Pimpin', let me get a, "We on top!"
(crowd cheering)
What began as just a house party,
sold out a New York City arena.
We made history, baby!
We in the Barclays Center, we made history!
And we went viral, it's Fivio Foreign.
The D'usse Palooza, I'm gonna lose my mind.
D'usse Palooza's organizers say
it is the first time anyone has ever done it.
All right, so, 15 years ago you and I were sitting
up on the sixth floor in BET.
Yes, yes, yeah.
Did you ever think that at this point we'd be here?
No, not at all.
I didn't fathom any of this stuff.
I didn't think I'd be hosting parties, events,
aligned with a billionaire that owns his own company.
You know, no big deal.
No, no, no, none of that.
You're humble. None of that.
I wasn't imagining any of this,
and I think that's why it's such a good thing to reflect on,
because this wasn't the plan.
So, what we gon' do in 2020?
We gon' kill this (beep).
We gon' run this (beep).
How does it feel to you to see like a new crop
of young black guys doing this sort of thing on this level,
and then have the endorsement of Jay-Z?
I mean, I would guess if I was in their position
as young entrepreneurs, and club promoters,
and part of this industry, to get the thumbs up from Jay,
and Jay giving you a platform to do something this dope.
I mean, what is left to do at that point?
♪ Talk to me nice, let me with them. ♪
Those guys been putting on for a minute,
you know what I'm saying?
And hey throw the hottest events.
They have the hottest artists coming out.
So, it's a part of the culture.
It's legendary, you know what I'm saying?
(performers rapping)
It all began here on December 28th, 2012.
In founder, Kameron McCullough's Harlem basement.
I can tell you every single thing about that day.
The days leading up to it, I think it was a snowstorm.
I literally everything, it was amazing. (laughs)
(crowd yelling)
Literally making them the definition of--
♪ Started from the bottom now we here ♪
How do you come up with "Palooza?"
It was Kam's idea.
♪ I need, I, I, I need a Nicki like Safaree ♪
Kam jokingly named it that,
and the requirements to get into the party were:
bring a bottle of cognac or you bring a box of chicken.
That's literally how the night started,
and we invited some of our close friends,
hashtagged it, put it on social media,
sent the flyer out, and people came, showed up.
(crowd yelling)
2012 for me and my friends wasn't the best year.
I think I had gotten laid off earlier in the year,
and Kam had lost his job, prior.
As a collective, we just didn't have the best year.
And we wanted to end the year on a high note.
We wanted to end the year around family, friends,
good vibes, and free (beep), I mean free stuff, sorry.
So we decided to throw the party,
and we decided to create our own narrative
and have our own fun.
Celebrate each other in a way we were supposed to
despite us having set-backs and suffering ills.
That's why we did it.
We didn't have money to go to the clubs.
We didn't have money go to take vacations or whatever.
So it was like let's have a game night.
(hip hop music)
Doing what we do has turned into this is what we do.
I would not change any of that action.
The next year the party went from
Kameron's basement to an art gallery in Manhattan.
This has turned into a (beep) event.
We have rented out a (beep) space in LES
all because you like Hennessy,
so when you see this man right here
with a white tee on with a beanie,
make sure you show him some (beep) respect.
In 2014, it grew big enough to fill a
live music venue, New York's Tammany Hall.
By this time, the event was branded as Hennypalooza.
For the next three years,
they toured internationally under that name.
We've been to Saint Martin.
We've been to Houston.
We've been to Detriot, Chicago, LA, DC,
Philly, Boston, Oakland.
But the party's founders never forged an
official partnership with Moet Hennessy,
so in 2017 they started talking
with Lenny S., the Senior Vice President of
Jay-Z's entertainment management company, Rock Nation.
Yeah, they were looking for us for a minute,
and Lenny is the connection
to D'usse Palooza and Rock Nation.
Me and Lenny have been friends for about 10, 12 years,
and he has always supported everything we've done.
And he said "Yo, these guys could be over there."
And just so happens Jay was thinking the same thing.
One thing leads to another and here we are.
We're in his house.
It's a big moment, but it's our job.
And it's what we do.
Treat it as such.
Today, please be respectful of all staff,
security, production hands, people who are working.
(cheering)
You know you wanna feel like you're at a family reunion.
You wanna feel like you're having fun with friends,
and I feel like that exudes from the team.
And then everybody else feels that when they walk in here.
Austin Millz was able to leave
his nine to five at a digital marketing company.
I got to tell my boss, "You know what?
"I got an offer to go to Europe to Germany."
And I was like, "You know what?
"Let me just do this, and then go full force."
So a leap of faith, right?
Yeah, a leap of faith for sure.
How important is that for you?
It's important because sometimes,
if you don't take that chance,
the opportunity won't happen again.
So you gotta just go with your gut instinct.
And that's how you recognize the moment
from trusting your gut.
Exactly.
Known as Ravie B., Raven Varona has been
with the team since 2015.
At the time, it was all guys, so I was like,
"I'm super down being the only girl,
"You guys are kinda like my brothers already."
And then it kinda just blossomed
into this insane production.
After our conversation with Kam,
she decided to take her leap,
quitting her full time gig at a property management company.
And I always tell people if you're gonna quit your job,
you should always have a plan.
Like everybody needs like a plan.
I don't know what that is for you
because you're creating your own blueprint,
but as long as you kind of have a plan,
I'm like how much money do you wanna make
or the things you wanna do.
I think it's a lot smoother.
What's a smoother transition
than shooting for Beyonce and Jay-Z
and making history of her own?
I recently shot Gabrielle Union for Amazon,
and I found out that I was
the first woman of color to shoot her.
She was just very adamant too
about having a woman of color shoot her.
At the shoot, she reassured me and told me,
and I didn't know, but it was also like
I was pretty honored to because I feel like,
when I started out, there weren't a lot of people
that looked like me doing what I did.
The whole experience
has reshaped Christylezz' life,
who has hosted for Beyonce, Jay-Z, and the NBA.
Chris, who has recently lost his dad, has gained a support
system that goes far beyond work.
How it all started.
Actually, no, he was running the city.
Every show, every party, every event.
And he was already doing Palooza.
I was just like, "Yo."
Just kinda like how I piggybacked into this--
Conversation.
Right, so that's how, that was my inception into it.
I was like, "Hey, man, look, you runnin' it.
"Can I get a shot?"
Okay, okay.
He saw me work a few times.
He was like, "I'll give you the first two hours."
I was like, "Word?"
He turned those two hours
into a final, standard, position,
and he's been a thorn in my ass, but rightfully so.
See how basic I am. (laughs)
This is super Fort Greene.
You see, yeah, gray sweatsuit over here.
He come with a leather with the-
MacBook versus Dell.
Yeah, that's the energy that what works.
What it's worth with this kid.
Where would I be without him?
(laughing)
Nah, that's my brother right here, man.
If you havin' a good time right now,
please make some (beep) noise.
For Niall, who always wanted
to be a radio talent,
the experience led him to hosting a show
on Apple's Beats 1 Radio.
As you can see, you know where I'm at.
Beats 1 New York City filling in for Ebro,
3 P.M. Eastern time.
I got a Beats 1 banger,
from Mister Jesus is King himself, Kanye West.
And when he lost his mom,
the Palooza fam was right behind him.
If you can't learn from your adversity,
then what do you learn from?
Success is only gonna teach you by so much.
But you can appreciate the success
when you've been through such hell for what it's worth.
Yeah, everybody in here has suffered an L
or two or whatever the case is,
but it's the drive and the passion
and the love for the culture
and their friends succeeding is why we're here.
Which is why we can do this.
For all of the ups, downs,
laughs, and inbetweens, for the little crew that could,
there is still so much more to conquer,
pushing the culture forward.
It was more important to just be here.
And one of the things I appreciate
about this show and about the audience
is the bridging of the gaps between generations and genres.
It started by guys and girls
who have a reverence for the era
that I came to providence to, but it's carried on.
And what you have in your audience
is people who are much younger,
but are willing to be guided.
I saw some aunties and grandma's.
More arenas.
Nah, I mean we just got done with our arena show,
and we are trying to move into a space
of arenas and amphitheaters as a whole
which is the next foregoing thing.
But, the immediate stuff, I mean, let's see what happens.
The next step for us is really globalizing the brand,
and making D'usse Palooza the global brand that it is.
When we envision scale, it's not necessarily going and doing
the Barclays Center and six other places.
I think it's really spreading Gospel about what we do:
experience, party, and everything else.
I think that's our next step,
and with that will come all the other fruits
that we wanna bear.
For InsideEdition.com,
I'm Stephanie Officer.