- You know, when I was four or five years old
I was playing video games.
I would sit in front of my TV, you know, playing video games
for hours and hours.
When I was in the third, fourth, fifth grade, my parents
you know, at times had to take away my console
'cause I was just so attached to it.
I would play Call of Duty -- - First kill.
- Minecraft -- - Oh my God.
- - all sorts of games growing up.
- Let's go!
You know, I always knew I had an entertaining
personality to me.
So I always knew that I wanted to endure this.
I, I had a stepmother at the time that she was pushing
you know, that I would go to college and become a lawyer.
And I liked arguing.
I like getting into conversations.
I loved talking.
Right? But I just knew that, you know, I didn't
wanna do that route.
You know, I didn't, I didn't see myself going to college
for years on years and years. I just, just kind
of knew that, like, I was destined to do this.
When you have no followers, it's the hardest part.
But if you believe in yourself, you know, you truly
can see yourself being someone, you know
somebody. You're just gonna get there.
You know, the law of attraction, I'm a heavy believer
in that, you know, whether you're religious or not, there's
there's definitely a higher power.
You, you definitely gonna get signs.
You're definitely gonna get realizations and you
gotta study those things and, and you know
you gotta catch onto them.
If you're getting a sign, you know, if you're in
a toxic relationship, you're getting multiple signs
that this person is, is not the one, leave that person.
So I got multiple signs to be a streamer and I
kept doing the signs and there would be obstacles.
Like for example, my Twitch would get banned or
I would get denied partnership.
But that just means you gotta work harder and work smarter.
So that's what I did.
Growing up in Three Rivers, you know,
it's like very, very small.
Everyone knows each other.
It's one of those types of communities.
You just get like a family vibe to it because everyone
is just always like, in each other's business
and stuff, so...
When I was about, I think I was like 12 or 13,
I was sleeping over at a family member's house.
And like a cousin of mine was heavily under drugs
and they got a knife and they stabbed me in my arm.
And luckily, you know, I was sleeping like this.
They could have got like here or somewhere around here
but I was very lucky
but I woke up, pulled it out, went to the hospital.
I'm glad I went
through something that traumatic at a young age
so I could prepare myself for more trauma in the future.
- Damn, bro!
- My very first console was a Nintendo 64.
It came out around the same, like when I was a baby.
So I played it, you know
for the first time when I was like four years old.
I played Mortal Kombat in
like, a diaper and just like play it like all day
all night when I was like four or five.
I realized when I started streaming
on Twitch that I could really make this a living
I would say senior year in high school, you know, it was
it was the second half of senior year
right after winter break, Christmas break.
And I knew to myself like, hey
it's time to stop effing around.
If you really wanna make a career of this
you gotta do it now.
You can't wait till after you graduate
'cause it's more pressure.
You're gonna have to get a job and all these things.
So I knew at that point I was like, okay
it's time to lock in.
I didn't go to my high school prom.
I missed out a lot of opportunities with my friends,
a lot of field trips.
I was actually gonna miss my graduation believe it or not.
So the senior year you're supposed to enjoy
your senior year
but for me I was just in another type of like, mindset.
It was crazy.
And all my friends were obviously doing the partying and stuff.
So I was sitting there, 12 hour streams every weekend,
back to it back just going crazy and grinding.
So when I started making, you know
a couple thousand dollars a month as a senior
playing video games, you're just like, damn, this is crazy.
From that point on, I was like, okay
now I realize how big this can be.
I'm actually not much
of a competitor when it comes to, you know, gaming. I'm more
of an entertainer, you know, to me that's more important
because you can establish a bigger community
because you know, you're, you're connecting with them
on a family basis. When you're really just kind
of attracting a viewership for competitiveness,
when that game dies out, for example, Fortnite has dips.
What's gonna happen?
Your viewers are gonna die out as well.
So how I look at it is when you
when you're coming into this thing, you gotta
like really like find out what you really want to do.
And I think attracting a community that loves
you for you is way more important than, you know
a competitive community.
- Everyone join my parking joins
so I can rep up next to you guys.
- NBA 2K, I, you know, I
I get pretty competitive when I, when it comes down to it.
But you know, I started
off streaming NBA 2K19 and I've actually put more hours
in than any other game, which is crazy
before anyone who knew who I was and it paid off.
- Bro, I could cook Brony.
- Yeah. He could cook Brony.
- I met Brony around quarantine NBA 2K20.
I remember I was averaging like 1,500 viewers
and Brony was just in my stream and he joined.
We just played like NBA 2K together for the first time.
And then me and Brony just played together
and we just did a lot of wagers,
which is, wagers is where you play for money.
And we happened to win a really big one.
- Let's go Brony!
We can literally win Brony! Give your energy, bro,
give it to me, Brony, give it to me.
- And when I was playing that wager with Brony versus Tyceno,
when LeBron James comes on the microphone
and you're just like, you've never met anyone,
like any celebrities, especially like it's LeBron.
You're just like...
- What's good, bro?
- Is this LeBron?
- [Laughs] He said, "Is this LeBron?"
- I, I was shitting bricks.
I mean, my reaction says it all.
It's an authentic reaction.
- Hold on bro, what the fuck?
- You know, I'm just like, in shock.
And when I went viral for the first time,
SportsCenter, Bleacher Report, House of Highlights.
It was a big step stone
to my career.
NBA 2K21, I was unhappy with. They started,
they launched the game.
They launched the game,
the servers were horrible.
It was not playable.
People were lagging, you gotta play on this
certain camera that nobody plays on.
And I started a hashtag #MAKE2KFUNAGAIN.
And it went number one worldwide.
They cut me off.
They don't like me anymore because of it.
They can't take criticism.
They're just soft.
It's that simple.
I'm appreciative of the game itself, you know
without 2K I wouldn't be where I am today
and I know that.
But the way they treat their community is just not right.
I want to thank you, 2K, for making such a horrible game
because if it wasn't for that, I would've stayed on 2K.
So I had to, you know, get outta that community and expand.
And that's why I did the e-dates and then the GTA,
I mean, GTA's GTA, so...
Alright chat, now we're now about to make
a hit song in the studio. We're about to make a diss track.
When I left the 2K community,
I was averaging maybe 5 to 10K. The e-dates
literally doubled my numbers, 10 to 20K easily,
every night.
I could just sit there in the Discord
with my friends and just chop it off for hours
and I'm still gonna have people watch me, thousands.
That's what's important, you know
developing a community, a very strong community
that'll watch you no matter what you do,
no matter what planned, they're just gonna be there.
- But do you still play the game?
- I still play the game.
Yeah. I still play 2K,
of course.
I wanted to get into many sides of entertainment.
You know, I always wanted to expand, get into IRL streaming.
IRL streaming is
in real life streaming, you know, just chatting, streaming.
So where I, you know
you see me do the collabs with the guests and stuff,
I just knew I wanted to keep expanding.
I knew I wasn't just gonna be an NBA 2K streamer.
I moved to making my own GTA server.
I moved to doing, you know, hot tub streams
with people and just all sorts of, you know, out of
out of box type of things.
I would say my first biggest,
biggest, biggest check from streaming was actually a year ago.
It was literally probably January of 2021.
It was after SSB World launched.
I got the server check and I got my Twitch check
and I put so many hours in everything.
So many viewers.
And I remember I went
out to visit LA, fell in love with that lifestyle.
I got caught up in it a little bit, you know, went shopping
on Rodeo, went shopping for some designer stuff,
saw the nice cars. I was like, okay, bet.
And then I got hit up to do a creator house
with Banks, Ricegum, Sommer Ray and Mike Majlak.
And I was like, okay, bet.
My first big purchase is gonna be a car.
And I bought myself up Lamborghini Urus.
The key to stay on course is just, you know
you gotta stay motivated, consistent.
You gotta be around people that bring you up.
You gotta be around people that are gonna bring
you outta bed and just be like, yo, it's time to work.
It's time to grind.
It's time to lock in.
- I think Adin should get a piercing too.
- I'll do it.
Let's do it for a stream
and a tattoo. I'll tattoo, whatever you want me to --
- Bro,
and stop saying, "Let's do it for a stream."
Let's do it for life.
- Uzi is someone I literally kick it with for hours
and hours and hours
in the studio and just going around, you know, New York
with him, you know, a lot of these rappers and a lot
of these people involved in my space
they really just wanna work
and then after work, they'll just split ways
and that's cool, you know, that's business.
I get it.
But some of them you're gonna build a relationship
and a bond with and Uzi's
one of them, for sure.
He's someone who genueinly cares about his people
and he keeps his circle close.
For sure.
I met Uzi through Ray.
Ray has always been there for me, introduced me to people
that you know, that I've always looked up to
whether that's Cactus Jack or that's, you know, Uzi or just
you know, other streamers and just, he's always
just been, you know, looking out.
I met Sheck through Ray. Ray told Sheck about me.
Sheck hit me.
We talked like for like an hour, the first time
we FaceTimed, I got him into my GTA world, the SSB world.
And from then on, and we've just been really good
friends.
- This is my boy Adin Ross.
- I don't really kick it
with a lot of these rappers off, you know, cameras.
So he's one of them, for sure.
- You got into some beefs and controversies
with rappers like Foolio and Polo G.
- Yeah.
- Got you a lot of attention.
Do you think that in a way it helped your career?
- Oh, a hundred percent.
My first, you know, just, altercation
with Julio Foolio was just me singing a song that was
dissing his dead family members and stuff and friends.
So for me, I'm not knowing what that meant.
And at that time I, you know, I got into an altercation
you know, and I apologized. - And that's just on me bro.
And that's just on me.
I just gotta understand where to draw a
line or whatever and that's on me.
- And with Polo G, you know,
I understood him and it definitely humbled me
and matured me because you can't play a certain way with
certain people that don't play that way.
And you gotta respect that.
You gotta respect boundaries and that's just how it is
but it definitely helped me for sure.
Went viral everywhere, I mean, clips were made.
Followers were gained.
Money was made, definitely helped.
I got no problems with anybody right now.
Nah, I have no issues with Julio, Julio
and I actually, you know, we're,
we're good friends. Polo and I are cool.
You know, we're fine.
We're past it.
I was involved, you know, in a crypto scam.
That's, that's something, you know
you come into the game, you know, you're 20 years old.
You have no guidance.
You have no management.
You have nobody telling you, you know, this is good or bad.
And I see a big check.
I'm like, yo, I gotta take this.
It's too much money.
It's the most money I've ever received from anything.
And without knowing,
'cause I wasn't knowledgeable at that time
what I was doing, I did it.
You know, you see people
I don't wanna throw names, but you see big time
A-list people and other influencers in your space do it.
You're like, okay, if they're doing it, can't be so bad.
I did it.
Do I regret it?
No, because you know, I just,
I know that I'm never gonna make that mistake again.
Ever try to put people onto something that's gonna flop.
You know what I'm saying?
So, you know,
there's still people that probably wanna rip my head off
but I can say, you know, one thing
if anybody that I know that watches my stream
has ever bought that token, I've always been, been like
show me proof, show me the receipts.
And I'll reimburse you myself.
Nobody from my community personally that I found
so far has purchased it.
If I do, and you're seeing this, you know
hit me up, I got you.
I'm human.
I'm gonna make mistakes.
I'm gonna grow from it.
I'm gonna, you know, keep trying to get better.
I'm gonna keep maturing.
People see a lot of clips, you know,
they judge people off clips.
But one thing I could tell you is, you know
I'm trying my best and yeah,
I'm just living my life and doing the best I can.
I, I wouldn't change anything at all.
I wouldn't go back in time and you know
change anything because it would've probably altered,
you know, my reality, it's the butterfly effect.
There's a lot of people that like, look up to me
and I help a lot of people, you know, get away from their,
their life problems and I'm a fix for them.
So for me now it's kind of a, a reliability
but I love it because I love connecting with my people.
For example, I, I moved out to LA
and I really am focusing on different type of content
which is just more personal for myself and my audience
because they can connect and relate to me more.
I'm doing longer streams, putting in more hours, more days
a week, being more consistent.
And it's given me opportunity to connect
with them more, read chat more, you know,
like literally just be myself more.
What's next is a great question.
'Cause if you ask a year ago,
I would not be able to tell you that I'm here.
You know what I'm saying?
So I don't know what's next.
But one thing I could tell you is I'm not done.
I gotta dive deep in this music industry.
I would say YouTube is probably my next step,
getting into YouTube.
If you, if I were to look back in high school, be like,
"Yo Adin, you're gonna be making tons of money,
having tons of fun and having a community, a big community,"
- We are at 39,887.
- I'd be like, nah, it's not, no, there's no way.
I feel like I got it really quick.
And you know, with the power of TikTok, anyone
can get it right now really quick.
- What is this thing that you were most proud of thus far?
- I think I'm most proud of being,
you know, successful at 21,
but I feel like I have so much more to do
and so much more to prove.
And I have so much more to accomplish that
I'm not even like, proud of myself as of right now
but I'm grateful and appreciative.
Don't get me wrong.
I like every day I'm like, wow.
My life is amazing.
My life is great.
I just, I'm not really proud of myself fully yet
if that makes sense, because I wanna stay focused.
Everything for me is just business.
Time is money.
So you know, I'm working right now.
I'm, I'm, at the, I'm 21.
I'm young.
I gotta, I gotta grind right now.
You know, I gotta, I gotta make sure I'm working.
I think remaining true to yourself is the biggest key.
I'm not really too worried about the, the clout now.
Like, I'm more just like really happy with what
I have and appreciative of what I have and you know,
that's my core.
That's all I really care about this point.
Listen man, in life, you're dealt cards.
Okay. Excuses are literally the most stupid thing.
Stop using excuses, boss up, get up and grind.
You can make a TikTok right now, just create content.
You can, you know what I mean?
Like, just grind.
That's all I gotta say.
Just do it.