Meet Carlton Sabbs: Co-Founder • Director • Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carlton Sabbs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carlton, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career? Carlton Sabbs: As long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to create experiences for people. As a kid, I always found myself trying to replicate moments in the most authentic way possible – like attempting to recreate the Chicago L-Train system at my home with my model trains, or reenacting Wrestlemania Pay Per view events when my friends would visit with costumes and real theme music from a WWE soundtrack I had, or producing a makeshift 2 on 2 March Madness style basketball tournament for my birthday party at 12yrs old – creating color coordinated uniforms for everyone to play in. I truly didn’t realize I could use my imagination as an official career. I spent many years working in sales, operations, advertising with a mindset that those were my only options as a professional. But meeting like-minded individuals like Corey over the years, truly helped the creative career path feel like more of a reality. Corey Colvin: From the start it was something I felt I was good at. I was put in a creative box growing up and through periods of my life I can say I was looked at as the weird kid but I took that as motivation to cultivate my creative mind. I’ve always loved to create new things as far as different forms of art are concerned whether that was music and social events to what Carlton and I are focusing on now like film and other editorial content.

What should our readers know about your business?
Carlton Sabbs: Before the idea of starting a production company came about, Corey and I met working together at a radio station in Chicago. We learned we had very similar taste in movies, music and design. Examples of us influencing one another include Corey introducing me to Odd Future in 2010 or me sharing Toro Y Moi with him. We’ve always had this clear vision with art and wanted to share our creative outlook with the rest of the world. We spent numerous years in our separate career paths building up our knowledge and skill set. Prior to getting into video production, I worked at companies like the Chicago Tribune, Shazam and Live Nation. During my time at those places I learned a lot on self-sufficiency – whether that’s building a website from scratch, or communicating with clients, creating and presenting presentation decks, or understanding Microsoft Excel logic, or ideating creative concepts. All of those experiences helped lay the groundwork for our company in conjunction with our side endeavors. The foundation of Stony and Yates is providing a fresh perspective to a convoluted production industry. From our creative treatments to the film rules we apply and break, our creations are a direct result of two out of the box creative guys from the South Side of Chicago sharing a vision. Corey Colvin: Stony & Yates is a product of working my way up through the industry starting with entry level positions over my 14 year professional career. A strong work ethic has afforded me the opportunity to work my way up to management and executive positions where I’ve had the chance to create and facilitate massive projects for major companies and networks. We set ourselves apart because we are able to take calculated risks. Many people like to claim taking risks but I think it’s important to strategize and create some sort of road map to where the calculated risks will take you and where you’re ultimately trying to end up. One of the major risks I took in my career was removing myself from my comfort zone and being open to relocating multiple times to get to where I needed to be. This gave me the opportunity to experience this industry in different environments and take elements from each experience and help Carlton with creating a creative company like Stony & Yates and what we are growing into today. By no means has this been an easy road. It has come with many obstacles especially when it comes to relocating. It was hard to separate from loved ones, family and friends and not everyone initially agreed with the road I was seeking out. I am glad I was able to still take that leap of faith despite the financial struggle and isolation I experienced, the sleep deprivation, the attitudes, the lack of housing options and so many other things that can be presented in the way of someone trying to follow a dream. Being able to navigate and weather all of those storms makes it so much more enjoyable when you see all of the sacrifices paying off. The lessons learned along the way are to remain humble, remain committed to teamwork, always revisit the ultimate goal along the way, be open to constructive criticism, and be able to work well with your partners and clients keeping their story at the forefront but also staying true to your visions.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Carlton Sabbs: Well before theVid happened, I would always take folks from out of town to grab drinks and chill on the rooftop of Mama’s Shelter. It’s just one of the places where the ambiance embodies LA through and through. Folks eating, drinking and laying on the cabana style couches and seeing the city backdrop. I would also suggest visiting Venice Beach too because there’s no other place similar to it in America in my opinion. Culture is in abundance over there. But the other things of course would be lunch at Night + Market in Silver Lake, grabbing street tacos from Ave 26 Taco Stand, having brunch at Serving Spoon in Inglewood, visiting the Arts District, hitting up PCH or Mulholland Drive, having a random night at Sweet Chick then the Dime on Fairfax. Sigh on pre-Covid days.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Corey Colvin • Co-Founder • Executive Producer: It takes a village. My dreams are developing by the day in part due to the support of my wife and family, my close circle of friends and my business partner Sabbs. Also being able to navigate this industry through various work opportunities over the years have also been instrumental to getting me where I am today. I credit my formative years in Chicago working as a producer for WVON (black owned radio station) and CBS to my time working in LA/NYC working for Revolt TV & Media and my experience working for CNN in Atlanta which I feel have been important in the role that I play in working with Carlton in our Stony & Yates projects. We have positioned ourselves to work with great companies such as Tidal, Netflix, Sony, and Barefoot Wine among other substantial names in the industry. Carlton Sabbs: I would truly have to give a lot of credit to my father. He passed away at the age of 43 and I was only 9. In a short period of time, he made an immense impact on my life and how I see the world. He instilled culture in me every opportunity he had from introducing me to his favorite jazz musicians Wes Montgomery or Coltrane, or taking me to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago every Thursday because it was free, or teaching me how to create paper mache. He also left with me an everlasting notion to fight for what you believe in. I honestly can say our company Stony and Yates operates today because of his influence as a father.

Website: stonyandyates.com

Instagram: @stonyandyates

Other: VIMEO: https://vimeo.com/stonyandyates

Image Credits
Emmanuel ‘MannyReel’ Camacho Sugarmilk