6FootBombshell

Kanye West, Mr. West as he sometimes refers to himself, has a new venture, no not the well sought after Louis Vutton shoes he recently released but he’s scheduled to open the first of 10 Fatburgers Restaurants in a surburban Chicago area this month.

KW Foods LLC, will bring Fatburgers to several areas, including California.  Am I surprised Kanye has jumped into the food business?   No, not at all.  He has proven himself to be a constant perfectionist with millions of albums sold and a shoe line, which range in price from $800-$1000 a pair were sold out before the store doors opened, growing his wealth seems to be heavy on his mind.

According to Forbes, several celebrities / artist are already franchise owners, of the 90 restaurants opened, Queen Latifah has one in Miami, Montel Williams owns five in Denver, NFLer Orlando Brown has a couple in DC. and Pharrell is taking Fatburger to China. They paid at least $50,000 per store and then fork over 6% of sales as a royalty.

For those unfamiliar with the chain, Fatburger is a hamburger joint that was started in South Central, L.A. nearly 55 years ago by a woman entrepreneur. She branded it “The Last Great Hamburger Stand“, supposedly the place was a mire shack and named after her boyfriend, whose nickname was “Mr. Fatburger”. Over a 40 year period she opened 32 more locations all in Cali and sold for $3 million in 1990 to a British record producer.

The lure to grilled beef on a toasted bun, filling the air. The burgers are loaded with fresh toppings of lettuce, tomato and pickles. The sandwich is huge to say the least.

One problem though is Fatburger isn’t the most profitable chain to be associated with, even with several celeb plugs, Notorious B.I.G mentioned getting a Fatburger in “Goin Back to Cali”, Ice Cube, shouted them out in one of my all time fave rap songs, “Today was a Good Day” and even the legendary Beastie Boys gave love, the chain is fighting to survive.

Their financial woes started with the “Ultimate Entrepreneur“, Magic Johnson in 2000, who invested $5.3 million with help from celebrity friends, Janet Jackson, Cher, David Spade and Sex in the City creator, Darren Starr, he planned to open 100 more locations across the US but that wouldn’t be the case. Sales fell from $30 million to $20 million in two years, probably because a cheeseburger is $5, causing Magic to sell to a wealthy Real Estate Investor, Andrew Wiederhorn, who turned out to be a fraud. He was sent to Federal prison for numerous financial wrongdoings and based on some legal paperwork maneuvering was still able to collect $4.6 million from Fatburger as a salary while incarcerated.

So as sales continue to plummeted, the chain continues to lose millions, can Ye save the day, only time will tell but to take on a venture of this magnitude shows he’s a risk taker and his a BIG EGO!

Kanye is a businessman beyond the music…

With the opening of a Carol’s Daughter store in Lenox Mall, and spending way more than I had planned, it reminded me that this natural thing is easier said than done.  The products are very expensive and maintenance is more time consuming than ever.

But I guess this is the case on a per person  basis, because after listening to a local radio station I concluded there’s a difference in the meaning of what we ourselves consider natural.  Is it wet and go, however it falls (or stand up) is the way you rock it?  Is it simply free of chemicals but you still get it straightened (or the new term Dominican press) to get that usual European feel of sleekness?  Or are braids/weaves your way of life?

I’ve been told the most enlightening but yet most difficult route is to cut it all off, snipping out the relaxer with every cut until you get to your new growth.  Believe me, one of my most favorite things to do is be enlightened but this was never an option for me.  quickly concluded that the whole “Natural Awakening” stuff was much too overrated and way to drastic for the girl.  However, I do know some ladies that have taken the plunge and work the low cropped style something fierce.

But after nearly 15 years of relaxed hair, touch up after touch up every 4 weeks to achieve that highly desired straight hair, I decided to let it go.  It wasn’t a long drawn out process at all.  One day I decided my hair was over processed, it was fried, dyed and laid way too much to the side and if I didn’t do something soon I would lose it all.

A stylist I visited every so often preferred natural to relaxed hair because of the damage she consistently saw from hair too often process, relaxed combined with color, it was too much.  She didn’t persuade or  push her clients to go natural but would subtly give the benefits at every visit.  After seeing several of my friends go through the transition with her, she would wash and condition their hair with great products and than press it so good, you really couldn’t tell they didn’t have a fresh relaxer, I decided to give it a try.  Not really committing to it, just seeing if it would help my hair or not, I mean it couldn’t be too hard, right?

I was completely clueless of the aftermath that was maintenance of natural hair, OMG!

Due to the amount of heat needed for a press its not recommended that you get one too often because it damages your hair, but it wasn’t until after breaking a single sweat during a much needed workout that I realized my newly pressured, silky, shiny, straight divalicious do had swollen up like blow fish in damage and I was too taken aback because I didn’t have a clue of how to get it back like it was without adding more heat or paying that hefty fee to have the stylist do it over.

Dazed, confused and very frustrated because the results of no chemicals we great and I now loved my hair in its natural state, there was no way I was going back anytime soon, so with relaxing not an option I set out to do whatever it took to maintain it. After going on the hunt for the best all natural products around I was slapped in the face with how expense they are, most three to four times more than the black gel I was accustomed to buying  to lay my edges down. It was then I realized this natural stuff was easier said than done.

It’s been three years since my transition and I’m still learning the ins and outs of being natural. The battle is tough but the reward is amazing, I highly recommend going natural and are more than welcome for some advice to help with this process.