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Before the smile, there was survival.

Armani White joins TK in the DARKSIDE interrogation room for Villain Origin Stories.

Known for hits song like BILLIE EILISH and his infectious energy, Armani opens up about the experiences behind the music: growing up in West Philadelphia, the fire that affected his childhood, losing his father, and the years spent fighting to make his voice heard.

He reflects on earning respect from Philly rap legends, navigating eviction and a criminal case, and the breakthrough that changed his career. But success brought a different set of challenges, from changing relationships to the pressure of being known for a single moment.

The conversation moves beyond the hits to the contradictions: being judged for who you used to be, finding joy after loss, and choosing what to do with the person those experiences created.

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

0:00 Before the smile
1:26 Welcome to Villain Origin Stories
1:51 The DARKSIDE interview begins
2:23 The predictive prison dilemma
3:32 Being judged before you act
7:38 Growing up in West Philadelphia
24:45 Deciding to become a rapper
30:07 Earning respect from Philly legends
37:11 Losing his father
53:40 Keep in Touch
56:43 The childhood house fire
1:03:12 Finding his way back to music
1:13:52 The 2020 fire and fighting for freedom
1:25:24 The BILLIE EILISH breakthrough
1:32:35 Finding joy after trauma
1:40:22 How success changed his relationships
1:48:40 Meeting Billie Eilish
1:55:35 Life beyond one hit
1:59:28 The smiling mugshot and criminal justice
2:10:11 Legacy and what comes next

Listen to DARKSIDE (Album):

https://open.spotify.com/album/3f9d7aEVptwEYjwuF0wFI1?si=2vT8Es5sSR-GwwLgWM5EqQ

Subscribe for more Villain Origin Stories:

https://www.youtube.com/tkthelegendx

Share YOUR Villain Origin Story:

https://www.villainoriginstories.com

Follow Villain Origin Stories:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/villainorigin.stories

Follow TK:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tkthelegend

X - https://x.com/tkthelegend

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tkthelegend

Twitch - https://twitch.tv/tkthelegend

Website - https://www.darkside.love

Website - https://www.villainoriginstories.com

Follow Armani White:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/armaniblanco/

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@armaniblanco

X - https://x.com/armaniblanco

All Links - https://linktr.ee/armaniblanco

Credits:
Created, Directed, Produced, And Edited By Michael "Tk" Akinlosotu
Cinematographer: Daniel Upson
Host: TK
Guest: Leandra Royer
Editor: Steven Vargas
Producer: Bueli Njheri
Producer: Chantice Baker
Soundtrack And Audio Mixing: TK

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A paid trip. A suitcase pickup. A sentence of 11 years and eight months.

Leandra Royer joins TK in the DARKSIDE interrogation room for Villain Origin Stories.

Before Baddies Gone Wild, Leandra was pursuing acting, modeling, and a future in entertainment. Then a trip to England placed her inside a cocaine-smuggling operation involving more than 300 kilograms of drugs. She has publicly said she didn’t know the suitcases contained cocaine—and deliberately avoided asking what was inside.

After roughly 19 months in UK custody, she returned to the United States. Her prison story went viral, and a new chapter in reality television followed.

Her story raises uncomfortable questions: What responsibility do we carry for the things we choose not to know? What happens when the decision that costs you your freedom becomes the story everyone knows you for? And who gets to decide whether you’ve changed?

Villain Origin Stories is a long-form interview series about the experiences that shape us, the choices that follow, and the complicated line between being hurt and causing harm.

00:00 Episode Preview
00:52 Welcome to VOS & Meet Leandra Royer
02:00 Moral Dilemma: Punishing a Crime Before It Happens
05:11 Teenage Parents, Family Conflict & Running Away
11:16 Acting as an Escape From Reality
17:28 Dropping Out & Chasing Hollywood
21:11 OnlyFans, Fast Money & Shrooms
24:48 Bad Luck & the Man Who Stole $25,000
26:38 Moving to LA & Quitting OnlyFans
28:43 Hollywood’s Dark Side & Finding God
37:23 An ATV Accident, Eviction & Nine Months Homeless
39:39 The Offer That Led to the Cocaine Case
44:56 How the Operation Got Caught
49:01 Her Account of Being Blamed by a Co-Defendant
54:18 Risking Her Freedom for $2,500
58:13 Sentenced to 11 Years & Eight Months
1:01:05 Life Inside UK Women’s Prisons
1:07:48 Solitary Confinement & a Prison Cell Fire
1:09:22 How Prison Changed Her Identity
1:12:12 Telling Her Family & Losing Relationships
1:19:46 Writing Her Story From Prison
1:20:50 How She Got Released Early & Deported
1:28:58 From Prison to Baddies Gone Wild
1:32:42 Going Viral & Facing Snitching Accusations
1:38:30 The Lauren Comment & Her First Baddies Fight
1:43:46 The “Evil Mastermind” Edit & Leandra Theory
1:45:50 Leandra Says Producers Arranged Fights
1:51:23 Why She Says Baddies Was Worse Than Prison
1:55:07 Fame, Mental Health & Unfinished Healing
1:57:55 Cutting Off Her Roster & Choosing Solitude
1:59:35 What She Would Tell Her Younger Self

Listen to DARKSIDE (Album) here: https://open.spotify.com/album/3f9d7aEVptwEYjwuF0wFI1?si=2vT8Es5sSR-GwwLgWM5EqQ

Subscribe for more Villain Origin Stories: https://www.youtube.com/tkthelegendx

Share YOUR Villain Origin Story Here: https://www.villainoriginstories.com

Follow Villain Origin Stories:
Instagram - https://www.Instagram.com/villainorigin.stories

Follow TK:
Instagram - https://www.Instagram.com/tkthelegend
X - https://www.x.com/tkthelegend
Website - https://www.darkside.love
Website - https://www.villainoriginstories.com
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tkthelegend
Twitch - https://twitch.tv/tkthelegend

Follow Leandra Royer:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/omgleandruh/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@omgleandruh
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Omgleandruh
X - https://x.com/omg_leandruh
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/OmgLea/
All Links - https://dot.cards/leandra

Credits:
Executive Produced by C.Y. Lee
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cxy/
X - https://x.com/cxy

Created, Directed, Produced, And Edited By Michael "Tk" Akinlosotu
Cinematographer: Daniel Upson
Host: TK
Guest: Leandra Royer
Editor: Steven Vargas
Producer: Bueli Njheri
Producer: Chantice D
Soundtrack And Audio Mixing: TK

Support the show

Send a message to DARKSIDE

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.

BUY THE TRAILER, TRADING CARD, or RESEARCH DOSSIER HERE: https://networked.art/darkside/artist

Subscribe for more Villain Origin Stories: https://www.youtube.com/tkthelegendx

Share YOUR Villain Origin Story Here: https://www.villainoriginstories.com

Follow Villain Origin Stories:
Instagram - https://www.Instagram.com/villainorigin.stories

Follow TK:
Instagram - https://www.Instagram.com/tkthelegend
X - https://www.x.com/tkthelegend
Website - https://www.darkside.love
Website - https://www.villainoriginstories.com
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tkthelegend
Twitch - https://twitch.tv/tkthelegend

Follow C.Y. Lee:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cxy/
X - https://x.com/cxy
Website - https://www.musicnerd.xyz/

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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Send a message to DARKSIDE

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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