Kareem Rahmahas a funny saying right now.
People ask me what Im doing.
The documentary in question?
Kareem Rahma on an NYC Ferry, March 6Griffin Lotz for Rolling Stone
It doesnt exist, at least not yet.
Thats a nightmare blunt rotation.
You shouldnt be aspiring.
The sunglasses are a disguise, he says.
Theres a lot of emotions in the eyes.
This commonality is the show and podcasts key draw: everyone has places to be.
Heres what theyre thinking about on the way.
And Rahma picks guests the way he picked his career, he only does what he wants to do.
I dont get pleasure from being on the grind, he says.
Simply put, hes never been proven wrong.
He wantedto befamous, so he became famous.
Its why he attributes so much of his success to his attitude.
For the longest time, sincerity was seen as stupid, Rahma says.
People clock me at the pharmacy.
The TSA Pre-Check line, he says, laughing.
At passport control entering the United States!
Im like, Bro, this is serious business!
Were trying to get back in.
Why are you pitching me takes?
Rahma knows hes a latecomer to the influencer game.
My worry is not that people think its stupid and cringe, he says.
I do want people to like it.
But my checklist goes Do I find it entertaining?
Does my audience find it entertaining?
Im my own first audience.
ITS REALLY HARD TO INTERVIEW someone who keeps throwing questions back at you.
When I ask Rahma about his childhood, he asks me where I grew up.
Even conversations about his Brooklyn home somehow include me divulging my exact cross streets.
I dont do it on purpose, he says.
Im genuinely interested, because Im always absorbing information to see how I can apply it to my life.
The family struggled financially, but my dad saw the future, he says.
He was like, The internet is gonna be important.
So he bought a computer on credit and installed it in the garage.
It was not insulated, Rahma says, laughing.
I lived in Minneapolis.
That became the closest thing to an interest I had.
I started working at 14, and I just stayed working.
I literally never stopped, Rahma says.
Interests, likes, none of that was part of the equation.
It was simply, I want to be rich.
I dont want to be in poverty.
That drive for cash eventually found Rahma at his supposed dream job at an ad agency in Minneapolis.
He expected it to be the coolest place in the world, but Rahma hated every minute of it.
I was like, This is notMad Menat all!
We were writing tweets, but this is back before tweets were funny.
Now, Wendys tweets Yo, Im fucking listening to Travis Scott.
This was check that you swing by Whole Foods to pick up juice on Tuesday.
So he sold his car and headed to New York.
The series was featured inVanity Fairand Rahma considered it his baby, but it was expensive to make.
It costs a lot of money to actually keep the meter running, he says.
Rahmas friend Kuo came up with the hook, specifically the idea of filming it on the train.
It felt like I was being mischievous, Rahma says.
Like Hahaha, podcasters, fuck you.
So how does the podcast thats a fuck you to podcasts get its own podcast?
Rahma says thats just a continuation of the joke.
That is the desire for me to entertain myself, he says.
How do I expand the universe?
At 38, hes older than the average TikTok star.
But Rahma thinks his age is a secret advantage.
The untraditional career that I have makes me feel young.
But when youre fucking 20, 38 is literally the oldest man in the world.
Im the oldest young man, he says.
To me, [my age] was an advantage.
Because, weirdly, I knew what to do.
But Rahma isnt focused on feeling anything other than lucky.
And besides, theres no place for regret in the documentary.
I always felt more comfortable being in transit, not literally, but also literally.
Its a magical feeling to be on the way.
