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Villain Origin Stories is a long-form interview series about artists, thinkers, and cultural figures confronting the catalyzing experiences that shaped them.

C.Y. Lee opens up about growing up in a deeply musical family, learning piano and cello, and ultimately choosing technology over becoming a professional musician. From studying at MIT and discovering late-1980s house and hip-hop through college radio to building products at companies including Apple, Microsoft, and RealNetworks, C.Y. reflects on the decisions that moved him away from performing—but never separated him from music.

That unfinished relationship eventually led him back as a collector, executive producer, co-founder of MusicNerd, and one of the most visible patrons of independent artists in Web3. He explores what direct artist support can look like, why patronage should be treated as a luxury product, and how people who built wealth outside the arts can help fund the creative culture that shaped them.

As the executive producer of Villain Origin Stories, C.Y. has helped create a platform where artists can confront the experiences, contradictions, and difficult truths behind their work.

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Credits:
Executive Produced by C.Y. Lee
Created, Directed, Produced, And Edited By Michael "Tk" Akinlosotu
Shot By Daniel Upson
Host: TK
Guest: C.Y. Lee
Production Assistant: Steven Vargas
Soundtrack And Audio Mixing: TK

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Villain Origin Stories is a long-form interview series about artists, thinkers, and cultural figures confronting the catalyzing experiences that shaped them.

Money Jezus opens up about leaving high school to pursue music, receiving his first keyboard from his mother, and losing her suddenly to a brain aneurysm at 21. He reflects on the instability, displacement, sacrifice, and isolation that followed, the pressure of trying to build a future without the person who first believed in him, and the difficult journey that carried him from Tampa through the South and ultimately to Los Angeles. 

Through music, visual direction, and the creation of Cypress Labs, Money Jezus has built a world centered on experimentation, independence, community, and transformation.

His story explores what it means to keep creating when life repeatedly strips away stability, how ambition can become both a survival mechanism and a burden, and what happens when a person is forced to create a new definition of home.

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Villain Origin Stories is a long-form interview series about artists, thinkers, and cultural figures confronting the catalyzing experiences that shaped them.

In this episode of Villain Origin Stories, TK sits down with multidisciplinary artist Bueli Njheri, also known as Buelistic, for an unfiltered conversation about the experiences that shaped the woman and artist she became.

Bueli opens up about surviving an abusive relationship, rebuilding her identity, manifestation, spirituality, family, artistic discipline, and the process of turning pain into purpose. From tattooing and visual art to illustration and music, her work exists at the intersection of creativity, self-discovery, and transformation.

In this episode:

— Surviving and recovering from an abusive relationship
— Manifestation and the beliefs that shape reality
— Turning trauma into visual art and music
— Family, identity, and Jamaican heritage
— Growing up with XXXTentacion
— The difference between healing and avoidance
— Accepting the role you played in your own story
— Finding beauty and purpose inside pain

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