“Fashion is just the way that you approach life”.

Words straight from the mouth of platinum producer(Drop The World, Look What You've Done), rapper, and fashion designer ChaseNCashe. Summer is here, outside is open, the streets are calling, and it almost looks like a Pharrell song outside. I know you're trying to figure out which outfits you're going to wear while you Harlem shake your way through 90-degree weather but before you do that, I reached out to ChaseNCashe for his take on fashion, life, the grind, and why you Can't Buy Respect.

With everything you do, from music to starting a boxing club to the Can't Buy Respect brand, how do you find the drive and focus for it all?

Man, I can honestly tell you I don't try to do em all at once anymore. I'm 33 now. I got in the game early, so with a lot of stuff in my life, I feel like if I started it early enough, I figured out a way to kind of maintain it and put it in my lifestyle where I could fit it in. Even with music, I'm not in the studio as much as I used to be back in the day because I really don't have to be. I can if I want to, but I'm literally not putting as many hours into the studio. Now I'm putting more hours into Photoshop, Illustrator, Designing, and Boxing, so it tends to go through waves. I happen to have moments in time where I'm interested in something at the time, and before it was boxing, it just started with the workouts, and the guys I was working out with got to the point where we wanted to add something else in there to keep it from getting boring. So it's a part of that, too, so I don't get bored, and I'm always challenging my mentality and adding different layers to my life to keep me cool. I'm a Virgo, so if I'm staying still, I'll overthink in idle time, so keeping active in my physical world allows me to balance it out.

I know you're from New Orleans, and then you moved out to Los Angeles. How would you say growing up in New Orleans impacted Can't Buy Respect?

Everything man, everything. Ima come clean its 50/50 between both LA and New Orleans. New Orleans, the first part of my life, is like respecting the culture, respecting the people around you, and the community you grow up in. I learned all of that from New Orleans. It's a place where people stick together. They look out for each other and shit like that. We got Mardigras, Jazzfest, and all these things that bring us together, but New Orleans can be very dangerous on the flip side where it can be hard to trust people. Poverty brings the worst out of people. Friends turn on each other. It is crazy crimes happening that shouldn't have to happen anywhere else. But when I got to LA on a different token, LA is infested with gang culture and shit like that, but there's a respect level that goes with it in the streets that don't really happen in New Orleans. I was able to see both sides of the culture and community in New Orleans and LA, and both played a huge part in why I call it Can't Buy Respect and why I based that brand in New Orleans and LA more than anything.

You've had just about everyone who's anyone wearing your line. is there anyone you were kind of surprised to see in it?

David Spade, bro. David Spade is somebody I'm a fan of. I grew up in the 90s. If you grew up in the 90s, TV culture is like white culture at that time, so Adam Sandler, David Spade, and a lot of them dudes, so to see him wearing my shit was crazy. Definitely, Kendrick Lamar because he set it off with the response. I didn't expect him to wear it just because he's the homie, and for it to have the response with him and him not really being a fashion person, I think it really set the tone for the brand. Definitely Chris Paul too. Chris Paul was another one that tripped me out. He wore it during the playoffs, and he wore a very, very controversial shirt; it was a 2Pac shirt that I made. Chris Paul is someone I grew up watching. He was playing for New Orleans during the hurricane, and they were moving all over from OKC back and forth to the city, and Chris Paul played a very pivotal part in keeping the spirit of our city alive, so he was definitely somebody I was very excited and kind of shocked to see wear CBR.

Let's talk about the duffel bag. Which is definitely on my "Yo imma save up and Imma cop this later list" I've been following the brand for a minute, and you had the shirt's hoodies, shorts, and hats, then out seemingly nowhere, the leather duffel bag. Was it just random inspiration, or was it always in the plans to make the jump into the travel lane as well?

We definitely were waiting to get in the game. Me and my business partner being 2 people that travel a lot, especially before the pandemic hit, and now that the world's opening back up, I've been traveling a lot. I'm traveling with the duffle bags, and I'm seeing the response that people have to them. It's always something that's been on my mind cause when you get to the baggage claim, or you see people walking around a bag, a bag is just another form of expression. I saw how the duffle bag game was getting kind of crazy where they were getting up in price to like 8k; some of them were like 15k, and I thought that was kind of insane for the person who just wanted a good bag. Me and my business partner did the research, and we were able to get with a guy that does genuine leather; and he enjoyed what we were doing with our business, and he showed us the inner workings of it, and we started with the duffle bag first. We got some smaller bags coming; we got the toiletry bag, the crossbody bag on the way, and wallets on the way. It's something I've always been interested in. I've been wearing leather goods from the time I was young, and now I'm just trying to make a reasonable healthy version for it and incorporate it into the brand. I know that travel is something good, and I think having a bag for my brand that can withstand the test of time would put me in a good space with people. A bag is a sound investment; it's something that when you spend money on it, you're going to get usage out of that shit, you ain't just got use it one time.

I know we touched manly on the clothing line, but I'd feel like shit if I didn't ask about the music. You're a platinum producer you just dropped a good-ass rap album (A Hunnid Miles w/ Super Miles) in April. What's next?

I'm bout to drop another. I'm dropping like 3 more this year. I got some heat too. I got some shit coming with this kid from Detroit named Lowkey P. He's a producer, so I'm doing a project with him similar to what I did with Super Miles. I'm kind of showcasing new producers and making music with them. I'm dropping another Legendary Stories Vol. 4. I took a break cause my boy Nesby who does the intros, got busy and was doing his shit for a while. I told him I can't do no album without him. I got another one coming called Ghetto Star Talk, which is really, really good. Me and a bunch of different producers that's coming. I think that might be the next one I drop if I don't drop Vol. 4 of Legendary Stories. Imma keep doing the music, you know? I got a studio in my house now, so whenever I catch the bug, I can get my ass in the studio and make some shit, and then I reach out to the homies to get some records done. I had Les on the last one. I had my boy Guts on a couple, so I've just been trying to go natural. A lot of times, the homies will pop up at the house and make some shit, and then next thing you know, we fuckin' recording, and I throw that bitch on the album.

Lastly, being the head of Cant Buy Respect, can you tell me what fashion means to you?

Fashion to me is style, and style is a big part of my life. I try my best every day to do something signature, even if it's something slight. Even if it's wearing the same clothes but adding something new. I try my best to be very signature and very stylish about what I do. I don't try to make it brand-dependent. I don't try to stay trapped in "oh I only fuck with Louie," or "I only fuck with Gucci," or "I only fuck with Nike." I really go based on how I feel, and I think that's what fashion is. Being able to express how you feel within how you dress and how you carry yourself. Not only putting the clothes on but also once you put the clothes on, how do you carry yourself? What type of element do you like to be in? When you go out, how you drink your drink? When another person gets their Hennessy with ice, but you get you, Hennessy, with a certain amount of ice cubes specifically, you know? I think that fashion is just the way that you approach life. I don't try to think of it in just the form of Burberry, Prada, Gucci, you know? I just literally think it's the way you express yourself. It's like a very, very fine way of expressing yourself. There's expression, and then there's the fashion in which you do it. For me, I think my fashion comes off as very diverse but at the same time well-rounded. I'm able to tap into a lot of different things but put them all together. A lot of people think I'm all different nationalities, and I think it's because I give off this mystique of you don't know where I come from, and that's what I try to keep up. I try to keep people interested, and I think that's what fashion is, man. It's figuring out a way to express yourself and keep people drawn into you.

That's it from me, my friends. Direct deposit just hit, and those new PS5 controllers aren't going to buy themselves. Keep it player and remember, if your girl has never sent you money for your haircut, she's already mentally single. Go cop some CBR at cantbuyrespect.com or download the app and get ready for the streets.