PHOTOGRAPH BY LEROY MIKELL
IT ALL STARTS AT HOME.
With parents as creative and ambitious as mine, I guess the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. My mom a singer, my dad a musician, both songwriters and multi disciplinary artist, I guess it was just meant to be. Our home, growing up was always filled with music and and all types of creative projects, I now know that our home fostered an environment conducive to my creativity growing.
Mom would make songs on the spot about anything and dad would chime in with percussions. We’d all sing, dance and laugh. There was a lot of gospel, jazz, old school R&B and funk at home, my favorite though were the songs that told stories, songs that I could feel. My folks would say, “These are the type of songs that will live on forever, because they tap into the human experience”. Growing up I loved the idea of being able to create something that would live forever and because of this I try to deepen my insight into human nature and create in a way that we all can connect to, telling stories that bypass race, gender and creed, capturing the human experience. I believe its important to understand what motivates your audience, in doing so you can create content that they can relate to. Love, Lust, heart ache, joy, celebration, these are facets of the human experience that will remain as long as there are humans walking the earth and I pray my work will last as long.
THE LOOK: ZARA