I feel most powerful when I can express myself. I like for my personality to shine through in anything I do. Through our work and our brand, we want young people to know anything is possible.
I believe that if you work for something and stay committed, you will reach your desired result. My life is a testament that if you have the right people loving you, amazing things can happen.
My work and my passion is to bring ideas, art and experiences to places and spaces in new and novel ways and to foster conversations at the messy, wild and fertile intersection of our emotions and imaginations.
It’s not about being positive all the time, it’s about learning to be neutral. And speaking neutral thoughts when you can’t quite speak positive ones.
Food is my choice of education when it comes to learning about a culture. Unlike political regimes that might raze a culture, food is much more resistant to cultural change. We may speak different languages and have different perspectives, but we all need to eat.
I guess my need for independence has been the catalyst for everything I’ve become. To be an artist, you must be self-confident. Your creations are a statement, not a conversation. But it’s a statement that can start a conversation.
My earliest memories in life are of me feeling trapped. I was confined to the conditions I was born under. That’s why I’m on a serious living spree now... Life is ever-evolving. It is the grand voyage.
Kids are committing suicide at alarming rates. Too many of our young people are suffering in silence. I decided to put my foot down and bring together an army of our heroes, our legends.
I’m a product of hip hop culture. It’s my voice. I embodied the elements of hip hop without knowing it. Therefore, my relationship with hip hop had to happen.
I hope to open people’s minds to a more collective perspective through my art. We view things as being separate from us, but everything in the world is intertwined. I hope to provoke empathy and help others understand that everything affects everything.
My strongest work has been touching women's hearts and making them think of their lives and themselves differently through the alchemy of hair, beauty, and the experience they have with me.
Driven by this inner voice, I came home to myself. Now,I've rededicated my life to mentorship and telling queer, POC coming-of-age stories.
I live to unlock the passion in others. Those who have been forgotten by the system. I want to create connections that make people think.
I believe fiercely in protecting people. Being unprotected has been a theme in my life from as early as I can remember.
For me, life is a metaphor, there are signs everywhere. I don’t take my vantage point for granted. I want to awaken everyone else to the punchline.
We are trained as people in a shared society—especially in the queer community— to be okay, to be normal, happy, successful. To compensate. With that, though, I feel a responsibility to be a vessel for stories, experiences and the fleeting moments that carry them.
Sometimes I receive messages that feel like keys but when I turn the lock, it doesn’t budge... Like the complications on a watch. The movements are what make it go. Maybe it’s the artists who energize the gears.
When I first started my career, I was writing about product, sneakers, and fashion. It was vapid and temporal. I didn’t want my legacy to be defined by what I sold people.
My father lost everything in war. He was hard working but at times the jobs didn't come in, nonetheless worked tirelessly to raise us, having arrived in England with nothing but big dreams. My father raised us to value family and our culture, for him, family always comes first, no matter what.
I would go to the beach every night and stare at the stars. I imagined myself being where I wanted to be. All that imaginaning eventually paid off. I changed my stars.
I reject comfort. I believe in motion. I believe in moving because whatever is next is greater than where I’ve been. Therefore, I can never settle.
I work to build up my neighborhood because there’s a void that needs to be filled. I think about things I would have wanted as a child and create that. If I feel like something needs to be better, I’m going to go out and make it happen myself, just as my heroes did before me.
Men haven’t been given the vocabulary to express themselves. Because of this, we’re often left mute, wanting for the words that can lift us out of our dis-ease... I know my father may never get his words back. But I am fulfilled every day knowing my work, in some small way, helps another man find his.
My mom died of breast cancer 15 days before my 7th birthday. Pops went to prison a few years later. Growing up without parents made me introverted. I’ve spent my life trying to understand...everything. Silence became my sanctuary.
