i had taken a mild interest in the popular basquiats and dalis, more knowing rather than appreciating. a friend of mine played swimming pools while driving to campus. the song stuck with me and i looked into the artist that made it. the overwhelming amount of praise compelled me to listen to more. once i got into kendrick, it opened up a new world of music for me. i discovered an appreciation for the depth of emotion music can communicate. this pushed me to find more music like this. 

led by the overwhelming hype i found myself waiting for the release of blond. which is probably the most influencial piece of media ive consumed. so yeah, listened to that, started to look into the samples, this started my obesssion with stevie after finding the sample on close to you. soul music has been my most played genre since then. 

during a live concert frank wore a shirt that said, why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transhopbic when you could just be quiet. this simple white tee with text went viral and disrupted the music community and opened a dialogue about these issues. i thought, this is amazing. i could do this too. so i started.