By: Hiwote Berhanu

Taste of Ethiopia founder Hiyaw Gebreyohannes is a successful pioneer in a growing generation of Ethiopian entrepreneurs. I had the pleasure of talking to Gebreyohannes on how he learned to cook, to being on The Simpsons, to getting a deal with the health food chain Whole Foods.  Gebreyohannes’ determination to succeed is clear that with hard work, anything is possible.

Hiwote Berhanu:  You were born in Djibouti and raised in Canada and you were basically raised in the kitchen. Nowadays, being a cook has just become the cool thing or artistic Back then did you find that to be a problem amongst your friends?

Hiyaw Gebreyohannes: No. I don’t even think I knew that this was going to be something I was going to fall into it. I feel like we had a restaurant, we were always there, and then just like normal kids, we’d leave, we’d go to school, we’d have swim classes or karate classes, come back, and be in the kitchen helping out, and then the weekends would be in the kitchen or at the restaurant. Somehow, in some facet, we were there.

I think a lot of my friends thought it was cool to come to the restaurant because there’s a downstairs and they had like a pool hall and so it was like, “Hey, we could hang out here,” but I didn’t really know that it was going to turn out to me doing this is as a profession. I never gave it a thought. It wasn’t whether they thought it was cool or not. There was a time when I was maybe thirteen or fourteen until about sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, there was no restaurant, so things changed, so that was like the cool time. If anything, that’s probably where I was like, “Oh, this is kind of girly,” but I wasn’t doing it then, so there was a little hiatus on my part.

HB: Growing up in the kitchen and now being such a successful chef it seems like you were destined for this. Did you do anything to prepare yourself unconsciously?

HG:   Did I do anything? I think, yeah, unconsciously. I remember seeing my parents owning their own business and being their own bosses. I remember telling my mom that I’m going to be my own boss and then I was probably like I was nine or ten years old. I think that always stuck with me just watching them have their own business, have their own schedule, have their own, who they wanted to hire or fire or just the hard work that they put in.

For me, I think that definitely left me with something, thinking that I didn’t want a boss to tell me what to do. I wanted to be my own boss, so that. However that was going to shape out, I just knew that was the path I wanted to take.

HB:  You didn’t like having bosses?

HG:  No. It started from them. They were my boss, right?

I was like, “Nope. I don’t want to … I want to be like you guys. I want to tell people what to do. I don’t want to be told what to do,” and that carried throughout my whole life. From my time in kitchens where I was just like, “I can’t handle this. This is too much.” I’m not cut out for somebody that screams at me and tell me what to do, so I was like, okay, I got to get out of here. How do I do this myself and what can I do to myself?

I had a restaurant in New York and that was four years and it was my own, but it was with a partner. It was just super hard.  Very time-consuming and draining of my energy. Again, I was still really happy that it was something that I could say, it was like a piece of it belongs to me, but then it was like, again, the next journey or the next step on what is that going to look like and then here we are.

HB:  I feel like nowadays being a Habesha in the United States, thinking of how our parents got us here is like some way shaped us into the people that we are, like compassionate people and to grow up not struggle like as they did. How did your parents shape you in that way, like brought you up into a character or a businessman or a human being that you are now?

HG:  I think culture in general shapes you, whether it’s Ethiopian or South American or wherever you’re talking. For me, the biggest thing that shaped me was, again, going back to the restaurant, there were so many … Growing up in Canada also was interesting because the diversity of the amount of people that you see are different, or at least in Toronto, and taking that into our culture. At the restaurant, I had one culture which was all these Ethiopians were there and I was getting to understand it a lot more and like eating with your hands and kissing on the cheek whether it’s a man to a man or a man to a woman and it was all love and there was no other things behind that. As you get older, you understand these things.

I think the biggest thing for me was going back to Ethiopia. It was the first time, I was nineteen and that totally changed my life and my output on and an understanding what my parents were doing by getting what they were trying to do for me and my sister or for the family, and for my brothers, and just understanding what that meant to them, going back and seeing where they come from or where I come from and the struggles and the beauty of it and that being like, “Okay, I get it.”

HB: My sister went back in 2010 and she came back different, like she was never the person that she was before she went.  Talk about how that changes you? The culture shock of going back after for so long.

HG: For me, it was just like I had never been back, like I was born in Djibouti, not even in Ethiopia. I don’t remember anything of it, and then I have all these people who are Ethiopian that are around me all the time, but okay, so I’m still in Canada.

When I do go back, I think it was, first of all, I was very, I was excited, nervous, scared, all in one. The reason why I went back was actually because my mom felt like I was taking a left turn when I should’ve been taking a right and so she was like, “I think you need to go and understand how your cousins and your family lives, you’ll appreciate life a little bit more and you’ll stop getting into trouble and what have you,” and that’s exactly what happened. I went back and I remember kids were smiling all the time and they were so poor and I was like, “How are they happy?” or we’d give them food, our leftover food and they were extremely happy.

I remember this homeless guy, he was like, “Hey, can you buy me?” I was passing a Burger King and in the days, I used to eat Burger King. He’d be like, “Hey, can you give me some money?” I’m like, “Hey, I’ll buy you some food.” He’s like, “Okay.” He comes in the Burger King with me and he’s like, “Let me get a combo 9 and can you add a coffee to it?” I was like, “Whoa! I was going to get you French fries.” He’s like, “What’s French fries going to do?” I’m like, “That’s what I can afford.” It was just so like he put me in the defensive like I was doing something wrong and here I was trying to give him what I could offer.

There, it was like my leftover food and they were happy, so I was just like, “Wow.” The contrast of it was just, like to know and I was never the same after that and I keep going back. I went back, so there’s 2001, 2009, 2010. I went three times.

HG:  2014, I went back three times it’s a place that I now, I look at and I’m like, “Yeah, this is home.”

HB:  I’m the fashion and lifestyle editor for this magazine, so I have to ask you about how does style, fashion, and all that play a role in your life and your business? Do you put it as important as you have to get up in the day and dress up?

HG:  Living in New York, I feel like everybody has their own style to them. I go through different phases of my style where I’ll be rocking all black for six months or I’ll be, I don’t know. I think the biggest thing for me as far as my fashion goes is my socks. I’m always wearing …

HB: Socks?

HG: Yeah.

HB: Wow! I didn’t expect that.

HG: It’s like my thing. I’m always wearing funky … Before they were even fashionable, I’ve been wearing funky socks.

HB: Print socks, really? I had seen some of your Instagram pictures. I’m like, you have good style, and I thought you put that important to you.

HG: Printed, they’re dots or colors or whatever. That’s where I kind of … The rest of it is I’m a pretty simple guy like jeans and t-shirts.

HB: Let’s go back into how you got in connection to Whole Foods and stuff like that. How do you even start connecting with, start doing distribution with Whole Foods. Tell me how Taste of Ethiopia got into mass distribution as far as distributing to Whole Foods?

HG:  I think it was I started with one store and they were like, “Talk to the regional director of that region,” so I did and they were like, “We’ll give you a shot in one store,” and it worked and it did well in the one store that they gave me about three or four more stores after that and then it just took off.

To be honest with you, I picked up the phone and I called. I talked to them, I was like, “Yeah, I have a lot of Ethiopian food. Would you guys be interested in trying it?” They … Because with these buyers, most people are calling them like, “Hey, I have a line of cupcakes,” or “Hey, I have a line of pasta sauce,” or “I have a new salad dressing.” These are all things that are cool, but they’ve been done already and people do them and there’s so much competition.

I think, for them, being like, “Hey, I have a line of Ethiopian food,” it was like, “I’m interested to at least try it,” so to get my foot in the door wasn’t so hard. It was more so just convincing them that people want this and then so it was like a lot of demos and a lot of just getting into people’s mouths which led to the success in one store, which led to bringing into a few more, and then the distribution just started happening after that.

Because Whole Foods is separated by region, but they all have a global buyer and once one region is doing well with something, it’s a lot easier to talk to the second region if you’re like, “Hey, you could talk to Southern California about how everything is going because I’m there,” and you’re talking to Pacific Northwest. They’re going to be like, okay, so they can call Southern California, they’d be like, “Hey, do you have this Ethiopian food? How is it doing for your guys? Duh-duh-duh-duh.” It’s a lot easier that way. You don’t have to really worry so much.

I do think it’s timing, good branding that are the key to making it successful and a good product, obviously.

HB: Are you just saying it’s just a phone call? Like it’s just a phone call. It’s that easy.

HG: There might have been a few other things, but honestly, I get asked this question a lot and that’s the honest truth is I picked up the phone and I spoke to them. The first time, I called the Midwest region because I was out at my mom’s kitchen in Michigan and the buyer was like, “Yeah, I will come,” so he came to the restaurant, he tried the food and he was like, “It’s awesome. You guys are definitely not ready. I was like … He didn’t leave me with much after that, so I had to figure it out on my own as to what he meant by “We’re not ready.”

Taking that into consideration, I was like, “Okay. Let’s start off with some smaller stores. Let’s see what we need to do.” As I did, I just started to understand like, “Ah,” understand what he means when he says, “We’re not ready.” I had a dinky-like label, my phone number on it, and no website, no bar codes, no nutritional facts, so all these things I didn’t know, but he knew obviously. As I started with the smaller stores, which I think my motto has always been to crawl, walk, and then run, so as I started with the smaller stores, I was crawling, making a lot of mistakes, but because they’re mom-and-pop stores, they’re not going to kill me for it.

Get the hang of it, understand more things, study more, do some more market research, build my branding, make it better, then make that second phone call to Whole Foods and it was much better. It was like, “Wow.” Presentation was better, the branding was better, the packaging was better, so then I got my like, “Yeah, we could start you in one store.”

HB: Did you go to college for all this?

HG: I went to school, but I dropped out. I went to culinary school, but that lasted two weeks.

HB: Wow!

HG: Yeah. I told you, I couldn’t handle the teachers, and then I went to a school in Toronto at York and that also didn’t last too long either.

HB: You basically taught yourself about branding and marketing and all that, the business side of it? Most people go to school for it.

HG: Yeah, and learning it on the go and getting good people around me, good advice too. It’s not just me. I get to hear from some good friends who went to … I got good friends that went to business school at Stanford or Wharton, so I get some good insight.

I find them like a lot of them also are great. They have all this great insight, this great knowledge, but they don’t put any of it to use. They’re working for corporate America and part of that is because being an entrepreneur takes a little bit more than just knowing it all in your head, you have to put it to practice.

HB: Speaking of having good people in your life or good business-minded people or good mentors. How is it important to you to have, especially when you’re in this position, so successful, how is it important to have good people that are mentors/good inspirational people in your life?

HG: It’s probably the most important thing. I feel like as the business grows, the decisions get a little bit tougher and so having those people that are either a) already been doing it or b) has sound advice for you is priceless.

If your friends are not growing, then that friendship maybe has come to its end. Everything doesn’t have to have a lifetime. It could be a good year, two years, five. I don’t know. Whatever it is, but appreciate the time that you have and move forward.

I have two close friends and then maybe five other friends that I hang around. We’re always in touch, in contact. I travel a lot now, so I don’t get to see them as often, but when I’m in town or there’s some kind of thing that’s happening, we’ll travel together, like a couple of my friends, we’ve gone to Brazil together for the World Cup, whatever, Thailand, for my friend’s birthday. We’ll get to do those things and then we’re each doing our thing. We’re growing and we’re learning and we’re checking on each other. I think that’s okay. I think it’s healthy.

HB: I heard you were on The Simpsons or Taste of Ethiopia was on The Simpsons. I feel like that was maybe a marking point that turned your business into something higher, greater? I don’t know how you put that, but do you think that was a big transition business-wise?

HG: I think it just really helped my cause of getting Ethiopian food, Habesha food to the American dinner table.

HB: Is that your goal?

HG: Yeah, for sure, and then some. Because I live here, I think that America’s the first point of contact, but there’s a lot more to happen. I think if you’re up still, there’s Saudi and the Middle East, and parts of Africa that I want to start targeting, so all those things to happen soon, I think.

HB:  Lastly, I read in that interview that you did for another online magazine that your motto you live by is to be authentic. How has authenticity play a role in your life or in your business?

HG:  Both in my business and my life, I think, and it’s also my branding is Taste of Ethiopia, then underneath it, it says, “Be authentic.” It’s being authentic who you are, what I think is super important and I learned that throughout my life growing up as a kid, being Habesha, smelling like onions, and going to school, and it’s like the nightmare, and I’m denying who I am because I’m embarrassed about it or Ethiopia was just not cool. It was kids starving and the famine and all that. I wanted to shy away from all that and my parents being immigrants, they also didn’t know how to handle that. For them, they just kind of make it and here I am, with an identity crisis.

I think being authentic stood out once I really understood where I come from and telling that story and being true to that story and not watering it down to help somebody else know, like my name. It’s not a common name and people used to say, “Can you … What? What is it? E-E-HEE-YA-HOO?” I was like, “Oh man. This is so frustrating,” and I just like …

HB: I get you.

HG:  Yeah. When I was younger, I used to do like, “You can just call me Mike.” It was like this name that I just made up because it was so much easier to pronounce. It was common and all these things, and then I was like, “What the hell? It’s my name. If they can’t pronounce it, it’s their problem. Not mine.” I’ll stay there for five minutes until they can pronounce it and if they forget it, it’s okay. Next time they see me, I’ll say it again. Those things have shaped me. They’ve made me who I am and I want to carry that throughout my life. I want to teach that to people, to the future, to my little nephews, cousins, or one day when I have kids, and to whoever else that struggles with that and I think it’s important.

As far as on the business side of it which for me is the food side, sometimes people will be like, “Oh, if you’re cooking for non Habesha, you have to cook this way. If you’re cooking for Habesha, then you cook this way.” I’m like, “Well, I think I just want to cook one way, whether they’re Habesha or not.” If it’s a little too spicy for them, they’re going to just have to deal with it. It’s the authentic way to me of how I learned how to do it, so it’s too bad and their staff’s adapt to it. I think we try to, in our lives, help people out a lot by cutting corners for them as opposed to giving them the honest and authentic way of doing something, so yeah.

******.

HabeshaLA sits down with the multi-talented Yonathan Elias, who shares with us his journey from Soul Train dancer to graduate student to TV host to going viral on YouTube. Elias gets real with resident fashion writer Hiwote Berhanu to share his inspirations, role models, and plans to take the entertainment industry by storm.

Hiwote Berhanu: So, you went to Howard University?

Yonathan Elias: Yeah, for grad school. I got my master’s there.

Hiwote Berhanu: What was your major?

YE:  Mass communication and media studies. That was why I was able to become the first Ethiopian to host Howard’s homecoming with LaLa Anthony.

HB: How was the experience hosting the homecoming?

YE: Yeah. Howard’s homecoming is like the biggest homecoming that any HBCU does, so this was a homecoming that basically had started many, many rappers like big or small, it’s all these people, they started their careers basically, they performed there first. When I hosted, I brought out Big Sean, who else, Miley Cyrus and all of them were in the back but there were some issues that went on to where like we had to end it early. Yeah. We had Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. It was huge. There was about twenty thousand people there.

HB: How was it like going to Howard and getting your master’s there, knowing the history and everything it stands for?

YE: That was actually the reason why I went to Howard. I got my undergrad, my bachelor’s degree in Cal State San Bernardino. I went there and to UC Riverside. Being first generation in the United States, your family’s Ethiopian in origin, so you have that rich culture. You have that rich African culture. I’ve always been intrigued with that African-American culture and their history. That’s what I planned to tackle. I was the first in my entire family to even join a Black organization to try to start a legacy for my family, for my younger siblings.

That was the main reason why I wanted to go to Howard. One, of course, the networking, and the opportunities. I mean, Diddy went there. It’s like all these huge African American celebrities went to that school. That was one. It was also because of the history. They were founded in 1887. It was one of the first schools that they built for slaves to go to. The reason why they had that school built at the place that they built it at was because it was built on swamps, where no one even wanted that land. It was like swamps for the slaves to go to school.

It’s real powerful. Just to know that you’re a part of history, something that was built in 1887 for freeing slaves, and you’re going there to get your degree, and you’re going to be with people of your color. You see people that look like you dressed up in suits and ties and dresses and heels, with the same drive that you have. It was like the best thing ever. I loved it.

Going to HBCU was great. I mean, the administration building was kind of janky, but my experience there was great. I got a 4.0 there. Yeah. I took it real serious.

HB: I completely understand when you say, going to a school or an environment that you can totally identify with other people there, it means the world. I’m going through right now with my school, and it makes a world of a change versus going somewhere else.

YE: They’re different. It’s not only you but it’s the people that you are surrounded by. Growing up, you have your parents always saying, “Surround yourself with people who you want to be like.” Going to HBCU, you get that because these kids, they come from family that actually care about education. This is a private school. It ain’t cheap! To go there is like a privilege. I’m very thankful to be a part of something like that.

HB: After you graduated from Howard University, what did you end up doing? Did you take a break or …

YE: I was hosting my own music video account now on EBS, Ethiopian Broadcasting Service. While I was going to Howard. Basically, they heard about me. I don’t know. I moved to DC. I started doing viral videos. They would always have like, “Shit black girls say,” or “Shit white girls say.” There was nothing about “Shit Ethiopian girls say.” I did that. It was just viral videos on YouTube to where YouTube actually contacted me and wanted to monetize my account because I was getting so many views.

Yeah. This network, EBS, Ethiopian Broadcasting Service, was like, “We’re looking for a young guy that is interested in posting a show.” I’m like, “Okay. What kind of show? This is what I do.” They’re like, “It’s all on you. Give us a proposal and you got it.”

HB: Oh my God, that’s amazing!

YE: Yeah. Everything was on me. I put together a proposal. I was excited. I was like, “Mom, I’m about to,” because my mom was like, “Just don’t talk about politics and you’re okay,” because that was about the whole government issues. My path is music so I was like, “Let me do a music video countdown because I know there’s a lot of little overshot kids that,” … I mean, although the show is broadcast all over Africa and Europe, it’s still an Ethiopian network so I wanted to really focus on those kids that don’t really get a chance to voice their opinions or show their love for the arts because of course your parents want you to go another route, being doctor or a lawyer.

My parents, they weren’t really behind me when I first wanted to do entertainment. This was when I was like fifteen years old. I had to get my own car and take myself to auditions. I drove myself to Soul Train as a teenager every weekend. I became one of the main dancers on there. It’s like I did all that on my own.

Finally I was like, “Look, I’m going to get my bachelor’s.” I got my bachelor’s. “I’m going to get my master’s. I’m doing everything you want but I’m still doing what makes me happy.” I’m successful at it now so it’s like they understand. They support me a hundred and ten percent. That’s all I wanted. I know there are a lot of kids out there that feel the same way but they can’t really go about that route just because they don’t have the opportunities out there.

 I was like I want to connect with the kids out there on an educational standpoint and also on an entertainment standpoint because those are both my passion. I was like, “Let me do a music video countdown.” I had a fan page where they can request videos and do a shout out to people, their girlfriend, their boyfriend, their family, whatever have you. It just like went crazy.

My viewers, my core viewers are youth from Africa. I have over twenty something thousand likes on Facebook. It may not be a lot to people but for me, the reason why I say it’s a lot is because these are Africans. Most of them don’t have Internet. You know what I mean? Having Internet is a privilege. That’s not a necessity. You know what I mean? That’s what like some of the upper kids have. To have twenty something thousand kids that like my fan page and constantly put request down and show support and all that, that means the world to me, over anything that I’ve done. That’s what I was doing.

After I graduated, I was like, “I want to take it to New York.” But I still have the show here, and then I started hosting 106 for a couple of times because I was in their running for being their new host.

HB: Listen. When you were on 106 & Park, I think we all had a little gathering at one house [laughs].

YE: Are you serious?

HB: “There is a guy on 106.” It was milestone for us. You know what I mean? We all went in one house and we watched it. Everybody that wasn’t there, we called on the phone, “Open BET. There’s a guy on BET.”

YE: That means a lot. If you ever watched the clip, I put it on YouTube too, and I said … Roxie was like, “How do you feel? How do you feel with what you did?” I was like, “It doesn’t even really matter. All that matters is that I’m a representative for my people.” Every chance out there, because we do not have anyone in the industry that can show face for our culture, except for … We’re coming up on rappers and models now but we don’t have a host. Just to represent my people, that’s all that mattered. With you saying that, that makes my heart just flutter. That means a lot.

HB: It was very touching. My sister was all like, “Did you see him? Isn’t he cool?!

YE: That’s amazing.

HB:  It was a moment. I first actually discovered you when I saw your infamous video on the train on TOSH.O on Comedy Central.

YE: Yeah. That one was a little overwhelming. That was overwhelming because I actually had some random producer in London remix that video into a song to where they started playing it in their clubs in Europe. He put it on YouTube … iTunes and said that, “You can get half of it.” I donated my half to the children’s hospital in DC, because I was like, I mean, I wasn’t planning on making any money off of that video. That was my way of giving back. Yeah. That video.

YE: My mom was like, “You know, nobody’s going to ever take you serious now, right?”

HB: In your mind, you’re just making a video for a friend. You thought that was as far as it was going to get…

YE: Yup. That was all it was. Honestly, the story of that was I was leaving the studio from shooting. I was on my way to school. You saw me in my shirt and tie. That’s how I used to go to school every day, shirt and tie …

YE: I’m going to get on the train. I’m not really paying attention because I hadn’t talked to her in a while. The doors close. I sit down. I look up and nobody’s in there. I was flipping out. I was like, “It’s broad daylight, rush hour, nobody’s in my train. I’m about to do some stuff. I’m going to do some stuff and I’m going to send it to you.” I did my own little thing. I tried to send it to her as a text but the file was too big. I was like, “Okay. I’m going to put it on YouTube just so you see it.” I put it on YouTube, sent it to her. She was laughing. She shared it to somebody. I was like, “Oh, okay. Whatever.”

Two days later, I woke up to emails from Japan, Belgium, France, Israel, Canada, MTV Canada, NBC, all of them requesting interviews, and they did articles on me. I was like, “Wait, what is going on?” It was so weird. It was so weird. That just shows that this is my calling.

HB: That is an amazing story!

YE: Yeah. Now it’s like a million views and what not, others that have remade it, like all over the world. You have like girls in London on the train, saying, “Oh, we’re on the Metro.”

YE: It was right after they had that … I forget. It was some disaster that happened out there. They were typing in Japanese so I didn’t know what it was on there. I copied and pasted it, put it in the little translator, and it said, “After all this turmoil that is going on in our country, to see stuff like this really brightens our day. We thank you so much.” I was like, “What?”

HB: If you weren’t doing what you’re doing now, what would you be doing, like anything else?

YE: I can’t see myself doing anything else, honestly. Probably, like people used to call me Jamaican because I probably have the most jobs than anybody else has ever had. I’ve done serving. I’ve done banking to get me through school. I’ve worked with kids. That would probably be the next thing, just because I have a connection with kids, because I understand them and they understand me. I don’t feel like I’ve grown up all the way. We have that relationship.

We all have a little kid in us. That would probably, like something towards children. But other than that, I can’t see myself doing anything out of entertainment. Even if I couldn’t do on camera, I would do behind the scenes and I would still be happy.

HB: Where do you get you fashion inspiration?  I see you do a lot of bow ties, which a lot of men are scared to do.

YE: Exactly what you just said, I do what men are scared to do.  I do not want to look like the next guy.  Whenever I wake up in the morning I dress how I feel, but at the end of the day I do not want to look like someone you know.  I’m not one who is pressed for name brands at all.  I’m a thrifter!  I know all the days when you get discounts, on holidays you get 50%, on Mondays you get 25%.  Cause I thrift, and I get stuff tailored.  My whole family get pissed whenever I tell them I thrift because they think one, it’s disgusting, and two that’s someone else clothes go buy some new ones.  I like the feeling of putting something together that you would never put together.  Also, no one is going to have what you got if you got yours from the thrift store.  I put so many people on thrifting, its ridiculous!  People who would have never thrifted before, I got them thrifting on a weekly base.  So, I have no fashion background, but I am aiming to become a multi media mogul.  This means, I want to have a fashion line, restaurants.  Fashion is definitely big and important to me, I love putting clothes together.  Everyone thinks I am a stylist, and I have no fashion background.  It’s

HB: Do you believe that you are a role model to your Ethiopian followers? That you’re like some sort of a father figure, a brother, a friend to them?

YE: There are, because there are a lot of people that have reached out to me. They look up to me. The way I take it is I want to be that role model. I don’t think that my personality and like what I do … Because sometimes … It’s a thin line. I’m close to crossing it. I don’t think I would be that father figure, but I think I would be that big brother figure, that big brother that is like, “Oh, God. There he goes again.”

The stuff I do, your father wouldn’t be doing, but your big brother would. Your big brother would have your back, would listen to you, would respect you, and would want that respect back. That’s what I want to be to our people. I want to be that person that they could relate to. Sometimes you can’t always relate to your father because there’s a big age difference. You know what I mean? But you could always relate to your siblings.

 I want to be that person because I’ve always wanted someone that I can look up to in my industry and like ask them, “What can I do? What am I supposed to do?” Because I had nobody. I was all on my own. For me to be able to be that to anybody, whether it be in entertainment, school, family, whatever it may be, that’s just the type of person I am. I want to have that relationship with people. I would love for them to look up to me as a bigger brother, not a father. I don’t think I’m at the father level yet. I don’t think I’m old enough.

HB: Do you think it made you a stronger person?

YE: Yeah, okay. Having that close-knit family but still having them look down and say, “Look, I don’t think you should be doing this.” I had my uncle, my aunt and my mom saying, “I don’t think you should move to DC.” I was the first one out of the family to move out of California to go to school. “I don’t think you should do it. You barely have the money. You don’t have a place to stay. You don’t know anyone out there.”

I was like, “Okay. That’s exactly why I’m going to do it. I’m going to prove you wrong.” It’s not like, “Oh, I’m doing just in spite.” I wanted to do it to show them that they could trust me and that they don’t have to worry about me anymore. They could trust the path that I’m going, because they did not understand this entertainment thing. I swear to you, like it was the point where I had to sneak out to do my own entertainment thing but I wouldn’t tell them that I was doing it because they just they saw …

HB: Yeah, I completely understand.

YE: Yeah. They didn’t see it. For my mom to go back home to Ethiopia, she had to go. My grandmother, rest in peace, she had to claim some of her property out there. She was the representative for the family. For her to go back home and to see billboards of me, to see commercials of me, and to hear fans say, and for her to say, “Oh, my God. That’s my son,” and the cab driver not believing her, she was like, “This is real. You have made your family proud. You’re a representative of the Elias family. We couldn’t be any more proud.”

That is all I wanted. That’s what I was aiming for the entire time, while I was going to school, while I was thinking about my next step. I was like, I have to prove to them. That’s why I moved to New York, again, with nobody. I had my best friend, and that was it. I didn’t know anybody. Now I have two shows. You know what I mean? I just got an agent. Richard Prier’s daughter, her agent is representing me now.

HB: Did you always want to be in front of the camera, or do you want to do anything behind the camera as far as directing, producing, anything like that?

YE: Initially, in front of the camera was the only thing that I wanted to do. When I went to Cal State San Bernadino to get my bachelor’s, I also majored in mass communication. That allowed me to see the entire and the whole entertainment industry. I got to do radio work. I got to do camera work. I learned how to edit, which is like you have to know how to do that in this industry, especially being a host, a reporter, whatever have you. You have to know how to do those things. You have to be your own cameraman, your own editor, your own host, your own writer. I took all of those classes.

After doing that, I had a love for the industry as a whole and not just, “Oh, I want to be on camera. I want to be famous.” Now, I don’t mind being behind the scenes. I don’t mind. I produce my own show. I mean, I did my own proposal. I did my own, I did everything. I used to get my own desk. I was the producer, the executive producer, the cameraman, the editor.

I can do it all. I have a love for it all. Initially, no. I just wanted to be on camera. Yeah. Now, it’s actually real, like this is a career.

HB: Do you admire anybody within your personal life or even in the media industry?

YE: It might sound corny, my mom. She dedicated and sacrificed her entire life. She did not work. She could be a millionaire right now, but she didn’t do any of that because she wanted to make sure that we had a mom at home, to cook, clean, be home when we got home from school to help with homework. She registered me into my undergrad classes. She went to the orientation while I was asleep. Yeah. It’s like that. I mean, my dad, he always brought food home. Of course, I look up to him. But my mom, she was on it. She was there.

Even if she has it, if I get a chance to give her some money or just treat her, I’ll take her. I’ll just be like, “Mom, let’s go out. Let’s go.” I’ll just pamper her, get her a massage, pedicure, manicure, just because, and it’s still not enough. I definitely look up to her and my dad, of course, my dad too. She kept her last name. That’s how much of a boss she is. Yeah. She’s a strong lady.

Other people that I look up to in this industry are, Ethiopia Habtemariam. She is huge in the music industry. For her to be a woman and a woman at that and to be so successful, she like brought in Chris Brown, all of these huge artists. She’s definitely someone I look up to because she put the name out for us. She put us on the map. I would love to just pick her brain one day. I mean, I’m a man. But for her to be a woman and be that successful, that’s amazing to me.

HB: Do you have any words of wisdom to share?

YE: It’s just, all of this stuff that’s been happening, the only thing I do have to say, yeah, everything that’s been happening in my life, I went through obstacles. You know what I mean? I’ve gone through highs and lows, and I just want people to know that if they feel like they have a passion for something, regardless of what anybody has to say about it, to never give up on that dream, and to constantly pray, have positive thoughts, the law of attraction. I’m living the dream and I’m very thankful for it.

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Interviewed by: Aida Bee

It is no secret that YouTube has become the modern day television set for today's generation. Some of the greatest new content is being streamed on the video-sharing platform, and actress Emebeit Beyene has tapped into the trend as creator, director, and actress in the web series Downtown Girls. A comedy inspired by the real post-grad struggles shared by Emebeit and her three former NYU classmates, Downtown Girls is an unapologetic story of female empowerment and pursuing your dreams no matter how crazy they may sound. Emebeit sits down with HabeshaLA and shares her story on using her struggles as a platform for success. 

HabeshaLA: Tell us a little bit about your background, where you went to school, and where you’re originally from.
Emebeit Beyene: I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I’m a first-generation American. I’m literally the first person in my family to be born in America. My two older siblings were both born in Ethiopia. Then there’s me and my youngest sister. I went to college at NYU. I studied acting and Africana studies. I did experimental theater and then switched to film and TV.

I stayed there for two years and that’s where I developed [Downtown Girls] with my group of friends. It’s embellishing art with our lives. You could see the stardom in our eyes, because we have this highly decorated degree.

We were like, ‘Okay, so what can we do? How can we get the ball going for us?’ How can we be in work that we want to see, because it’s so limited, especially in theater. I’d get to auditions and get to call-backs and literally it will boil down to, ‘She’s not Caribbean, she’s not African-American, so this story does not work for her. She’s talented, but this is not her kind of story’.

We are of the modern age, we are millennials, we need to tell that story and Downtown Girls was birthed out of that. We kickstarted for the first season, mostly had family and friends donate and we raised over $7,000 to shoot the first season. That was pennies and nickels to the budget that it actually takes to make anything. We had, it was really one man, one cameraman, shooting guerrilla-style. We had these really intricate ideas but very limited resources to translate them.

As you can see from the first season… the quality is just, to be honest, shit. It’s the best you can do when you’re trying to create something for yourself. But, the stories were great. The comedy was there, but it was just a struggle to watch. But, that was the bullet that we chose to bite, because it’s like, do something or do nothing. From there, we were able to get an investor that believed in the project that loved us, and our story, and funded our complete second season. We tripled the budget.

HLA: That’s amazing!
EB: We come from an artistic community, so we’re grateful in the sense that we know how to assess our failures and our shortcomings. It’s not a testament to our talent or skills. We went to school as pure actors, and four or five years later transitioned into actors, producers, directors and creators. That was all trial and error. Eight episodes of season one came after many, many failed attempts. We just like to be honest. That’s money out of our own pockets, just graduating out of college, you know 21, 22, waitressing, every little bit. You’re paying your rent, you’re paying company dues, structuring a full on production company, like, ‘You know guys, we’re going to put in like $100 each every month to the fund.’

Now we have a full-fledged production company where we produce our work in. That took time. Now with our investor, money isn’t that much of an issue. It’s like, okay great, now we can just focus on the art of it. Focus on what kind of story we want to tell. It’s four girls hustling to make it in New York City – that’s our story. That is who we are at the core, straight up New York hustlers.

HLA:  What made you want to go into acting? When did you first discover your love for theater?
EB: I’m going to be honest, in 6th grade I was watching the Oscars and that was the year that The Sixth Sense was nominated. Haley Joel Osment was walking down the carpet and I’m 12, he’s 12. I’m like, if he can do it, so can I. I don’t tell this story. I have never said this to anyone – especially on tape. I turned to my dad and said, “Daddy this is what I want to do.” He’s like, “Go for it.” My parents are surprisingly very, very supportive for Ethiopian parents. They’re very supportive and open-minded. I was like, “Daddy, I’m going to NYU and I’m going to be like this kid. Flash to college, first day of college, freshman year of my acting class, he’s in my class, Haley Joel Osment.

HLA: Are you serious?
EB: I’m dead serious.

HLA: That’s God speaking to you.
EB: I called my dad, I said, “Dad, guess who’s in my class?” He remembered the day, and I told him he’s in my class and he’s like, “No one can get in your way, we have to support you.”

HLA:  That’s so wonderful.
EB: I never, never told him and he still doesn’t know. It makes me sound like a creepy groupie.

HLA: What do you think would be the most important lesson that you learned from your time at NYU as an actor?
EB: Probably going to be the same answer I gave when they asked me at graduation. They ask you when you first start, and then they ask you the same question at the end. What do you think is the most important lesson? When I first started, I said, ‘Acting is all about being different people and that’s what I like. I like understanding different cultures and walks of life and changing things up’.

Then when I graduated I was like, you know what, everything I said, was a lie. It has nothing to do with different things and exploring different anything. It’s all about understanding you. The biggest lesson is really getting to know who you are at the core and being that authentically. That honesty translates on stage, and on the screen.

Even, when you’re watching movies. Even, if you’re not in the industry. My mom, she understands probably like two thirds of the English language, but watching films she still understands the dynamics of the relationship. It’s not always about what you’re saying and the language that you use.

HLA: When was your first dose of reality when you graduated from college?
EB: The day after graduation.

HLA: It was that quick?
EB: Yes. It’s like, okay, I have this really highly prestigious degree. What do I do with it? All of my other friends from different departments and schools, they all had internships that turned into jobs – the typical ladder of career building.

I’ve had a few internships, okay cool, but I’m going into a profession where I don’t work for anybody. I’m just thrown into auditioning. Thankfully, I did some showcases while I was in school, and I got a manager. She was sending me on professional auditions.

But, as far as how to pay my rent, I had no idea. I was not prepared for that whatsoever. I don’t even think college is the place to prepare you for that. I really feel like they should have classes specifically for life, how to do certain life shit, because I had no clue. I moved into the cheapest apartment I could find in New York City.

HLA: Which was where?
EB: It was a renovated project [housing].

HLA: Are you serious?
EB: We had no idea it was a renovated project. They sold it to us as this high rise building in Harlem that’s coming up, and for sure it’s coming up, but we were at the year one of the come up.

So, it was a year after graduating just being in the real world, auditioning, landing some projects, not landing most of them, and I was like, ‘Was this the life that we’re setting ourselves up for forever?’ You know, just the waiting game. In college, people always told us, “You guys have such a great dynamic, you guys should have a show.” Yeah, that’s funny. I was like, “No, guys, we really should. We should capitalize on what we do best – our friendship and our natural energies together.” And they’re just like, ‘Okay, well, that’d be great. We have that down, what can we talk about? What’s our premise? What are we good at?’

Hustling. All of us, individually struggling to make it in the US, and all of the problems that come with it. Well, that’s a great story, that is a millennial story. We are at the forefront of this movement of web series.

I was like, okay let’s do that. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and we’ll be able to get our stories out there. So, we got a Kickstarter to fund it and raised over $11,000 from family and friends. We used Facebook, personal emails, etc. $7,000 was like I said, pennies and nickels. So what it really cost, essentially, was a $1,000 an episode, and we didn’t pay anything. That was just on equipment, food, location, props, wasting money because we didn’t know how to do proper budgets.

It was a trial and error period. And like the biggest lesson from that time really is, if you don’t know how to do something, you find someone who does it very well. You know, it’s all about building a team. You don’t want to be one man with one show. I’d much rather own 50% or something, than 100% of nothing.

HLA: How did you guys transition from shooting the first season and what kind of reception did you receive?
EB: Friends and family, loved it. So many emails, and Facebook messages, like ‘Congratulations, in general, it’s such a great feat to put yourself out there, do something and actually accomplish it.’ You know, some people spend a good portion of their life just dreaming, just saying, “This is what I want to do.”And then having a slew of excuses as to why they can’t do it.

So just accomplishing it, in it of itself, was just an incredible feat. And then, accomplishing something with such credibility and beautiful art was another feat. We got fans that were not associated with us, that found us online. We had gotten some blog placement, and YouTube comments like, ‘I love this, I wish it were longer.’ And we’re like, ‘Wait. What?’ We were still kind of figuring out the digital media world, so we thought, you know, short and quick, in and out. And they were like, “No, I’d really like to see these characters grow.” So many people actually want a narrative. We thought they just wanted to see one video, laugh and keep going.

It was like, okay. More length and more narrative.We submitted it [Downtown Girls] to the LA Comedy Festival, and we won Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series. We got an award for being the Best Friends on Camera. And we made Finalist in ABFF, for Best Web Series in the category with Black and Sexy TV.

And now with season two, which you know, I just got so much pride and joy in my heart, that shit was good. I have like no humility. It’s beautiful, and we worked hard to make sure we were able to apply our team to do that for us. You know, high quality cameras and really organized shoots. We really didn’t have the funds.

This summer, I was like, great, we can have an AP who was just focusing on the schedule, and the actors, and the day-to-day. We have a DP and a Gaffer. These people took all of the weights off of our shoulders.

HLA: Right. You’re not doing it all yourself.
EB: Well, I’m still on top of it. I’m still the creator, I’m still the producer, I’m still the director, with this whole team. I still have to worry about all of that. So it was a great burden off of our shoulders. And now with the second season, even before we released it, we got into JFL, Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, which is the biggest Northern American festival for comedy, and it was my first real experience of Hollywood. There were stars everywhere. It’s just like, ‘Oh my God, we’re here for the same thing!’

And we were in this pitch program. We were one of five series to get selected to pitch to Fox and Yahoo! So it was a big deal. It was a room full of heavy executives, and we were pitching it as if they were going to buy it to really put it on TV.

And from there we were able to get, TV connects, so that we can convert it into a show. That’s our goal right now. To sell this as a half-hour network comedy, if we can.

HLA: So, are you guys trying to work on pitching “Downtown Girls” as a show?
EB: Yeah, I mean, we shot the second season while we were still here [NYC]. Like all of our pre-production happens in LA, all of our meetings happen in LA. New York is just where we shoot.

HLA: Can we look forward to season three anytime soon?
EB: Not so soon, but definitely, because we’re still on the tails of this season. We have a slew of festivals that we just did. Festival season is among us, so that’s what we’re working on right now. Also, we’re working on sketch comedy videos. We have this deal with an undisclosed comedy network, an online comedy network, and we’ve been contacted to basically create a bunch of sketch videos.

HLA: Are there any other lessons or pieces of advice you can give other content-creators?
EB: I’d say probably, the true form of greatness reveals itself after many trials. And artists should not be discouraged when they create crap, because it is a blow to your ego, and to your confidence. When you look up to so much greatness and you think like that, it just comes naturally.

I know for myself, I think all the artists that I admire, it’s just effortless for them. No, you create, you churn out a bunch of crap, and it’s really about getting that muscle going, and keep practicing. Musicians have to practice their instrument, dancers have to practice their instrument, their body, and actors and filmmakers have to practice their instrument as well. And even when we haven’t worked in a while, we’re kind of getting back into things; we spend hours just shooting ideas.

The big chunk of hours worth of work is garbage, it’s just we’ll never use it. I really refer to the sketch videos that we’re doing now, we had a production meeting where we spent the majority of it on something, by the end of it, we’ll never use it. It was a great warm-up. You just have to keep pushing yourself.

HLA: How do you stay motivated when you face rejection over and over again? And also, how did you and your friends keep your relationships so strong while working in business together?
EB: I don’t think that we necessarily have a plan on how to deal with that. I think it’s a true testament to our personality and luck. We’re very non-confrontational, so even in our personal lives if we have little issues like, you know, ‘I always buy toothpaste, and you never do.’It would never pan out to be a huge fight.

In business, we made sure to create a supportive background for ourselves. If you don’t agree with something, state why and also suggest what can be changed. Don’t sit in a meeting, and be like, ‘I think that sucks.’ Okay, well what can you offer to make it better?

HLA: What do you want people to take away from “Downtown Girls?”
EB: Definitely, the story of four girls who are driven by passion more than social norms. Being millennials, we don’t feel pressured by the societal rules of a picket fence with a dog, and a wife, and husband, like baby-boomer mentality. And we came up in this generation where people create their own opportunities, with lovers, and techies, and artists, and this is that story. This is that millennial story. A group of people who are not afraid to follow their hearts, instead of following their mind with a routine.

HLA: I think the timing of the show couldn’t be more perfect, because I think a lot of people are in that state where they’re trying to find their passion, the economy is so hard, you just end up taking a job that you hate to pay the bills, but you really want to pursue X-Y-and-Z.
EB: Absolutely, and I hear so many stories of people that have gone the safe route. But, for one, it’s too strenuous, two, they hated it to begin with, and three, they have other passions.

HLA: I think that people hearing your story, it’s definitely uplifting, because it’s like, ‘Oh okay, I’m not the only one that failed.’
EB: Yeah, and you’re also not the only one that didn’t have a clear path. You have this idea of what you wanted for yourself, but you didn’t know how to achieve it. That’s really the set up for the whole show.

HLA: Where do you see yourself personally, or would like to see yourself five years from now?
EB: Five years from now, I definitely want to be on a comedy TV show. For sure. And I want that to help me launch a film career. So, film is probably the medium where I see myself. Surprisingly enough, my passion lies in drama. I love drama. That was my initial focus in college, and you know, coming out, creating this show, I’m like, ‘Well, the easy easiest job is comedy.; And I am a naturally kooky, ridiculously silly person. And so I was like, ‘Okay, well let me exercise that.’It’s something that I never really planned. I was just goofy. People would be tell me, ‘Oh, you should go into stand up.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m like a situational funny, I’m not a strategized kind of jokes type of funny.’ But, I can see how this can translate into the beginning of my career.

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Interviewed by: Heynok Elias & Aida Bee

Written by: Dagem Lemma & Aida Bee

Formerly known as Y-O of hip-hop duo U-N-I, emcee and artist Yonas Michael has reinvented himself once again with his latest project, The Black Swan Theory. Originally hailing from Seattle, Washington, Yonas was raised by an Eritrean father and African-American mother in a household that exposed him to different genres of r&b and soul. After relocating to Inglewood, California, Yonas fully immersed himself in music and started U-N-I with fellow emcee Thurzday in 2006. Since then, Yonas has released solo projects including the highly acclaimed Lost in Hollywood (2011) and The Mixtape before the Black Swan Theory. Yonas sits down with HabeshaLA to discuss his latest project, what it means to be an artist, and his Black Swan collective movement.

Habesha LA:  So, why don’t you introduce yourself first?

Yonas Michael:  Ok, well, my name is Yonas Michael. I’m originally from Seattle, Washington, but made my way to sunny LA late ’96. That was the start of my falling in love with music.

HLA: Tell us about your latest project that you’re working on.

Yonas Michael: The latest project is my second solo album—Black Swan Theory. It’s about 15 songs. It’s a full-length LP. New risks, up-and-coming producers such as Boulevard who is a brother of mine. He’s the first producer I’ve found who’s made a whole album with me. Then there are other up-and-coming producers, young kids from Inglewood, called the Triads.

HLA: No relation to the gang, right?

Yonas Michael: No. No relation [laughs]. So yeah, this is my second album, you know? I’m excited. The title, Black Swan, comes from a business term that represents like a boom, a shout to the consumer, or your clan, whatever you want to call it.

The term Black Swan represents somebody who’s a risk taker. Someone who goes against all odds, someone that’s going to be told no many times, that always strives for that ‘Yes!’. We are creating a Black Swan Movement. We are calling it a collective. We are calling it a Black Swan Collective, where we are just taking people that we think can revolutionize anything that they touch, whether you’re a writer or a painter, or you’re an engineer or a physician. That’s what the Black Swan represents.

The music theory, I believe, is going to be rationalized in hindsight once they hear the music. A month or two after it releases, you’ll have to rewind and play it back. It’s something that’s probably going to progress for a year or two and you can always go back to and take a little bit from.

HLA: When do you think you’ll be dropping Black Swan?

Yonas Michael: The theory is, we are going to call it, the Red Riding Hood Theory—leaving bread crumbs. Then I’m going to start releasing a song from the album starting from January. The beauty of it, we make our own rules, having no label overhead above us. We are just going to drop a song every month and build up the demand so my fans really want me to put out the whole album as a whole. It’s going to be an organic release of just music, periodically, throughout the month, starting in January. It’s exciting.

HLA: Is this something that you want to consistently stay with, or do you have thoughts of ever joining another label?

Yonas Michael:  I definitely want to go to the big league. I’m doing this to make a push because I love it, but I have a family. I want to make sure my kids’ kids’ kids’ kids can live off the legacy forever and not have to wake up and clock-in and clock-out. Wake up and do what you want and not have to worry about making ends meet, because I laid down the foundation for people who are family. I’m all about family. Just let family live off what I left behind.

HLA: I was interested in hearing about the dynamic of being part of a group versus being a solo artist. Like that transition… how has that affected you creatively as an artist?

Yonas Michael: One thing—in a group, you always have to agree. If you don’t agree, then there’s a little tension, and then you can clash a lot. Sometimes there were times where I didn’t want to do something but for the sake of it and my brother [Thurzday] wanted to do that, so I’ll do it and vice versa. I wanted to go left, he doesn’t want to, but for the sake of it, we’ll go left. It was a challenge.

HLA: What advice would you give other independent artists in terms of today’s trends? What do you see as being important?

Yonas Michael: One, the most important thing is, within music, always speak from your soul. Don’t get caught up in what’s on the radio and thinking you have to make music like that. The road is much bigger than just the radio-show that we listen to in the morning or afternoon.

Two, learn the business of it. Don’t just be the artist and lock yourself away in the studio making great music, which is fine. Make sure you have a nice, solid team around you.

If you want to be successful in it, it is more than just making a nice song and then sharing it with people. If you want to touch the world, you got to have some type of infrastructure and knowledge behind the music: how to release it and how to market it and brand it. I would say, learn the fundamentals on letting the music be reached by the world.

HLA: What are some of the biggest lessons you have learned so far in your career?

Yonas Michael: Have patience. Don’t always expect everyone to recognize greatness in a month or in a year. You have to keep watering the flowers, watch it grow, and have patience.

HLA:  Did you have a “Black Swan” moment in your career where you felt like you took a big risk?

Yonas Michael: I think that all started when I decided to split and go solo. I had no clue what Black Swan was. I was going to make an album called Black Swan Theory, but at that moment, that day, when I woke up I was … I, just, knew this was something I had to do. I don’t know why, but my mind, my conscious, my soul, was telling me, ‘you gotta do this, man.’

It was the hardest decision that I was about to make. You’re going to get attacked. ‘Are you selfish?’ or ‘You just broke up this and that.’ or … and I accepted all of that. I just went for it, head up, chest down. It’s like anything comes my way from this point on, I’m going to go to the positive energy and conquer. That started in 2011.

When we split, I started from ground zero. I had to make my way back up. I just accepted it again and called Bobby [my now manager]. I said, ‘Are you ready to manage me and accept all the obstacles?’

But, it worked. In that moment, it slowly started to build like a snowball. I felt like it started from ground zero, again. It’s a humbling feeling.

HLA: How would you describe your latest project? Is there a theme, or an inspiration from your life or in the album?

Yonas Michael: Yeah. My daughter is a huge inspiration of this album. She, for sure, has a special place in that album. She actual opened me up to release a lot of personal stuff on the record. I’m very personal. If you can listen to You and I music everything was broad. I never really let my fans in on who was Yonas Michael. The album is very personal, it’s humbling, it’s sexy, it’s edgy, it’s open and it’s honest. It has a lot of soulful sounds in it.

HLA: What has been influencing you over the past year or two?

Yonas Michael: The streets, my ear in the streets, hearing people’s stories, the media. I take pieces from my whole surrounding and I just make music up to link rather than to be a narrator of what’s going on. It’s like everything else, let’s focus on happiness. Let’s focus on the good, because when we’re sitting under a cloud, it’s not really, it’s not helping you. You aren’t helping the people around you, so my whole thing is uplifting and keeping my ears to the streets and how people feel and what the people want. ***

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