Rashad Johnson and Aaron Rogers are the co-founders of The Breed Entertainment, which puts on the annual Black Wall Street Festival in New Haven.

Each August, crowds gather on the New Haven Green for the Black Wall Street Festival.

Stream Connecticut News for free, 24/7, wherever you are. WATCH HERE WATCH HERE

“We are just truly blessed, and to see 10,000 people come out on the green, once a year because of something we created, is crazy,” The Breed Entertainment co-founder Aaron Rogers said.

The founders are Rogers and Rashad Johnson. The two have known each other for nearly two decades. In 2009, they solidified their relationship as friends and business partners.

Get top local Connecticut stories delivered to you every morning with the News Headlines newsletter. SIGN UP SIGN UP

“He came to my mom’s crib, and we listened to beats together for three to four hours and we have been together every day since 2009 literally,” Johnson said.

That year, they established The Breed Entertainment, a global music entertainment company.

“After we started working together, we went through a long time of the grind,” Rogers said.

After about four years of hard work and hundreds of trips to Terryville to meet mentor and record producer Troy Oliver, the pair got a big break, they got a chance to work with Trey Songz.

“I will never forget that feeling, like it was just amazing, it was so real, because you put all this time in, all these years and like Aaron just said, we spent four, five years driving to Terryville, not knowing what was going to happen,” Johnson said.

Johnson and Rogers went on to work with other big names including Chris Brown and French Montana. This year, they won their first Grammy for best R&B album.

“Everything we succeed at in our life is a testament of faith and just knowing if you believe in what you believe in, you just have to stick to it and work hard,” Rogers said.

Having reached many goals, they set out to accomplish, Rogers and Johnson always remember how hard it was to get access to resources in Connecticut. That is why they created the Breed Academy, a nonprofit that focuses on giving youth access to music business, producing, engineering and much more.

“If you are a creative, artist, song writer, producer, singer, or you just want some type of media training we want you to come here and go through here to feel like you are that person,” Johnson said.

Soon, the Breed Academy will operate out of Skiro Studios in Hamden. There will be space for young artists to create music and a venue for upcoming performers to take the stage.

“Everything under entertainment we make sure we train them or help them get into the workforce,” Rogers said.

Remember those crowds on the green? The business partners are also determined to help other entrepreneurs thrive in the city they call home through the Black Wall Street Festival.

”We realized a bunch of businesses didn’t have an outlet or platform to sell their goods, so we just wanted to highlight Black and brown businesses on a platform for a bunch of people to buy their platforms,” Johnson said.

The festival is taking place on Aug. 16, leading up there be several events including a jazz concert, an artist showcase and a pre-party. Then on Saturday, there will be 300 vendors presenting their best.

“It is really important that our community come together and uplift each other, a lot of the times we don’t know what we have in our community because everything is so silo,” Rogers said.

Vendors can sign up to participate in the festival here.

NBC Connecticut is a proud media sponsor of the Black Wall Street Festival.