Cotton is a magical plant, man.

It really is.

It looks like just like a regular rose, but then turns into this magical cotton right here.

I mean, this is a it's a beautiful thing to wake up to.

My family had the first track that was like down the street from here.

Then my great grandfather was a part of an acquisition of this farmland.

And my granddaddy bought a little bit that was around himself.

Just been growing it bit by bit.

This is Julius Tillery, a high school math teacher and fifth generation cotton farmer.

♪ in the industry, people call him the Puff Daddy of Cotton.

♪ How did you come across this name?

Well, I'm a big fan of Puff Daddy and what he did with Bad Boy, and I feel like I remix cotton.

I invented the remix of cotton.

Okay.

There aren't a lot of black cotton farmers left.

So when Julius isn't teaching or working his crop, he's using social media to hype cotton to a new generation.

You gotta plant at a certain time.

when the weather's right because cotton dont like cold weather.

Nature's going to nature.

You know, I live my life by that motto.

Nature is gonna nature.

So these cotton balls here, right?

The plant develops this like green.

And then, like midway through the year, these flowers start developing.

Right?

But once a flower develops fully, then it turns into a hard ball and then the ball opens up.

And this is when the cotton comes out.

So when you have your cotton combine, and it really strips the cotton right off of the ball and they run it through a cotton gin and that basically takes out the seeds.

and gave it like a little clean.

Do you have a favorite like season, like when it comes to, to planting?

My favorite part of the cotton process is probably harvesting because that's that's a part that's the part you make money on.

You know, when you planting seeds, you're spending money when you maintain your crop, you're spending money.

But when you're harvesting, you actually might make some money.

So that's probably my favorite part because it's all work.

When the harvest here is good, it's really good.

Julius's farm sits squarely in the so-called black belt, a swath of more than 600 counties across 11 southern states where cotton flourishes.