I'm T-Pain. You know me as a musician.
Aha!
But what you don't know is that I'm a businessman,
and I'm obsessed with finding the newest tech...
Science! ...newest food,
newest culture, newest everything.
Oh, man.
I'm taking my curiosity on the road
to meet the entrepreneurs who are defining the future.
I've been an entrepreneur all my life.
I'm gonna get a feel for their companies
and find out how they turn their ideas into reality.
We raised a few million dollars.
Genius!
This is "T-Pain's School of Business."
[ Laughs ]
Why am I standing out in a burning parking lot
in the middle of Cowville, California?
I found two guys that are gonna change the world,
right here, right now.
And it's not a game, it's not a bike,
it's not anything to do with technology.
It's [bleep] ramen noodles.
You heard me right.
Somebody decided to make healthy ramen noodles.
You could literally give me a choice between
gourmet restaurants or sitting in my bed playing
"God of War" eating ramen noodles,
and guess which one I'm picking.
They don't have PlayStations in gourmet restaurants.
So now I'm going in to meet Tim and Tom Zheng --
I call them the Zheng Gang -- from Vite Ramen.
Let's go try it.
Zheng Gang. That's fun to say.
Healthy ramen. How important is this?
Pretty important for me, 'cause my sodium intake
is through the damn roof.
This is Vite Ramen.
This is the world's first instant ramen
that's actually good for you.
During our college days,
I was just playing way too many games.
I always needed something quick,
something tasty, something filling.
But you know, after a while, you just only eat
instant ramen... -Yeah.
...mood starts going [whistles]
I get it. That's like me and porn.
So I get it. I can relate.
So we got to make a better version,
'cause we eat this shit, like, every day.
T-Pain: Every year, 100 billion packs of ramen noodles
are sold around the world.
But with the high sodium, chemical preservatives,
and all the deep frying, instant ramen
isn't exactly good for you.
So Tim and Tom saw a huge opportunity
for a healthy option.
They managed to crowdsource a boatload of seed money.
Now they're finishing their Kickstarter orders,
selling directly to consumers online
and hoping to get into retail grocery stores worldwide.
They could become the healthy noodle of the future.
Yes!
What was the learning curve
dealing with just everything that had nothing to do
with anything you guys were interested in at all?
We failed about three to five times
on literally everything we've done.
Personally, I've worked on 50 more variations
per flavor at least. -Good God.
There were a lot of late nights where --
where he's like, "Okay, Tom, I'm gonna go do flavors."
And, like, he calls me up at,
like, 1:00 A.M.,
he's like, "Tom, I need you to taste this."
There's just nights where you're just hovering
over bowls, like, [straining] I can't eat it!
Yeah.
We didn't do very well in high school.
He had a higher GPA than me.
-Not by much. -Yeah.
-Not by -- Not by much. -Yeah.
If it's any consolation, I dropped out in eighth grade.
Everybody has their different walks in life.
I didn't even make it to high school.
Just -- Just said [bleep] it, and here we are.
That's one of the big things that people
don't like to talk about.
You don't always have to take the path to be, like,
a doctor or a lawyer or something to be successful
or to really have fun or really enjoy life.
It's really important to show
that we're willing to put in the work, too,
and it's not just, like, "Oh, we're --
we're here to make money.
Like, we're here to make noodles."
That really helps the morale, too,
'cause if I don't see you coming in, I'm not doing shit.
Yeah, right?
I bet there's a lot of teachers and elders pissed off right now,
because I'm sure there's a good number of people
that told Tim and Tom,
"You're not gonna make any money playing those games
and eating those noodles."
[ Laughs ]
That's all they're doing now.
What kind of ramen guys are you guys?
Like, are -- are you add noodles, water,
seasoning, that's it, holler?
Or are you guys, like, bok choy in that [bleep] real quick,
half an egg, like, actual live shri-- I don't know.
Like, you know, there's some people that --
there's some people that just go the extra mile,
and I'm like, "You should've just cooked something."
Dude, yeah, no, exactly.
We are just water, get back to the game.
Good shit. Okay. That makes sense.
That's what we actually designed this for.
We didn't want it to be, like, "Oh, you know, in order
to get all your vitamins, you got to add an egg,
and you got to add all the --" Nah.
This has 27 grams of complete protein in it,
all in the ramen itself,
and 25% daily value of every single vitamin and mineral.
So it's just, like, everything your body needs,
boom, pour hot water in it,
add the things, you're done.
Hey, let's make some noodles.
When you make noods, you got to put on some gloves first.
Got to put protection. -Protection.
I usually skip this part.
Mm.
Nope, wait, nope. Hold on.
God damn it. You know what?
Shout-out to all the nurses and doctors and shit,
'cause [bleep] this.
[ Sighs ]
I can do this.
Boom. -Oh, yeah.
Is it like a poopy diaper?
T-Pain: So it turns out making instant ramen noodles
is actually incredibly easy.
You whisk together the dry ingredients...
Oh, yeah. Pure boga time, baby.
...add the wet ingredients...
This is the secret ingredient that makes ramen ramen.
-Vodka. -Vodka, yeah.
This is kansui.
This is actually what gives ramen its distinctive chew
and yellow color.
T-Pain: ...mix that into a batter,
press the batter into a roll...
Man: And just bits of dough are dropping down there,
and it's just pressing it together.
Oh, and it's just standing -- Oh, that is nice.
Thinning that thing on out.
This is super cool.
T-Pain: ...cut the roll into the noodles, dehydrate those,
throw those into a package, and you're done.
The hard part is making instant ramen
both healthy and delicious.
I didn't eat today.
I was making sure I was gonna be hungry enough.
Let's go have some. -Alright.
We got some big portions for you.
Okay. Let's do it.
That's what she said.
I've learned the full process.
I made sure I didn't eat before I got here
so I could be hungry enough to eat this [bleep]
At this point, I'm ready to let my hair down and eat some ramen.
Whoo, step one.
Phase two commences.
Oh, look at that.
Oh, you saucy mama. Let's see what we got, man.
God, geez. You ready, fellas?
♪♪
So?
Still analyzing everything.
♪♪
Mmm.
Holy [bleep] that's good.
[ Laughter ]
You did it. You did it.
-Thank you. -You did it.
Like, I can switch this out on my wife
and she wouldn't even know.
Man, this is really [bleep] good.
What's the plan? What's the -- What's the vision?
No matter what happens, no matter how big we get
or where we go, if it becomes a factory of 300
or whatnot, we're still gonna be producing in the U.S.
That's awesome, man. Ohh!
T-Pain: The homey Tim has invited
the whole U.C. Davis "Overwatch" team
to come play us to make sure that Vite Ramen
and gaming goes together.
Let's see if that works whilst I'm getting in that ass
of U.C. Davis.
-Ohh! -Ohh!
[ Indistinct yelling ]
How's that going? Is it good?
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Mmm. Is the noodles helping?
Are they -- Are they helping?
Uh, yeah, man. I'm destroying people.
Never felt like it.
Ah, I wouldn't say destroying.
I'll be the judge of that.
I'm down, I'm down, I'm down.
Oh, see? See what happens?
The rez is real!
The rez is real, bitch.
My main takeaway for today, if there's a popular
but totally unhealthy product out there, re-invent it,
'cause Tim and Tom did.
They got a customer for life.
You know what's awesome?
In a whole bunch of states right now, weed is completely legal.
Just in California alone, it's become a $4 billion industry.
I'm not joking -- with a "B."
I feel like I should just restart smoking weed now.
Is it bad to start in your 30s?
That's not weird, is it?
There's joints, there's vapes.
I saw a chick just lay out some weed
and just set it on fire and just let it fill the room.
That was just dumb. That was stupid to do.
It worked. It did work. It did fill the room.
Cookies, brownies, weed cake, weed macaroni and cheese.
But I know what you haven't heard of,
and guess what I done stumbled upon.
Weed wine.
Good Lord.
I'm about to meet Chip and Alex, two guys from Rebel Coast Wine.
They may be able to capture some of that $4 billion
for themselves.
Who's ready for some of that?
♪♪
Chip and Alex aren't exactly what comes to mind
when I think professional wine makers in Southern California.
So obviously I got to learn the secrets
to legally selling weed wine from your house.
You're making weed wine.
The world's first cannabis-infused
alcohol-removed Sauvignon Blanc to start.
Where do you make it at? Is it --
Chip: Grow the grapes in Sonoma,
make the wine, then we remove all the alcohol up there,
'cause you can't sell cannabis and alcohol
in the same building or in the same product.
Seems like they go together, though.
-Hell yeah. -We thought so, too.
Seems like you want both. Don't you want both?
This is something brand-new.
Nobody's ever heard of it, no one's thought of it.
So we had to spend a lot of time with lawyers.
Did you guys, like, come into rhymes with, like,
you guys can't do that? -Everyone.
-Every day. -Absolutely.
We get people saying, "You're not allowed to do that,
you're not supposed to be doing that,"
labeling requirements, how much can be in it,
whether the bottle has to be opaque.
I mean, these things are... -Good gravy.
And that's just in California.
Why'd you guys pick the name "Rebel Coast"?
Well, we got sued for our first name.
So obviously, first things first,
when you start a business, get yourself a good lawyer.
Don't hire your friends.
They'll [bleep] you over every time.
Looking at you, Randy.
Okay. All right.
T-Pain: Chip and Alex are about to start selling their weed wine
in California cannabis dispensaries.
They're hoping that millennials --
the fastest-growing group of wine consumers in the country --
will love their product.
Alex: It's gonna affect you much quicker
than most things out there, right?
So it's kind of 10 to 20 minutes at the most,
most people are starting to feel the effects,
which super different than most other edibles.
Chip: Which is good, because it's a glass of w--
Like, you're actually drinking.
You're not, like, "Alright, I want to be, like,
drunk in, like, two hours." -Right, right, yeah.
"I want to catch a buzz right now."
What kind of sess was happening that made this?
Conceptually, I just don't know where your minds were.
I went to school to study winemaking,
and while I was making traditional wine,
just in the back cellar,
we would just take a barrel of -- of wine
and a pound of schwag and then you have weed wine.
But it has alcohol in it. -Oh, I hear that.
So that's when we had the idea.
It was like, "Dude,
we can't mix alcohol and cannabis together,
but what if we just remove the alcohol?"
How do you get the alcohol out of the alcohol?
[ Laughter ]
The way we found that works best
is reverse osmosis in a vertical still.
After we make the wine, there's only 14%
of that actual liquid is alcohol.
We literally remove that 14%,
and then it retains all the flavor if you do it right.
Coat the THC molecule in something that dissipates
as soon as it gets into your body.
That's why ours is fast-acting.
-That's so great, man. -You ready to taste this stuff?
I'm gonna be utterly useless after I drink that.
-Perfect. -I can guarantee it.
Clink. I've never done that before.
That was a first time for me... with these.
I do it with plastic cups all the time.
But I'm a classy bitch, so...
We funded this company ourselves,
so we had all this money on the line,
we had all this product out there.
And once the cork's in the bottle,
you can't do anything about it.
-Yeah. -You have to have it right.
And we didn't know if it was gonna work.
Like, what are we doing?
How are we gonna make this taste better?
Is everything -- Like, is it still
gonna get people high after it's been bottling?
The next morning, I woke up and I tried it
and I was like, "Oh, shit, dude.
This is -- This is gonna do it."
Nice.
Like, I was like, "We can sell this."
Oh, man. Like, we could really sell this.
Can anybody do, like, weed wine?
Is this, like, something you can just, like,
throw together some household...
It took us a while to figure it out,
and technically, if they do try to do it,
they're gonna be violating our patent, so...
Oh, yeah, that's a big thing.
They probably shouldn't try to do it.
-Once again, lawyer up. -Lawyer up.
-Yeah. -Good job, everybody.
What I haven't seen yet is weed wine
in its natural habitat -- at the party.
I need to see is the bottle fly like that
to keep up with my fly parties
or any fly parties across the world.
So let's go to one of Alex and Chip's backyard parties
and see what's really poppin'.
Staten Island!
Ahh, that's magic.
Ooh.
It's like a hairy woman.
Uh, what do I do? -Nothing.
What do I do? Oh, boy.
-Ah! -Oh.
Oh, Jesus. -Whoa.
Man #2: I feel bad. You must be freezing.
Yep. Get -- Come on.
That is perfect.
So, guys, I've tried the weed wine.
It works.
It's amazing.
It's really good.
Um, lost my point.
Nope, I got it.
So, my takeaway from today is, if you can create a patent
that fits inside one of the fastest-growing industries
on the planet and outsource the manufacturing
so you can just work from home, you've pretty much won at life.
I don't know what I'm gonna do for the rest of the night,
but I'm 100% sure it's gonna be this.
Yes, this is what I'm doing for the rest of the night.
Phew.
Alright. You'll figure it out.
Peep my coat, bitch.
[ Laughing ]
[ Rooster crows ]
I'm pretty well known for bringing
music and technology together,
so I'm always looking for new technology,
I'm always making new music.
And it's kind of my thing.
And young musicians around the world agree
with me that technology is the future of music.
And that's why I'm here to meet the inventors
of the Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1, a brand-new technology
that claims to put every musical instrument
you could ever want right in your backpack
and let anyone become a musician.
But is it true? Is Artiphon the next GarageBand?
Hey, let's find out. -I'm Mike.
-How you doing, Mike? -Jacob.
How you doing, Jacob? Very nice to meet you guys.
Well, what have we got here, guys?
Mike: This is the Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1.
This looks so interesting.
It plugs into apps, like on your phone or computer,
GarageBand, so that really you just plug into a sound,
you choose the way you want to play,
and you're off and running. -That's awesome.
T-Pain: It looks like it's from the future.
The idea here is that anyone
can play music, right? -Okay.
Like, technology should empower creativity.
-That is very true. -It can be any instrument.
♪♪
This is -- We call it iBow. -iBow.
We just use the phone as a, uh, as a bow.
[ Violin music playing ]
Ahh.
You're blowing my mind.
Oh, my goodness.
T-Pain: The Artiphon is a brand-new technology
that squeezes every musical instrument
I can ever want right in my backpack,
so I can have my own studio everywhere I go.
Mind-blowing.
So, do you normally play guitar?
[ Guitar music plays ]
It doesn't sound like that.
-Try it out, man. -So useful!
♪♪
The next big idea is just locked in somebody
that just are afraid to pick up an actual guitar
and are afraid to even try hitting keys,
and this will probably unlock, like,
a smash record out of somebody.
We can probably just box one of these up now.
Let's get one of these -- -We'll take it to go.
Yeah.
Seven years ago,
I had just finished up a PhD in sound studies,
and I was figuring out what to do next,
hanging out with some friends, and playing music,
but we didn't have any instruments.
So we got out our phones and, like,
strummed around on the screen.
And so, the idea was, can we make an instrument
that tapped into all that power, that anyone could play?
And we basically prototyped it for about four years.
Jacob: We put it on Kickstarter.
You know, it just kind of caught fire.
It raised $1.3 million, and...
-What's that? -$1.3 million.
And you were going for how much?
-$75,000. -$1.3 million.
Yes, it's the largest instrument crowdfund in the world.
-What? -That's what we said.
I'm trying to wrap my head around that.
I'm very tempted to see what I can do with it,
'cause I'm complete trash at most instruments,
but I feel like I can stack something together,
make it sound real nice.
I'm gonna use it tonight, and I've just seen it today.
Let's see what it can really do in 30 minutes.
Trash, it's fire.
Shit, fire, bro.
♪♪
[ Whistles ]
-Oh, what's that? -That's cool.
Ahh.
You ready to record it real quick?
I can try. I can try to record it,
because usually I'm ass at this.
[ Piano music playing ]
♪♪
What kept you going through the whole thing?
Like, what kept you saying,
"This is gonna be [bleep] great one day.
It's shit right now, but I'm telling you, one day..."
What really kept me going was just this vision
of normal people picking up an instrument
who never thought they could before
and having a good time.
And you weren't gonna stop until that happened.
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
That's dedication, people.
Believe in yourself and what you're doing,
even if other people don't believe in it.
Keep going.
♪♪
Music and technology coming together
to make something so accessible, so fun --
basically anybody can become a musician.
I'm in this gigantic studio full of equipment --
big board, all this gear, all this rack stuff.
I didn't need any of it.
This is what the future looks like now.
Get used to it.
Remix everything, from ramen noodles
to wine to music.
Just don't be afraid to take a risk.
You might end up changing the world forever.
Class dismissed.