Adam Torres and Rawcel Cooks discuss Mega Mix Expo 2025.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Mega Mix Expo coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres and Rawcel Cooks, President at ZupaLove International, explore ZupaLove International, ZupaNova and the Mega Mixe Expo.
About Rawcel Cooks
With a visionary leadership style and a deep commitment to social impact, Rawcel leads by example, inspiring their team and partners to strive for excellence in everything they do. With a background as a singer/rapper, songwriter for renowned acts such as the Black Eyed Peas, and entrepreneur, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table, guiding their organization with wisdom, integrity, and a relentless passion for positive change.
About ZupaLove International
ZupaLove International is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to cultivating career pathways within the entertainment industry and beyond. One of their current goals is to provide training for individuals passionate about pursuing careers in entertainment, offering hands-on experience and specialized education to bridge the gap between aspiration and employment.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right, so today I have Rawcel Crooks on the line, and he’s a president over at Zupa Love International, and his group is called Zupanova.
Russell, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It’s an honor to be on Mission Matters. All right, Russell. So I’m excited. I understand that you’re going to be heading over to Megamix Expo 2025 as well. So, this is taking place for those that haven’t been listening to this particular series yet.
This is taking place at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California on March 12th through 13th. And you can check out more information at mega mix expo. com. So first off going to be there. So Rawcel, we’re going to get to meet in person. I know this is our first time talking, but just to get us kicked off Zupa Nova, I mean, tell, tell me about the inspiration.
Tell me about the group.
Yeah, thank you very much. And I look forward to meeting you and being at the Mega Mix Expo as well. Zupanova pretty much started my career working with the Black Eyed Peas before they were even the Black Eyed Peas. Just being a writer, a friend, a songwriter, and an artist.
So I learned a lot just being around those guys, and I actually just so happened to go to the same school as Stacy, who everyone knows as Fergie. So I’m the one who actually introduced her to them, and she ended up becoming a member of the group. And so just being around all those guys as an artist, as a friend, it’s just very inspirational to be a part of that.
And at some point I’m thinking, you know, what am I going to do for my own projects or what I want to do creatively. And so having the experience as a songwriter, as a producer, I started to Bring together a circle of people that I thought would be good to work with, and it inspired me to create Zupanova.
And so tell me about the group. So it’s pretty funny you know, the group originally started off With more people than it is right now, we had at least about a few other members and sometimes just like if you have a band and different things, there’s personality clashes and we had females a part of the group too and they would run into their own circumstances like , 1 got pregnant, so she wasn’t able to move forward.
And so you know, it takes a lot of the business is hard, , and it takes a lot of consistency, and resilient to stay in there. And so, we were challenged many times to just drop the ball and give up, and it just kind of came around to being me and my partner, Davey Brown.
And he was like, let’s keep on moving, and what we’ll do is that we’ll collaborate with other artists. We don’t necessarily have to have members of the group, but it’ll be good to actually collaborate with a variety of different artists. And, you know, I was like, that’s a, that’s a pretty good idea, you know, because it takes sometimes you having to just evolve at times, or, , like some artists do, they kind of reinvent themselves almost every single album or project.
And so we have to figure out a way to reinvent ourselves to keep it going. And keep thriving in a sense. And thank God we did because it just really gave us a lot of just different opportunities from traveling the world, going to Asia going to South America. And , being around the peas, just seeing how really they became a global brand, , it’s something then where we, we knew we had to look at it beyond just music.
We have to look at how we’re going to create a brand, how we’re going to as well use , our music to be uplifting and positive for the community. So we started collaborating with the Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, specifically, and the communities and, doing different things where we knew our music could make an impact.
And just as of this year, we were awarded and recognized by the California Senate. The county of Los Angeles, as well as the city of West Covina. Wow, let’s talk a little bit about the nonprofit side too, because I think that’s really something unique that I, that I didn’t see quite as much of that crossover from entertainment to nonprofit.
Like, what sparked that and, like, maybe talk a little bit about the organization and that’s the , Zupa Love International for everybody checking this out. Yes. Zupa Love International. So that right there really was inspired from a song that we did called Zupa Love. And a quick story to that is my partner, Davey Brown, he created the music and when I heard it at the time, I was like, wow, this is really something different from what we usually do.
I knew I had to write something powerful and impactful with that song. Well, it took me about. Almost six months, , I came up with the melody to that, but with the words, I had to think harder on that. And I think it probably was like six months later he came back and he was like, do you remember this?
And so I was like, yeah, so we’re going to get this done. I’m not leaving the studio And so it took me a while to still get the words right, but I really am thankful that I did because that song once we got it done and put it out. We had a video to it And we even have it documented which is going to be a part of our upcoming documentary But that song at the time my mother was going through something that I didn’t realize that she was going through, , pretty much mentally.
And so , when that song came out and I played her that song, tears just started flowing from her eyes and crying every time she heard that song. And she was like. Basically saying you saved my life, you know, you don’t even realize, I just was done with it all for my life and this song right here made me want to keep going and not give up and that what that song is about is about Basically not giving up on yourself because the world needs your love and so that song Inspired us to start a 501 C3 especially with one of my partners who’s on the board of our nonprofit, enjoy Paris.
She was like, you need to get into your activism and start a nonprofit. And so it was all inspired from that song right there. Wow. That’s an amazing story. And so 2024, been a pretty big year for the group and, for the team, are you saying, or it seems like you got a lot going on.
This is a lot of positive things happening.
You know, it has been a big year for us, even though we didn’t really release as much music as artists do, because our focus hasn’t just really been about releasing singles and just focusing on the music side. It’s really been about collaborating with communities and taking our brand and building an empire.
And so we’ve had the opportunity to work with and collaborate with a couple of Los Angeles commissioners, to do some initiatives that would help benefit communities. So we just don’t work with Joe Gatlin. Who’s the commissioner for the port of Los Angeles.
And we did some things for, in collaboration with 99 cent stores, and then also with Hector Perez Pacheco, who’s the commissioner for Los Angeles and Native American. Leader and representative, and so we’ve been collaborating with and support and solidarity with the Native American community powwows recently with the indigenous peoples day.
And a whole lot more we probably plan on doing in collaboration with the nonprofit. Amazing. Man, this is great. I love it. It’s an amazing story. Happy to bring this to my, audience, and I’m excited to meet you in person and check out , Nova, the group, and also more of the work that you’re doing over at Zupa Love International.
That being said Rawcel, if somebody wants to follow your journey follow the group, follow the activism, follow the nonprofit, like how do people connect with you and the brand? Yes, they could follow the group on any social media handles, which is Zupanova, Z U P A N O V A my personal handle on IG is rawcell, which is R A W dot C E L.
And also say for 2025, we have Zupa love international was selected to collaborate with chase bank for an event that we’ll have at the LA live. Yes. This event will be for, for February 5th at the LA live location. Man, you better make sure I get my you better make sure I get my invite.
I go to that chase all the time. I know where the other live one is. That, you know, that, that Chase Bank that’s the only chase, I believe, I know on the West Coast, I think they might have one in Manhattan, but they have like two chases, , like nationwide that are like media, like, Versions , of a bank and it’s in vain.
It’s like, they got lights. They got all like, man, I’m not in a bank. What are you talking about here? Yeah, no, that’s like, they got all kinds of stuff like that. So when you say that, I know what you’re talking about. We did an event there maybe a year or two ago and I was like, what? Yeah. So that’s awesome, man.
Yeah. You got it. Thank you. You got to come out and join us. It’s going to be amazing. And we’re actually going to be revealing some samples and lines for our upcoming fashion line. That’s awesome, man. Well, good stuff. Wishing you much more continued success. And that being said, leave that handle one more time, that Instagram handle one more time.
Yes, Zupanova, Z U P A N O V A, or you can follow me, Rossell, at R A W dot C E L. Fantastic, and if you’re already listening, just so you know, we’ll put the links in the show notes, so you can just check out the link and head right on over and see what they’re up to. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, Hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Russell, man, appreciate you coming on the show and can’t wait to, if I don’t catch you in February.
I’m definitely going to catch you at the mega mix expo for everybody listening. Don’t forget, go check that out megamixexpo.com. March 12th and 13th. I’m going to be out there. So is Rawcel. So , come out there and meet us. And thanks again, Rawcel, for coming to the show. Wow. Thank you, Adam. Happy new year to you.