There is no business model that existed before the recession that can be relevant now. Nobody saw this coming, that means that everybody has to change and also everybody is broke. This is when fortunes are made. Everyone is holding their last, they’re scared, I’m putting my last on the street. This is the time to gamble all of it. You get rich now, you stay rich for the next 30 years
Damon Dash in Dazed Digital Re: Taking risks in 2010
Hip Hop and I have an on again off again relationship. There are artists that I highly regard in the genre that do not get enough shine, but I have lost all hope in the genre as a whole because the field is filled with too many underratted and underappreciated artists. I’ve never really kept up with the current figures in Hip Hop (producers, artists, moguls). I ’m well aware of the major players (Kanye West, Jay-Z, etc.), but do not ask me about the current flavors of the month. I guess I decided to turn a blind eye to Hip Hop after the constant rehash of the same braggadocio, obsession with wealth, manufactured beefs (too much red meat is bad for you), status, cars, and hoes. The formula (Autotune much) has been favored over true risks and leaps of faith. It seems the song is only put out in order to sell the ring tone -a means to an end. The rapper puts out the album as a means to promote his or her clothing line, jewelry line, etc. etc. True innovation be damned to the powers that be in Hip Hop.
So, imagine my surprise to see Rocafella Cofounder, Damon Dash, featured in Dazed Digital , a website known to showcase the innovative in fashion, arts, culture, photography, and music around the world. It seems that the world wasn’t too kind to Mr. Dash last year (as well as many others), so he has taken the initiative to follow a new path from the ground up creatively. From my end, I have no idea what Damon Dash is like in person or the intricacies of his life (personal, business, and otherwise). I simply identify with the statement that he made above.
If you are down to your last dollar, what do you do? If your back is pressed against the wall, do you cower or do you push back out of sheer will? If you got laid off from a job that you despised, do you hunt for the same line of depressing work, or do you hunt for your true passions and reinvent yourself? I am very aware of the fact that Dash was speaking in a purely business sense, but I feel those words can apply to one’s passions and creativity.
One only has to look towards the innovations that arose from the dust of the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Several familiar companies were founded in this trying period such as Xerox, Revlon, Hewlett-Packard, Polaroid, and Converse; and, they remain standing today.
Fashion icon and innovator, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel rose to prominence during that difficult period when she opened her first store at 31 rue Cambon.
I could go down the list as far as the innovations that occurred in the arts, culture, technology, and business when the world experienced an economic downturn. But, I won’t.
Just realize that one must seize the moment when times are tough in order to make a lasting impression that will reverberate for years to come. Sometimes, it does not make sense to pass out your resume to find a job that places you in the conventional cubicle. Realize that there is no security in convention. Current business models. Current trends (whether in art, music, photography, or fashion) can either fall or become outmoded at a moments notice. The unconventional is the true path. Your true path may be the hard path, but the rewards are immeasurable. The unconventional may seem outlandish, crazy, impractical – but – it may become the new trend that establishes a whole new world order and set the standard for a new convention.
So, take a risk with your work. If you are doing something that you do not enjoy this year, think hard as to break yourself from that bind. The only hustle worth working for is you own – not for someone else.
KO
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Comments ( 1 Comment )
Agreed, sir.
You can believe 2010 will see my phoenix rise.
pumashock added these pithy words on
Feb 02 10 at
8:44 pm
