Everyone sees what is public. Every one sees what has budgets propelling what's meant to be digested into some sphere of social consciousness. In whatever stream or vertical "X" (the variable, not Elon's megaphone) it may exist in, the concept is factual.
I often feel my greatest shit is the stuff that never sees the light of day. Entire worlds hit me at 4 AM on random Wednesdays that were totally left of what the prior history of what one assumed a brand, conceptual construct, or whatever should or could be presented.
I'm not really a good sleeper. I never was.
I don't see things for what they are - I see them for what they can be.
Sometimes, the results are magic. The paradigms get shifted, the lens refocused, and culture, converged.
Sometimes, months of wildly detailed, highly nuanced, conscious narrative and creative work is just not understood.
I used to hear that I was a lunatic. Then I stopped hearing that once the checks didn't fucking bounce and I got told I was "too early." There's an ADHD time management joke in there somewhere I think.
If I had a fucking dollar for every time I crafted something that a client responded to with a sentence akin to "just copy my competitor." I'd be Bezos and Zuckerberg's boss.
Let me get down to it.
Here's the shit no one ever saw that I fucking love.
If nothing more, I just wanted to share what came from the soul, and not what got morphed by a committee of tards with titles.
FIOR- The Death By Designer.
Fior is fuckin lit. She's super talented, and her mother, Michelle Berk, is legit one of my favorite humans ever.
When I was approached to Creative Direct her debut project and I went down a wild rabbit hole. This project could not be run of the mill bubblegum pop shit. Given her story, her mother's story, her level of potential and the current state of packaged-and-processed Top 40 twin shit, I wanted to disrupt the fuck out of the entire landscape.
Her debut single "Let Me Go" was a brooding ballad with sweeping minor chords, but I also heard all the shit that was in the tank to come, and knew positioning her presentation in this hyper surreal, upside down dollhouse world was not only authentic, but a slap of raw surrealism, and I'm aware those two terms typically juxtapose.
I wanted to drop a limited collection of doll toys along with the single, and had several major partners aligned for this as well.
Also, with a name like Fior and a wild history in relevance to her mother's relationship with luxury and couture with her Hermes custom empire Prive Porter, I had to almost imbed that mood in her DNA.
Here are my original notes from the wee hours rabbit hole.
From the shoot in Brooklyn.
Fior, with a dramatic look by the brilliant, wonderfully sweet and talented Georgina Billington. I told her she was my favorite Aussie since Steve Erwin got iced by the stingray.
Her visionary work has graced everything from Vogue to Harper's Bazaar to Grace Vanderwall and PFW.
Styled by the homie Bruce Estevez, (Paper Mag, too many fashgods to mention) whose dedication to the history of fashion is inspiring, it was a dream team effort.
Bruce- I still have the OG flip phones you bought on set for the dash of 90's. Holler at me bro.
My scribbling ranting of a lunatic led to this. All roads lead to Rome when you don't believe in road blocks.
The Liverpool New Balance jawns are undefeated. RIP Virgil.
Long live other (Liverpool's) Virgil, though.
SNOW- No Colonizers Brand
Hiphop artist SNOW and I were inseparable for over a year. Both New Haven troubled youths, we bonded over Saki and a secret love for 80's dream pop around Christmas of 2021 and spent most days and nights of 2022 together.
She blew up with the Young MA featured single "Yank Riddem" several years prior, and was one of the first MCs to ink a major deal from New Haven. I loved her eclectic and wholly artistic spirit.
When I was offered the opportunity to co-host Def Jam's NBA All Star Weekend in Cleveland, I took her along. We tag teamed the Barstool Radio interview with crude one liner after crude liner. I wonder if it ever dropped. Shit was a masterclass in offensive-as-fuck.
When we discussed her concept for merch being way more elevated and purposeful than typical tour shirts, she was adamant as a Jamaican that it embodied the spirit of rebellion and righteousness.
Enter "No Colonizers."
She just said it in my unregistered 3 Series driving back from a wild ass hood adventure in Bridgeport. It hit me in the heart. As a Sicilian-American, I felt it deeply. My own ancestors island was colonized, brutalized, and then villainized.
I love the spirit of Jamaica. I wore a fuckin Reggae Boyz kit for half of 1998 when they qualified for the World Cup.
I wanted to nod to the spirit of both Vivienne Westwood, punk energy on luxury fabrics, and use the line as a wearable narrative that was a huge fuck you to any colonizer of the voiceless marginalized.
We started with the British witch Thatcher for season one. Sadly, due to a host of circumstances; it never dropped.
Russ x NYCFC
I partnered up with two English soccer legends in early 2022 in Robin Shelley and Robbie Earle, joining their agency BoxToBox Sports in a CD capacity on projects,
First of all, as a huge lover of the sport and culture of global football, even getting to know the legend of the sport Robbie Earle was a complete honor. I've watched him on every Premier League broadcast for years, and like I mentioned in the Snow previous post, I fuckin loved the Reggae Boyz national side at World Cup 98 and had his number 15 kit. Irony, man.
So, Shelly and Earle kinda turned me loose to pursue any creative activation concept, so after noticing the MC Russ turning up after NYCFC won the MLS Cup on the homies The Cooligans page. I DM-ed the Cooligans host Alexis Gurreros and was like "Yo is that Russ wildin for NYCFC?!" and he confirmed it.
Robin Shelly has probably the most impressive contact rolodex out of anyone I know across the globe; so of course he was already "in" with both MLS and the club, NYCFC.
With pop and urban culture's new found love for soccer, I saw this an opportunity to play with the intersection of cultures.
See below: FYI -its still a work in progress.
LAWSON- Creative Direction (Album)
One of the most talented nu-soul artists in the last few years, Lawson came across my plate at the top of 2023 thru his manager. I loved his sound, and more importantly sought to craft a very "almost high street avant-garde" aesthetic for his sound that was somewhere between 6lack and Roddy Rich.
Here are the first single covers that have yet to be released.
Fuckin major labels man.
There are honestly many more. Might make this concept a thing.
Part 3 en route.
