This Transmission Isn't For Everyone. Crate 003 just dropped

A signal for the ones already listening

Soul Purpose: Crate OO3

Only For Those Tuned Into The Right Frequency

Sample edition. Subscribe for the complete version.

Mid-year update time.

This reaches 5,000 founders and funders who are shaping philanthropy, culture, and AI. Consider this your preview. The full insights are for subscribers.

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🧠 THE DROP

The Creator Economy Is Going Dark (On Purpose)

Forget 1M views. What’s valuable now is 13 DMs.

We were sold the idea that bigger was better, more views, more followers, more clout.

I helped build that system.

At Columbia Records, we didn’t just market albums we manufactured fame. Global. Platinum and Diamond. From Destiny’s Child to Nas, we pushed artists into every corner of the culture.

Then I watched the game shift.

First came the influencer flood. Vanity metrics. Campaigns built on follower counts. I launched a social agency in Atlanta at the peak of it then exited before the crash.

Then came Clubhouse.

2.5 million people followed my shows, dj sets, iconic talks. But the real work was happening off the grid in my private, curated Signal & Whatsapp threads, invite-only dinners, small rooms with massive impact.

Now the smartest creators are going dark. Not hiding. Building systems.

Not chasing reach curating resonance.

This is not decline. This is rebirth.

📍 CALL OUT: Private Beats Public

The smartest creators are moving to closed gardens Text groups, Mighty, Discord, AI newsletters. Not about going viral. It’s about knowing who’s listening.

📍 CALL OUT: Followers Are the Funnel, Not the Community

Public platforms are airports. Your deeper channels are the destination.

📍 CALL OUT: Culture Is the Infra

Infrastructure today isn’t tech it’s trust. That’s your true platform.

📍 CALL OUT: Summits Are Collapsing—The Third Signal Rises

TED’s passing the mic, Summit Series just took its final bow, The Third Signal isn’t curated, it’s channeled.

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⚡Signal 1

Africa’s Inflection Point

Statistics hook Africa's Inflection Point Afrobeats streams: 13 billion last year. African artist revenue share: embarrassing.

The recalibration begins:

• Lagos tech money is finally funding African cultural infrastructure

• One Nairobi studio is teaching AI to dream in Swahili

• The next billion-dollar sample library will be owned by the people who created the sounds

💡 Paid readers get trend lines + direct intros.

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🏀 Signal 2

Young-Money Shot Clock (Live from Summer League)

Vegas right now feels like early SXSW meets All-Star Weekend.

• Teen hoopers are commanding million-dollar NIL valuations—AJ Dybantsa ($2M with Red Bull), Bryce James ($1.2M), Cameron Boozer ($1.6M)—complete with professional representation and brand partnerships On3Nil-ncaa

• Private equity is consolidating youth sports at scale—3STEP Sports alone has acquired over a dozen basketball operators nationwide, backed by Juggernaut Capital's massive investment ProfluenceJuggernautcap

• Everything's getting monetized: Wintergreen Research projects the US Youth Video Sports Streaming Market will hit $5B in 2024, with practice footage, recruiting content, and tournament streams all becoming revenue engines Sports Content Monetization: 5 Ways to Monetize Video Archives | Dalet

• The NBA and Nike are turning Vegas into youth basketball's showcase capital—hosting EYBL Scholastic events alongside NBA Cup games, with high school games streaming on the NBA App for team scouts WikipediaNikeeyblscholastic

• Analytics are revolutionizing recruiting—over 70% of teams now use AI-powered predictive modeling that factors high school profiles into college projections, creating data-driven athlete valuations MIT NewsAsu

The ecosystem is eating itself and rebuilding in real time.

💡 I’ve got backroom convos, names, and deck screenshots in the subscriber version.

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🌇 Signal 3

Borderless Field Report — Bangkok’s Cloud 11

South Sukhumvit is fast becoming the internet’s backlot and media builder Paulie Sirisant is shaping the cast.

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Bangkok’s Bet on Creators

Cloud 11 blends TikTok-grade soundstages with smart-city perks. Paulie’s playbook:

• Long leases (3–10 yrs): content houses can invest without eviction risk.

• Subsidised gear: Thailand’s BOI rebate now covers up to 40 % of production hardware.

• Creator-zoning: hubs classed as R&D unlock 15 % corporate-tax breaks and instant rooftop-drone permits.

His KPI is collision, not occupancy picture a Bangkok food vlogger, a Seoul K-pop choreographer and a Nairobi NFT animator sharing the same hallway.

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Quality-of-Life Arbitrage

• Living costs run ≈70 % below L.A.; a furnished two-bed near Phra Khanong averages US $650/mo.

• Digital-nomad visas (DTV, SMART, LTR) make multi-year stays realistic.

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Scene Cred: Food & Bars

• Bars: BKK Social Club (#12 World’s 50 Best), Bar Us (#21 Asia), Tropic City (global top 50).

• Restaurants: Bangkok now claims Thailand’s first three-MICHELIN-star spot and 38 starred venues.

• Creative gravity: Soho House Bangkok opened on Sukhumvit 31 in 2024—always a leading indicator.

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Retail & Capital Flows

• Luxury build-out: One Bangkok (US $3.2 B) opens 2025; ICONSIAM and EMSPHERE keep the high-end runway expanding.

• Influencer economy: Thai creator ad spend on pace for US $112 M by 2029 (10 % CAGR).

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Cloud 11 — The Keystone

• Specs: 254 000 m², US $1.2 B, Snøhetta & RIOS design, opening 11 Nov 2025.

• Mix: Netflix APAC, K-pop agencies, Thai indie devs; scholarships baked into leases.

• Paulie’s thesis: maximise collab velocity, not rent rolls.

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Take-Home Prompts

1. Attention arbitrage: price CPMs in baht, invoice in USD.

2. Visa stack: plot a five-year circuit—Bangkok → Bali → Dubai—to keep taxes and ideas fresh.

3. Cross-border IP: one Cloud 11 TikTok short, subtitled, reaches an ASEAN market of 680 M.

I’ll be on-site for November’s soft launch. Ping me for a Paulie intro.

💡 This one’s not being covered yet. Paid readers get maps, floor plans, and the play.

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🧢 Signal 4

Merch Becomes Media

Baratunde and I went in on what’s next in commerce:

Merch is no longer cotton, it’s code.

• Templates sold at the merch table

• Audio-reactive visuals embedded in hoodies

• Limited-run prompts that generate new product drops in real time

💡 Link to full episode

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CTRL ALT PROMPT 009-Sound It Out

Prototype the future in 3½ minutes of audio code.

Last summer I was knee‑deep in the BBL Drizzy meme‑wave helping King Willonious drop a Kendrick‑vs‑Drake AI clash that cracked a million plays in a day. Viral was the appetizer. The main course was a concept LP : we took those Udio stems, flew Will in to record with Om’mas Keith and replayed every AI sketch with live horns, real drums, human sweat.

Lesson: AI isn’t remixing the past; it’s a time machine for sound. We’re prompting emotion now, not just text.

🎧 Today’s Prompt

Fire up Suno or Udio.

1. Choose a voice, a style, a vibe.

2. Arrange it like a producer—intro, hook, bridge, dropout.

3. Need a blueprint? Ask ChatGPT:

“Create a cinematic soul track—Isaac Hayes x Frank Ocean, 72 BPM, minor key, Rhodes pads, analog warmth, dramatic strings, lyrics about exile and return, vocals halfway between Kid Cudi and James Blake.”

🎤 Prompting Tips

• Specify instruments: “Fender Rhodes,” “Moog bass,” “SP‑1200 drums.”

• Crash eras: “Late‑’90s Neptunes R&B meets 2020s Afrobeats minimalism.”

• Scene‑set: What’s the story your kick drum tells?

• Mash influences: Collisions > copies.

• Lyrics = code: Prompt delivery style—whisper falsetto, staccato bars, distorted autotune.

🛠 Side Quest

Ask ChatGPT for 3 song ideas that match your current mood. Pick one and render it in Suno.

🎙️ For the Heads

What would Marvin do with a melody machine? Missy with infinite voices? You—when sound becomes clay?

Drop your sonic experiments in the group. No wrong notes—just new frequencies.

CTRL + ALT + COMPOSE 🎚️🎶

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🎧 “AUNTIE APPROVED”The Summer Mixtape

Only Free This Week

Your Fourth of July just found its soundtrack.

AUNTIE APPROVED is 67 minutes of certified soul made for front porch wine, poolside stories, barefoot kitchen dances, and the cousins who still bring good ice to the function.

Inside the mix:

• 2 unreleased gems cooked up with a Nairobi producer who thinks in 6/8 time and auntie two-step sync.

• 1 AI-sampled Somali poem from the ’50s—listen close under the vinyl hiss.

• A secret vocal cue that sets off July 15’s NBA Summer League drop (if you know, you know).

This week, it’s free for everyone.

Next week? It’s the second installment of Sadia CD’s.

💿 Download it. Play it loud. Let your auntie hear it and say,

“Now that’s music.”

This week, click here to stream

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From The Vault

Followers vs. Frameworks

(March 2023)

Remastered and relevant as ever.

The last 15 years in digital culture have been about chasing followers.

I lived it. I helped build the influencer era. And I burned out on it.

In 2010, I launched a social media agency right before the tsunami of follower obsession.

Brands stopped asking about value and only wanted viral reach.

But I saw something deeper.

Soul Purpose (the original version) started in 1999 with just 300 emails—some of the most plugged-in people in culture. That was enough.

In Web1, it wasn’t about scale—it was about signal.

That’s why the 1,000 True Fans theory by Kevin Kelly hit me so hard.

Forget chasing the masses. Find your real tribe and feed them well.

Today? We’re seeing the return of intimacy.

Not TikTok virality—WhatsApp power groups.

Not likes—leverage.

I’m in rooms now where 20 people can move millions.

I’m done with follower fantasy.

I’m building for ownership.

And so should you.

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Signal 5

The Third Signal

If you’re still reading, you’re already tuned to the right frequency.

But the real juice lives behind the knock.

Signal 5 is my uncut frequency. Where I speak on what’s really moving, where I’m vulnerable, where I get soul-deep on systems, culture, God, strategy, intimacy, ancestry, and momentum.

This week’s Signal 5 is titled:

“The System Is the Soul”

Subscribers only.

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🚪 The Knock

NBA Summer League // Las Vegas, NV (July 10–20)

Summer League is what Cannes Lions is to Advertising only this is basketball’s culture convergence.

The next class of NBA stars just got drafted. Now the real season begins: the season of deals, legends, and future-making.

We’re curating a Signal 5 gathering in Vegas with Kevin Garnett and Content Kings.

For paid members only:

• Unlisted legends, agents, and off-the-clock coaches

• Private access to The Creator Lounge

• IRL energy. Off-the-record plays. Real connection.

This is what opens behind the frequency.

Want in? You know what to do.