- They don't want me.
They don't want me.
Everybody that I know that grew up in Inglewood
or came to Inglewood, similar to the Gold Rush,
you know, had a dream, a vision,
a passion that they were pursuing.
Inglewood is one of those places where a cat
looks in the mirror and sees a lion.
And then of course,
that cat has to go out in the street
and deal with real lions.
You know, Inglewood was a training grounds
for me to grow into my biggest, most ferocious,
most loving self.
(rhythmic music)
Yeah, so here we are in the city,
and every time I come through,
we gotta stop by Sip & Sonder.
Sip & Sonder is a model for what this change
that's happening in Inglewood is supposed to look like.
Things are changing, that's automatic.
We're growing, people are coming into the city
that weren't there before to have spaces
that really protect the integrity and protect the culture.
And the vibe of Inglewood is what it's all about.
So here we are, we stopping by.
Let's go.
(rhythmic music)
What's up?
- Woo!
Hello, sir. - How y'all doing?
- How are you? - Good, good.
It's always good when I'm here.
(rhythmic music)
- [Shanita] I think what makes it Sip & Sonder's so unique
is kind of our philosophy on how we're looking at coffee.
Coffee is such a beautiful connector.
It's that idea of, okay, you're gonna grab a cup,
you're gonna connect with someone, chop it up,
and that's the starting place for so much amazingness,
which is why we wanted a space here in Inglewood
that people could actually connect with each other
and all the beautiful things that kind of grow from that.
- [Amanda] Say we're more than just a coffee house.
We have our roaster on site, so we roast our coffee here.
Coffee is picked by black and brown hands around the world,
and so bringing that diasphoric connection and engagement
to the streets of Inglewood,
so we're really going, you know, we like to say
from the crop to the cup, right?
(laughs) That's our thing here.
- The very tailored, the very super perfect looking
suburban areas or what I imagine them to be,
they're bubbles, they're not like nature.
Inglewood is a lot like nature.
You got the beauty, you got green grass,
you got loving people, but then you got, you know,
you got something that bites, you know what I'm saying?
That's what makes people in tune with their,
in my opinion, with their most alert, most natural self
when they're in an environment that's similar to nature.
There are unexpected elements,
there are dangerous elements
for people growing up in Inglewood, you know?
In the actual neighborhoods of Inglewood,
not the Forums and the SoFi stadiums.
It's also that place that makes people strong,
so it's the responsibility of the artists
and the businesses coming up in Inglewood
to create safer spaces for youngsters,
for young entrepreneurs coming in,
for the people so that, you know, in transit,
once we arrive to the places we've gone, we can grow,
we can think, we can build.
(rhythmic music)
So one of the places that I go every time I'm in Inglewood
is Ms. Ruby's Bakery.
And that's because they're a landmark, you know?
It's one of those places that, when we were kids growing up,
they embraced us as their own,
so we embraced Ms. Ruby's, you know?
And when I walk in, they already know what I'm getting.
You know, I'm gonna get the young chicken sandwich
with grilled onions and barbecue sauce and ranch dressing.
You know what I'm saying?
So they know what here.
Let's go in.
(rhythmic music)
Sup, Ant dog?
- How you doing?
Good to see you. - Good to see you.
- Everything good with you? - No problems.
How you doing, brother? - Man, I'm excellent.
(rhythmic music)
- I got a little future rapper trying to get your attention.
(laughs) What's up, what's up?
Ready? - Yeah, I'm ready, man.
- How you been, man? - Man, I've been solid, man.
How you been on, my guy?
- [Anthony] Proud of you know. - Thank you.
- Been knowing you for quite some time
when you was doing your grinding coming up.
- You for sure played a role in that.
You know what I'm saying?
When I had a storefront down the street,
remember, you know?
I wouldn't let you know,
but sometimes it was hard times just holding,
I mean, of course you would understand
holding a business together.
You know, you might put your last dollar
into making sure that you got another month.
You know, I will pull up here and you know what I would get.
Same old thing. - [Anthony] Same old thing.
- Chicken sandwich.
- With ranch, grilled onions. - Yep.
- And another sauce.
- Barbecue sauce! - Barbecue sauce.
Yeah boy.
Nah, you for sure was looking at a time when
what I'm living now was a dream that was kind of far off.
It looked like we was well on our way,
but nobody knew that the silent struggle.
- We made it work though, you know, always.
My baby--
- I mean, there was times where you was like, don't trip.
You might not remember that, but I remember you was like,
man, go ahead.
This on me.
This is home base,
and I don't even know if y'all know that.
People walk through here and they feel safe.
- That's what we always tried to do.
Just, you know, make it where if money's not right
or you're going through something, come on, man.
We gonna find you right.
Give me what you got.
And if that's all you got, hold it till the next time.
You know?
- 'Cause I don't wanna take that from you.
- Right, you just put it on the books, you know?
And we've always done that, you know?
So when young brothers come up like you
and a couple of other ones that made,
you know, Mike, now just do that for the next brothers.
- I see y'all still got that yellow cake
with chocolate icing in there too.
- [Anthony] Oh yeah. - You know?
It's funny, man, because only people who grew up in the hood
know that that's everybody's birthday cake.
You know what I'm saying?
- What kind of cake they want?
Yellow with chocolate.
- Yellow and chocolate icing is win.
- All right, get that, everybody like that.
- Every time, you know what I'm saying?
But just being true to yourselves,
y'all created a landmark in the city.
- Thank you. - And you know,
as the city grows, you know what I'm saying?
Y'all got an ally in me, you know what I'm saying?
So that's why I chose to be like, man,
if we gonna pull up in the city,
we're gonna stop by Ms. Ruby's Bakery,
you know I'm saying?
And have a little reunion real quick.
- Man. just watching you do your thing, man,
it really makes me proud.
Like, it's almost, that was in the cards for you.
Your personality fits right where you're at right now.
- Thank you, I appreciate you, bro.
Always a pleasure to catch up with my man Ant.
- Always. - Yes sir.
The number one life lesson I learned
from growing up in Inglewood
is be aware of your surroundings
and be ready to adapt.
There was a time, you know,
and this is a real Inglewood thing where I just,
I went to meet my homie at the bus stop
so that he wasn't walking by hisself.
Even though it meant me walking by myself to go meet him,
but throwing some blue shoes I had on at the time
and blue jeans.
I get to the bus stop meeting him,
and he had on a lot of blue,
and I'm like, what are our chances of us both,
you know, being in a lot of blue
in the middle of Inglewood, and we young,
we like 15, 14 even,
And on the way back home, I was like, all right,
let's just get to the house because we know that
if somebody see us and they don't know who we are,
as youngsters, they're gonna make certain assumptions
based on what we wore.
Sure enough, the Bloods was out on the circle.
They saw us, and then one of them waved us over,
like hey, come here.
He had to be late twenties,
maybe even early thirties with full beard.
He kind of hit us with the like,
hey, where y'all from, you know?
Our response was like, hey, I'm from right here.
I don't bang, but you know, this is where I live.
And he just starts to like describe what we got on.
You got blue this, blue that.
You look like a, you know what I'm saying?
You look like the other side, basically.
And I was like, man, I live right here.
My brother from right here.
And my oldest brother, his name's Ron Ron.
he's actually from that gang.
So I'm like, my brother Ron Ron from the turf over here,
you know what I'm saying?
'Cause as a youngster, you kinda gotta do that.
You kind of associate yourself with other people
who they might be familiar with.
As long as we're being polite,
he was pressing us more.
And it looked like he was about to try to pat our pockets,
and he saw us respond like, hey bro.
And we both stepped like, that's a boundary,
you know what I'm saying?
And it wasn't until we did that, like, is this a fight?
'Cause what you're not gonna do is go in our pockets.
We not those dudes.
And he saw how we responded.
Like, it wasn't until we did that,
that he like, he backed off.
'Cause he was like, okay, they got a little heart.
So we not just lying to get off the hook.
Then after that, he still threatened us,
like if I ever catch y'all around here
looking like that, you know?
We left still feeling like he had just interrupted
our whole day, threw our whole vibe off.
You know, we was just two youngsters,
and he just threw a monkey wrench in our whole program.
That was a moment where I realized that,
you know, the streets can really put you in a predicament
before you even realize it, you know?
And of course, that happened several other times.
you know, as a young teenager.
You know, so.
Inglewood.
- [Director] In three, two, one, and go around.
- So the first time I got in a fight, I was six years old.
And I basically was just fighting kids
in my apartment building because, you know, who knows what?
We played football, somebody's playing too rough
or somebody take your candy.
But the first time I put on the gloves,
I have to say, I was about 10 years old,
and I never turned back once I put on the gloves,
'cause we started off doing karate,
and then we did boxing.
We did boxing and hoods and we did karate in a dojo.
And you know, it was just something you fall in love with
because it's actually safe.
It's not a real fight.
Nobody has bad intentions.
You just really testing yourself
and you're facing your fears.
So I just love boxing.
Always have loved boxing.
And I loved it so much
that I bought my community boxing gym.
Me and my homie David Gross.
We see really big things coming to this boxing gym,
this investment, this community project.
You know, we're gonna make it world famous.
So let's go ahead and get in there.
(soft music)
(upbeat drum music)
D. Gross.
- [David] Smoke, what's good, bro?
- What's up, big doubt?
- [David] What you in here doing?
- Man, you know what I do.
- Giving you a favorite rapper workout.
- Oh, okay, okay.
We gonna see about it.
- Where's somebody with some hands?
Where they at? - Man, right here.
(soft music)
- What was that taking it from?
Because everybody does the home gloves,
hood boxing in the backyard.
What made you say,
I wanna go get some real, structured training?
- I will fight anybody in gloves in the hood.
I wasn't big on fighting to solve problems
or getting mad and squabbling.
That wasn't my thing,
but I will put on gloves, look somebody in the eye,
and I'd be like, you ready?
Tap gloves and go.
Like everybody's entry into the sport, I got whooped.
You know what I'm saying?
My first couple of times.
But you know, I learned and learned
and kept getting that experience,
and then next thing you know, I was doing the whooping.
- So what do you want other people who are looking at boxing
and thinking about boxing,
what do you want them to take away from it or learn from it?
- I would have to say discipline, self-confidence,
you know what I'm saying?
A productive outlet,
but also give them a set of habits
that make them more confident
when they step out into the world, you know?
So they can be that a warrior in the garden
and not the gardener out in the middle of a war.
- What's the most rewarding part
of being a business owner for you?
- Being able to provide a space for the community
to come inside and feel welcome.
You know what I'm saying?
And feel safe, relatively.
You know what I'm saying?
And to grow, just being able to open your doors
and be like, yeah, y'all come on in.
There's no greater feeling than that.
And when people come in and walk up the stairs,
to see them be moved by the love that's in the space
or the history that's in a space like this,
that's the most rewarding part.
So what would you say is the most challenging part
of owning a business?
- That's like a trick question,
'cause it's hard getting started.
And then after you get started,
as far as working, it's hard to scale.
And then after you scale, it's hard to manage.
Owning and operating a business in the community,
I think the hardest thing is probably managing
the dynamic or the tension between trying to make money,
but then trying to value and support the community.
There's a natural tension there.
You own a gym, you wanna charge as much as possible,
get as many employees as possible.
That doesn't work here.
You don't want that to be the case here.
You know what I mean,
if you wanna make it accessible to everybody.
Probably every business around here,
they manage that dynamic and try to figure it out.
- How to make it lucrative,
how to really have a heart,
and make it accessible for the community.
- Exactly. - That's real.
That's that fine line we gotta walk.
- Nah, you know I was talking my shit earlier.
- Like you always do.
- I seen some of earlier footage from in here.
I know you got some hands.
So I came to check out young Gustavo.
I wanna see what you got now.
- Okay, sure will.
If you in the ring, you know you're in a danger zone.
- Hey, I got my bag in the trunk.
- Hey man, well then go get ready.
What you waiting for?
The actual lifeblood of Inglewood is a very creative,
unique, healthy group of people is to create spaces
where learning takes different forms.
And there's no excuse not to have it
because it's way too much money coming into the city.
So if we do that, then we'll win.
(rhythmic music)
(upbeat music)