22 Apr

Where You Came From w/ Vic Medina

My dad would always tell me, “don’t you ever forget where you came from!”

That message has never left my head as I navigate this crazy world. My dad would emphasize this as we worked our way out of poverty in the South Bronx and especially as I got my college education.

My dad raised me in the hood and didn’t shield me from it. Instead, he used it to educate and motivate me to be the best James I could be without losing empathy for others.

Now, that’s something I want to teach my kids and this week I brought my homie Vic Medina of Roc Nation to talk about it.

It’s the roc! Vic Medina

If you don’t know who Vic is, it’s hard finding information about him on the internet. He wanted it that way!

Vic isn’t about showing off his dope friends like Jay Z, Romeo Santos, CC Sabathia, I mean the list goes on for days. You won’t catch him on the internet talking about the inner working of the Roc or how he got Jay and Jim Jones to hash things out.

Like a real one, Vic Medina is about execution not about bragging. He gets the work done, the people that need to know about it know.

Vic was born in the heights section of Manhattan but was raised in the Bronx section of NYC. That New Yorker in him will never die because he never ever forgets about where he came from and what it took for him to gain success in the music industry.

Where you came from matters

For this conversation, I wanted to talk about passing our culture down to our kids. For many of us, where we are born isn’t necessary where we stay. That experience alone is humbling and we take pride in remembering where we came from.

However; how do we teach our kids that? How do we teach them about where we came from and how do we get them to understand why it’s important.

That’s what Vic and I covered.

We covered his come up, keeping our kids cultured within our culture, loyalty in the hood and industry along with so much more. It felt like I was sitting with one of my best friends reminiscing about the craziness we faced and how our kids are super protected now lol.

Vic Medina kept it super real and even dropped some gems on some of our Hip Hop Legends like Jay, Pun and more.

Listen to Episode 40 below or on all major platforms like APPLE, SPOTIFY, and STITCHER to find out how Vic educates his kids on the importance of where you came from.