Meet Ace “B8gie” Williams | Artist/Emcee & Product Developer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ace “B8gie” Williams and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ace “B8gie”, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
The thought process behind creating my product, Stimmy Stash™ (www.stimmystash.com), was a lifelong desire to become a producer of something as inspiring and impactful as what I had been a consumer of. As an 8-year-old rapper and CD collector, I desperately wanted to make the music I consumed so I strategically began building a makeshift recording studio. The result was my self-produced debut/ demo cassette tape in 2001 (https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/b8giefoo/hot-boy-b8gie), the first consumer item of my own creation.

While my Hip-Hop career has spanned for 20+ years, my focus returned to the concept of consumption over the past 2 years as emergency relief funds were being distributed worldwide. With the release of my song “Earth Is Almost Over (The World Owes Me)” produced by I.B.C.L.A.S.S.I.C. (https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/b8giefoo/earth-is-almost-over), I addressed how impoverished economic conditions throughout Black history have urgently warranted systemic reparations long before current global conditions. The song’s concept and title itself is what lead to the development of the Stimmy Stash™ piggy bank.

Stimmy Stash™ represents the dedication to economic empowerment that marginalized minorities must display despite being owed an outstanding debt of relief. Currently a product that inspires financial literacy, Stimmy Stash™ as a business will provide a curriculum for money management and generational wealth up to and including digital assets.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My unique skill set is what affords me a life of fulfilling creativity and purposeful communication. My music, which began as an affinity for Cash Money Records, is defined by quality consistency, dimensional lyricism, and soulful showmanship. I have achieved Hip-Hop history as the first artist to feature alongside their own prepubescent self for a collaborative project (https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/b8giefoo/hot-boy-b8gie-vol-2) by repurposing my earliest recordings to explore themes of mentorship and self mastery.

The therapeutic theories crafted within my music reflect my 5+ year stint as a psychosocial counselor and care coordinator in my community on Chicago’s south side. I ultimately left one healthcare profession for another by becoming essential to the medical marijuana industry as a customer experience specialist.

I have developed my brand as an independent artist with the integrity of a mental health advocate concentrating in the social environment’s relation to consumer responses. Stimmy Stash™ is the culmination of all my studies thus far in the form of a consumer good directly inspired by my art. I am truly grateful for how I have reached this space of product development.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The city of Los Angeles has shown me some of my best times ever. The first place I experienced after relocating from Chicago was the Weedmaps Museum of Weed, the utmost immersive historical account of cannabis culture throughout the past century. WMMW marked my introduction to the green rush and opened my eyes to its many exciting opportunities.

My avid appreciation for museums of (contemporary) art, science, history, technology and more helped me discover my current favorite attraction of LA, Sneakertopia. As the ultimate expression of sneaker culture with street art masterpieces and an Augmented Reality experience, Sneakertopia also houses an exclusive limited Stimmy Stash™ supply.

Entertainment, specifically laughter, has also always been an underlying component of my wellness model. I frequent comedy clubs, improv shows, and movie theatres as often as possible while indulging in birria tacos or Harold’s in Hollywood to remind me of home in Chicago. Otherwise, I enjoy relaxing and unwinding near a boardwalk and/or body of water accompanied by a breeze.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The greater part of my support system includes people who I consider lifelong checks and balances of accountability. Like steel sharpening steel, being challenged as well as championed by those who care has helped me rise to each occasion and overcome every obstacle.

The other brilliant mind behind Stimmy Stash™, Jerriell Ryan, has been bouncing ideas around with me since first grade. As the “idea guy”, Jerriell’s brand consultation was imperative to our first-generation piggy bank becoming an out-of-stock item.

The soundtrack of Stimmy Stash™ has been provided by I.B.C.L.A.S.S.I.C. and Ro Marsalis with the aforementioned “Earth Is Almost Over” and recently released single “Successor” (https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/b8giefoo/successor) emphasizing a fiscal responsibility to one’s future.

I am blessed to have the efforts and encouragement of many others, both personally and professionally. I must give recognition to my family in my hometown of Chicago, my loved ones from Louisiana, and the new connections I’ve made in California since relocating in 2019.

Website: www.stimmystash.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/b8gie/

Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCsKS_LLTvZrGdUcclSHem0w

Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/b8gie-foo/1465633076

Image Credits
David “PromoDave” Larry, Jalen Tucker, AJ Guidry, Plyte.io