headphone through his sleeve, palm on his ear, and listen to rhymes and write down the lyrics. Pre-RapGenius, Romane was writing down the lyrics and looking up the words, doing fine-tuned research to understand the material, and study the craft.

“My high school was really hood. It was the first place where I saw crack and guns… It just showed me another side of America, how there was poverty and struggle here too.”

Romane Armand

It was a love of lyrics that developed into a love for learning that ultimately set Romane on a path to success. But it wasn’t going to be easy, especially as he learned later that he has dyslexia and ADHD.

“Having dyslexia, your brain has to work five-times harder in order to read. And instead of giving up, I just gave it five times more effort than most people. That helped me to build a work ethic. Coming from a family that could not afford to help me financially with college, I had to figure things out on my own. I learned that you could get scholarships for more than just athletics and good grades. There’s all sorts of scholarships. That’s when I started diving in, doing research.”

Romane Armand

Romane persevered, attributing much of his diligence to his father and the morals he instilled in him. He ended up writing so many scholarship-winning essays that he graduated from college with zero debt.

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Entrepreneurial journey

In college, Armand took business and marketing classes that gave him a point of reference for the world he wanted to get involved in. He learned about cross promotion, about strategies to find success in your own business, and this eventually helped him self-publish Book of Rhymes years later.

“I learned a lot about business and entrepreneurship through hip hop.”

Romane Armand

As VP of the Marketing Association at his school, Romane presented in front of a room of corporate executives. And he did what he does best: he rapped (about marketing).

After this meeting, Romane ended up getting a position as a buyer in Walmart’s entertainment division. His first year there, he developed a product line that sold over $100 million in product.

Romane saw a void for aspiring rappers/linguists/artists who needed a place to find similar words that rhyme, while the suffixes did not fit perfectly (for example, “orange” and “foreign”, known as slant rhymes). Thus, he wrote Book of Rhymes and published it himself.

Armand has even been asked to do rhyming lectures and workshops for schools across the country.

I asked Romane what it is about his vision that elicits such success in his various endeavors.

“I’d say it’s empathy. It’s seeking to understand and relate to the end-user. I don’t think you can really make decisions on behalf of the consumer and be a steward for them if you haven’t tried to walk in their shoes and experience the pain-points that they experienced. And I think that’s what helps to inform my vision.”

Romane Armand

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Age of the creative

“These big companies really need to adjust, and start valuing the creative class. Because what I’m seeing is a shift where the creative is moving from bottom of the totem pole to the top of the pyramid. But in order for creatives to get to that position, they have to develop business skills and acumen.”

Romane Armand

With a somber tone Romane explained how a lot of his creative ‘brothers and sisters’ don’t want to put in the work to learn the business side of things, the marketing, operations, and finance. But this ultimately puts them in a position where they are beholden to the businessman, and don’t see as much of the rewards and freedoms that they deserve.

Romane looks at the marketplace around the world and the outsourcing that takes place in business, such as LegalZoom, a company that allows people to create legal documents without necessarily having to hire a lawyer.

But the one thing, Romane notes, that can not be outsourced, is the creative.

“This is the creative age because that’s what’s going to be most vital in the value chain and give you a competitive advantage in a sea of noise. You can’t automate or outsource the creative to India. You really need creative human beings, the idea generators, the innovators.”

Romane Armand

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Next chapter for Romane & Book of Rhymes

After reading maybe five books in his lifetime prior to his epiphany in the lengths he can accomplish, Romane has now published a book. The diligence he needed in order to achieve his youthful aspirations set himself up to be successful in wherever his future endeavors take him.

“Just the journey from idea to it materializing [was] a long one. It’s been a tough one. And it’s one that helps me to realize how I’m built.”

Romane Armand

Romane finds euphoria in seeing younger Black boys asking their parents for books like Book of Rhymes, instead of the typical gifts like video games. They want to become a better songwriter or rapper, and as Romane says, “If you could write a rhyme, you could write a script, you could write a business plan. And it’s a transferable skill that can help you with life. That’s the biggest reward and what’s so special for me, is creating something that helps people.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuAYudSnQma/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I went to the city to do some apartment hunting the day after I spoke with Romane. On the steps up to the 125 Harlem Metro North station, a young man’s head shook fervently in a notebook, pen scribbling away, voice whispering and repeating out his written lines, trying to find the best rhymes possible.

It was Romane’s journey and mission visibly laid out in front of me. Art imitating life. Life imitating art. I look down at the man and shook my hand so he would look up at me. Nothing.

No movement; his body and mind were still wrapped up in his words. I thought about what Book of Rhymes means to fans of words, fans of hip-hop, or just anyone looking to better themselves. Smooth articulation enables anyone to have a better chance at succeeding in life.

Romane’s journey wasn’t just about finding himself. It was about creating opportunities for others to excel in what they feel passionate about, in what they can be creative within. Book of Rhymes is just one piece of the puzzle, but for many, it is the blueprint for how to take that first step towards prosperity.

Check out the rhyming self-help manual here.

In the totality of their efforts, Drake and LeBron James are two superstars intimately related, sharing the stage and prospering together as two friends.

Think about the two biggest stars in their respective industries. Two stars that hold perhaps the biggest sway because of their talents and business acumens.

Two superstars that have been in the limelight for close-to two decades, and are still performing at peak-level. And they just happen to be friends.

https://twitter.com/WolvesByKanye_/status/1317087097929551877?s=20

Now is that purely because they both have such significant respect for one another? Well yes, but that only scratches the surface. Drake and LeBron work together because they both know what the other one has dealt (and still deals) with, and in that there is no truer connection.

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A mutual respect

Drake and LeBron’s relationship is a fascinating case study because there are few people in the world that know what early, and prolonged, fame feels like. Both in their mid-30’s and stars long before the smartphone era, Drake and LeBron work because they both understand each other, and understand each other like few people on the entire planet can.

Much like the undeniable similarities between Kobe and Kanye, Drake and LeBron are a match because they respect what the other one has done and continues to do, and in the latter case, they happen to be great friends because of it.

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Assist men

It is not just in their social circumstances that make Drake and LeBron alike. It is also in their respective trailblazing crafts. Much like LeBron pushing the ball ahead in transition, head up, eyeing the open man and dishing it out for a game-clinching three, Drake sets his teammates up for success all the same.

Drake is a superstar when he’s scoring, when he’s releasing his own singles and mapping out exactly what sound can be popping at any specific time, but he’s also perhaps the greatest assist man in the music industry.

You want big numbers? Hit up Drake. You need a hot single before the full album gets released to drive up engagement? Get Drake on the phone. And even without being asked, Drake will deliver a gem to you if you’re ready. Just think of how he put Lil Durk on Laugh Now Cry Later in a position to succeed… genius.

Durk's lil 20 seconds on Laugh Now is the best shit about the whole track. And please before Aubrey's Angels come barging in, that's not a shot at Drake. Good on him for having the foresight to know Durk would body that shit. Point guard Drizzy.

— 🦦✨America Is Musty✨🦦 (@DragonflyJonez) September 5, 2020

The way that LeBron and Drake can both put up 40 essentially whenever they want is undeniably impressive. But the way that both of them don’t feel they need to — and even more — would be helping out their teams more by elevating the play and confidence of those teammates, speaks to greatness.

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Setting a tone

Another thing that ties Drake and Bron together in their pursuit for — and accomplishment of — greatness, is the environment they create all around them. The two superstars are comfortable in their own skin, and therefore it makes those around them more comfortable.

If I have a question for Bron about this zone coverage, I feel more comfortable coming to him because he is always ready to learn more about the game and dissect it. He trusts his teammates to make big shots, and when they don’t, we move on to the next one together.

Similarly, if I have a question for Drake, either about my music or about my brand, I can trust that he knows what he’s talking about because he’s lived it. And he’s willing to pass on vital information because he’s not afraid of anybody taking his crown. King shit.

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Past moments together

Drake famously brought LeBron and Travis Scott out for one of his shows last year.

.@KingJames + @DRAKE + @trvisXX #AubreyAndTheThreeMigosTour pic.twitter.com/5BBHwR9uz2

— Crypto.com Arena (@cryptocomarena) October 14, 2018

And, on episode two of LeBron and Uninterrupted’s The Shop, Drake spoke of his viral feud with Pusha-T and Kanye. Opening up about the situation for the first time in depth publicly, Drake clearly gave prominence to his friend’s platform, and felt comfortable enough alongside Bron and Maverick Carter to speak about such personal issues publicly.

Drake of course released Forever in 2008, along with Ye, Eminem, and Lil Wayne, as a single for the soundtrack to James’ More Than a Game documentary.

While most likely seeing each other as pure equals, Drake and Bron’s engagement speaks to more of a little brother, big brother dynamic. Bron is a couple years older, he’s been in the limelight a couple more years; it would only be natural for Drake to lean on him sometimes.

And as every older sibling knows, there is always a time where the elder needs the younger’s advice too.

Drake and LeBron are comfortable in their own skin to the point where they are constantly putting other people on, other businesses on, even entire f****** cities on. The innovation they provide is nearly unrivaled, except with one another.

And the inspiration they provide for countless minds across the world, and for each other, is a beautiful thing to witness. If Drake and Bron have taught us anything, it’s that you must always strive for greatness. And then never take that greatness for granted.

“Baltimore is so specific. A lot of people don’t understand that. Anybody on the East, they all know, they know if you’re from Baltimore. They can hear it in your voice, they know your style, it’s so, so distinct,” muses Caleeb Pinkett, executive producer of Charm City Kings.

“I just love what we were able to do for this city.”

Charm City Kings is an American drama film set in the heart of Baltimore, Maryland directed by Puerto Rican native Angel Manuel Soto. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020.

Block parties, lively streets, the rev of a bike in the sharp summertime air. Charm City Kings opens with cell phone footage of a teenage boy, who we learn is named Stro. He’s working his magic on a dirtbike, surrounded by the Midnight Clique, led by Blax (Meek Mill).

As we track forward we see a younger boy with Stro; his little brother Mouse, who will go on to be our protagonist. Stro tells the camera Mouse is going to be the best one day.  We’re only a minute into the film, but the backdrop is already set. Goosebumps. 

We cut away from the footage to see our lead Mouse riding the bus, watching the video that we just witnessed. This puts us in Mouse’s shoes from the very onset of the film. Every step he takes from here on out, we take with him. 

“We haven’t seen anything like this in a long time… This could’ve been made in the 90s, like when you make a gritty drama,” passionately declared Pinkett.

In Charm City Kings, Jahi Di’Allo Winston plays Mouse, our boy protagonist, and Meek Mill stars alongside him as Blax.  Teyonah Parris, Donielle T. Hansley Jr., and William Catlett round out the main characters of a brilliant cast as Mouse’s mom, Lamont, and Detective Rivers, respectively.

Mouse is a boy that likes hanging out with his two best friends (one of which is Lamont), chasing girls, working as an assistant to the local veterinarian, and most of all, dreaming of riding with the Midnight Clique.

EP Caleeb Pinkett, director Angel Manuel Soto, and writer Barry Jenkins headed the project of adapting the 2013 documentary “12 O’Clock Boys,” into a motion picture. Thus, Charm City Kings was born. The drama is also executively produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.

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Here’s our first trailer for @CharmCityKings! Big shoutout to B’mor. Shoutout to @MeekMill – you did your thing, Sun – Up there on the screen for the FIRST TIME. The film already won at Sundance for Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast… my boys @jahiwinston, @iamlildeedee, and @iamkeziicurtis SMASHED it! And our director @alohemingway painted Baltimore with a beautiful cinematic brush. Can’t wait for y’all to see it — it’s FIRE! We’re in LA/NY and Baltimore theaters on April 10, everywhere on April 17th

A post shared by Will Smith (@willsmith) on Feb 21, 2020 at 9:35am PST

This movie is all at once an authentic portrait of Baltimore, a tale of a boy pulled by opposite forces, forced to grow up far too soon in the shadow of a loved one.

And a remarkable achievement of raw storytelling, intrinsic to what it means to be a disenfranchised youth. We had the incredible pleasure to speak with Pinkett and Soto.

Caleeb Pinkett’s family is from Baltimore, and his inside knowledge of the area was paramount to setting an authentic tone for the film. Clarence Hammond, Pinkett’s producing partner, also played a major role, as a native of Maryland. 

“The opportunity to tell a homegrown story, something that is near and dear to my heart, with the connection to the city… as far as the authenticity and the specificity of Baltimore, that’s where I was needed the most.” 

Charm City Kings struck Pinkett as a story that needed telling, an allegory innately related to disenfranchisement and being black in America.  “Telling this kind of story, to me, is extremely important to reach the majority of African American people, where they can see a character that they really relate to.”

“They know that kid, and they know his friend, and they know that neighborhood, and they know that mama… To bring light to what most people are experiencing daily, was the most important part for me.”

Pinkett examined how disenfranchised youth of all races are forced to grow up at an especially early age. He explained that internal conflict can circulate in an impoverished adolescent’s head.

You’re 13, your lights are getting shut off. You can’t get a job, and if you do, you’re getting paid next-to-nothing. But there’s a guy on the street corner offering you a good amount of money to sell a little something for him.

“So it’s a terrible situation, but it’s a real temptation that most people without money deal with,” said Pinkett. 

Pinkett contemplated the life of a child rationing, breathing in the stale tobacco smell as their mother smokes cigarettes in the house, living a week eating the same pot of spaghetti each day, being forced to adapt to changing life circumstances at the flip of a switch. 

“What’s really interesting is that when you grow up like that, you don’t even recognize that you’re poor. Until somebody shows it to you. Because everybody around you is living like that,” said Pinkett.  Soto echoed this sentiment.

“When you’re a kid, you’re not really paying attention to how poor you are.” 

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Pt. 1/2: In my element 🎥🇵🇷 , exactly 1 year ago, directing my first studio film with the most amazing cast and crew: #CHARMCITYKINGS. 📸: @graypicturesllc #film #filmmaker #director #bikelife #boricua #puertorico

A post shared by Ángel Manuel Soto (@alohemingway) on Oct 16, 2019 at 9:43am PDT

Soto grew up in economically-struggling Puerto Rico.   In directing Charm City Kings, in telling this story, Soto drew a nostalgic remembrance of his own childhood.

“As a person from Puerto Rico, I wanted to tell the story, not just in a nationalistic sense, but of a collective mindset of a forgotten youth that wants to be heard. I was able to see myself in this story, and [was] able to tell it from a very personal standpoint, as a kid who once was in Mouse’s shoes.” 

The process of directing a big-budget motion picture filmed entirely on location in Baltimore was no easy feat. In fact, Pinkett expressed how it was one of the most difficult things he’s ever had to do. 

It wasn’t enough to get the cast and crew on board. They needed the community behind them. “Baltimore is Baltimore. Residents don’t care about you making a movie. Some are happy, others are like ‘I don’t care, I’m walking through this shot, so what?’” 

“Talking loud in the scene, you’re like ‘ay can you please be quiet?’ They’re like ‘No! You gon’ give me some money? Hell no!’”

“I’m like ‘oh lord have mercy,’” said Pinkett amidst his evocative chuckles. 

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A post shared by Ángel Manuel Soto (@alohemingway) on Jan 27, 2020 at 8:33am PST

Barry Jenkins (award-winning director of Moonlight) set up the basic structure for the story of Charm City Kings. “But we needed to make it Baltimore,” explained Pinkett. And only by being on the city streets, breathing in the air, working with residents of the community, was this possible. 

Pinkett discussed how during a scene in the movie, police were escorting 50 bikers (male and female) back and forth from the set. But a month prior, the police task force was looking for half of the people riding the bikes in the shot that they were currently protecting! 

“That kind of outreach and a change in attitude to get behind a film was amazing.” Pinkett shared how a lot of the riders came up to him saying last month the cops were looking for them. 

“Now, they’re escorting me. Yo man, you forreal.”

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Such a beautiful day 😀

A post shared by CHINO (@chinobraxton) on Mar 27, 2020 at 2:51pm PDT

Pinkett brought up the importance of hiring actors from the city, such as Chino Braxton, who plays Jamal. 

“That’s what I wanted, I wanted these actors that are from the city, that don’t have to act it, that live it. They were able to deliver an authenticity that just took it through the roof,” Pinkett gleefully recalled.

As a movie concerning bike riding, the team would have 40 bikes on set, and bikes are “essentially cash” in Baltimore. Not in Baltimore, it’s not just a dirt bike. Pinkett compared it to like a low-rider in LA. 

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Slidinggggg!!!!!!!

A post shared by CHINO (@chinobraxton) on Mar 16, 2020 at 11:57am PDT

On the first day of shooting, they were filming a scene where Jamal and the Clique rolled up to the liquor store, and asked Lamont if he wanted to make some money. They drove up and parked, but Braxton (Jamal) pulled Caleeb aside, asked if he could talk to him for a second.  “Ay man, I’m not going back around there.”

“What are you talkin’ ‘bout?” asked Caleeb. “There are some guys in the alley with masks on and guns on them. They finna rob us.” Sure enough, two men were waiting in the alley for them to come back around, and they were going to rob them for the bikes. 

“They’re like ‘We know you’re making a movie, but n**** we gotta eat too! So run that,’” Pinkett stoically recalled.

Then crew members started feeling unsafe, union reps started making inquiries as to the safety on set. Pinkett as the head producer had to balance all of this. 

“You can watch The Wire all you want, you can get an idea. And then take your ass down to Lafayette and Monroe, and you go ‘oh- oh, oh hold on!’ That’s Baltimore, you know what I’m saying?”

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New York City could long boast that its first elevated line opened for service in 1868, using cable-pulled cars that were soon replaced by diminutive steam locomotives that pulled the cars. And Chicago established “el” service in 1892, Boston in 1901, and Philadelphia’s Market Street El began transporting commuters and other passengers in 1907. But Baltimore’s 4,000-foot-long Erector Set-looking el — which stretched at its southern end between Saratoga and Lexington streets, where it made contact with the terra firma, and its northern end at Chase Street, where it landed on the surface of Guilford Avenue — has the distinction of being the first electrified elevated line in the country, according to noted rail and streetcar historian Herbert H. Harwood Jr., a retired CSX executive, who lives in Cross Keys. Here, a streetcar travels the Guilford Avenue Elevated line in 1947. The streetcar-only trestle extended from Saratoga to Biddle Street from 1895 to 1950. (Leroy B. Merriken / Baltimore Sun)

A post shared by Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) on Aug 23, 2018 at 8:12am PDT

The disenfranchisement of the people of Baltimore is unmistakable in the streets. Here is a city that is largely forgotten by the federal government, by society outside of Maryland in general.

And while Baltimore is unique in its characters, in their accents, in their styles, the marginalization of residents is not something unique to this city.  It is an occurrence throughout the entire world. 

“After visiting all around the world, and I did a bunch of documentaries within marginalized communities, including in Puerto Rico, I realized that there’s a Baltimore in every part of the world,” Soto told me.

Soto’s first film was La Granja (The Farm), a film set in Puerto Rico and centered around a boxer, a midwife, and a chubby kid, all dealing with the repercussions of the economic downfall on the island.

It was a “bleak” film and done “experimentally” as a way to show the real feeling of what it is like to be stuck on the island. 

As Soto further put it, “there’s barely any hope for us, due to many issues that go from the U.S. government to our own colonial mindset.”  Soto poured his heart out into La Granja and let his frustrations out the only way he knew how: putting pen to paper and paper to film.

The bleakness of life growing up in Puerto Rico struck Soto when he started working on Charm City Kings.  The story had shades of the despondency he grew up amongst, but it also offered an opportunity for salvation.  Speaking of CCK, he said:

“We wanted to make a movie that, yes, it lives in this reality, but in the end, it has an opportunity to show an outlet. In the end, there’s a conversation to be had about mentorship.”

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“XXXVI” 📸 x @graypicturesllc

A post shared by Ángel Manuel Soto (@alohemingway) on Jan 28, 2019 at 11:32am PST

Soto passionately expressed this message, and Pinkett also gravitated to the idea. “I felt it was important to tell that story, but also, I wanted to show that there’s hope. That is why there is the character of Blax and Detective Rivers,” said Pinkett.

So often in coming-of-age movies, there is an adult role-model trying to mentor the adolescent protagonist. This film flipped the script and gave us two mentors. Not an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, but two complex characters that have their own motivation in leading Mouse through uncertain times.

Blax wants to right his wrongs; he is a man currently defined by his failures intimately related to Mouse. Rivers is inspired by Mouse and cannot live with seeing him go down the wrong path.

His dedication to keeping Mouse safe causes friction between Mouse and himself, and with his interference, Blax as well. One scene in particular between Blax and Rivers is one of the greatest of a film teeming with superb moments and showcases Meek Mill as a multifaceted artist breaking into film.

His acting chops are better than most anyone could imagine. 

“Take the good from both Blax and Rivers, and put them together. What if Blax and Rivers were that perfect person?” Soto pondered, wondering if the ideal role model exists in society and what that could mean for progress.

This movie has a message for everyone. You just have to peel back the curtain and understand it for yourself.

Mentorship is crucial for all children, even adults, but especially for children who grow up in neglected communities. In a city where it’s every-man-for-himself, what lessons is a kid going to learn about how to do the right thing? 

“These are the stories that the majority of black people in America face,” asserted Pinkett.

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The 25th Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure began Sunday morning at McHenry Row. After 10 years in Hunt Valley, Komen Maryland announced earlier this year that the race was moving back to Baltimore City, where it began in 1993. The event is Komen’s biggest fundraiser of the year and generates funds for local breast cancer programs and national research. (📸Steve Ruark / For The Baltimore Sun)

A post shared by Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) on Oct 15, 2017 at 9:12am PDT

Pinkett stressed the importance of being able to tell a story that’s actually more relateable to black families than the luxurious lifestyle that is seen on Instagram, or in most big-budget movies set in Calabasas or some other affluent setting.

“You would never spend 30,000 on a watch, that’s why you like hearing Offset say it,” expressed Pinkett. 

I asked Pinkett what it took to get Charm City Kings just right.  “It was a labor of love,” Pinkett paused. 

“[It was] one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

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🕊 a g r a d e c i d o 🙏🏾 . I couldn’t have asked for a better cast to collaborate on such an amazing creative journey. You are all kings and queens. Los amo. 🏍💨👑. . #charmcitykings coming april 2020. . Selected Theaters: 4/10. . Nationwide: 4/17. . #director #filmmaker #film #filmmaking #movie #writer #cinematography #award #sundance #sundance2020 #sundancefilmfestival #bikelife #puertorico #baltimore #meekmill #cinema #win #sxsw

A post shared by Ángel Manuel Soto (@alohemingway) on Feb 7, 2020 at 10:42am PST

Charm City Kings is a gem of a film in its approach to shake stereotypes and authentically capture the true nature of a neglected city done wrong. Thrilling tension, authentic humor, and honest reflection of a marginalized community make this a generational classic.

“I just felt that showing hope in the midst of all that tragedy was needed,” said Pinkett.

Charm City Kings is set to release in the United States this fall on HBO Max (which launches May 27, 2020), WarnerMedia’s new streaming service. 

“I’m a firm believer that you go through certain things in life that prepare you for the next chapter.”

Speaking is Nick Warrender, Founder and CEO of Lifted Made, a premium hemp, delta-8, and cannabinoid company based out of Illinois. Lifted Made’s products serve to provide wellness for those using them, and this wellness is all too intrinsically related to Warrender’s journey as a man.

The Lifted Made team were nice enough to send me some Lifted Made products to review, and I giddily obliged.

However, what I didn’t yet know, was that Warrender’s journey as a person and an entrepreneur was like none other I’d heard before. And his ultimate prosperity, while by no means unfinished, is the product of an extremely rigorous journey that required him to find severe spiritual purpose and resolve.

“Now looking back on it in the position I’m in now, had I not gone through all of that, I wouldn’t be prepared to take the leadership role that I’m in today. So I’m actually really thankful for it,” says Warrender.

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An unexpected turn

As a high school student, Nick was a top tier basketball prospect just starting to feel the effects of scouting in early high school.

“It taught me a lot of work ethic, how to be coachable, take direction, respect authority and work as a team leader. A lot of the groundwork for my professional career came from basketball.”

Though if you would have asked him as a 16-year-old, his professional career would have been in basketball. But everything changed on one family vacation in Belize.

Nick was abducted, and wound up in a shady prison where he contracted a viral autoimmune disorder. The traumatic experience was harrowing in itself, but its ramifications were even longer-felt, when the sickness he contracted derailed his hopes of continuing a basketball career. 

“I learned a lot through that process of being sick, being in a hospital,” says Nick nostalgically. “What’s really important in life, how to make an impact on the world. And it was a really grounding experience. It was a tough experience. [I’m] thankful now looking back on it, because it was extremely humbling, and definitely changed the pace of my life.”

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A changed pace

Warrender’s unfortunate experience led him down an unconventional path. While the normal college student was partying, having their first beers, Nick was in and out of the hospital. 

“I had to go a different route. I went down a spiritual path, just to get some of these baseline questions answered in life that I hadn’t thought about. Purpose of life, figuring out who I am as a person.”

Cannabis and hemp were tools that made life easier, during 6 years in and out of the hospital. In 2015, amidst severe inflammations and full-body pain, when CBD was less known, Warrender found such relief from even just two cannabinoids. 

“I had such high pain levels that I was like, ‘man, if this can help me, I can’t imagine, how this could impact other people,’” he recalls.

And he knew that tinkering with the cannabinoids and other properties could have different restorative effects for other people. There was an opportunity, and even bedridden, Warrender wasn’t going to pass it up. This realization ultimately led him down the path of entrepreneurship. But first, what started was his foray into the music scene.

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Producing and opening up for Kid Cudi

“When I lost basketball, I was extremely lost. Like I told you before I was kind of going down this spiritual journey to figure out a little more depth in life and music became a new outlet for me. I started doing production, I started performing,” recounts Warrender.

It was a small passion at first, while everyone else living the “normal college experience” was out partying, Warrender was building his way up, producing music in a small studio. Eventually, that effort earned him the opportunity to open up for Kid Cudi for a show in Milwaukee.

“I had a great time doing it, and it was sort of the same mission of just trying to be a positive impact on people’s lives and get them to think a little bit deeper about purpose in life.”

But music wasn’t paying his bills, and Warrender harkened back to those years prior where the hemp and cannabis opportunities helped him out exponentially. Hemp and cannabis opportunities, like the products laid out before me.

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Lifted Made products

In front of me sit two Premium Pre Roll URB Finest Flowers Mountain Mango pre-rolled joints, packed with CBD and CBDA. I spark the first joint; a smoky-yet fruitful potency emanates from the flame. The joint burns up like a lighthouse, beacon flashing with each force of the pull. 

I feel an immediate calm, but it’s hard to grasp exactly what CBD/CBG and other related cannabinoids do in their efforts. It is not a physical high like a hum reverberating through my body. It is not a sudden blockage in my head that stops me from the overthinking I’m accustomed to. Nor is it a feeling of unmitigated laughter and bliss.

I am no scientist or doctor and I will not pretend to be. The fact of the matter is the URB pre-rolls immediately put me at ease without taking away any of my mental or physical function. The joint burned and burned, smoother with each pull, until I set it down and continued to engage in my endeavors. 

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More products

The 10 URB nano gummies, also spread out in front of me, are compact and delicate. The flavor is not overpowering, nor is the gummy nature that can so often leave you with that gloppy-saliva feeling in your throat. With 100 mg of hemp-derived delta-8 THC, I take it slow, and settle into a nice, relaxed high.

My thoughts are with me, pronounced even, and the smell of the capsule in which they came gives me a feeling of tranquility. Finally, there’s the URB Delta-8 THC cartridge. This is what I was really excited about trying. 

There’s no bite to the pull of the cartridge. In fact this is the smoothest and most delectable cartridge I’ve ever used. It is a mixture of fruity and savory.

The high was immediate; I felt my eyelids grow heavier, my breathing slow, and my thoughts flow wistfully away. Wistfully, perhaps, to the first time I tried the fabled “marijuana” plant in high school. 

Similar to myself, but in much great excess and prominence, Warrender found hemp and cannabis, and in it, salvation.

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Salvation in entrepreneurship

“If you’re going through hell don’t stop there, that’s not a good destination,” says Warrender.

“I’m a firm believer that there’s tests in life, just like there is in school. The biggest learning happens through painful experiences. Going through those experiences gives you tools. And those tools typically help you for what the next chapter of your life looks like.

Warrender saw something in hemp and cannabis and the relief it could provide for people. He also saw a problem with smoking tobacco. Lifted Made was thus birthed as an E-liquid company, to “help gear people away from combustible cigarettes and tobacco, which was and still is the highest death rate in the country. I think it’s like half a million people a year die from smoking complications, smoking related diseases,” details Warrender.

Warrender, already introduced to CBD, decided to add a CBD vape additive to Lifted’s products. “Our mission has always been consumer-good products that can make a positive impact on people’s lives.”

And Lifted Made CBD was the next step of this journey. The pre-roll joints I tested were evidence of how far the company has come.

I asked Warrender about what he’s taken from his basketball past into his entrepreneurial life.

“In the basketball setting, there’s some people that you need to come down on hard. [And] there’s some people that are so hard on themselves that you need to nurture… As a leader, [you need] to be able to tell the difference, you have to be able to read who it is that you’re working with, and how you can best support them and their position and for their life as well.”

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Past shaping present

The core values of basketball and team that Nick grew up with, still translate to his life today. How do you lead? Are you able to push through adversity? How do you keep your eyes on the present while also trying to get better for the future?

“We want to build a company in this space that brings all these great entrepreneurs together, that have different talents. Our goal is to create this vehicle where people can come to a decentralized public company, work together, still operate their company and be in a position to have a bigger impact.”

The times may have changed with the pandemic, in fact the virus hit hard in the U.S. just right after Lifted Made was acquired by another company, publicly traded Acquired Sales Corp (ticker AQSP). But Nick Warrender serves as COO, Vice Chairman, and highest shareholder of AQSP and is excited for the new chapter.

The mission for Lifted Made hasn’t changed. And in an industry that many states label as essential, there are many more people to help and positive impacts to make on people’s lives daily. Now is not a time where Nick is stopping to smell the roses.

Nick lives in Kenosha, WI, a town previously not easily recognized or marked on a map, but now lives in a sort of infamy. It is here he recounts on his past with a humble understanding. Life is what you do when one door shuts in your face. Or when the ball at the buzzer doesn’t go through the hoop as expected. How do you get up?

Basketball, and the sudden absence of it, helped Nick build up the thick skin that he would later down the road need in the entrepreneurial and cannabis spheres.

“When you push forward, new opportunities open up, new networks open up. And you become the person that you need to be for that next chapter [of] life,” says Warrender.

“If you stay stuck in traumatic places, and then let them drag out and let them define you, you miss out on becoming who you need to be for the rest of your life. That keep pushing forward mentality really opens up the door for future success opportunity.”