On this week’s episode of HYPEBEAST Radio, we catch up with Ciesay and Soulz, the brains and brawn behind PLACES+FACES. The duo started off photographing celebrities and artists (FACES) at parties and shows around the world (PLACES).”We started off taking the photos, we got a bit of recognition for that,” says Ciesay. “But then we were like, ‘Alright, taking photos of rappers or musicians just at parties isn’t making us the money. So how are we gonna start funding this?’”

The duo’s solution was a no-brainer: merch. “We made a hoodie, just for ourselves, but people wanted it. So we just sold them to see what happened.” Luckily, the two had friends in high places like Wiz Khalifa and ASAP Ferg who they could recruit to rock their gear. “They became a thing, then we started making more products, which then became a bigger thing. That became as big as the photography—even bigger!” P+F have since expanded their services to DJing and throwing parties of their own—basically manufacturing places for them to take pictures of famous faces.

One of the duo’s unlikeliest favorite faces? Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima. “We actually met him based off our HYPEBEAST interview that we did in Tokyo,” says Ciesay. “We got asked who we’d like to shoot while we were in Tokyo. I guess everybody thought we were gonna say NIGO, but we said Hideo Kojima.” The long-shot paid off, though: “[Kojima] retweets the interview, so we hit him up like, ‘Yo, we’d love to make this happen!’ And hit us back like, ‘Sure, come to the office.’ And we spent an hour hanging out with him.”

Listen to the episode in its entirety above, on Soundcloud, Apple Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.