We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Perry Clarke a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Perry, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
It start with my family instilling in me to take pride in your appearance. How you dress says a lot about you and your personality. The outside world pays attention to that. So through out my life I took pride in my appearance. Fast forward to being in high school , i watched a show called Rob & Big. Rob cousins Drama Path in their spin called rob Dyrdek’s fantasy factory started his own brand called young & reckeless. Mind you I seen the Fubu , Sean John , Roc a Wear , and the 8732 from different black figure which did inspire me. Just seeing Drama start with nothing and his cousin motivate and inspire him to step outside with his brand , but it was a skateboard brand and look. Which inspired my brand called DangerousParadise clothing and shoe. During that 07 -12 the skateboard look changed the game for the culture, lil Wayne and many other embraced the change. Going from oversize clothes to fitted clothes. I started doing custom fitted sweaters and pants . That was my launchpad for my first business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I got into business by daring to be different. It started by customizing my the clothing and creating me a logo to represent me. Then my peers wanted my customize stuff to wear out to clubs , parties , kickbacks , and etc. Then I start opening up to cool sweaters and t-shirt with different movie art. Showing my range in talent and creativity. The thing in business you must take a leap of faith and be able to pivot. While never letting my brand get out of touch, and keeping my brand name alive . Side note I am a HBCU graduate from The Fort Valley State University and a mass communication major , so talking is what I do and my school sharpen my skills. Taking my clothing to different events, I would do drops for Rick Ross , Jody breeze of boyz n da hood. The producers would be like you are too good at this, you make need to look in to this. Fast forwarding again , and showing my pivot skills I have monetize podcast on YouTube called Primetime on Dangerousparadise tv and I’m a part of a hip-hop network with one of my podcast featured and show from them called 420 & blunted. I also have my directing debut on the hip hop network app called Crome documentary. There movie I’m working on currently and I also running my own transportation business.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I love this word resilience, it’s one my favorite word. The thing is I always been different in how think , I was allowed to dream as a kid and keep my dreams. I may have not been a pro basketball player but knew I was above average all day everyday. Once I started my first business and started producing product and doing for a while. Observers began to think that all you can do, one trick pony. If you want more you going to create more. I took an interest in transportation in 2020 because of my cousin. Family and friends voiced their opinions, which I respected. Some saying you going to fail , but as I learn more and more my confidence grow more and more. I added people to the business and they began to self sabotage my business from the inside. Kicked them from the business, started with a new name and made 250k my first two years out. You have to recognize those evils around you , once people can’t take you talking about your educational background and the things you do, they aren’t meant to be around you
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My pivot from just doing clothing to doing podcast is amazing. Once i started DangerousParadise clothing , I knew that was a name I was going to keep around. Even when I don’t have product, I’m saying DangerousParadise. I love cloths but everyone was becoming a clothing designer without any talent behind it. In college always want to be a Big Tigger , Bill Bellamy , Tech money, Sway , which they are VJs. They would host tv shows on BET and MTV. I didn’t know how it was going to come true for me, but I knew I had raw talent, I studied these guys night and day. From tv to youtube, following their career . So my college friend darrell Jones, said I am about to start a podcast, we need your talents on board. Once he brought me in and show me how , what I needed , I used my knowledge and resources to create my own. Now I’m a YouTube star a star on a network
Contact Info:
- Website: DangerousParadisetv.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dangerous_thadon?igsh=NTl6MW9lNm43ZDQz&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prryclarke?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Twitter: https://x.com/pc_thechief/status/1747093764152111574?s=46&t=QPblXBScYrT1WQJyBmocMQ
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@DangerousParadiseTv?si=viZFeztD-tM59JP-
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/dangerousparadiseprimetime?igsh=MWNldTUxazl1dXBscQ==