How Chocolate Clothes Global Turned African Culture Into a Global Fashion Brand

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3:47Welcome back. Special episode. This is Atlanta. The lighting is great, isn't it? Yeah, we back in the Mecca. It's that time. We got a special guest today. We know him as Chocolate. The world knows him as Chocolate. The world does know him as Chocolate. His name. You want to say his name? Well, we... Quake Cool. Quake Cool. we shared the first. No, Kwaku, we got the first name correct. Yeah, you did. That means Born on Wednesday. I'm a Born on Wednesday baby as well. Yeah, I feel the connection. We're brothers. Yeah, we do. Beriaco? Yeah, so I mean, yes, Beriaco. But it's Bidiaco. Bidiaco. Yeah, which literally means came to fight.

4:27So I'm a warrior. And then Oduro. Oduro. Oduro, yes. Oduro. Kwaku, Beriaco, Oduro. Oduro, yes. Oduro is? That's my dad's name. Dad's name. yeah so quick who is my born day yeah that's like my nature day yeah bidiak is my soul who i am warrior a fighter that never that that never quits yeah and a draw is my uh nurture yeah so okay welcome my brother so all right well first and foremost thank you for joining us appreciate it i appreciate it and if it listen it feels always great to come back to atlanta and And, you know, now it just feels surreal. Love it. And so, all right. So for full context here, Chalk is from Ghana, which I just found out.

5:14You was actually born and raised in Nigeria. Yeah. But lives in Ghana. So you obviously, if you've been following Ernie Leeds, you know we've been doing a lot of traveling and work on the continent. And Ghana is like the primary hub of where we've been going. Shout out to Kwame. Shout out to Alvin. Shout out to our whole team out there. so what he does is he he's like the fashion god when it comes to all things west africa garment so when you see us in the caftans that's kind of what troy is wearing right now i'm wearing chocolate chocolate and chocolate chocolate yeah most of the stuff that you see us wearing over there comes via him he's had clients in the past like steve harvey um who else there's a whole host Michael B.

5:58Jordan Michael B. Jordan and the family Mr. Jordan the list goes on and on and on Jamie Foxx we currently close over 40 presidents now and prime ministers as well but the list goes on and on I think it's not just about the celebrities and public figures that we close it just goes a long way to just tell the world that just validate the work, validate the brand. But, you know, we're very, very excited to work with everyone who understands what being different means and subscribes to a global vision of where Africa has always been. And now we get the chance to fuse in high-level, Afrocentric type wear with high fashion.

6:48Yeah. Did the fashion show at InvestFest legendary? First time we've ever done that? Boom. Boom. So yeah, man, you want to, you want a nice role right now. So yeah, looking forward to this conversation. So let's, let's, let's bring it back. And he has a store. So if you ever go to Accra, the number one hotel is the Kipinski Hotel. Kipinski Hotel. Shout outs to them. They've held me down for six years. And across the street from the Kipinski Hotel is the mall. Yeah, it's a mall. It's a gallery or mall. So it's like an art gallery mall. But again, they are very open to work with brands that has an artistic aesthetic.

7:26and we fitted right into that and you know it's just a beautiful store we have a full-blown runway so you know come pick up some clothes and do the catwalk for us that's a fact all right so we're gonna have this cross-continental conversation first how does this start right like how does this start i mean i feel like the whole continent of africa right now is super popular everybody's you know into the afro beats and the fashion and all that but that wasn't always the case so you growing up what will put the that seed in your head to be like okay i'm gonna be a designer not just for where i live but i want to spread it out all over the world well um it's been it's been a journey man it's been a journey my parents are professors my dad is a uh it's a professor in plant pathology and my mom is a professor in botany um every member of my family read science including me.

8:23And so from biochemists to a molecular biologist, to a stem cell researcher, to a nurse now turned public health person, then to me that read tech, IT and archaeology before I moved into fashion. But, you know, let's again go back to, you know back in the day when i felt like my my my design power started when i was born um i used to design cartoon characters used to design buildings like like buildings like this this this is me um used to design cars grills move up a little bit okay used to design car grills um the um dashboards gears and also the signs that i read also helped me sort of add that sort of a scientific touch to the design.

9:18Like, can you picture an idea of having a clutch system powered by your hands on your steering wheel? So literally you get a half clutch when you're edging close to the wheel. And so you design a wheel to, like a steering wheel to go with that. So I've always been a good blend of my nature and my nature, which is being born with a creative edge, but being also nurtured from a science, you know, community pretty much. Yeah. I get the chance to look at things from a different perspective. Now it's very interesting looking at the rise of the different facets of culture. And today I'm just really excited with music as one sector, but it's ability to feed into the different branches, food storytelling movies fashion um and so on and so forth yeah so it's all very interesting to see how they all feed into each other um now although i was going about my my my schedule which was to design buildings or to write poems um i used to rap so rap lyrics to songs um um come up with storylines.

10:41You know, when I was in university, I finished uni back in 2009. And back in the day, I wrote about three different movie scripts. I had this concert edge and felt like I was gonna make it to Hollywood. I don't know why I thought about that. So, but anyways, my passage was Hollywood 2012. Cause again, I felt like I was so much filled with creative energy that was backed by a lot of cultural um a cultural push just filled with many ideas right you said your nature versus your nurture right and so i'm listening to it having parents who are in the education field i'm sort of certain expectations that they have for their children totally you have this creative gene yeah this sounds like a clash that is that it was so like as you you're realizing like this is my gift like to express myself whether it's through lyrics or it's through fashion what is this class like right because i'm sure like what's in the end it's like you're gonna be a doctor you're gonna be a lawyer oh you're not gonna be that oh no no you better be that yeah what was that like for you as you're going through the creative process well it was beautiful man it was beautiful i've never i've never kicked down i'm a stubborn guy man like there was a reason why they conferred the name bediaco to me right and i think that my parents really got to understand what it meant after a while it wasn't easy clearly um i slept out of the house so many times um i was cut off stipends so many times um i remember um when i started chocolate um at that time i used to have a nine to five in marketing communication so afterwards i now go almost another hour and a half to where the store used to be and i recall not having any money and then you know you will work till about six seven you have extra work to do about till 10 so by the time you want to jump on public transport to get to where you're going the cars are done like they're done for the day so you got to walk all the way till you're able to get something and because you've been cut off and you're trying to also hustle you don't have the means of jumping in a taxi or a cab or uber or whatever so there are times i recall walking a good two hours three hours after work to get to my destination and i have to leave in two hours because i need to join the first public transport from back to the house to get ready for my next morning job because if you get there after eight um you will be queried so this is going on for like an hour like a year and a half um and clearly my parents were also worried because they're like yo listen like you've gone to read this first of all the marketing communication you've gotten into is not science and i was like no that is a science to this like it's not just advertising you have to you know there's a science behind it there's methodology you have to understand that the the way people are thinking so it took a while like my first two three years in that advertising space was not easy But again, I recall Gordon waking up around 3 a.m.

13:48someday with my dad just telling me, hey, I'm listening to this thing on BBC. And I think advertising is a science, you know, and I get that maybe made him realize that, OK, maybe I should be open to that. A year and a half afterwards, and I'm coming up with this clothing brand and he's like, like, what do you want? Is it first? It is this tomorrow is that, you know. So I guess it was very different. My dad was the first guy in his village to go to university. My mom, out of 11 kids. My mom was the first out of 12 kids and used to also hustle way back. She'd wake up in the morning, take bread.

14:32The mom used to bake, so take bread to the neighborhood, sell it before she goes to school. So they were also naturally born hustlers. but then they also found their career path through science. So they knew that this was the only direction they could go because this is what took them out of their villages. And so they were not about to gamble with your kid, essentially. But I think one thing I'll say is I like to doff my hats to my parents because they groomed us so well. They nurtured us so well. although we used to clash a lot, they did a good job by helping us to understand, like, well, first of all, boundaries, to understand, to encourage us to read, to learn so much beyond what you are studying, right?

15:26And that for me went a long way to ground me. And so they sort of understood that it wasn't a lost case. he might know what he's doing um let's just you know let's just be on the sideline and watch what he's doing right and so it's not surprising when i first finished my first store and i went i went to my dad and i told him hey i wanted to rent one of your buildings so they eventually got into real estate as well and you know i went over to them like hey can i get one of your one bedroom houses where i could turn into a like a little workshop and they're like yeah whatever i mean the rent is a year you know how ghana is you have to pay a rent between a year and two years you don't pay monthly rents so the following day i cooked up the money and gave it to him and he was shocked because no one comes to rent a house and they pay out rightly so it made him start to observe started asking questions um i remember he popped into the my office sometime he had gone to a friend's 70th birthday and he was rocking chocolate and when he got there the celebrant 70 year old guy was rocking chocolate all his kids from age like 28 to about 45 were all rocking chocolate very big individuals wearing chocolate at the party so he comes and he's like quick who what are you you know i just left this party and uh it looks like everybody is wearing chocolate like what are you doing what are you doing so i started explaining to him hey you know what like because of the science background i'm able to attach to the back end setting solutions People just don't need clothes that just enhances them, but also clothes to cover a certain floor.

17:10So your ability to gauge that solution and then create a connection makes our brand different. And then he was like, okay, so are you saying that you also, so it's like you fish out defects and diseases in people's wardrobe. Okay, then let's call it fashion pathology. you know and i think since that day my dad started becoming very open to the idea of what i was doing started seeing a ton of celebrities come to the house because i started off in this house um and you know let's just say 2016 2015 2016 we got profiled on cnn um and i remember he got calls from his friends his cousins his work colleagues you know like i think we saw someone like kb on cnn you know and my story was so impactful they aired it for six months on african uh startups and voices and it that's what changed the whole dynamic of their perception and you know later on we got a chance to make clothes for our local our black stars team our soccer team shout outs to the black stars um you know when we're going for brazil 2014.

18:19um and it just the global journey just started it just started unfolding got profiled on forbes then got profiled on so many different platforms on bbc um and then the journey just started let me ask you this what's the like as far as fashion you know we do the fashion thing and um you know me i like really studied the fashion game so a lot of people may not be familiar but like in the 90s late 90s kente cloth kente cloth right can you correct me yeah that was a big thing in america like even i look at my my brother's high school graduation and he had a kente cloth scarf on um that comes from ghana right so well ghana west africa because what it is is that back in the day it wasn't ghana you know the whole west africa was kind of like just one empire and then it's like different different tribes exactly different tribes there are different types of kente so yeah so talk about okay talk about west african fashion that the kente cloth the uh up and down that they wear in nigeria right like the ghanaian style we were just in benin we seen that they had their own style like kind of educate the audience yeah so i mean so africa as a whole is full of beautiful art right um the idea of cloth indigenous cloth has always been part of us weaving of these cloths have been part of us um when you go to different parts of africa they call it different names.

19:49Also these different patterns also reflect different messaging. I was privileged enough couple of last year when we got hosted by Prince William at a short prize and I got a chance to meet other people who were who've been doing specific studies about sustainable fashion i.e what kinti cloth is and how it makes it sustainable and all of that and you'll be it'll be surprising for you to know that back in the day you pull up wearing a certain type of kente and it shows your status a certain type of cloth woven it shows the kind of messaging even if you had an issue with your wife as a couple and let's say you take it to the chief right to be the judge of the issue depending on the cloth you wear depending on the weave that you wear it shows that you're remorseful it shows that you are not remorseful it shows that you are ready to take this to another level it It shows all these meanings have come through just by wearing certain or adorning certain cloth.

20:50It's very similar to even like symbols, like the Giamis and then the Dinkrahinis and all these other like symbols that also go a long way to say things without uttering out a word, pretty much. So for us, it's not just about wearing clothes. Again, as I said, it's about key messaging. It's about communication. And because this has been a core part of us, you realize that everyone expresses it differently and it makes it authentic so when we talk about authentic clothing authentic art this is what we mean it goes beyond hey like this color is fly so i'm going to wear this it goes a lot on what does green mean to us what does it's fusing with orange mean what does it's what does purple and gold mean doesn't mean or doesn't mean something else right um yeah so that is literally the crux of what garments from our continent means but of course recent times has come with its own interpretation of it um there are certain type of comms that were not relevant or are not necessarily relevant to today's age but it's it's kind of like propels certain conversations in today's age um and that's why you know you're looking at even what we are doing um i'll try and show some pants that i brought where now what designers like me are doing is we're coming up with our own type of patterns right and so if we're saying okay this is traditional kente however this is how i'm going to weave this into that like take a look at this shirt this is like a lace shirt but then what we did was we wove a certain line of pattern which is very similar to the traditional one and then we crocheted on top of it we then create a different elements of or a layered experience to it so you might be talking about hey um i am royalty in terms of like the kente woven approach but then you also get an element of style design who's a modern guy does the modern guy just subscribe to the old way of doing things not quite but is it does it inspire him to do greater things yes you know like back in the day for example our fathers will want to they call something called uh pension homes like uh and and i don't get roasted for this it's an internal joke that we have in our home for example where my dad is like oh well hey um i'm gonna finish this building for my pension and then you realize you go to ghana you have all these three stories four stories at age 60 um who would be staying on the fourth floor right but the modern african things differently he is trying to say that hey listen um i'm aspirational i'm ambitious i love to connect with like-minded people and i love at a very early age to establish basic things so that i can also make time for family and so you realize that it's literally the same thing but like we express things differently and in that same way is seen in our type of clothes we wear and the type of choice of setting woven type of fabrics also um you know post uh colonization and everything we also had you know some elements of how do we create how do we scale this idea um yes do i think it took a little bit of the crux of weaving of cloth, yes.

24:22But the good news is it still gets done. But in the attempt of scaling the art, you have conversations like wax printing, where in that case, you got like a digitized version of the same idea of the Kente weave, but then is now showcased in a more scalable way. And then to aid distribution, to aid other people who also tap into the art. And that's how come today you see the likes of companies like Vlisco, Wudin that we actually work with. We're just about dropping a collab first time in history in four African countries, Benin, Cote d 'Ivoire, Togo, and Ghana. So yeah, so just to give you just like a little, like a surface conversation, that's the bigger look of the fabric itself.

25:17and how in modern day it's being scaled on one level for, let's say, affordable luxury lines and how for high fashion it still remains as woven. As I'm hearing you talk and the more we have conversations, I hear the science, right? Like I'm listening to the fashion pathologist in you. It's interesting, right? Because we had a conversation the other day and I know we're talking about West African fashion, but the impact that American fashion had on you, right? Like as we were even discussing this, we were talking about the nineties and that's the era. When you talked about the nineties, I'm like, oh, we grew up in the same era, right?

25:57It was like, I could never get the Sean John velour. Yeah. I'm just like, I loved it. Like that was a thing for us. Yeah, totally. But the fact that you incorporated the velour into your fashion now talks about that scaling, that modernization, that science pathology. Talk about the influence that America had on your design. Totally. And how it's incorporated into the stuff now. Yeah. No, I mean, definitely. I think my connection with America started way back. I mean, my dad schooled in Tucson and lectured in both University of Arizona and University of California. My mom schooled in Canada, right?

26:31They met, even at a very early age, three, four, I think we met, we might have come here for a few months before we went back to Nigeria where I was born. um so there are elements that these things play in the heads of creatives right um fast forward back in high school uh when velours became a thing like we were deep as i said i used to rap so i used to dance i used to rap um and so the hip-hop culture was embedded in my blood right And obviously you had music like hip live, Afro beats, also tapping into like a good fusion of taking beats from here, tapping back into where the original hip hop beats are from.

27:15Like all these things have, there's been a cross culture diffusion of all of this. So for a creative like me, going to parties and looking at certain type of way was my goal. Like I was telling you yesterday that I could afford some Red Monkeys and some Gino Greens and some Ivisu. But back in the day, man, I couldn't afford or even have access to the Sanjón Velas, the Rockaway Velas, right? The Jafaris, you know? And so for me, looking at fashion back in the day, let's say early 2000s, looking at when that was the first time I ever got a chance. And again, I used to like all the facets of all the cultural facets.

27:58So I used to like basketball. I used to like the movies, used to love food, right? But then you take a look at the culture back then, you go like you see, you watch NBA games from the screen. And then you're seeing hip hop parties at these basketball games. You're looking at all the food elements being incorporated. You're looking at all these fashion elements that were incorporated. And let's look at 20 years afterwards, what is happening to the world currently. And it's the same thing, but now it's happening to Africa where you take a look at Joloff Wars, right? You know, it's a sensitive conversation with me when it comes to Joloff.

28:41But yeah, like, don't kill me. What side? Well, you can't play either side. Ghana Joloff. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I said, man, you have to pick sides. Ghana Joloff. You've chosen. Yeah. And you take a how that is influencing type of even songs being done. You take a look at songs also talking about 10 type of gears like chocolate, gears like Christy Brown, gears like, you know, so many different new crop of new African creatives coming up with all these spiffy clothing that also ties in with the culture, right? You take a look at even NBA Africa, BAL. so you look at the texture of the space and you look at how afrobeats is influencing the fashion fashion influencing the sports sports influencing the movies art as well and the art as well i mean hey come on i'm an artist you know so it's a very interesting conversation of what happened back in the day um early 2000s late 1990s and how everything sipped into each other and how as a a young designer or a young creative who was still studying science, how that sort of plays in my, with my mindset and helps me tap into in-spose to now redesign and come up with a new line of ideology that's able to fuse Afrocentric lifestyles into high fashion, that's able to fuse Afrocentric lifestyles to hip hop culture, that's able to fuse different mindsets, different people, different cultures, you know?

30:19So today we're doing caftans as they call it, or boo-boos. And we are not just fusing kente. We want to fuse it with velours. We want to fuse it with corduroy. We want to fuse it with sustainable, someone's old sustainable denim that is never being done again, bring it back to life and get our cacao brand to jump on that, to repurpose it, you know? So it's a fusion if you're to ask me. is a blend. And for us as a brand, for me as a person, I've always been about that lifestyle. Like I love networking, I love meeting people, sharing perspectives. And so, you know, take a look at every type of chocolate and you see buttons, every type of chocolate, you see stitch work.

31:02And because these two elements invariably brings things together, bring people together, helps blend cultures and mindsets. And no one know you look this spiffy, man. I'm wondering why Rashad didn't wear nothing chocolate. I shot it. What's happening? Kojo, what's happening, man? Kojo. So talk about the power of networking. Tell the story about Steve Harvey. Yeah. Because that's a good story. But also, like, you know, it's important for people that are looking to get their brand in front of big names or just anybody, right? Like, talk about your strategy and that story specifically. Well, so first of all, shout out to Steve Harvey, man.

31:38Like, I still remember when he said, when he had his first chocolate on. and he said yesterday's prize is not today's prize that's exactly what he said um but yeah well first of all i can't talk about steve harvey without shouting out kevin autry uh kevin autry has been a big brother friend of mine for for a while and i do recall when i when i was very specific on my vision how do we build the biggest lifestyle run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined.

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33:45Hey, what's up, y 'all? This is Questlove. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with A$AP Rocky ahead of his album release, Don't Be Dumb. He reflects on his journey from his Harlem roots to global icon status, discovering the hip-hop origin of his name. The ledge was on the TV. Rakim had the bucket hat Kangol join on. Pops was like, that's Rakim. That's who you named after. I just was like, damn, that **** got swag. Rocky offers a window into not only a boundary-breaking artist, but as a man committed to fusing creative ideas, community, and remaining unapologetically himself. Have you ever gotten roasted for any of your outfits?

34:22For sure. Some people don't be getting the vision. Look, they can roast me, they can cook me, they can deep-fry me, they can saute, whatever they want. because nobody knew what my fashion sense and my taste is impeccable. I'm just like, I impress myself a lot. It's an amazing conversation. One you definitely don't want to miss. So listen to the Questlove show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This show contains information subject to, but not limited to personal takes, rumors, not so accurate stats, and plenty more. What's up, man? This your boy, Nav Green, from the Broken Play Podcast.

35:03Look, it's the end of the season. The playoffs are here. But guess what? It ain't the end of your season. You can always tune in with Broken Play Podcast with Nav Green on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Not a team who ain't going to the playoffs. The Chiefs. Oh, it's a wrap. It's time to rebuild. Who your MVP right now then? Drake May up there. Josh Allen up there still. Oh, my boy, Matthew Stafford. Where the hell both nicks at? he ain't too far behind did all this talking what matthew stafford is doing statistically bro is crazy bro you know i ain't no josh allen fan but matthew stafford got better weapon kayla william hey he should be in that conversation in what conversation he should be in it listen to broken play with nav green from the black effect podcast network on the iheart radio app apple podcast or whatever you get your podcast business and brand in the world that happens to be from from Africa.

35:57And I knew that, and at that time we were responsible for like what was indigenously African culture with weddings. I used to make the biggest weddings, clothes for the biggest team of groomsmen and bridal teams, right? So let me give you a typical example. When people are getting married here, you see like maybe five groomsmen, six bridesmaids. we decided way back to fully understand what that meant for our traditional weddings you finish school with such a huge community and for us in africa community has been part of us like you're going to school and everybody can query you everybody can punish you everybody can reward you so community has always been part of us so why then would you want to marry in a traditional community and make six people your core groomsmen so for us we started saying no hey how many friends you got how many how many associates do you have so i mean the biggest wedding we ever did was 175 groomsmen 175 175 groomsmen which was between ghana and spain we started this whole idea of pretty much like your your pack will be behind you like the whole idea is that if i'm going to get married to someone the family has to know that i've got community and that their daughter is safe if i'm not there the community got her right so that was the whole idea of that get tricky well yeah i guess you know africa everything is tricky right but yeah so you know after doing that for a while and we realized that no like yeah this is a good strategy locally but on a global status how then do we go back to our vision and we quickly realized that no the first thing we got to do is to look at the connecting factor how do we connect our people with our afro diaspora uh our people how do we connect cultures how do we connect mindsets how do we connect sectors um so conversations such as even not just with steve harvey but with nba africa with bal started as such how then do we create a link between um sectors fashion and How do we create connections between us, you know, us from back in slave trade, post-slave trade?

38:21How do we turn that energy back into power? And then how do we work together, you know, to form bigger businesses and bigger fronts? So that then started as, that front started with Boris Kujo. And then we met in London and then we got a chance to, he was coming to Ghana at that time to start the whole year of return. He had, I think, merged with Bozoma St. John, and I think Rich Lou, to form what they call the Four Circle. And then they launched the first ever year of return, a year before the year of return. So that was a wide awakening for us because then we realized that, oh, wow, we can get a lot of validation and a lot of endorsement from not just, captains of industries, but also public figures that could understand our vision and where we're going.

39:16So that, you know, ripple effects then got us to, got me to know that, well, hey, Steve Harvey's coming to Ghana. So I'm sitting there, I'm like, yo, listen, I got to make clothes. And this is the thing that I've been blessed with. I'm able to eyeball people and tell you what your size is. And I think the first batch of clothes y 'all got was like that, right? And so, but for the funny thing is with Steve Harvey, he was always in suits he was always in suits so then i kept on tracking his social media i'm like how do i get this guy's measurements right and then he went on this holiday with the family in czech republic and they went for fishing uh they caught some muscles and he was wearing those white linen shirt with coral shorts i still remember like yesterday i was like ah there you go so i I bought him, came up with a good suit for him.