In episode 178, Erik and Kerel sit down with Grouchy Greg Watkins, Founder at AllHipHop.com, a trusted source for daily hip hop news, videos, rumors, entertainment, features and more founded in 1998 by Grouchy Greg and Chuck Creekmur. Greg was born in Albany, NY to a black father and white mother, who eventually moved their family to Delaware. There, Greg got deeper into music, the break dancing scene, and even deeper into the racial tensions of that time. After selling and handing out demo tapes, Greg decided to start his own record label out of Delaware and from that came AllHipHop.com.
During this conversation, Greg gives many insights from his 28+ years of experience in the music, marketing, and advertising industry. He shares the advantages of having his business partner, Chuck Creekmur, who was a high school friend, from the very beginning, the one thing that has stayed consistent throughout any technological advances that has maintained and accelerated his success, teaching his sons and the next generations on how to make an impact, the ways in which he is still learning and growing as a person and business owner, and his take on the DEI movement and if it’s actually creating change. Greg also shares a book and movie he’s recently enjoyed and has learned a lot from, where he got his nickname Grouchy, his music rotation, and much more.
Timestamps
0:47: Grouchy Greg Watkins shares how he’s living his childhood dream, how he got into music at the young age of two, later got involved in break dancing, and the racial tension he felt and experienced in his home state of Delaware
8:04: The advantages of having a business partner early on and how to stay consistent and focused on one mission together
10:36: Greg gives his secrets to success in advertising, and marketing, what he’s learned in the past 28 years in the business
13:38: What a good day looks like for Greg including keeping up with his two sons who are nine and five
15:02: Greg talks about the racial prejudice he and his family experienced, becoming aware of his race at a young age, growing up with an alcoholic father, who is now sober, being mixed race with a black father and white mother, and how hip hop saved him in a lot of ways
21:49: Lessons Greg teaches his kids about him and his journey, how he has changed throughout the years, and encouraging them towards the concept of STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
25:25: What Greg encourages students about when he teaches or gives talks in regard to the marketing and advertising industry, music industry, and communications, and the ways they can truly make a difference
29:30: Something Greg wishes he were better at, and how he takes some inspiration from The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort
30:50: Greg gives his first party perspective on DEI, promised funding to black owned businesses, and his journey in learning what it’s like to own your own inventory and monetizing directly on your own
35:14: Greg talks about where he got the nickname “Grouchy” from and why he keeps it alive to this day
37:08: One book and one movie Greg thinks everyone should watch, one being a bibliography of a well-known business person, and the other, a movie released in 1969 covering racial topics in the advertising space
40:04: Music in Greg’s rotation right now including what his children listen to, old music that he still listens to, and one album he always listens to in June
44:51: What’s up next for AllHipHop and Grouchy Greg Watkins
46:57: How to stay in touch with Greg
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