Badu World Market: So tell me about your early interest in art and design.

Big Tape: Really, in high school, I used to doodle a lot. Really all my life I was just drawing. It just really came from me asking my dad to draw a Pikachu for me, and he drew how he wanted to draw it, and he said, "If you want it done how you want it, you have to do it yourself." So, from there on, I just start getting more interested in art and doing it myself.

Dallas has such a rich arts and culture scene. Has the city inspired you at all?

The city of Dallas I think inspired me a whole lot. It's really the skyline, just taking pride in that and wanting to replicate something that's reminiscent of that always. So, yes, to answer the question, yes.

When did you know that you wanted to be a clothing designer?

It was around seventh grade. I really got inspired by Kanye West. I saw that he did his shoes with Nike, and from there he was making clothes, but it wasn't to the point that he's doing it now. But I just found that so interesting because I didn't know that it was even possible for somebody to do it. So from seventh grade on it just piqued my interest.

Tell us about this collaboration with Badu.

It's really interesting because I just pitched it as a quick idea, something that I thought would be cool for her to wear personally. I just sent a sketch. It was a rough sketch of the letterman, and she actually liked it and she wanted to proceed on going with it. And then Cold Cris [VP of Operations of Badu World Market] had the idea to make it a whole collection rather than just the letterman. The whole process was just smooth.I just like the atmosphere and the work environment because it is just so easy. I've never been able to work with somebody and it's been just easy and straight to the point with no extra hiccups or anything like that.

So how did you react when you got word that it wouldn't just be a standalone design, but instead it would be an entire collaboration or an entire collection?

I went crazy. I was super excited. At that point I was standing in my apartment jumping up and down and everything. It filled me with a lot of joy.

We’d also love to hear more about the Kemetic symbolism on the clothing.

So I just wanted to have something that represents Erykah and her whole career. The pyramids were actually meant to represent her children, and the ankhs more so represented her earthly accomplishments. And three is just a sacred number and that's also the amount of children that she has. And as far as the scarab up on the back, she already used the scarab [as a part of Badu World Market’s logo], but I used the scarab with the wings as a form of, like as a symbol of rebirth and just bringing something new and creative into the world.

What do you want people to know about you and this collaboration?

What I want them to know about me personally is I'm a hard worker, very, very detailed person. And I'm a very appreciative person, and I appreciate this opportunity that I was given. And I just want to create and work with more people.

I just want to say thank you to Erykah and Jaron and Cris, just for being of help to me. I've worked with a lot of different people before, but it's none like this. And I'm not saying that just for the moment, it is just the truth.