"Shark Tank" star and multimillionaire Daymond John had a tough childhood, growing up in the Hollis, Queens neighborhood of New York City when it was hit with the crack epidemic of the 1980s.

"Most of my friends would go over to this part of the community and want to aspire to be these drug dealers," he told CNBC's "The Brave Ones."

"And many of my friends were dead or in jail at the age of 16 to 17. I was losing a friend every three months," he said.

But then a new kind of activity got popular: making music.

"They were just as wealthy, or even more wealthy, than these crack dealers, but they were selling music. It was LL Cool J, Run-D.M.C., Salt-N-Pepa, Tribe Called Quest, Ja Rule. All of them are from Hollis, Queens," John said.