On major fixations, regional rap lineages, and laptop friendly coffee shops
In Conversation with Jordan Sowunmi Freelance Strategy Director and Brand Consultant
Jordan Sowunmi is a multi-hyphenate, Strategist-Consultant-DJ-Writer-Producer-Host-Film Enthusiast-Comedian. His career has spanned several powerhouses, including Wieden+Kennedy, VICE, Anomaly, and TBWA Chiat\Day. During his 5-9, he worked with his friend James Rathbone to develop Boosie Fade. What started as a rap party for them to DJ at quickly evolved into a sprawling online community. They hosted a series at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Cinematheque called Boosie Fade Film Club, where they programmed films like Juice, Paid In Full, Ghost Dog, and Belly, and partnered with Spike Lee and TIFF to host a 30th-anniversary screening of Do The Right Thing with the man himself in attendance. Boosie Fade also spawned the hip-hop criticism podcast, Catch Up, which had listeners in 101 countries and was dubbed “one of Toronto’s best podcasts” in 2019.
Most recently, Jordan has created Major Fix. The idea was partially inspired by a five-minute section of Jaboukie Young-White’s Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special and Trampoline Hall. Major Fix is a PowerPoint lecture series about personal obsessions, the next of which is February 5th, featuring the following presentations: Sami Reiss: Smoking: Threat or Chimera, Max Mellman: Who Is This Decade’s ‘Little Yellow Guy’, and Ali Royals: How One Direction Fans Can Save American Democracy. Get your tickets here!
📈 On Jordan’s Major Fix Major Fixes
A few of my favorite presentations: The Subtle Art of Online Stalking, in which the lecturer stalked me online and made a presentation about who she thinks I am based on what she found; What Was The Best Time to Exist On Earth, from the artist Alex Sheriff, going from the big bang to modern day and evaluating the threats, lifestyles, and potential for fun as a basis for judging the time period:
and New York City Etiquette Tips By a Native New Yorker for Non-New Yorkers by Matt Alioto, a musician and social media director. Major Fix is fun, offbeat, and educational, and always has an engaged and vocal crowd.
🎤 On regional rap lineages from UK Grime to Townie Rap
I’ve been obsessed with rap since I was a kid. And it has been endlessly rewarding—there’s always a new artist, region, or stylistic variation to get into.
In the last few years, there’s been a ton of talk about hip-hop isn’t where it once was. And yes, that may be true in the mainstream culture, but there are so many fun, unique rappers emerging that I’m into.
I spent an integral part of my childhood in Houston during a potent period of regional-later-turned-national stars: Lil’ Flip, Mike Jones, Paul Wall and Chamillionaire (as a duo), Slim Thug, all of Swishahouse, Z-Ro and Trae, etc. That shaped my hip-hop fandom (and certainly inspired the type of music we played at Boosie Fade). I’ve always been interested in regional lineages and how subsequent generations evolve or connect with their forefathers. Houston has had Travis Scott and Megan Thee Stallion as global superstar standard-bearers, but one of my favorites is Monaleo. She’s a punchline-rich rapper who broke out with a “Faneto” freestyle about three years ago (still golden), and has developed into an artist who never makes a bad song. A friend recently hipped me a remix she did with fellow Houston representer, Ken The Man, called “First” It's acidic with a wink.
Tre Mission is a rapper and producer who came up through the UK grime scene as a frequent collaborator of Merky ACE and as a member grime collective Tizzy Gang. He’s a gifted lyricist and specializes in impressionistic bars that take you a beat to really clock (“wait, did he just say that?”). I’ve been working my way through his catalogue, but I keep returning to “Babe Mansion” from his 2019 album Orphan Black. It brings many different emotions to life: lust, aggression, swagger, often swiftly transitioning between them in a single line... but he does it with more passion and feeling than 99% of other rappers. There's none of the studied nonchalance most rappers like to project. He makes these experiences sound fun. And like he's having fun.
DJ Lucas is a rapper from Western Massachusetts whom I discovered on TikTok. He had this ad-lib (“monnnnneyyyyyyy!”) that stuck out to me, and I went straight to YouTube and Spotify to go deep. He does something I sometimes think of as “townie rap,” (“I was trapping out the college, couldn’t finish a semester / I ain’t seen homie since he went back to Westchester”). DJ Lucas’s Western Mass is a place where you’re flush off weed and ‘shroom profits during the school year, you’re so far in the sticks that it’s a 20-minute drive for a blunt wrap, and your plug may retire to become a civil engineer. Rap is a poor substitute for anthropology, but I love it when it feels like an artist gives you a great starting place. It’s not for everyone. I sent this to a friend once who said “You can’t actually believe this is good,” and I said, dude said “At the cannabis event, I chop it up with all the vendors / Overloaded with that work, like a public defender.” I *do* think that’s good!
Judah Weston / ISOKeys - Thug -
The homie Johnny Gaffney sent this to me the other day, and I’ve been running through the four songs they have on Spotify on a loop. Vivid, exciting, defiantly original.
🕊️ On striving for Grace
I’ve always been inspired by Grace Gordon. She routinely takes positions I’ve never heard anyone else articulate; she has a professional moral compass and a genuine fervor for culture that I find tragically rare in marketing strategy.
I see her work and how she operates and think, “this is what I’m striving for.”
💻 On laptop-friendly coffee shops
Padmore’s in Bed-Stuy. It’s owned by Jahmal Padmore, a musician and coffee aficionado I met when I produced a short-lived VICE show he hosted called The Margin. We got close instantly, and he became an important figure in my life from an arts and culture perspective, and as a man. He’s the friendliest guy you can know, and Padmore’s reflects that. So many cafes want to rush you out or are anti-laptop, but Padmore’s welcomes you to post up and get cozy. They have ample plugs, the staff is hospitable, and it’s a place I feel like I’m always running into someone I know.