Yeah. Light check. 1, 2, 1, 2. Light sign in your room.
But where are you? I'll be chilling right here with my man Luke on the Cult podcast. We do what it do. That was a little freestyle intro from our guest Today, Brett Edwards, Mr.
Eco himself. Thank you all so much for tuning in. I am your host, Luke Baird of the Cult of Startup podcast. I myself am a startup connoisseur and business strategist, and this show is all about me sitting down with entrepreneurs and startup founders to discuss what systems strategies and actions they take that will help you reach your goals in career life as well as starting your own personal business.
Welcome, welcome, welcome, ladies and germs. Today, our guest is the environmental rap superhero known as Mr. Ego. But his real name is Brett, at least to me.
He is one of the most genuine individuals I know, and he believes that monumental changes begin with the youngest members of society. He combines his two passions for sustainability and hip hop to create an environmental rap superhero that uses music to empower youth and become ego heroes. In this interview, we trace back Mr. Ego's passions for hip hop to memorizing 50 Cent's song Get Rich or Die Trying in elementary school, to Jay Z's influence on his life and perspective.
And not only that, we discuss what our impact is on the environment and what we can do to ensure we're protecting the world around us today. At times, during this interview, he drops a couple lines from his songs, all freestyle. I love those parts. I know you're gonna enjoy this interview with Brett, aka Mr.
Eco. Thank you for listening and as Brett would say, do. How are you today? I am doing well.
Thank you for having me on the show. Thank you for being a guest. We are here actually, in Venice Beach. We are just a couple blocks actually from where Snapchat's headquarters is and a lot of tech places all over here.
So it's only natural that we're in a tech community. And we're also on Ozone Avenue, which is kind of unique. So Mr. Eco on ozone Avenue.
Love it. And I would like to start this interview off with an interesting question, but I know you're a Eco rapper and I read this on your bio. Why in the hell did you memorize 50 Cent, get rich and Die Trying or Die Trying when you're in elementary school? I just loved it.
I loved the album. I had two older sisters. I still have them, but when I was young, they were older and influential on me in terms of their music interest and a couple boyfriends that they had. And, yeah, 50 Cent that came out when I was in fifth grade, I believe, and just loved that album.
And that really started my keen interest in lyrics. And I was always someone who would look up the lyrics online of songs and learn verses of hip hop songs. Interesting. Were you more interested in just understanding what the poet was writing or were you interested in creating your own lyrics as well?
I wasn't at that point interested creating my own. But, yeah, just in figuring out what they're actually saying, because a lot of people don't say the right lyrics when they're singing songs. And I picked up on that. I was like, wait, I don't know.
So I wanted to, yeah, check it out one day. Isn't that the truth? I've listened to songs hundreds of times and I still get the lyrics wrong. Yep.
Don't be drunk with my girlfriend. I can totally sing these lyrics. And you know what? I'll goof it up.
And she just laughs at me. But other things from that. So let's talk about who you are as a personal brand, Mr. Eco.
What are the origins of that? Well, I believe that monumental change begins with the youngest members of society. So I combine my passions for hip hop and sustainability into an environmental rap superhero named Mysterico. Stems from my love for wildlife that I had when I was also a kid around the age of listening to Get Greener Di Try.
And I was watching Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter was a big hero of mine. And then also we had a cabin in the Sierra Nevada, so I would go and summer and spend a lot of time there. Then in high school, took a class AP Environmental Science, had a teacher, Mr. Meridian, who really impacted me and influenced me.
And I knew I wanted to be green in my life, and that was the purpose for it there. And then when I got to college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I had an internship promoting energy efficiency among students and staff. And the main project that we do was a dorm energy competition. And I met the group that put that on when I was a freshman.
And I was like, this is a thing. Like, I need to join. And then my sophomore year, after doing outreach events, realized we needed an outlet, a way to deliver the content in a medium that people would listen to and that they didn't know that they were learning or being preached to. Percent that's interesting.
So you saw that there's a separate avenue other than maybe your general commercial or pamphlet or something like that. Yeah, no doubt. And just the, you know, environmentalism is typically a boring topic, and people don't want to discuss it. So I wanted to create something fun and naturally that fit in with educated youth.
And then I started performing at local elementary schools. I guess it's only a sensitive subject at times, too. Oh, yeah, no doubt. Have you come in contact with any conflict in doing that?
Yeah, for sure. In college. I do remember the first instance of that. It was when San Luis Obispo was looking into which they did pass the bag ordinance.
Yes. And so I went and I had a song called Reusable Bag and I went to some of the hearings and spoke, and I had one guy personally attack me and was like, you're taking the food out of landfill's baby's mouths. And it's like it was just a shocking. And so, yeah, that was my first experience with that.
And then from that point, I haven't had any, like, major face to face conversations, but definitely in YouTube comments and stuff. Oh, I'm sure you could comment. You that's like sort of the comments on YouTube. Interesting, interesting.
So you got to college, you were inspired through this organization you joined. Sounds like during your sophomore year. What led you to starting Mr. Ego, though?
I started rapping for fun in my senior year of high school. And we would rap about just like our friends, football team, girls, stuff like that. And my last name is Edwards, so my rap name was Mr. E because I was Mr.
E on the track. And then that naturally transitioned. It was literally just having lunch one day with my sister and my dad, and they're like, why don't you rap about the environment? And I was like, Mr.
Eco. Okay, done. And I knew instantly two things, that it couldn't be me individual as Brett. It needed to be something larger.
And so then that created the superhero character. And then that I knew I wanted to have a light bulb as my bling on my necklace. Okay. Okay.
So I want the audience to understand this. You do have a costume that you wear. Let's talk a little bit about why you have your costume. So the character Mystery Go is an environmental rap superhero, but the superpower is empowering youth to know that they can make an impact.
And so that's the whole concept behind it. Not as the normal avenue of other superheroes, where they're just there to save the world. Right. Mystery Ego's job is to empower youth to know that they can make an impact and change.
Okay, I see, I see. But what do you wear? I wear, I got a headband, the chain with a LED light bulb, a yellow shirt with the E logo on It a cape and then shorts that match the cape with some toms rounded it up at the bottom. It's pretty fly.
I will definitely include a photo of this for you as a reference to a site. All right, so you're in your senior year and you've recorded your first album, correct? Yeah. How'd you do that?
Who'd you meet to actually do that? Did you just do at home using Garageband or something like that? No, I. It's a funny origin of that.
I was at a yearly event. They do a month long eco challenge for high school and college students. I was invited to go perform at this event because I met the co founder of it when they came to Cal Poly. And when we were there, there's speakers from all great environmental fields and one of them was a representative from Whole Foods who was the buyer of their natural products line.
But then also did the CD purchasing for some reason. And so when I was performing at this place, I was like, hey, I'm making my first album. And um, like happy to be here. Just letting you guys know this is a song off of it.
And he was like, you should release that in Whole Foods. What on earth? Okay, let's do it. So yeah, that was the start of my.
That was towards the end of junior year and then over the summer made the album in Fresno at a home studio of a guy who makes my music. Made my music video. Starting out a connection through him and yeah, just made that first album. That's incredible.
So you released your first album in Whole Foods? Yeah, of all places across the country. I had no idea until now that Whole Foods carried music. How did that do?
I didn't sell a ton because you know you're not going to buy an album typically from an artist you've never heard of. But yeah, it sold hundreds of units. But it was cool to have it be placed, you know, because it's one of those things where they had like three to five in each store around that had a unique connection. You're actually the fourth person of interview who's had a product in Whole Foods, Todd.
But the only album that's been Whole Foods. All the other stuff in wine or food. All right, so you released your first album. Did you release music videos at the time as well?
Yeah, yeah. Always been creating music videos for five years now, I'd say. Started out doing parodies before that original album. Oh really?
So did you have your own YouTube channel that was parodies you were creating? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
And I made like three or four the Only good one is reasonable Bag. If you're checking on YouTube, you can watch that one. And then hybrid hip hop came around and made, I think, seven music videos off of that album. And then I've now filmed three for renewable rapping.
I haven't released them yet, but filmed two more this summer. Interesting. Very weird Al of you. And for those of you who don't know Burton, I both in Cal Poly and Weird Al is an alumni of Cal Poly San Francisco.
So it's kind of interesting there. All right, so you recorded a handful of music videos you've released on YouTube. Did they perform well? Did they go viral?
Did anything happen at that point? Just the continuing support from the fans that I'd garnished in the kids at schools today. I got 730,000 YouTube views. Oh, wow.
So you'll hit a million here soon. Yeah, that's exciting. And definitely the last couple, like the last year and a half, two years has been exponentially, like it's growing. Okay, I have a question for you.
Mainly out of curiosity. Has there. Has that slope been ever increasing or getting steeper in total views? I would have to go back and look at it, but definitely it's the direct correlation with the schools I'm performing at.
So I go perform at assembly as the schools. I've done 270 now, seen 130,000 kids. And you can look at the data for when I go and perform at schools. You're getting the spike of views down there.
And then once a kid goes to the YouTube channel, now that I have much better content than I did a year ago, two years ago. So now they're watching more videos. Right, okay. When they go there.
Interesting, interesting. Then I love how you make that connection to them. Because I have nieces and nephews and they love YouTube between ages of like 5 and 12, I think, and they love it. Is that your audience?
That is exactly my audience. 5 to 12 year olds experience. So how do you connect to your audience? But I perform at schools.
That's been the main thing. I'm just trying to look into how to reach people outside of the direct shows on YouTube. But yeah, definitely performing at schools because it's for me, it's the best way. You get everybody in the room at once, all the teachers.
It's also like for environmentalism, if you're trying to put on an event, you might get 20 families to show up. Right. But the assemblies, all school assemblies. The kids and the families don't have a choice.
Right. Everybody comes to these. So you're actively reaching all those kids. They're going home, they're telling mom and dad.
They're watching the YouTube videos. They're talking to their grandma about it. So for me, that's been the best way to reach it. You kind of drag my mind.
I remember going to some assembly where you're not in high school, but elemental school. It was really cheesy, but it was about environmental stuff. I was like, turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth. And I would have, really so much more to a rap superhero at that time than just this cheesy group of people that were going on tour for this.
All right, I want to go into. Let's talk more about your experience at Cal Poly, because you've been doing a lot of this, it sounds like, for fun. And then you registered in a class to the entrepreneurship program at Cal Poly. Professor Jonathan York.
What happened in that class that helped change what you're doing to what it is now? Yeah, so senior year, you know, I created this as a sophomore, and it was kind of just like a fun thing on the side hobby. But then I realized, like, I want to do this when I graduate for sure. So for my senior project, class had a group of students with me, and we figured out what path I should take after graduating to make it a business.
And so, yeah, very, very uncertain when I graduated. Like, that was definitely, probably my darkest time, just dealing with the uncertainty of, like, what to do next. Yeah. But glad that I did.
Yeah, definitely, definitely. What were some of the things that you learned during that period of time with Dr. York's class? Did you talk to customers?
Did you try, like, a mock demo at an assembly or something like that? What led you to where you are? I mean, definitely talking to people smarter than I am and getting influence from Dr. York.
Our other mentor, Todd Nelson at CIA, he was a huge influence there. And, yeah, definitely going through the customer roadmap. We figured out, like, what all the avenues around school assemblies are and tying in the sponsors and where the revenue streams come from. Interesting, interesting.
So you just mentioned it. Let's talk about your business model. So I know you go to assemblies and you have Apple sales, and you probably have some ads from YouTube. Yeah.
Is that all of it? For right now, yeah, you just email them all. But, you know, I'm one. I'm one person.
And this environmental quest is much larger than me being able to go and reach kids at school. I mean, 500k a day, that's great. But really, what I've been Working towards is being in the position where I can launch a TV show with a major network. So that's what I'm focusing on right now.
I feel like I've done the case study over the last four or five years. I'm proving that this brand connects and resonates with kids. And so that's. That's what's next for me.
I like that. So the future plan or the long term vision of Mr. Eco is to have and environmentally friendly TV show. Yeah.
Would that be just like. Would you compare me to that? Like on tv? So, like Saturday morning tv, where does that fit in, you know, with the future of tv?
I don't know when it'll be. I guess it might just be, but the. I'll give you the concept. All right.
So have you seen Space Jam? Oh, heck yeah. So there's the Looney Tunes small story. I dated the daughter of the guy who wrote that in high school.
No way. That's awesome. He also wrote Kicking and screaming and a handful of other movies, but yeah. Okay, very cool.
There you go. Continue. Yes. Okay, so Space Jam has Michael Jordan, a real person, going to the Looney Tunes world, Right?
So the concept is that there is a virtual world where cartoon teenage aged animals live who are sidekicks in mystery. Go. Yeah. So Mystico goes out in the real world.
He gets a notification from them, goes down to the Looney Tunes world that we create, and they educate him on an environmental issue that's impacting their habitat where they live in the world. And they connect me to a group of students at a school in the real world who want to do a project to help the big overarching issue globally and to see what they can do at their school locally. So then I go to the school and help them with their project. And then there's a music video at the end that ties everything together.
Okay. So you have the storyline that occurs and then whatever music video at the end all relates to that entire storyline. Yeah, I really like that idea. I would love to see it.
And in this day and age, I mean, content suggested in so many different ways. I mean, it can be from Hulu to Netflix to just a YouTube. It could be a YouTube series. Right.
Because I do right now. It totally could exist in a variety of mediums. Doesn't have to be on Disney Channel. Right.
I think it's amazing at our time. Let's jump forward just a little bit here and talk about your second album release. So I know you did Kickstarter for that. I contribute to It.
Thank you very much. I got your album. I do listen to it and I want to know a. How do you play with Kickstarter and what was your long term vision with your Kickstarter?
Okay, so renewable wrap. I had known I wanted to do a crowdfunding campaign for some time, but I wanted it to be something special. Right. Because asking people for contributions like that's a big deal.
Right. So you want to do something special. And so renewable Rapid collaborates with kids from six countries around the world. And so the theme was this album.
We're gonna film some music videos from around the world. Planning it. I went through every single contact I'd made, really like through my Gmail and reaching out schools, social media. And I followed.
You can link to this, but the Tim Ferriss how to Hack Kickstarter, I did. I followed that script that the guys did Soma bottles made. And then also Jake Disraeli from Bottle House, they had ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. So I asked him for advice.
So yeah, that was the main thing. And then the long term vision was to have, hopefully create something that these backers will be proud of and in the future have. If I have other projects that I feel strong enough about that people want to contribute to, to be able to, to do that. And it's very publicly just to get the album out there to all of you.
Yeah. All right, let's. Let's talk about that now. Actually, what happens when you release a Kickstarter that's doing well?
Do you have other outside entities that do PR for you? Do you get contacts? What occurs? It depends on your product.
For me, what I found is that a random person typically isn't going to want to buy an album made by an environmental rap super. Right. So I'm a little different in that sense where it's not like a cool water bottle or a cool something that's gonna help you. So for me, it was going through those personal connections and doing this and reaching however many thousand kids over just knowing the credibility.
Credibility over the years of performing at schools. But, but definitely that. How to Hack Kickstarter takes you through the steps on how to get PRN if you have a cool product. Yeah, for sure.
What was the biggest thing you took away from doing a Kickstarter? That they are really hard. Yeah. And it's, it takes a lot out of you.
And I will. I don't know if I should say this on podcast, but I'll say. But if you directly ask me for a contribution to a Kickstarter I'm going to contribute. Yeah.
Personally. Yeah. Because I know it just. It takes a lot to ask.
Yeah. And. And really how these things work in that if you give 2 to $5, I mean if everybody did that, then it would be fun. So I think a lot of people are.
And this was just what I believed to perceive through it was that people didn't want to give because they might feel that I wouldn't think that they gave enough. Okay. Right. So like.
But if they felt or you felt that they might take it personally. Yeah. Or that you might take it personally. Right, right.
That if they like only gave five dollars or only gave ten dollars, I'd be like, why they only give five. No. When a five dollar thing comes in, I'm like, yeah. Shout out Lou.
You know, like that. That was, that was a big. It was a. It was a lot.
It was a lot. Because I'm mostly a one man team. So I use outsources for different parts of it. But.
But yeah, I was definitely the, the driving force behind the train. But yeah. How to hack Kickstarter. Definitely check that out.
And I did get a personal email from you about it. I remember exchanging with you. I was like, okay, essentially I need to contribute to Brett. I've done Brett for handful of years.
He's a cool dude. I'm gonna contribute to the. So I would say that worked on me. Evans right there.
Yeah. Personal, personal. I didn't do any stock like things like I went. If I was gonna take time to email you.
Cause you're gonna. Then I'm asking you to take time to donate. Like I wanna show you that I, I thought about you, how we know each other and said something personally in that note. Yeah.
It's amazing how I feel like in this day and age you gotta do that to connect with people. My relationship to you for album is completely different. Cause I know Brett asked me to contribute. So I, I would say individual, joint, Kickstarter.
Understand that there are more. How do you say this? Like you can affect people long run by connecting with them personally for your Kickstarter campaign. Yeah.
You could have more benefits in the long run by doing that. All right, so you had a successful Kickstarter campaign. I'm actually curious to know, did you write the album beforehand or was it partially written but it was in production at that point? Yeah, the album, I.
I finished writing and recording all of it. Okay. Beforehand. But we hadn't done any other music videos.
Okay. So I invested everything up front for the album. Okay. I Remember seeing like a.
Maybe it was. The video itself kicks kind of like a micro music video that you. You produced for it. Yeah.
It was really good. I love your music videos, by the way. I'll link to that in the show notes and enjoy them. They're hilarious.
They're great to watch. What do you do to enhance your overall storytelling? What do you. What inspires you for that?
I think listening to other storytellers and whenever I see someone definitely taking notes or writing down certain things or. Because, I mean. Yeah. When you're presenting to a group of people.
I've had the privilege of doing it enough times where things would just happen. Yeah. So I would adjust my presentation based on something happening that I didn't plan for. But that worked.
But yeah, enhancing the storytelling. So being not afraid to take chances and try different things or go with the flow from left field. But then also, yeah. Listening to other storytellers and presentations.
Yeah. I feel like hearing good storytellers helps enhance your overall story. I'm a big fan of storytellers. I think they can do a lot for the world and people like listening to stories.
I want to know about why you chose possibly kids from all around the world to do chorus in each of your tracks. It's a global issue. We got here, and so I wanted to bring kids from around the world. I think for us to truly make the changes that need to happen.
It's almost like a reverse Pangea. Okay. That needs to happen in this. This issue that we all need to come together on.
So what was cool about it is talking to these kids. And I got to meet some of them because I filmed music video on Singlish and in Taiwan and realizing how similar we are and that kids everywhere do want to make an impact and know about these things. Are starting to learn more and more about these environmental issues. So.
Yeah. So definitely just wanted to have it be bigger than. Because the whole Eco Hero brand is not about Mr. Eco.
Right. And ever since I realized that and started focusing on focusing on kids, like, that's when my successes come. Oh, really? Yeah.
Interesting. I had a big moment with. There was a. The ecoslow cultural cleanup.
I was on the email list and they said HBO is doing a special about kid environmentalism from around the world. I was like, oh, awesome. And they connected me with the producers from that show. And I was thinking, here I am.
That I'm going to be either on it or they're going to feature my music. But what the producer wanted to know was, do I have contacts for Any kids that are doing cool projects that have been influenced from what I'm doing. And I couldn't give them one example at that point. Now this was three and a half, maybe four years ago.
So I was like, wow, okay, this is. This is really about the eco heroes. And so then I started focusing. You might, if you look really closely my music videos now, the ones that are closer, the newer ones contain less and less of me and there's more and more kids.
And so then I also going that direction with album. I like that. So actually showcasing your community matters a lot more to your personal brand. For sure.
Kids like watching kids a lot. Really? Okay. Yeah.
So did you. It sounds like it was a huge turn that occurred by understanding that. Yeah, that's amazing and really interesting. I don't think most people recognize that that actually happened.
So maybe most kids TV shows, that's why they have kid actors in them. When I was adults, unless his name is Rogers. Yeah, that's the exception. But outside, that's mainly kid actors.
I love that. So I wanna talk a little bit more about your overall mission and let's. Let's narrow in on one story here. So one of your lyrics from plastic surgery is need new products, companies that we trust and legislation to lead.
We can abandon microbeads, eliminate synthetic seas circle of life. Is plastic in your sushi tonight. That ain't right. Nah, you probably said that way than I can.
And I just embarrass myself to. But that's a big issue. Microbeads. Let's talk about that.
Yeah. So microbeads are tiny, small additives in products like face wash, toothpaste, that someone at these large companies for some reason thought, hey, let's put plastic, tiny small pieces of plastic in these products that people rub on their face and put in their mouth. And what happened was five gyres, which is an organization that does amazing work that creates science to solutions. They do a lot of open ocean expeditions studying plastic out in the five gyres.
And a gyre is where the currents accumulate. And so there's five main ones where like if you look out, that's. If you throw a piece of plastic from California in the ocean, it's gonna wind up in the North Pacific gyre. Okay.
Right. So that organization did a sailing trip in the Great Lakes and they found microbeads for the first time out in nature. Like because they were really surprised at how many of these microbes they found in. Not seawater.
Right. In Great Lakes. And so then they were able to link it back to these products, the toothpaste, face washes that have microbes in them. And so you think about it, if you're using these, all drains leak to the ocean.
These tiny, tiny pieces of plastic aren't big enough to be filtered out by our filtration systems and sinks. You're throwing in trillions, literally trillions of pieces of plastic out into the ecosystem that look exactly the same as small fish eggs to a lot of animals. Yeah, small animals in the ecosystem. And then think about plastic and why it's even a bigger issue than just animals entangling with it or digesting it and hurting them is that toxins in our oceans stick to plastic chemically.
So our ddt, our runoff from tires, all, everything that we also pollute in our waterways sticks chemically to pieces of plastic. So then when it passes up the food chain, small fish eats it, bigger fish eats a smaller fish. The toxins get into their bodies and accumulate, bioaccumulate up the food chain. So then, so us humans, we're making trillions of these.
Like, it's just an unnecessary evil if you really look at it. Piece of product. So fortunately, those, those were banned thanks to the work of five gyros and story stuff and a bunch of other groups starting in the US I believe in 2018. So they're still out there on the shelves.
So you gotta look at your toothpaste, your face wash, if it says microbeads or polyethylene, don't use it. Like, yeah, it's not good. Yeah. I myself, I'm guilty.
I bought that stuff before. It was a great marketing ploy, to be honest. It's like, oh, microbeads, that scrub closer to your face. But can you explain that?
I realized the overall impact that that has on the environment. But I wouldn't thought they want to take a shower. No way. No way.
And you can't expect us to think about that. I mean, we do need to become more conscious. I think we are as consumers. But really, to think that you're putting plastic in your mouth like a little tiny bee, like, who thinks that?
You just don't think about it. And it was cool, actually. A ton of dentists also stood up against this issue because they were finding it lodged in people's gums and causing issues in people's hands. Oh, interesting, Interesting.
I just came across a product that had a toothpaste, but I'll be more conscious of it. Again, what are the things that have been toothpaste again? Definitely Crest, like Crest toothpaste. They have like three or four brands that all have it in there.
Interesting, interesting. Let's talk a little bit about consumers habits. What would you recommend to somebody to be eco friendly in their consumer habits? Just start small because it's so overwhelming and complex.
Just start with one thing. I mean, it sounds cliche, but that's how behavioral change happens. Because if you try to do everything all at once, it's gonna fall apart and you're gonna go back to your, to your old way. So I mean the simplest would be depending on the product.
Like we'll just go with food, for example. Right. You can go into the vegetable section and pick only organic grown in California. If you live in California, wherever, the nearest place to you.
Yeah, just definitely just start small because it's so easy to be overwhelmed. What are some of the other small recommendations that you give kids? So to them you started out with the no brainer, Right. Litter.
Yeah. So not glittering. And then you take it to using a reusable water bottle instead of plastic. I think that is the biggest marketing scam ever.
The fact that we pay 100 to a thousand times more for water in a plastic container that has chemicals leach into the water. That's actually just filtered tap water. Yeah. So, yeah.
Okay, so reusable water bottles, reusable bags, turn off the lights. That's an easy one that we don't often think of. But there's no reason to waste electricity. That's where you start there.
Energy efficiency recycling. So then, okay, so then it goes. Don't litter. You can use a reusable water bottle.
Well, you can have plastic things, you can have paper things. Well, you can recycle them. They can be remade into something new. And then also saving water.
Got a couple songs about that. And then having them believe in themselves. So I end every show with the eco hero anthem, which is empowering and knowing that they can be the leaders. Tell me a little bit more about the eco hero anthem.
It's a gorgeous hook sung by Jenny Tormey. She has a great voice. And it, it the line. I mean, I'll just wrap the first waking up to me up in the symbol.
You said the future looks bright because of me. I said I'm true. It's bright because of you and all of your friends at home in high school. I started this whole thing when I was 19.
Start imagining what you can do living green. But Mr. Ego, I'm only nine years old. Guess what?
Ain't no Asian and fun. Eco hero make the world I with your Hands and put them high. Cause the world's in the hands of every girl and guy Wear equal heroes. And then Jenny comes in there.
I love that. She comes in. Single chorus, right then. I love that.
I love that. You collaborated with a handful of artists as well for your album. Any notable names? Man, there was.
I was looking at the list. I think there's 10 different groups or individuals. There's like, almost every song has a collaboration on renewable rap. Brooke Leifer from Boston, she is a great gringo gator.
She has a great voice. She sings on power shower. TK, the boss from St. Lucia, he is.
He's a great guy. We filmed a music video there. Then International Children's Choir. They're really, really legit.
They perform for representatives who come and visit the. Some governmental branch in Utah. They're great voices there. And then the South African Children's Choir, they also lovely voices for songs.
So, yeah, I mean, just a huge collaboration effort on this album. Love it. So I know I can skip over that popped in my head, but let's talk a little bit more about that concluding song that you have at the end of your assemblies. What is your main goal in doing that for kids?
I think that our belief in ourselves is the biggest hurdle to making things actually happen and thinking that we either can't do it or people are going to respond negatively to what we're trying to impact. So, yeah, definitely ending on a high note with that song. Knowing that they are the hero of today's show. I see.
That's. That's amazing. I put up a picture at the start of the show, and I say, guess who's a picture of me on the hill? I'm like, who's the hero of today's show?
And without fail, the whole crowd's like, yeah, yeah. I'm like, no, it's you guys. And then I asked that question after I play that song at the end, and everybody's pointing to themselves saying, it's me. I'm here.
I like that. So you want to influence them in a way that says you guys are the ones that are proponents of this. You can create your own actions that can change the world. Yeah, I love that.
I think it's a great thing to influence kids and whatever they're doing. So I really want to. I'm curious as to whether or not you've had any adverse things also happen in trying to inspire kids about environmental things. I know you mentioned that happened back in San Luis Obispo, but that's where I'm Adult levels.
If anything happened in between, like, kids. Yeah. Like, oh, I want kids to be environmentally friendly. That's all mumbo jumbo.
That's what we made up. It hasn't verbally been spoken a ton to me because I think the way I approach it, I'm very cognizant of not trying to be an apprecia, like your parents are wrong kind of way, but more of an empowering way. I do another. But I don't think these things are exclusive.
But when I did shows in Texas, I definitely, like, you have teachers who are visibly not digging what's going down. Right. And I had. I had one.
One is that my first school chandelier in Texas. It was my first shot out of California. And he came up and told me, you know, there's a huge population of Christians here. And what you can say is that it's up to all of us to be stewards of the Earth because God gave us this planet to take care of.
So I'm like, oh, of course. So, yeah. So now I use it's up to all of us to be stewards of Earth because it totally makes sense. And these things aren't.
Aren't exclusive. You know, it's not red or green or blue. It's protecting Earth. It's our one thing that everybody has in common.
You know, it's not a political issue. It's not a belief system issue. It's. It's taking care of where you live.
I110 agree with that, that everybody should be their own ego hero, as you would say, in helping the environment out and be cognizant of what they're doing. I know when I first moved to San Luis Bispo, I thought recycling was a good thing, but I didn't really do it. Made it home as much as I thought. But I got to St.
Lis Bispo, and everybody there is very eco friendly. And I was sad about the fact that people talk about recycling. That's part of who they are. Yeah.
So things change by doing that. Yeah. And how did San Lispo get that way is because slowly but surely enough people start talking about it and then acting on that talk, and then it becomes a part of the culture. And then it's like, not, do we recycle?
It's where's the recycling bin? Yeah, right. Yeah, right. 100%.
All right, so let's jump into one other thing. My favorite lyric. I want you to possibly say it, but it's the. That's about a Prius.
Yes. Let's hear it. Okay, so this is from bag monster. I do plan to shoot this music video in the next couple months, but it goes.
You, you, you. You might see it in a Prius. Yell, swear, carpenter to the stove. Boom.
And I'm gonna pee. Y. Nah. Electric milk swear.
I love that. And you drive the Prius. I do. With a license plate.
Mr. Eco. Yep. Which is perfect.
Perfect. Um, what do you feel like is going to be the future possibly of automotive with these environmental regulations coming into play? Tesla, baby. Yeah.
All that. Yeah. Is that gonna be Mr. Eco 2.0 for sure?
I, I definitely. Yeah, I'm gonna get it. That'd be great. I'd love to see that.
When, when Hansel. Hansell's animal on my Prius, when it's time for him to be retired, Definitely gonna be getting a Tesla. Yeah. I think electric cars and they're gonna all be driving themselves too.
Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's. That's the future of automotive for sure.
Electric vehicles, definitely. All right, so do you feel like being environmentally friendly or. The environment is the biggest epidemic of regeneration. Is this something that we're facing for years to come or can we solve it?
I. It's the. Without solving this issue, none of the other issues matter. Yeah.
And it's really easy to get overwhelmed when you look at the science and predictions of the future. But you have to, you have to think, well, what can I do now? And what. What can we do?
Yeah. So the answer to your question. The shortest yes. Yeah.
Yeah. And I want to go back to. And I didn't say it because it's. I haven't talked about it in schools yet, but I do have a song about it on a new album.
And I personally am a vegetarian. But factory farming and the way that we've produced meat around the world, particularly beef, that is the number one destruction. Really. Yeah.