How much time do you think you’ve spent on CH to date?
There are 168 hours in a week? Because I was on during an earlier part of the pandemic where things and places were far more locked down than they are now, I think I would spend like 60 or so hours a week on Clubhouse. Once NFTs came to be, I could easily spend 10-12 hours a day on the app. At least 1000 hours, probably a couple hundred more.
You’re an artist in your own right. Visuals and Music. Tell us about your art.
I’ve been saying that I create work at the intersection of anime, rap music & streetwear/sneakers. I’m a producer, photographer, designer, and a whole slew of other things — but I just tell people that I just do whatever I think is cool. If I think something is cool, I try to learn how to do it. In terms of NFTs, I’ve worked on a few different series of works, all inspired by the things I was talking about. I’ve been doing a series of logo flips that are crypto inspired, which come from my streetwear roots because a lot of streetwear is rooted in flipping logos of popular brands and turning them into pieces of work specific to your brand. I was using crypto, Bitcoin, and Ethereum in this instance, as the “brand.” My series ‘Manga Tears’ is rooted in my connection to anime and manga (comics) and the work reflects that love. I do some digging and archiving as I read and then create pieces around some of those. I’m making music as well that’s inspired by my roots in rock music as well as my love of rap music.
You are one of the loudest and most authoritative voices in the NFT space. How did you learn about NFTs?
I had initially heard about NFTs from my friend Bobby who is a bit more of a bitcoin/investor type but I learned about how to do them myself from Clubhouse. Lady Phoenix and Casmir and Ameer were super instrumental in that process for me, and I had been able to take what I learned from them to teach others. Being uhh…outspoken or whatever in the NFT space I think is a reflection of my personality more than a specific intention. I am working on recognizing that I have a platform while trying to figure out what that means and how I should move and what I can stand for. I know that broadly, I just wanna inspire black kids who have lived a left of center or left of stereotypical lifestyle to recognize that they can be successful through being themselves — so I’m trying really hard to be “successful” through that.
Do you see crypto as a form of economic empowerment for the Black community?
I think yes! The issue in the Black community is that we don’t have the privilege of learning financial literacy in our school and home lives. So many of us are trying to find ways to work long enough to retire or get our pensions or whatever they’re called. The…uhh…best part about crypto is we don’t have to worry about the color of our skin in terms of economic activity. I’m learning so much about money myself and I want to be able to pass that down to my kids who can pass that down and I think if we all learn properly about finances, that starts the cycle. We gotta learn how to start the car before we can drive it!
How did you get involved with NFTS.tips? What is your role there?
I actually stumbled into NFTs.tips, I just came into a room and was talking to people about NFTs and things I think and blah blah blah – and then Alex, who started it, hits me up and is like, “would you want to mod and join the team?” I was like yeah sure and all this time later, I’m still a part of the crew. I think of myself in tips as being someone who just comes in where I can, and maybe focused on music as well. I am always super pumped to help people and lately we’ve been trying to find ways to avoid burnout and grow as individuals as part of the crew while we turn tips into something bigger than can help people out. I’ve been through personal burnout twice already through my time in NFTs so I’m trying to figure that out.
What do you do for a living?
I quit my job a looooong time ago to try to chase this dream of making money making art. It’s been…alright. Client work isn’t as fun as finding ways to monetize what your creativity is for other people’s consumption but not use. Sometimes I’ll work on a website or logo for someone, but I try to avoid it. I work at a film equipment rental shop sometimes as well. My family has been so fire in that they’ve let me stay with them for a very low cost so I’m working on it.
What are the unique opportunities that NFTs present for artists and musicians?
NFTs are more than just artwork and I think a lot of people will come to that realization soon. NFTs, to me, for artists is about creating that added experience. I often call NFTs “digital merch” and I think about all of the different ways we can create an added digital experience to our fans and collectors. On the music as well, I think licensing is going to be very interesting, where we’ll license a song to an entity like a film or brand or something but we’ll have that as an NFT and they’ll will want to be involved because of the popularity of the NFT. In the short term, I’m just trying to sell NFTs to people who are interested in me and in supporting me, and creating experiences that not only tell my story, but bring them into it.
Tell us about your musical work. You have many influences, can you talk about them?
On the music tip, I create anime influenced rap music that has elements of rock in it. I think that might be the best way to put it. It’s a fusion of those three things. I’m also producing these songs myself, so on top of the anime elements in the lyrics, I’ll sample different anime or use sounds from them, as well as video games. My sound is informed by my history of playing bass guitar and vocally fronting bands ranging from punk to hardcore to metalcore to nu-metal and more. I didn’t start adding rock music until around the middle of 2020. Last year, I made a series of EPs that I released on the last day of every month as an exploration and expansion of my sound and landed on where I’m at now. Just creating something that’s unique to me and maybe a little ahead of it’s time if possible is my goal.
Every chance I get, I say that collaboration is where the real innovation will happen in the NFT space. What are your thoughts on this?
What’s that phrase? If you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together.” I think there’s something special about being someone who creates quickly and sort of iterates on themselves through each step of the game, but I think there’s something equally special about someone who has the capability and flexibility to be able to work with others. As someone who can for the most part do it all myself, I shy away from collaborating, but I want to start doing it soon to see where that can take me.
“The best part about crypto is we don’t have to worry about the color of our skin in terms of economic activity. I’m learning so much about money myself and I want to be able to pass that down to my kids.”
~Black Dave
As someone who makes music and art, what would your ideal collaboration be and with whom?
I would want to do something tying music and storytelling, I think. I had an idea to work on this concept album where I would essentially be like…swordsman who avenges my sensei’s death and it would be played/performed by Donald Glover/Childish Gambino. I’d love to work with him on literally anything, though. I think he’s a genius and so much of his work speaks to the type of dude that I was and the person I am now.
What is the future of the NFT space?
NFTs are going to be used for verification of things a lot more, as well as access. I know that NFTs and the blockchain will be major for ticketing. I think that’s going to be the first big use of NFTs as COVID restrictions continue to ease. I think that gaming will also adopt NFTs in a much larger way than they have been. Everyone I’ve talked to on the gaming end thinks this is a HUGE opportunity for indie developers and I agree. On the art side, it will just become more interactive. The line between art and experience will blur and the best art will be rooted in experience.
Who are some of your favorite NFT artists?
Most of my favorite NFT artists were artists that I already knew about before NFTs. I started learning 3D design a few years ago, so I started following a lot of those guys. I am a huge fan right now of Bloo Woods, aeforia, Lee Yunsung, Serwah Attufah, visualizevalue and I’m sure tons and tons more. Those are ones I can think of from the top of my head, though. I keep a whole list of artists that I love saved as bookmarks in instagram. That feature is monumental.
Is it necessary for BIPOC artists to create safe spaces even within the NFT community? Why or why not?
Safe spaces are necessary for all people, however, the internet has no obligation to be a safe space. I think creating safe spaces is very important, but when you release your work to the world, it belongs to the world and the onus of somewhere you can comfortably exist aside from that, or rather…beside that, is on you. I think it’s important to recognize that the internet has no obligation to us and we are in control of the things we can control and if we want to keep control, we need to make sure we don’t expose that to the world at large, especially if it’s for sale.
Can you talk about this quote? “Not all of us have the luxury of just making art for fun and it selling itself. Some of us have to try. Even if making art makes us happy, it’s gotta sell to sustain doing more of it so we gotta have those real talks!”
As I’ve been wading through the NFT Clubhouse waters, I’ve been seeing a lot of people talk about this idea that you can mint work and hop on stages and vibe with the homies and talk about it and it sells, and it’s not that easy. Also I think people think that you aren’t allowed to have a desire to make lots of money through art. They think you should only make art because you love it, and I don’t fully agree. When my friends tell me they make music only because they love it and they don’t care if people consume it or interact with it, I reply “well if you’re doing it just for you then why did you put it out?” So I think there’s a false narrative about creating art because you love it when it’s actually a tool for commerce and economics as well.
What’s your beef with Nifty Gateway?
Nifty Gateway, in my opinion (if I need to disclaim), doesn’t care about Black artists from what I see. Let’s say, they don’t put the same care into Black artists. The platform has what they call a “producer” who works with each artist on their drop and getting everything in order and I feel like any time a Black artist drops, and there are very few of them, they drop the ball on making sure that they go as hard as they can for the project. I think about the terrible Lil Yachty drop, or the poorly promoted Zack Fox drop, which was cool and on-brand for him. I think about the A$AP Rocky drop, which on top of being overshadowed by Paris Hilton’s drop, had no real promo push behind it besides their regular channels, and even less so than that. No discord AMA, no clubhouse rooms, no real press or anything. DJ Premier had an amazing set of work with Animus, and it did great — but I think Nifty Gateway didn’t go as hard for an absolute LEGEND in music, an absolutely undeniable legend in music, and as such it didn’t go as crazy as it could have.
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