*Sort-of. I know, a real bummer.
The approvals process has taken longer than we’d like, but the store should be up next week, allegedly Monday or Tuesday. You can find the store here, and we’ll send out an email as soon as we get the green light. There’s no fun in waiting, though, so we wanted to at the very least send pictures of this latest round of hoodies.
That’s right! We’ve got What’s Sheek Mad About?, Karate Man and Is Jadakiss Italian? hoodies. We also will have our official logo hoodie and the Pumpkleta one, that we originally made for our first live show back in October. Is it still Pumpkleta season? Absolutely — Uptown Paco loves it when the pumpkins get a little bad.
Once again, hoping that this’ll all be done next week, right here! Sorry for the delay, I am stupid (!!!!!!!) for thinking this would be a short process.
This isn’t totally what has delayed our merch shop but:
A couple of weeks ago, we were finishing setting up the company. The LOX’s money team has *us* tracking down and bothering each of *The LOX*, making sure the guys sign a bunch of documents —and suddenly we get an email from one of their accountants: “Jada’s father just called, and says he has no idea what 2J3BD is, he has no idea who Eric and Jeff are, he thinks it’s a virus.”
Flashback to: Jada’s 50th birthday party, when the birthday boy’s mom came straight over to us and gushed about how much she loved the show, how she laughs at every clip. Eric then spoke to Jada’s father, saying how he is Kiss Café’s biggest customer. Jada’s dad thought Eric worked at the venue.
So yea, a small speed bump. But lemme tell you, you’ve never heard Jada laugh harder than both times Eric and I have called him to tell him how his dad has no idea who we are.
These shirts are all designed by Brian Reddy, who — like our best friend/collaborator Greg Mayo — we’ve been super close with since elementary school. In fact, you can see Brian *and* Mayo in the intro to our old ItsTheReal sketch videos — Mayo on the left playing keyboards, Brian with the floppy hair on the right.
Something I’m thinking about — what with Thanksgiving tomorrow — is how grateful I am to be working with my closest friends (who then in turn collaborate with one another) and doing work that makes me truly happy. Also, I should go longer on this, but it was so awesome meeting a bunch of you at our pop-up last Friday! It was cool to watch movies, hang out, hear your stories and put names to faces. We hot-boxed for 7 hours, got treated to plant-based Is Jadakiss Italian? cupcakes and overheard a young woman say “Donald Glover could get it!” only for her new friend to mishear and say “DANNY GLOVER???” Really fun night, looking forward to doing more of those — as well as live episodes in Styles’ dispensary.
VERY fun episode this week breaking down the Thanksgiving classic Planes, Trains & Automobiles:
Favorite moments are the return of Your Captain Speaking, Eric’s and my air travel-focused podcast, and Styles saying how he doesn’t respect turkeys for Thanksgiving. If you want to impress him, get a bird you can fight — deep fry an eagle.
Next week, we’re off — but Dec. 8, we return with Sheek’s choice: Juice, the Harlem classic starring Tupac and Omar Epps. You can find it on Pluto (for free!), Paramount +, Hulu’s free bundle with Paramount through Showtime and probably on VHS at your neighbors’ place, just ask nice.
After that is Jada’s pick: How High! It’s on Fubo (free!), Starz, Hulu, Amazon…I guess it’s a lot of places. Also, do you really need me to physically link some of these places? Probably not. I know it’s nice that I do, but I wonder if anyone is going straight from the newsletter to the movie, or if you even need my help in that way. Anyway, I’m not linking Hulu and Amazon — if they don’t get your traffic, I don’t care.
Thank you forever, see you next week with updates on our merch store, see you Dec. 22 in Brooklyn!
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Feel free to suggest movies for us to review here! People hit us every day for us to review movies, and the only way for them not to be lost is in the Google form, linked right there.
We’ve been getting a lot of good suggestions — I’m leaning toward No Country for Old Men (AD from Johannesburg, Monica from VA, Keda from BX, Shalene from Brooklyn have all asked for it) but I also might choose Napoleon Dynamite. But then again, it’s the Christmas week episode — do I have to do a Christmas episode? No one’s asked for Elf, just Christmas Story (which I *hate*). I dunno, leave your thoughts here and wherever you find me.
Jeff you need to do hoodies with you and Eric’s best AKA’s on them a then sell it all as 5 piece set
I need an Uptown Paco beanie or something