DONDA.
About five years ago, I started paying attention to a clothing brand called the Hundreds. I liked their stuff for a few years and I eventually grew out of it, but I still check their blog daily. The co-founder and blogger, Bobby, leads quite an interesting life as he posts about the brand as well as everything around him including music, pop culture, his experiences/opinions etc… Yesterday he posted about Kanye West and his new project “DONDA”. Read the post and you’ll find out what the idea of it is as well as Bobby’s thoughts on Kanye.
“I don’t follow Kanye West on Twitter, but I don’t really have to. Everyone else around me does and they ReTweet or talk about what he’s saying regardless. Especially working in the field that I do, it’s hard to go 15 feet without hearing a Yeezy drop. I’m sure on the outside it’s 20 feet.
Tonight, the rapper drilled his audience of 6 million followers on a new dream called Donda. From what I could narrow down, it’s more or less a creative group comprised of 22 divisions, everyone from video game developers to nutritionists to car designers. The goal? Well, that’s not as clear, but it sounds more or less like a thinktank. Or an agency of some sort. “…To dream of, create, advertise and produce products driven equally by emotional want and utilitarian need.. To marry our wants and needs.”
Sounds awesome, like a Warhol factory of idea people. Whether it will ever come to fruition, will it work? That’s up to Kanye West.
Say what you want, but the man is a genius. I think that’s more than evident now. Call him “crazy,” I mean, the dude probably is. Because all geniuses are out-of-their-mind, stark ravingly mad. Their ideas are bigger than the everyday Joe’s – their followers see it as inspiration, their detractors call it lunacy. And when I see Kanye spilling freethought all over his Twitter stream, I see it as both. And I want whatever he’s having. I want some of that creative juice he’s dranking. I want to dream out loud like Kanye West and start a Donda and change the community around me, the government that owns me, the world that surrounds me. The only difference between he and I — he and us – is that he has the money, prestige, and support to actually do it.
But should that stop me, or should it stop you? You have just as much opportunity as he does because, you see, Opportunity is free. Sure he drives a chopped-up Maybach and uses anorexic supermodels for belts, but that Opportunity he seizes? That’s priceless. Up for grabs. You just gotta take it.
Kanye West is one individual who doesn’t see borders, he sees horizons. No problems, only solutions. Imagine if you weren’t hindered by fear, what people would say about you, how you were gonna make your car payments. Wonder what it would be like to live in a world where all you felt, tasted, and heard was Opportunity. They’d probably call you crazy.
- Bobby Hundreds”
First, I’m personally a supporter of Kanye West. I don’t even really like his music. I think he’s a sub-par rapper, but I can see his value as a producer HOWEVER as a person I think he’s fascinating. He always says what he wants, whether it’s right or wrong he speaks his mind and that holds some weight for me. He’s also a character in a time where popular music is almost completely devoid of them.
But I’m not necessarily concerned with the “Kanye West” aspect of Bobby’s post, the last two paragraphs are most important to me. The whole “not hindered by fear/opportunity” parts. It’s hard to relate to it because Kanye West is a millionaire with the world at his fingertips but let’s remember that he grew up as a suburban middle class kid, much like the rest of us probably did and he worked hard to get where he is now.
For me (not typically an “inspirational” kind of guy), I just figured that the ideas of the last paragraphs are good ideas to keep in mind at the start of a new year.
- Jeff
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