In Conversation with Cheets Wij of TYPEMedia. An interview with Melbourne's meme lord and all-round funny guy who built his business @typemediaau from the ground up during the COVID days. We sat down with @cheetswij pre-semester to talk about the beginning of TYPE, his relationship working with Sportsbet and creating narratives through memes.
Normally we start by asking our guest to explain the work they do, and I guess yours is a bit unconventional in a way.
It’s just a weird job to explain to people. A lot of people don’t get it- a lot of old people don’t understand, so I just say it’s ‘marketing.’ But when you strip it all back, I literally got this job because I was good at making memes, and I had a good understanding of sports narratives. There's a massive gap in Australia vs America. I love my American sports- and you see in American sport and even in the English Premier League- that whilst sports media in Australia is all through talk shows, overseas it's through the humour in memes. I got into it at the right time, when basically everyone was kind of sick of seeing the same guys on the news and I would literally put things up that went like, ‘Hey, the Bulldogs lost this weekend but have a look at this.’ It's more consumable.
Literally, I didn't even think of it being a job or anything like that. I didn't think about making money. Any kid with an ethnic background is forced to go to uni. You need to make sure you have a proper job where your family can tell other family members, ‘Hey, how good’s my son!’ I'm not going to come out and say I was a f*cking genius. I just had that ethnic grind. So I went to uni, did social work, was halfway to my masters in social work, and then COVID hit. I was like, alright. I’m a part of these SuperCoach leagues and I’m a big fan of footy stats and numbers, but I just didn’t like working with numbers. I liked being the class clown.
I was a part of this SuperCoach league that got featured in the Herald Sun because we used to have presentation nights where we wore suits- before it was cool to do that! We had a league of 14 people rocking up to presentation night in suits, and we'd have awards like Meme of the Year. It would be pretty hectic, and the banter was so full-on that everyone was memeing and you would get inside everyone's heads. I'd be like, ‘Oh man, I’m in your head, I am not losing to you this week.’ It got to a point where I was thinking to start doing video head-swaps- before we had all this technology. Not many people would be tapping around with it at that time, and I was thinking I would start doing these videos with people I’m playing SuperCoach against. No joke when I say I got so good at this during COVID. Instead of playing Modern Warfare or anything like that, I was just like, ‘nah, I'm just gonna do these things head swaps.’ Not even with the intention of picking up work.
One thing led to another, and I just kept playing around with this software, and then I had a friend that played cricket with me give me a call. We played the sh*ttest grade of cricket. It was just for laughs, and there was this guy who looked like an elite athlete but was a shocking cricketer. We made a page for him based off his name, because he was a school teacher and we couldn’t use his real name. His name was Paul Type. So this page that I created, if you scroll all the way back on Twitter and Facebook you would be able to see all these random memes I was making, and Type Media was based off this guy doing stupid sh*t at cricket that made me go, ‘this is hilarious, people gotta know.’ No one cared enough, obviously. But then I thought, ‘man, I got really good skills here, it would be a shame for it to go to waste.’
So the I started doing these really sh*tty footy memes. But at that time, I thought they were so good. You know how there was a period when everyone was bingeing shows during COVID? I was bingeing Seinfeld, and I’d already seen it. I was memorizing scenes. That’s how hectically I was getting into it. And then I was like, ‘I wonder if there’s a Seinfeld related footy page?’ and I came across this guy, and I started making memes for him. After a point I realized, ‘screw this guy, I can do it myself,’ and I made it under the banner, Type Media.
What would you say to your past self about all this?
The journey from there is crazy. If I could go back and speak to myself, I would be like, ‘mate, you're in for a f*cking ride.’ I was in a job where it was very heavy with trauma. I was dealing with a lot of kids from broken homes, and I had a kid that passed away on me in a joyride car accident. It was heavy sh*t, so this was kind of like a little escape.
No, we were just saying before you came it’s sort of like a balancing act, you know?
100% man, and I think in a way that I didn't even know it was like a little bit of therapy. Looking back at it when I was younger I always tended to be the class clown and stuff and it was just a way to counteract your experiences, and then as I got older, when you work with clients or kids. I worked with adults and then kids because it was just getting harder and harder. This was just an escape because it had nothing to do with it, and it was just the perfect opportunity to go creative, go nuts and not care.
But yeah, that opened up whole different world because people were still using Facebook groups. You'd meet people online that you'd never meet in person, and you build this good relationship. I was creating these memes and someone was doing The Simpsons stuff, and I love The Simpsons. We kind of connected and then I thought The Simpsons got a little bit bigger than Seinfeld because, Seinfeld seemed a little niche and I started doing some Simpsons. I had really cool people sending me things. I'm not gonna say that I went out there and did this all myself, but ideas are generated like that. You surround yourself with people that are gonna throw bullsh*t and then you're gonna build.
Essentially I just started watching sport in a lens of, ‘how does this link to a pop culture reference?’ It was wild. It just blew up, and then I just created these streams of content like The Simpsons season review. I didn't even know it was getting thrown up on Reddit and people were saying things like, ‘whoever created this, this is sick!’ and I was just having fun. I literally sat behind the computer for 20 hours learning new skills, and I literally used to get comments saying, ‘bro, this guy’s gotta be living in a basement making this!’ and I was thinking, ‘you know what, man? I'll take that as a compliment!’ because I was putting time in the craft. I mean, the reward on investment wasn't as much because I had a different job, but I wasn’t trying to monetise this.
How did Sportsbet come around then?
Yeah, during COVID I just kept getting better and better, and when you’re dealing with something like the Simpsons, people start sharing your things around. Fortunately for me, the right person at Sportsbet- I didn’t apply for the job- saw it and asked me to send a cover letter through. I got back to them and essentially said, ‘I’ve got a really good job, man. I don’t want to send a cover letter through.’ But I talked to my partner saying that I didn’t know if I ethically wanted to do this, but then she said I had to look at it like it was the entertainment industry, right? I started to have a little bit of a think about the whole idea of betting. Obviously you have these inner conflicts and you’re like, ‘alright, I’m going to stay in the entertainment side of things.’ At the end of the day, I think regulation is better than completely banning everything because it’s still going to happen. I kind of justified it to myself that way, and I was happy with my own conscientious, so I decided to apply for it, but in the biggest pisstake because I had nothing to lose.
When I got hit up, they told me to send a cover letter through, and I thought it was going to be the biggest pisstake job. We’ll pay $20k a year, make a couple memes for us, and then f*ck off- that sort of thing. I don't know if you guys are fans of footy are you?
Yeah, yeah.
I literally copied Brett Kirk’s whole ‘Thanks Basil’ speech and put Sportsbet references in there. They got The Grubs, the cricket team, and I literally inserted that in there. I sent that there and I didn't hear back for two or three days from Hammy, the guy that was messaging In my head, I didn’t really care. But at the same time, I didn’t want to look like an idiot, so I sent him a message saying, ‘look, man, just giving you a heads up, this is the cover letter I sent. I was just having a bit of fun with it,’ just in case they thought I was a little bit of a nuffie.
He replied, and he was like, ‘Oh my God, this is f*cking hilarious. I just need to make sure HR or someone doesn't see this because they might not get the gag.’ It just went from there. I literally just got the job because I started as someone who was making memes, and I think with a company like that, you get endless amounts of opportunities. I think that grind that I had- like I was saying, making 20 hours’ worth of memes for no reward- I still continued that on when I had the opportunity at Sportsbet, and I think they saw that. They had times where they flew out to Qatar for the World Cup and I got chosen to go there and go through that experience. The Ashes Series as well. It’s been good. In terms of looking after myself, the skills that I’ve been able to develop, the great people I’ve been able to meet- I’ve still been pretty true to my values. Prior to that, I was never vocally going, don't gamble. I always had a punt. But even with the way I was counselling as a youth worker, I did alcohol and drug counselling, and it was never ‘don't do it.’ It was about learning to do it responsibly and teaching the correct way, so I didn't feel like my values were clashing too much. Even now, I still feel pretty happy and content and I don't feel ashamed. I do say no to things, though.
On the Twitter thing, have you seen that accounts Art, But Make it Sports?
I haven't seen it. Nah, I'm not very active on Twitter actually.
So there’s this guy that like that has this huge bank of artworks in his mind, which I thought was pretty similar to you, like how you were saying about Seinfeld. This guy just instantly just correlates a sports image to a famous artwork.
Yeah, you just gotta think like that. 100%, it’s interesting, right? I’m 29 now, and I feel like my whole 20s have been a bit of a blur with all this. But I see a lot of kids coming through now and it’s a different era to when I grew up, where it’s like if you did something on camera, people would be saying, ‘bro, that’s cringe. What are you doing? That’s embarrassing.’ So this tall poppy syndrome, if people think it’s bad now, it was worse back then. I remember when I started making memes, people would be telling me it was embarrassing that I was spending so much time making memes. Now I look back on the meme and I go, ‘f*ck that was trash,’ but I did it, and it allowed me to develop skills to use as a steppingstone, and because I didn’t have the urge to want something immediately like money, I just enjoyed myself. So if I made a dogsh*t Simpsons meme, I had fun doing it, and maybe I got two or three likes from a family member, and I look back on it and I think this is what worked.
One of my best skills is probably reflect and learn, and being grounded when thinking the competition is getting better. Don’t be threatened by it. Just learn some new cool t
hings. I hope when I get older I still have that same mindset.
Well on the family member thing, what does your family think about it?
Man, my family's so whack. It's so funny. I wasn't born here. I was born in Sri Lanka. You come from a war-torn country and then there’s this grind- you know, ‘The Australian Dream.’ You go to uni, you get everything sorted for you, you get this education, and you go become a doctor, lawyer, whatever it is, and that's respectable in your culture. For me, the lucky thing is I went to uni. I did criminal justice. I did all these things. I went through this process, and that was acceptable. But then I got to an age where I realized I can do whatever I want. It's not like I was looking for an out, it's just that I think I was naturally a creative person, but when you come from these backgrounds, they're not seen as areas where you can build a family wealth and all that kind of stuff. You're not encouraged to follow those routes, so I was a late bloomer. I always tell people that if I was in a white family, I would probably be pushed in my teens to do a little bit more theatre, do more acting, do more stuff that I'm doing now, but it just came a little bit later. Nothing wrong with that- your experiences mould you.
My mum speaks broken English, and when she tries to explain what I do to my family members overseas, it’s f*cking hilarious. I'm like, ‘mum, it's like a content creator!’ and she goes, ‘yes, contempt creator!’ I'm like, ‘nah, nah, nah, nah. Just show them some videos!’ and they kind of get the gist. When you say media, it’s a little broad. It can be comedy, that kind of stuff. I think initially when I was just making memes and I wasn't appearing so much on camera, that was a bit difficult because they were thinking, ‘what, you’re just doing this?’ My goal was to develop the skills required to be confident on camera. People will always be there to make memes and edit all these kinds of things, and it’s a great skill. But the value you have is being able to add so many different bows so that no one can replace you. No one’s going to come out- unless AI gets f*cking crazy- and people will think, ‘hey, there’s another Cheets.’ That’s my mindset for now with all this new technology coming through. Try and build as much as you can of yourself, so people have that connection.
Just going back to initially when you first started, what was the first post that got you big and how did you hold on to that momentum?
Interesting man. It's crazy, right? You gotta remember, in 2019-2020 social media and the knowledge around it, the amount people know is just crazy. So back then, which was only four years ago, it was still quite raw with the way people used it. There were still influencers back then, but it was a different time because everyone was at home using it. So there was this influx of content creators. People didn't know much about time, and when to post. They’d think 7:30 would be prime time. But when you're creating sports stuff, one thing I noticed is it has to be super topical. You can't just be like, ‘oh, I think this is funny because Kane Cornes usually says something funny, I'll make something there.’ If Kane Cornes hasn’t said anything, the person that's viewing it isn't going to understand what it is. One of the biggest lessons I learned when I was doing it was- and everyone will be like, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t know that,’ but back then, no one was posting like that. There were a handful that would post at the siren, but that was the key thing for me.
I think the Bulldogs beat Gold Coast, and what happened was I knew that the Bulldogs were on the fence a little bit and they were struggling to get their form and it was a big game for them. I knew that if this couldn't be used for this game, it could be used for the next couple games. All it was was a couple funny heads on some guys dancing that was a viral video and I just did it really cleanly, and immediately after the Bulldogs won- they won by three or four points- I put it out. Prior to that I only had about 20 likes at the most on a post. This f*cking blew up because it got shared in supporter pages. That was the one where I realized this is the recipe. You gotta go topical. Celebratory is pretty good. Sometimes you can have a bit of tongue in cheek, but celebratory is usually good because it gets organically shared. It’s not like, ‘hey man, share it,’ it’s like some supporter out there thinking, ‘oh my god, this is funny.’
So there was the Bulldogs one, and there was a Richmond one. A lot of it was just reactions after games, and then I started to pick up on different formulas. I started dabbling with cricket a little bit as well, and fast forward a little while thanks to this connection with Sportbet, I was able to link up with Travis Head and do that when they were in the World Cup. That was probably one of the highlights because he collabed the post and it was just after they’d won the World Cup. This guy got Man of the Match in the World Cup final, and Sky News posted this thing about what Travis had posted on his socials after the game, and it was literally something that I created. The Type name was there, and that was pretty surreal because it was just like, ‘holy sh*t.’ I love cricket. I’ve been a big fan and such a tragic, and to be part of a moment like that with players commenting on it. It went worldwide. That was a different feeling to the footy- footy is within Australia, but the when you see something you created worldwide, it’s crazy.
One of our other questions was would you ever go into the NBA, seeing as you’re a big Cavs supporter?
You've done your research! Man it's crazy, the Cavs. Obviously 2003, when Lebron was drafted, and I have to admit- I was playing NBA Live ’04 on Playstation, and I was a massive Lebron fan. When Lebron left, I was like, ‘I gotta stay loyal,’ and then he came back to the Cavs and it was the greatest thing ever. You just can’t leave teams, you know?
But the problem here man, is bandwidth. Footy is quite good because you can get some endorsement deals. I mean, it’s not as big, the population, but you can work with people in a smaller community, which is sometimes nicer, and it’s only for an X amount of time in the season. It’s not as hectic in the NBA, for example, where you have a f*cking long schedule and you gotta be on it.
That's true.
It’s crazy. Plus, you've gotta be able to do this while footy is on, and then it’s a question of how many different sports are you gonna manage? So, I tend to go if there's an Australian involved, I will stick to it. I love basketball, but I can't do it like that. I need to look after myself. I do a bit for Sportsbet, but there is restrictions of what we can use in terms of what we can use, and I think I get my NBA fix out of that.
On the changing teams, we’ve actually got a friend who’s done that. All of us have our own thoughts on this, but we’d like to get your thoughts on this as well. This guy was a Collingwood supporter until 2017, and then he changed to Richmond.
You're kidding?
Now keep in mind he says he changed before they won the Premiership. I think he says Round 19. This is when we resigned Buckley, and he said he hated Buckley so he changed halfway through.
You can't do that. I’m not buying that, man. That guy? I'm roasting him for the rest of his life. Is he a passionate Richmond supporter too?
Yeah. And he was a passionate Collingwood supporter as well!
That's trash, man. That is trash. Tell him I'm disappointed. How old is he when he changed?
13, 14 maybe?
14, that's the cutoff man. That's the cut off. But I think by the time you hit ten, you're old enough. If you're old enough to go buy lollies at the canteen, you’re responsible enough to know what team to go for, and that’s it. Stick by it.
We’ll keep that in and make him read it.
Look to be fair, when I was young, I stopped changing teams when I was 8. My brother goes for North Melbourne. I wanted to go for North Melbourne, but he didn’t allow it! It was this family thing and he was like, ‘nah, only one person goes for North Melbourne!’ Jokes on him now. He liked it because we came to Australia in 97/98, and they had such a good era. They used to get a lot of Friday night footy games, and we lived in Yarraville in the flats and there was literally nothing to do apart from maybe play with kids around or watch the footy. He would just watch the footy and North Melbourne were playing, and it would be all exciting. You know how you see Collingwood last year? It was like that every time they played. They had Carey and Winston Abraham, Byron Pickett. All these players, it was just exciting. And he didn’t let me go for them.
Gatekeeping.
Dog man! But who’s laughing now?
So what other sports teams do you support? Cavs, Collingwood…?
Cavs are huge. Collingwood. I'm a big LeBron guy, I have to admit. If the Lakers won and LeBron was there, I'm all for it man. You know when you grow up with someone? I was 10 years old when I was following him, straight from when he was drafted. It got me into basketball. I don’t really get too much into soccer, but I’m a sports fanatic. If it’s a buzz, I’ll jump on the bandwagon. NFL, not enough yet. But I’m a big fan of legacies and players. I like when I see players putting up big numbers, or they build their reputation and it’s cool. Brady kind of got me into the NFL a liitle bit, and then I stepped away because it’s just too hard to follow. Seeing Mahomes now and he’s just nuts, but I wouldn’t say I’m a crazy fan.
Who was the player for Collingwood that you grew up watching, like you say for Lebron?
Man it’s crazy, right? So I love Collingwood, but I don't think I had a favourite. Leon Davis was probably my favourite, but he wasn't a superstar, right? He was great, did some cool sh*t, but I actually enjoyed watching players from other teams more than I liked watching players from Collingwood. I always thought Collingwood had a pretty sh*t team but played well together. I don’t think we ever had stars until recent- we had Swan and Pendlebury and stuff. I used to love Buddy. He had the aura about him. I enjoy watching Dusty. He’s sick to watch. I don’t like Richmond, but it’s just exciting. I love Daics now. Daics is cool. He works ridiculously hard, he gets heaps of it, does cool sh*t on the ground.
I like players with a bit of personality, more than anything. I don't like robotic players. It might seem a bit hypocritical because, you know, Daics is a bit media trained. That's why I like last year. We had Ginni, we had sh*t going on, it keeps you on your toes. Especially when you create content. It’s box office, right? People want to see Collingwood, and you know people are going to engage.
What other questions do we have? We had a bunch of questions here, but you pretty much you ticked off most of them in that first part because most of them were around Type Media and stuff!
Yeah, yeah. I just went on a rampage there.
You sort of said something about having to be a bit careful with what memes you have to post. Is there ever any that you have regretted posting?
Ohh yeah, man. Yeah, it's actually insane this. I’ve got a good network of friends too, that will challenge you. It’s interesting when I see competitors, they’ll fight and people just call them snowflakes and stuff. I can’t get into it. You just gotta be a good dude. I remember early days you can get caught up in your engagements and you think, ‘sh*t, I’m going to post something that’s going to go viral,’ but then you think if that’s what you want to be? So I remember Adam Saad was crying on the bench after a game, and a couple of guys messaged me and was like ‘do this meme, it’ll be really good!’ and I'm like ‘oh yeah, this will be funny as!’ But then I thought about it a bit and it was like, f*ck, I don’t know the context of why he’s crying.’ You don’t know the context of what's going on, and I thought probably not. I felt sh*t about it, and I made a rule to not attack players personally. Have it so if you meet the player in person, you’re ok. You know what I mean? If I posted something where I’m bagging someone for crying and I see them in person, it’s a bit awkward. With players, I have that philosophy to not go too hard. Journos on the other hand!
The journos, I mean, it’s what they do. I’ve gone particularly hard at Sam McClure- not personal, just more on the takes. Kane Cornes as well, but he’s a really good sport. He’ll follow and he’ll engage.
Has anyone like ever come up to you and asked to take something down?
I have- I'm not gonna name, but it was good though. The player just said, ‘nah, take it down man. I respect you and I like what you post,’ and it was fair. I wasn’t thinking too much, and we were fine afterwards. Like I said, reflect and learn. Some people might look at it and go, ‘oh, you’re being a big p*ssy, you don’t want to stick by your guns,’ but there’s a time where I think you feel comfortable with it. I’m not saying that I’m censored completely, but I’m also saying that I would go out and post something ridiculous. There’s a line that I have set for myself, and I don’t care about anyone else if they come up to me, because people can find anything annoying and offensive. You just have to make sure you’re happy with the values that you’ve set and learn to listen as well.
Well, obviously it’s not a very well documented industry, I guess. But what would you say to people that want to go into that industry? Or do people want to go into that industry?
I think they do, bro. I think honestly, I'm lucky because I fell into it. I think people are constantly now trying to build portfolios in pages and stuff. But I think the problem is that people don't wanna do the work. There are people that go to me and say, ‘mate, you have got the easiest job in the world.’ I get the perspective they’re coming from, but it’s quite naïve. People don't understand the hours that you spend in terms of researching, understanding, learning different things. Yes, if you cut it down I can make some memes here and there, but I’ve spoken to people to try and get them to do a similar kind of job and it's just hard. To connect the dots between narratives that are literally happening, like a journalist. I’m not writing articles or anything like that, but to do that it’s very hard.
That’s very true though. Like a journalist but you’re putting it in a different form.
Yeah, because you need to have your finger on the pulse with things that are happening. Quite often now my weekends are quite on it, like ‘oh, this is what's happening in the game.’
And I think especially because people don’t want to read anymore! People just want to look at something and get the full picture straight away.
Yeah, people are so exhausted. I think there's this period of exhaustion because everyone is debating about sh*t, and reading so much, and everyone is in the comments section. People just want to see something funny, but that’s the thing, right? It has to be smart somewhat though- you don’t just put a car crash and say, ‘hey, this is Carlton’s season.’ You have to try and add a little bit more layers into it, and that’s the challenge, because I know a lot of people do it. And I hate it, I try to stay away from that kind of stuff, the very low hanging fruit. I know in TV shows, people pretend to commit suicide and some pages will put something up saying, ‘Carlton supporters right now!’ and I think, man, that’s just too low hanging. Try something more creative that matches what’s happened in the game. For example, Collingwood vs Geelong. They just played keepings off, and I thought it was literally watching a kid trying to grab a ball from bullies. And I remember The Simpsons scene and I’ll put that video up there, and yep, that's accurate. That’s going a little bit above and beyond compared to going, ‘oh, Collingwood got smashed by Geelong.’ And look, people might engage with the one in the most simplest form, but I feel better having that and being like, ‘oh, that’s what I did.’
Yeah, you can definitely see becase you can see on NBA twitter their memes are the most basic form of humour.
Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. It's shitposting. I mean, there's a place for it. I used to be so anti-shitpost, but at the end of the day, you're trying to reach as many people as you can. You're trying to gain it, so you can't just think, ‘I'm too smart for this.’ Otherwise you exclude you and you isolate yourself. I still do it when I need to, but I don’t rely on it. When people go through my page, I want them to associate it with a little bit more range of content, like memes, and I’m starting to learn how to do these podcast shot-cut downs now. So it becomes like a little hub where you can go to after the result where it’s not bagging the opposition out. There’s a few different things, so that’s the plan with it all.
No, I didn't realise there was so much like involved in meme making. I was like one of those naïve people that was just thinking, oh you just make memes. I thought it was something easy you know, but there’s so much thought going into it.
No there is. I mean it, it sounds ridiculous when I say it. I know Jacob Gaynor, who does the GWS socials and he does a great job. But it’s so easy- and it’s nothing against him because he’s so good at what he does- but he’s got access to the players, and he’s got one club to worry about. Now, if I had my time back again, would I focus on one particular club like Collingwood? Yes, I would. I would go and do that because that means I can have my work-life balance easier because now I'm doing the whole league. If something happens in the game when someone kicks a goal after siren, I feel like there's a responsibility to cover that because people will send me inboxes being like, ‘why isn't that covered?’ Do you know what I mean? I hold myself to a certain level where I know that I can get away with putting something in there, but I want it to be a unique experience for someone.
I mean yes, the meme making thing is not as complex. It's not. The problem is, people create meme pages and then they stop, because there's no way to expand that. Businesses don't want to get involved because you're just shitposting. To take it to the next step, to create a narrative to go with the story, to have a bit more brand connection with it is what I’m trying to do, and that’s why I guess have a different range of content, not just memes. Or, elevate these memes to be a little bit bigger.
So, what I'm saying is the way I'm treating it is a little bit differently. Not saying that I'm making smarter memes- I’m probably over complicating things, but there is a little bit of an art to this.
You sort of mentioned it off the record, but how often to people on the street recognize you?
I mean, not as often as you think. I've gone to music festivals and I've had a few people look at me funny and then they come up to me and I reckon because thye’ve had a few drinks and whatnot. They come up to me, and they're like, ‘oh, man, what you’re doing is sick, I love it.’ It's sick. If anyone comes up to me, the amount of times I've given away free hats or whatever, it's awesome. You're never too proud for that sh*t. Who the f*ck am I? I'm just this fan that made memes and stuff, and someone comes up to me and recognizes me. Of course I’m going to be pumped.
I get super excited when it's more so Type than it is Sportsbet, because it's everything that I’ve built from the ground up. You’re just like, ‘holy sh*t.’ This is something that I created about a friend of mine that was playing cricket. Kept the name, Type Media, and let it go. It’s just crazy.
That's amazing. Alright, well we got two more questions we always end on. We've got a playlist of songs. Maybe if you can add five songs that you want to add to playlist, your favourites of all time or something that you might like recently.
Yeah, that's all good. Childish Gambino, Freaks and Geeks. Have you heard of that one? That's old school, man.
We’ve got a couple artists here that you’ve seen live. Anderson .Paak? Steve Lacy?
Yeah, I’ve seen Anderson .Paak live. I saw Steve Lacy.
And Frank Ocean?
I saw the one show Frank Ocean played here in 2013. He pulled out of the next one because he had a sore throat. He performed really well, and he pulled out of Splendour that year too.
Do you have any others? I feel like people pull out their Spotify but you’re going off the top of your head!
Yeah, off my head man. I love my music. Some old school Frank Ocean, I like Pink + White, but that’s standard. Forrest Gump is good. Super Rich Kids is great, that’s a good tune. Crack Rock is good. Childish Gambino Freaks and Geeks because I used to watch Community.
Ohh, I love that show. I was bingeing that during lockdown because I had nothing else to watch.
Yeah, it's good man. I haven’t used enough Community memes, but it’s good. That's where I got introduced to him before he was rapping, and then I found the mixtape that he did called Camp. That album went crazy back in the day, it was like nerdy rap. Bonfire and Heartbeat went a bit commercial. They’re the two that I have on constant repeat. I listen to a lot of old school 90s stuff, like Tribe Called Quest.
Last question we've got for you is if you have any words of wisdom, things to promote or anyone to shout out.
Words of wisdom I reckon is always keep yourself grounded and never be too good. Always, always keep self-grounded and learn to listen is probably a good one. I'm still trying to practice that a little bit more, as it’s different in this situation and I’m talking. But I think in an environment where you’re constantly trying to be funny, you’re only sometimes you get into that thing where you listen to yourself all the time and not listen to other people. And as for staying grounded, I think it’s easier to get jealous and competitive and let it consume you, but just enjoy the ride. Be happy for people- genuinely take a step back and be happy for people if they do really well. Let it drive you, but in a non-toxic way. That’s the most important thing.
Nothing to plug, man. I'm shocking about with this kind of stuff! I think if there’s a message for people there, it might just be send messages on Type. I love it man. That makes my day. I never do those behind-the-scenes videos of how long I spend making these things, and I think people will be shocked about how long I spend. I don’t know if that would make me look good or bad, but like I said, I was up until 4am doing edits that will go out today, but I do it because I’ll get a comment on it that says, ‘this makes my Monday,’ and it drives me. I’ve been doing it for ages now, and it still gets me excited and pumped. I don’t get any money out of doing the content. We’ve got merch and stuff, but it’s more about the community and the opportunities that will come. I got the job at Sportsbet. Things will work out by themselves, just do it for the community. Do it for the love.
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