Surviving & Thriving In Quarantine City?
The Quarantine Carries On & Zoom Fatigue Is Real, True Curation Is In High Demand
Who’s Thriving In Quarantine City
Erykah Badu Who Has Been Streaming Concerts From Living Room and actually building a legit business
Faze Clan Raised $40m From Drake, Live Nation and NTWRK
Famed journalist Isha Sesay Launched “Home With Isha Sesay” With A Focus on Stories About The Continent From Her LA Home
City of Los Angeles Raises $10m For Pre-Paid Debit Cards For LA Residents
Clubhouse, HouseParty, Loom All Winning Right Now Across Voice & Video Collaboration Tools
Issa Rae Has New Investments, Part of My Favorite Coffee Shop and New Season of “Insecure”
Delaine Ross, My Kettlebell Teacher In Atlanta Whose Alternative Approach To The Gym Is in High Demand Right Now
The Authenticated Member Spotlight
Sanja Komljenovic is founder of Ona Creative, a Los Angeles based brand strategy and creative agency. I’ve partnered with Sanja several times in my career and she’s very solid, creative and works harder than most. I met Sanja during my days working on Nike business and was proud of her for launching Ona Creative after a great stint in Beaverton.
WHAT’S THE LAST GOOD BOOK YOU READ
“What You Do Is Who You Are” by Ben Horowitz and “Thinking in Bets” by Annie Duke.
WHAT ARE YOU READING NOW
Currently reading and loving “Sapiens.” I also started “48 Laws of Power.”
WHAT’S THE BEST NON-FAMOUS APP ON YOUR PHONE
Don’t use apps much (outside of the regular ones) but great question.
ONE PLACE EVERYONE SHOULD VISIT WHEN WE ARE QUARANTINE FREE
North Rim of the Great Canyon. We should all take more time to just be in nature and with nature.
THE FIRST TIME I HEARD THIS SONG, IT MADE ME FEEL….
Michael Jackson Butterflies, Butterflies :)
WHAT ARE THE PROJECTS YOU ARE MOST PASSIONATE ABOUT RIGHT NOW
Taking the time to figure out what really matters in the long run. Repositioning my business to help others as much as I possibly can.
How To Find Your Channel In The Authenticated
TEXT ME: 404-843-8100. The revolution will not be televised, it will come thru as a text. Best way to find out about dinners, Culture & Code events, meditation group, book clubs, mentoring college students.
CULTURE & CODE: A Masterclass In Hustle. We are launching a streaming content and curriculum platform focused on giving you the information, skills and relationships you need to thrive in the new normal economy. If only college could have been like this. Whether you have been in business a long time or just graduating from college, text me with “culture and code” to 415-843-8100
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Verzuz Hmmm Sit Back I’ve Got A Lot To Say
The power of black culture on Instagram has been front and center for the last month courtesy of Timbaland and Swizz Beats who have single-handedly joined D-Nice and Torey Lanez in making IG Live a “thing” in the culture. Before I dive into my criticism of this whole program, I do want to say “Thank You” to Timbaland and Swizz for initially having the right idea, obviously the right relationships and the spirit behind this thing is in the right place. But like one of the wiser grandmothers in my life used to say to me, “The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
I have enjoyed the novelty of the battles that led up to the bright lights and headline moment between Babyface and Teddy Riley. So I worked hard to make sure I was in front of my iphone the day of the “first episode” of Babyface vs Teddy Riley. That first night ended up being some sort of really bad “IT Show” starring Teddy Riley and his part session players / background dancers part imitation Geek Squad. Following this disastrous evening there were 48 hours of silly memes and all of a sudden even those who were unaware of Teddy Riley’s production dominance of the 80’s and 90’s knew that he was “finna pull up” on the whole world with his social media command center / IG Live Studio. It was clear from the first attempt that by song catalog only, Teddy was no match for Babyface and definitely took an overproduced position against the cooler, more mature Babyface.
Competition aside, truth be told I could care less on winners and losers, for me the real winners are us the fans who enjoyed the in between stories producers share in the Verzuz format. Honestly, the culture drove Teddy to think this was really a competition and thus his song commentary was minimal as he was tending to his equipment or thinking of what song to reply to. This guy was focused man.
So what we were left with was another night of Teddy Riley and The Geek Squad vs Velvet Jacket smooth Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds on acoustic guitar, slaying and laying his hits down with about 25% of his catalog even touched. The last time I checked after giving up on the madness Teddy was trying to get in through chat with about 500k watching all of this on IG Live. I resorted to spinning my own Babyface & Teddy set in my private video chat room with color commentary from some legends in the music and entertainment business.
Additional Winners Of The Night
Tevin Campbell and the entire BabyFace & Teddy Riley Catalog. According to Billboard and no surprise their catalogs all had significant gains. (I too had to hear these gems in their finest after struggling thru Instagram Live)
Babyface & Legendary R&B Artists. This was a case study that there is a BIG demand and audience for artists who have contributed to the entire world’s knowledge of black music but who are not in today’s social / digital mainstream. We’ve known this but this was a massive data point and I want to see more of this.
Raekwon who had the best line of the night in the chat room “You ever work with Luther Vandals. (note: We now own LutherVandals.com and have big plans)
What Went Wrong With Versuz
“Babyface and Teddy Riley Break Instagram”
You didn’t break internet, you broke my heart and wasted my time. I’m sure I was missing somebody’s Zoom birthday party or spades game!
This will not go over well with my friends at Instagram but I have to say it because you guys have not. Are they going to night after night let this black music representation do any more than drive their users up? Are you really committed to our culture?
Will they actually really support Timbaland and Swizz with proper resources to help each of these producers showcase the music in the best light?
Will Timbaland and Swizz Beats actually really start to PRODUCE and CURATE this so that the chase for the 500k + viewers doesn’t blind them and they end up missing the real opportunity. I know, I’ve heard the rumors that apparently Timbaland and Swizz did not plan on monetizing and with as much money as they both have they can do that. Just because you are not building a revenue business from this (I find that hard to believe BTW) doesn’t mean you don’t owe us a great experience.
This moment in black music history to preserve the culture for a captive global community now comfortable with streaming and chatting has never been here before. The views are super impressive but not impossible in other platforms. To use a very jaded phrase I hate using but it works. “Do It For The Culture” guys, please get this thing right.
In my humble opinion I would have left IG, taken the risk to a new build on a new platform and built in the 2-3 other places that would be a better visual and audio experience. Unless IG Live has some product revision in their roadmap, I don’t see why this kind of experience is happening here. I saw people saying “Diddy vs Dr. Dre” is next, there is absolutely no way a sound guy and sound snob like Dr. Dre and Diddy would consider this.
Here’s What You Could Do
Lose the competition aspect, just let a producer play music and talk about the process, the artist, the industry
Stretch Out The Drama. One producer plays one night. Build out some kind of add-on that votes, has points, something that can gamify this experience. The other producer plays another night. Tally up the votes if you must keep this competition aspect which I find will become corny after long.
Leave IG and Go To Either Twitch, Caffeine, Mixr. Risky because they are new platforms but there’s a “big bag” there and a better place to produce an experience brands can get behind. Fox put $100m into Caffeine, Twitch has had money for a long time and Mixer supposedly paid $20m-$30m for Ninja to move there from Twitch
Send me a text 415-843-8100, we know all the players and can get you straight.
These emerging tech and streaming platforms are not easy and this was something fun in the early days of quarantine so I acknowledge the difficulty. Plus, I’ve been in the game a long time, understand tech, communities and streaming and these guys have been “hella” successful at doing something incredible-making the music we all dance and make love to. However while building internet first media properties may not be their expertise I expect Instagram at a minimum to support this as they are the real winners in all of this. Instagram got you and everybody’s auntie on their sub-par IG Live product, listening to Babyface songs in what sounds like “hold music.” Another case of the culture driving the tech and tech not supporting the culture with any respect. This heavy handed slap is because I love black music, grew up in black music, been a part of the representation of black music and technology and this wasn’t it.
Culture & Code Hosted “A Masterclass In Hustle”
As a trial run, last week we hosted “Culture & Code” our first two day seminar on the business of culture. This was a precursor to our weekly seminar program which will launch this week with a session on “Managing Celebrities, Athletes and Leaders In The New Economy” featuring top managers from film/tv, music, sports and health and wellness. If the college experience is about incredible lectures, content and curriculum combined with a network we believe we have nailed an opportunity to bring you a content platform that educates and entertains while preparing you for the new economy and helping you build the right network to accomplish your dreams and visions.
Replays From Culture & Code April Sessions
(note: links will only play in safari browser)
“True Art Will Rise To The Top: A Chat With DJ/Writer Rich Medina”
What’s The Future of The Music Business w/ STEM Founder, Milana Rabkin
The Hustle & Flow In The Food Game
Building A Brand In Uncertain Times-Sanja Komljenovic, San Rahi, Cass Taylor
How To Grieve This Moment with Donna Byrd and Vivian Scott Chew