 Hi guys, this is Kwame with The Verge and we're here in The Verge Lounge talking with the CES Entertainment Ambassador Nick Cannon. So Nick, we've been here for a couple of days, you've been here for a couple of days, so what do you think of the show so far? Show is outstanding man, I mean CES 2015 is just, it's different than any other year in my opinion. I've been here for, you know, probably half a dozen times, you know, over the past six or seven years and I feel like the energy for 2015 is more focused on enhancing your personal experience. So seeing that in everything from wearables to, you know, driverless cars, you know what I mean? It's like how can we make your life better with technology and that's kind of what I've been seeing. Alright, so you're wearing like a wearable right now. Actually I don't have one on right now. Like I said, my watch has a diamond conductor, this is different. No, actually you know the wearable thing, I have a few of the, obviously everything from Google Glass to the Samsung watch that connects to the Galaxy, but I'm not really, I haven't found one that I can't live without yet. So that world is, it's new to me, I saw something really cool that was, it was an app connected to a shirt to where you could change the words on your t-shirt. Oh really? I thought that was kind of dope, I was like I would rock that, I would definitely rock that. I don't know, like I'd have to have something different every day, like you know, going up on a Tuesday. Every Tuesday. Every day, every day. So you're an entertainment ambassador and you're trying to have a connection with Hollywood and the tech industry. That's the purpose of my ambassadorship, if that is a term. It's really to make sure that the world of entertainment and technology understand each other and coexist and actually benefit from each other. I mean, because you can't have one without the other, honestly. But I think it's more or less that the entertainment industry should recognize all the benefits it can get from partnering with a lot of these tech companies and exploring the tech space. Alright, so are you having conversations with these tech companies on the floor? I mean, I have, somewhat, I mean, you know, kind of, I've been handling my original business here that I've been doing with, you know, from my headphones to my tablets and stuff. Kind of finding new ways to license and market my own company, incredible. But then, you know, as the ambassador, they're kind of seeing things on another scale as well with some of these major companies that are doing some phenomenal things, like the Samsungs and the Sonys and all of those companies that have been doing it, you know, before I was born. Right. Yeah, yeah. So you've been making tablets, you're making headphones. Yeah, yeah. And obviously you're on the floor and like checking out the business and everything. So as a celebrity, you're getting into the space. Yeah. And there's a big push on the Hollywood side and the artist side to like get into this. What is that like on the creative side? On the creative side, I mean, it kind of, I would say, simplifies the process of being creative. I mean, because all these tools have been placed at our fingertips to allow us to create content and connect with our fan base in a much easier way than ever before. I mean, you know what I mean? There's people getting rich off of, you know, YouTube and Vine videos and Instagram posts. You know what I mean? It's really interesting to where as an artist, how you can express yourself creatively. I mean, I've seen you in the Vine videos, like with King Batch and whatnot. So like all that is funny stuff. But I would think it would be daunting. Like there's so much out there. Yeah, you got to pick and choose. Right. You know what I mean? To be honest, I haven't jumped into the world of Snapchat yet. Right. Because I don't really understand the benefit of it. I was like, that's kind of wasting my time of something, make a video and it disappears. Right. Sam or social man is probably snapping this right now. Yeah, but then it goes away. Right. They'll never see this ever again. So I was like, I don't understand that disposable content concept. Yeah, especially if I can't make any money off of it. Like, yeah, it was fun. But only the people who saw it in that 24 hours ever got to see it. It was like a great story. Like, man, you should have been there. That's what the name of the app should have been called. You should have been there. You should have been there. Wow. I mean, God, it's been days here. Yeah. Just trying to share these stories with everybody. Yeah, yeah. Personally, I'm tired. Yeah. It can take a lot out of you, man. Right. I mean, Las Vegas in general could take a lot of you. And then you get into this convention center in this space with, you know, every company you could ever imagine with new gadgets. It could be system overload really quickly. So you got to pace yourself. Right. And you're everywhere. Like, you were at Oak One and whatnot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, what is that like? I mean, I think my life is always constantly on the go from DJing last night. I hosted a couple of dinners. I got a few dinners tonight that I'm speaking at. You know, being the ambassador, but at the same time still trying to be the businessman and sell my products and, you know, meeting with retailers and all that. It's interesting, but I embrace it, man. I love it. I mean, I always say my vocation is my vacation. I was built to work hard. All right. So as far as your art, like, and your music and everything else, and everything that you do as far as producing and television, like, you have a lot on your plate. Yeah. Like, you have to be just overloaded on top of everything here. It's all one gig to me. It's all, you know what I mean? I don't see it as a whole bunch of different things you're doing. When you think of it, it's just like it's all based in that same sense of providing content in different ways and things that connect to the content. All right. So when you think of someone who runs a record label or a movie studio, you don't look to them to say, man, you got so many artists or you got so many... It's more about, you know, what is it that you're actually focused on? You're focused on the company. You know what I mean? You're not... Of course, you got to focus on the individual projects and whatever movie you're making at that time span or whatever artist you're promoting at the time. But the CEO of the company runs the entire company on that level. So I kind of see it like that. I just see everything that I do is all the different projects that fall up under the umbrella of my incredible company. All right. And like for me, I've been following your work since like all of that days. Thank you, sir. And I mean, coming from that period and like doing it for years, how does that compare like that time to now? Man, I was telling this to somebody else. I was an 80s baby. People were aware of me in the 90s. Like I remember to connect with the audience and like you could dial a 976 number and get a message from your favorite artist and it cost you a dollar a minute. But now it's like just the connectivity of entertainers and artists with their fan base and the community. It's so much information out there and there's so many ways to really be close and really actually have a different type of experience than has ever been presented to us before. So I think it's a fabulous time, man, to really be an entertainer and to be an artist because there's so many ways you can get your art out there. What's your favorite memory from that time? From that time? Oh, man. I definitely have to say because, you know, I started out in the game as more of a behind the scenes dude, a writer and a producer, helping write and produce a lot of those, you know, classic Nickelodeon shows. It was always really fun because I was a kid. I was a teenager, man. To be able to be a part of that and be treated like an adult and then to see what all that stuff flourished into is outstanding. And like what's happening now? Like what do you admire most? What are you enjoying most right now? I admire like the growth of my company. I mean, that's an easy answer. Yeah, yeah. Honestly, I say that not to sound like facetious or anything, but just the idea to say, you know, it's the pace that everything is working and happening in entertainment and tech. And for me to kind of be on the forefront of that and be one of the first to say, hey, this is what we really want to do. To say I remember I woke up one day and said, I want to make a tablet. Less than a year later, I had a tablet. It's outstanding. I never thought anything like that could actually ever happen. It's kind of cool. So talk about like what you use. We talk about phones every day, tablets every day and like the apps and everything we do. Like what's your basic process? I mean, I have all of that stuff, you know, obviously, but then I mean, being a DJ, you know, I'm always figuring out the best way to rock a club. I mean, my man, April Jack just walked over there, a good friend of mine. He's using the Pioneer CDJs. I'm still on turntables. I bought those the other day just to see when can I start just walking into the club with a flash drive instead of my old laptop. Stuff like that. That's, you know, I'm always focused on that cool stuff in the music space. And like what phone do you use? I got them all, man. Literally all of them? Not all of them. I got three phones that I use. I mean, I have the iPhone 6 Plus. I got the Samsung Galaxy 5. I got, what's the Blackberry called? The Passport. Really? Passport. I like buttons. I got to have buttons. Oh, man. Micah on our staff, like he just loves the Blackberries and this physical keyboard. I can get into the Passport. It just felt too big. But it's not too much bigger than the other phones that I have. It's just square. Yeah. I liked it. I had a cool screen, it has the buttons. I use it. You know, again, like each device does something different for me. If I want to write like a really, really long email, I use my Blackberry. And it's just because I can go. You know what I mean? It's like the touch screen emails, I can't stand that stuff. All right. In terms of weirdness, I'm going to get a little weird because it's a little weird. All right. Starting with CES, we've seen a couple of weird things. Okay. What are the weird things you've seen here? Wow. That's always weird. Weird in the space of technology or weird in the space of just people walking around? You can pick and choose. You know what? The things that really intrigued me is definitely some of the stuff. There was this virtual program that kind of took your whole face and was able to put it anywhere. And it kind of reminded me of that Total Recall Max Head drew and stuff. I was like, yo, that's kind of weird. That's a little scary. Yeah. That's some lawnmower man stuff. But then, I mean, honestly, it's a city of innovative thinkers. You got some interesting characters walking around. I've been pitched quite a few interesting concepts and investments. You know, somebody was trying to pitch me a digital skin. I don't even understand what they were saying, but it sounded really weird. Why would I want my skin to be digital? But hey, to each his own. You never know. We're walking around here with digital skin. I don't even know what that means. Digital. Yeah. You can make your skin digital. It's like just tapping your skin? I've seen things like that projecting onto your skin. Yeah, yeah. I think it was more, but it's tattooing the... I don't know. It was strange. I was like, I didn't have enough time to understand what they were talking about. All right. And I mean, we've gone on record in the past, just being in Vegas and being in Vegas for years. This is only my second year, but Vegas can be fucked up. Yes. Just putting that out there. Yeah, yeah. So basically, I was in a car the other day and our driver was like, yeah, man, I've seen some things like behind the green door things. Weird things. What was that? But what have you seen just in this town? I mean, it's Vegas, man. You see everything. It truly is what happens here. Most of the time tries to stay here, but can get out. You see a lot of... I mean, I love this city, but you see just a lot of hustling going on. You see a lot of people trying to take advantage of tourists. It's unfortunate, but it's the way of the world too. I think it's one of the greatest cities ever, but you got to be careful out here. Definitely got to be careful. All right. So what's your favorite thing going on right now? In life? Yeah. My children. They're my favorite thing ever. But I mean, obviously, if we're thinking about just the excitement of 2015, I mean, this is our 10th year of Wild N Out. I'm really excited about that. It's the 10th year and 10th season of America's Got Talent. So it's a big, big year for us on so many different levels. Movies, music, we're taking all that stuff to the next level. What are you working on right now? Probably we got, like I said, Wild N Out is getting ready to shoot. America's Got Talent is getting ready to shoot. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, the reboot, we got that. I'm getting ready to do another film in April. Music, my record label, managing French Montana right now. Amber Rose, King Bach, they're all part of the incredible family. So the company's growing at such a massive pace. It's a good look. So what's going to happen in 2016, do you think? 2016, world domination. I'm pinky in the brain. All right, man. It's a pleasure. Good stuff. Likewise, man. Thanks for your time. And if you guys want to see any more interviews like this, then subscribe to our channel at YouTube.com. Come watch The Verng.
 Hi guys, this is Kwame with The Verge and we're here in The Verge Lounge talking with
 the CES Entertainment Ambassador Nick Cannon.
 So Nick, we've been here for a couple of days, you've been here for a couple of days, so
 what do you think of the show so far?
 Show is outstanding man, I mean CES 2015 is just, it's different than any other year in
 my opinion.
 I've been here for, you know, probably half a dozen times, you know, over the past six
 or seven years and I feel like the energy for 2015 is more focused on enhancing your
 personal experience.
 So seeing that in everything from wearables to, you know, driverless cars, you know what
 I mean?
 It's like how can we make your life better with technology and that's kind of what I've
 been seeing.
 Alright, so you're wearing like a wearable right now.
 Actually I don't have one on right now.
 Like I said, my watch has a diamond conductor, this is different.
 No, actually you know the wearable thing, I have a few of the, obviously everything
 from Google Glass to the Samsung watch that connects to the Galaxy, but I'm not really,
 I haven't found one that I can't live without yet.
 So that world is, it's new to me, I saw something really cool that was, it was an app connected
 to a shirt to where you could change the words on your t-shirt.
 Oh really?
 I thought that was kind of dope, I was like I would rock that, I would definitely rock
 that.
 I don't know, like I'd have to have something different every day, like you know, going
 up on a Tuesday.
 Every Tuesday.
 Every day, every day.
 So you're an entertainment ambassador and you're trying to have a connection with Hollywood
 and the tech industry.
 That's the purpose of my ambassadorship, if that is a term.
 It's really to make sure that the world of entertainment and technology understand each
 other and coexist and actually benefit from each other.
 I mean, because you can't have one without the other, honestly.
 But I think it's more or less that the entertainment industry should recognize all the benefits
 it can get from partnering with a lot of these tech companies and exploring the tech space.
 Alright, so are you having conversations with these tech companies on the floor?
 I mean, I have, somewhat, I mean, you know, kind of, I've been handling my original business
 here that I've been doing with, you know, from my headphones to my tablets and stuff.
 Kind of finding new ways to license and market my own company, incredible.
 But then, you know, as the ambassador, they're kind of seeing things on another scale as
 well with some of these major companies that are doing some phenomenal things, like the
 Samsungs and the Sonys and all of those companies that have been doing it, you know, before
 I was born.
 Right.
 Yeah, yeah.
 So you've been making tablets, you're making headphones.
 Yeah, yeah.
 And obviously you're on the floor and like checking out the business and everything.
 So as a celebrity, you're getting into the space.
 Yeah.
 And there's a big push on the Hollywood side and the artist side to like get into this.
 What is that like on the creative side?
 On the creative side, I mean, it kind of, I would say, simplifies the process of being
 creative.
 I mean, because all these tools have been placed at our fingertips to allow us to create
 content and connect with our fan base in a much easier way than ever before.
 I mean, you know what I mean?
 There's people getting rich off of, you know, YouTube and Vine videos and Instagram posts.
 You know what I mean?
 It's really interesting to where as an artist, how you can express yourself creatively.
 I mean, I've seen you in the Vine videos, like with King Batch and whatnot.
 So like all that is funny stuff.
 But I would think it would be daunting.
 Like there's so much out there.
 Yeah, you got to pick and choose.
 Right.
 You know what I mean?
 To be honest, I haven't jumped into the world of Snapchat yet.
 Right.
 Because I don't really understand the benefit of it.
 I was like, that's kind of wasting my time of something, make a video and it disappears.
 Right.
 Sam or social man is probably snapping this right now.
 Yeah, but then it goes away.
 Right.
 They'll never see this ever again.
 So I was like, I don't understand that disposable content concept.
 Yeah, especially if I can't make any money off of it.
 Like, yeah, it was fun.
 But only the people who saw it in that 24 hours ever got to see it.
 It was like a great story.
 Like, man, you should have been there.
 That's what the name of the app should have been called.
 You should have been there.
 You should have been there.
 Wow.
 I mean, God, it's been days here.
 Yeah.
 Just trying to share these stories with everybody.
 Yeah, yeah.
 Personally, I'm tired.
 Yeah.
 It can take a lot out of you, man.
 Right.
 I mean, Las Vegas in general could take a lot of you.
 And then you get into this convention center in this space with, you know, every company
 you could ever imagine with new gadgets.
 It could be system overload really quickly.
 So you got to pace yourself.
 Right.
 And you're everywhere.
 Like, you were at Oak One and whatnot.
 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
 Like, what is that like?
 I mean, I think my life is always constantly on the go from DJing last night.
 I hosted a couple of dinners.
 I got a few dinners tonight that I'm speaking at.
 You know, being the ambassador, but at the same time still trying to be the businessman
 and sell my products and, you know, meeting with retailers and all that.
 It's interesting, but I embrace it, man.
 I love it.
 I mean, I always say my vocation is my vacation.
 I was built to work hard.
 All right.
 So as far as your art, like, and your music and everything else, and everything that you
 do as far as producing and television, like, you have a lot on your plate.
 Yeah.
 Like, you have to be just overloaded on top of everything here.
 It's all one gig to me.
 It's all, you know what I mean?
 I don't see it as a whole bunch of different things you're doing.
 When you think of it, it's just like it's all based in that same sense of providing
 content in different ways and things that connect to the content.
 All right.
 So when you think of someone who runs a record label or a movie studio, you don't look to
 them to say, man, you got so many artists or you got so many...
 It's more about, you know, what is it that you're actually focused on?
 You're focused on the company.
 You know what I mean?
 You're not...
 Of course, you got to focus on the individual projects and whatever movie you're making
 at that time span or whatever artist you're promoting at the time.
 But the CEO of the company runs the entire company on that level.
 So I kind of see it like that.
 I just see everything that I do is all the different projects that fall up under the
 umbrella of my incredible company.
 All right.
 And like for me, I've been following your work since like all of that days.
 Thank you, sir.
 And I mean, coming from that period and like doing it for years, how does that compare
 like that time to now?
 Man, I was telling this to somebody else.
 I was an 80s baby.
 People were aware of me in the 90s.
 Like I remember to connect with the audience and like you could dial a 976 number and get
 a message from your favorite artist and it cost you a dollar a minute.
 But now it's like just the connectivity of entertainers and artists with their fan base
 and the community.
 It's so much information out there and there's so many ways to really be close and really
 actually have a different type of experience than has ever been presented to us before.
 So I think it's a fabulous time, man, to really be an entertainer and to be an artist because
 there's so many ways you can get your art out there.
 What's your favorite memory from that time?
 From that time?
 Oh, man.
 I definitely have to say because, you know, I started out in the game as more of a behind
 the scenes dude, a writer and a producer, helping write and produce a lot of those,
 you know, classic Nickelodeon shows.
 It was always really fun because I was a kid.
 I was a teenager, man.
 To be able to be a part of that and be treated like an adult and then to see what all that
 stuff flourished into is outstanding.
 And like what's happening now?
 Like what do you admire most?
 What are you enjoying most right now?
 I admire like the growth of my company.
 I mean, that's an easy answer.
 Yeah, yeah.
 Honestly, I say that not to sound like facetious or anything, but just the idea to say, you
 know, it's the pace that everything is working and happening in entertainment and tech.
 And for me to kind of be on the forefront of that and be one of the first to say, hey,
 this is what we really want to do.
 To say I remember I woke up one day and said, I want to make a tablet.
 Less than a year later, I had a tablet.
 It's outstanding.
 I never thought anything like that could actually ever happen.
 It's kind of cool.
 So talk about like what you use.
 We talk about phones every day, tablets every day and like the apps and everything we do.
 Like what's your basic process?
 I mean, I have all of that stuff, you know, obviously, but then I mean, being a DJ, you
 know, I'm always figuring out the best way to rock a club.
 I mean, my man, April Jack just walked over there, a good friend of mine.
 He's using the Pioneer CDJs.
 I'm still on turntables.
 I bought those the other day just to see when can I start just walking into the club with
 a flash drive instead of my old laptop.
 Stuff like that.
 That's, you know, I'm always focused on that cool stuff in the music space.
 And like what phone do you use?
 I got them all, man.
 Literally all of them?
 Not all of them.
 I got three phones that I use.
 I mean, I have the iPhone 6 Plus.
 I got the Samsung Galaxy 5.
 I got, what's the Blackberry called?
 The Passport.
 Really?
 Passport.
 I like buttons.
 I got to have buttons.
 Oh, man.
 Micah on our staff, like he just loves the Blackberries and this physical keyboard.
 I can get into the Passport.
 It just felt too big.
 But it's not too much bigger than the other phones that I have.
 It's just square.
 Yeah.
 I liked it.
 I had a cool screen, it has the buttons.
 I use it.
 You know, again, like each device does something different for me.
 If I want to write like a really, really long email, I use my Blackberry.
 And it's just because I can go.
 You know what I mean?
 It's like the touch screen emails, I can't stand that stuff.
 All right.
 In terms of weirdness, I'm going to get a little weird because it's a little weird.
 All right.
 Starting with CES, we've seen a couple of weird things.
 Okay.
 What are the weird things you've seen here?
 Wow.
 That's always weird.
 Weird in the space of technology or weird in the space of just people walking around?
 You can pick and choose.
 You know what?
 The things that really intrigued me is definitely some of the stuff.
 There was this virtual program that kind of took your whole face and was able to put it
 anywhere.
 And it kind of reminded me of that Total Recall Max Head drew and stuff.
 I was like, yo, that's kind of weird.
 That's a little scary.
 Yeah.
 That's some lawnmower man stuff.
 But then, I mean, honestly, it's a city of innovative thinkers.
 You got some interesting characters walking around.
 I've been pitched quite a few interesting concepts and investments.
 You know, somebody was trying to pitch me a digital skin.
 I don't even understand what they were saying, but it sounded really weird.
 Why would I want my skin to be digital?
 But hey, to each his own.
 You never know.
 We're walking around here with digital skin.
 I don't even know what that means.
 Digital.
 Yeah.
 You can make your skin digital.
 It's like just tapping your skin?
 I've seen things like that projecting onto your skin.
 Yeah, yeah.
 I think it was more, but it's tattooing the...
 I don't know.
 It was strange.
 I was like, I didn't have enough time to understand what they were talking about.
 All right.
 And I mean, we've gone on record in the past, just being in Vegas and being in Vegas for
 years.
 This is only my second year, but Vegas can be fucked up.
 Yes.
 Just putting that out there.
 Yeah, yeah.
 So basically, I was in a car the other day and our driver was like, yeah, man, I've seen
 some things like behind the green door things.
 Weird things.
 What was that?
 But what have you seen just in this town?
 I mean, it's Vegas, man.
 You see everything.
 It truly is what happens here.
 Most of the time tries to stay here, but can get out.
 You see a lot of...
 I mean, I love this city, but you see just a lot of hustling going on.
 You see a lot of people trying to take advantage of tourists.
 It's unfortunate, but it's the way of the world too.
 I think it's one of the greatest cities ever, but you got to be careful out here.
 Definitely got to be careful.
 All right.
 So what's your favorite thing going on right now?
 In life?
 Yeah.
 My children.
 They're my favorite thing ever.
 But I mean, obviously, if we're thinking about just the excitement of 2015, I mean, this
 is our 10th year of Wild N Out.
 I'm really excited about that.
 It's the 10th year and 10th season of America's Got Talent.
 So it's a big, big year for us on so many different levels.
 Movies, music, we're taking all that stuff to the next level.
 What are you working on right now?
 Probably we got, like I said, Wild N Out is getting ready to shoot.
 America's Got Talent is getting ready to shoot.
 Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, the reboot, we got that.
 I'm getting ready to do another film in April.
 Music, my record label, managing French Montana right now.
 Amber Rose, King Bach, they're all part of the incredible family.
 So the company's growing at such a massive pace.
 It's a good look.
 So what's going to happen in 2016, do you think?
 2016, world domination.
 I'm pinky in the brain.
 All right, man.
 It's a pleasure.
 Good stuff.
 Likewise, man.
 Thanks for your time.
 And if you guys want to see any more interviews like this, then subscribe to our channel
 at YouTube.com.
 Come watch The Verng.