In the second Cannes interview, Doug Melville talks with Flavor Flav about his music and touring connections, then focuses on Flav’s pivot into supporting athletes and women’s sports. Flav talks about how he began sponsoring the U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team, after reading captain Maggie Steffens’ story, then expanded support to the full U.S. Olympic water polo program, men and women. (He also tried water polo himself!) Flav talks trying to bobsled and skeleton in Park City, and even aiming to possibly compete in 2030. Flav details S.H.E. Weekend—Sports, Hospitality and Entertainment—created after the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team didn’t receive the same White House recognition as the men, including a Las Vegas parade route from Bellagio to T-Mobile Arena, performances by Sheila E., Chuck D, Montel Jordan, and others, and celebrations for women gold medalists and Paralympians.

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Doug Melville interviews seven-time Grammy winner and founder of the Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativit in France. The discussion is about implementing AI for creativity and problem-solving. Will.i.am shares his history in the tech space over the past 20 year and his pivot from music into hardware, recounting early work with music executive and entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine, building of an AI watch with contextual voice capabilities, and being an early investor in companies like Tesla, Twitter, Lovable, Anthropic, and others. He explains his platform, FYI.ai, and its value proposition as a secure, collaborative messenger for large files and IP protection. Will.i.am argues it’s too early to fear AI and compares it to a life “cheat code” people should learn.

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Doug Melville sits down with the owner/operator of Destination Smokehouse Nick Yepremian, in an exclusive interview. His Southern California restaurant was where “Tendernism” was born. But after the success of generating hundreds of millions of views on social, Walter ‘Unc’ Johnson and Nick separated. Nick explains how “Tendernism” originated, discusses the trademark controversy, the equity conversation, the Keith Lee visit, and looks to clear up and address misconceptions about Walter’s role, while outlining plans to refocus locally and expand to other cities.

Destination Smokehouse in Murrieta, California

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