Babyface, Meet Time A Tell

The 22-year-old designer of the Time A Tell clothing brand has teamed up with ​“the rap world’s favorite rapper” for a new commercial that brings New Haven style to Detroit hip hop.

The commercial shows Time A Tell’s Josh McCown with Detroit rapper Babyface Ray in a Lamborghini, with Babyface Ray griping about a lack of gear. 

McCown pops the trunk and releases a flurry of Time A Tell x Babyface Ray T shirts and hoodies. 

The two then retire to a club to enjoy the spoils of their success. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, the commercial had nearly 12,000 likes on Instagram.

McCown is a soft-spoken New Haven native and recent Freddy Fixer Business Award honoree. On this reporter’s recent visit to his high-ceilinged, mellow-lit 1700 Dixwell Ave. headquarters in Hamden, McCown was clad in a newly released baby-blue Time A Tell x Babyface Ray Graffiti set. 

He said he first met Babyface Ray last October in New York. ​“I gave him some merch and he said it was fly, and then we talked about doing a collab,” he said.

A few months later, McCown followed up. ​“Come on out [to Detroit],” Babyface Ray told him. ​“Let’s do this.” 

“We went over, two days, and we got it all done,” McCown said, referring to his photographer and a few of his assistants. ​“It was motivation being around him.”

Miles Anderson, a hip hop aficionado and Time A Tell enthusiast who’s studying business administration at Southern, marveled at the partnership. ​“Josh is creating the blueprint on how a clothing brand can join forces with a hip hop star and then just blow up.”

His approach, according to Anderson, is about hustle and grind. ​“He shows up at hip-hop concerts, and he gets backstage” — as he did at Oakdale Theatre with Moroccan-born rapper French Montana and at Palladium Times Square with rapper Sleepy Hallow.

“I say I’m a young entrepreneur, and this is my brand, then they’ll put it on, they’ll wear it,” said McCown, whether a signature green- and pink-saturated varsity jacket or a T shirt or a hoodie jam-packed with vibrant slogans and logos.

To hear McCown, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, tell it, it begins and ends with the high standard he sets for himself. ​“You gotta put your heart into everything, your clothes, your designs,” he said. ​“When I make my clothes, I wanna say ​‘Yeah, I want that,’ like I’m on the outside looking in. I gotta have that to push my brand.”

That goes to the shop’s name, a reference to the 18-hour days logged by McCown running the shop, coming up with new designs, and promoting his gear, to realize the fruits of his labor.

In February, he returned to Spring Glen elementary school to encourage students to stay focused on school and keep on the right path because ​“you can do anything you set your mind to.” In late March, he was among the participants at Career Day at L.W. Beecher School. And High School for the Community held a Time A Tell Day where students sported McCown’s streetwear in April.

“Kids see me and see what they can be,” he said, adding he was inspired by Gorilla Lemonade’s Kristen Threatt and Brian Burkett-Thompson. ​“That’s dope.”

Anderson agreed. ​“He’s inspiring urban kids to get into fashion design,” he said. ​“A lot of these kids dream about making it big in sports. He’s showing them another way.”