Satori - Catphone

This time around we are going to let the submission speak for its self:

"Satori has been laying low following his Rolling Loud performance, but with summer only a few months away, the Milwaukee crooner is ready to get back on the hit-making train with more than just this surprise track. A collaboration with fellow MKE producer, LeanBeatz, was the perfect way to show fans what Satori has been cooking up in the past few months and gives us a taste of what to expect next. Be sure to cruise to this one on a late night drive..."

We have so many things to say (like but why Catphone though Satori...whyyyyy??? What is a Catphone? How do you call it? Is that just another way to say you got P*ssy on the line? We have questions! lol) but we want to hear what you think. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

/CW

always get love when I'm back home... #freedrugs

Dirty Thoughts - In-between/Us

As Editor-in-Chief of CopyWrite, it is my responsibility to reflect what I ask my contributors, audience, and community for. True vulnerability and expression from our crafts. Authenticity in our stories and humility in our humanity is where the creative world thrives. So here is a piece of me, that honors all of those things, as a true uncensored exposition of my latest thoughts in the form of a "poem".

(To my somebody, thank you for letting me share this moment.) 

In-between/Us

I'm in a house full of noise, even though you are not around…

Scratches at the door are nothing more than the wind bitch slapping these hallowed walls.I laugh as I jump off the toilet, “Maybe he is here”.

I know better...but still, I smile, maybe tomorrow...maybe forever.

No issues here.

I left my heart in San Francisco...or maybe it was Austin…

Half of that is a quote from a song but still, it fits.

Misfits...like long nights in deep thought.

“What about equality?” conversations of duality and understanding of an unlevel headed couple. Do we have a song?

I would play it if I knew

I have this way about me where I can put anything on repeat as long it makes me think of you.

I'm soft like that.

I have been standing hard tho, making sure with every tear there is a smile.

Being with you taught me that...rough times build beautiful people.

“I never seen your type of species”

And now that I have my eyes are stuck

Don't stunt too hard…

I don't like the leather fur with the jersey

Makes you look like a player and you don't play...that's my game and I win.

“Mine!” yes yours.

Possession is a hell of a (hell of a) drug even when you're not around to get high.

I’ll eventually have to sleep in those covers...on that bed...to keep your spot warm until you come home…

Or maybe stop by.

Because love, we got this.

I will again learn how to make my own sunrise...and when the world sees me I will never fail to mention how you placed the light on my moon.

I hope this finds you well.

/Dirty

Troy Tyler - Crush

Sometimes you have to slow it down a little bit and Troy Tyler does just that with his single, ‘Crush’. The smooth appeal with the twist of that “modern” R&B love song, gives off the right vibes for the right time. Troys vocal quality is refreshing, and with tracks like these, he is bound to be on your favorite playlist.

Check out ‘Crush’ and let us know if you're feeling the vibe in the comments below.

/CW

Crush., an album by Troy Tyler on Spotify

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crush-single/1325893344

#CWEverydaySteez

This Weeks Style: "For the Culture (New Breeds)"

/Vato

Mitch Allen ft. Genesis Renji - Go Off

Today’s music submission is from someone new on our radar, Mitch Allen. The 20-year-old from Lake Geneva is working smart, featuring one of our local Favorites Genesis Renji with his song ‘Go Off’. With a distinct voice and slow tempo beat selection (Mitch made the beat), his unorthodox sound might just be what some of you are looking for.

Favorite Line: “Making money moves, that's a Cardi B attack” (You know at CopyWrite we love Pop culture references)

Check out this track and let us know if your rockin' with it in the comments.

/CW

Thanks for listening! Streaming information below! Stream on Apple Music/Spotify: https://fanlink.to/CU2 Follow Mitch Allen! https://yomitchallen.com https://twitter.com/yomitchallen https://instagram.com/yomitchallen https://facebook.com/yomitchallen https://soundcloud.com/yomitchallen Follow Genesis Renji! https://www.houseofrenji.com https://twitter.com/GenesisRenji https://www.instagram.com/genesisrenji/ https://www.facebook.com/genesisrenji https://soundcloud.com/genesisrenji

#CWEverydaySteez

This Weeks Style: "Chill Moods"

/Vato

#WeSeeYou Skipp Whitman - 'El Aye' Ft. Emmitt James staring Melissa Vento

This week's #WeSeeYou goes out to this cool video from our /CW connects in LA!

Skipp Whitman presents us ‘El Aye’

"featuring Emmitt James and starring Melissa Vento. Directed by Sebastian Ruiz (‘Goodnight,’ ‘Escalator Music’), was shot in Downtown LA, in and out of the Subway. It tells the story of chance encounters and admiration from varying distances."

You never know who you might cross paths with, do you take the moment? Let us know what you think in the comments bellow!

/CW

UFSV#1 on Apple Music https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ufsv-1/1353653609 subscribe youtube.com/skippwhitman 'El Aye' by skipp whitman @skippwhitman featuring Emmitt James @emmitt_james shot and directed by Sebastian Ruiz @jsebasruiz starring Melissa Vento @blk_mamba produced by skipp whitman industries & corwag entertainment shot in Dowtown LA special thank you to impresso cafe @ 1115 s Hope Street more at skippwhitman.com

#WCW Nicole Acosta

“You can’t be what you can’t see.” - Marian Wright Edelman

This quote often holds true when thinking of career paths for people of color. Often seeing people who look like you in the same types of jobs over and over again.

This was me as a creative in Milwaukee’s advertising community.  

For the company I worked for I had quickly became the only creative of color (female too) and throughout Milwaukee’s (WHOLE) creative ad community, I knew of one Black Interactive Art Director, one Asian copywriter and about five to six graphic designers that were of color (non-white folks). This left me feeling isolated and alone for most of the beginning of my career but very disappointed in the lack of diversity and inclusion in the region.

Leading to a lot of questions: Why? Why were there no people that looked like me? Was this just a Milwaukee problem? Why did I work at an agency of 250+ people and there was only four people of color? Why don’t more people of color know that they NEED to be in advertising/marketing? Just why?

My main answer came back to the quote “You can’t be what you can’t see.”  And though it’s not that simple; Learning about new career paths and seeing people who look like you and come from similar backgrounds like you, can often change your path in life.

Now enough with me, but into showcasing people that are doing their thing to change the game. **drum roll please**

Our #WCW this week is Nicole Acosta, a Chicana-first generation Mexican-American. Born and raised in Milwaukee, WI with indigenous roots in Mexico. Nicole has made it her life’s mission to preserve cultural practices and traditions and activate safe spaces in her hometown where people can connect to their cultural identities. Whether through dance, visual art or written word, most of Nicole’s work reflects movement, oral and visual storytelling and identity. A lover of travel, Nicole seeks to learn from the origins of where our cultural practices were birthed.

Nicole holds a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing Management from Alverno College with a minor in Elective Studies and is also a dedicated student of Puerto Rican Bomba dance at the AfriCaribe Cultural Center in Chicago, IL. She is a proud graduate of the Milwaukee High School of The Arts, and prior to her transfer to Alverno, spent years at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and Milwaukee Area Technical College studying photography.

As an intersectional artist, Nicole’s work has been exhibited throughout the city of Milwaukee, published locally and nationally; and she has performed spoken word and dance. In most recent years Nicole has devoted her life to art education for Milwaukee Public Theatre, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, Latino Arts, providing hands-on teaching and creating original curriculum focused on the restoration and preservation of Latinx cultural experiences. Her next career move will be in the summer of 2018 were alongside her partner they launch Botaníca Creative, a marketing-branding-photography & design agency! I’m excited.

Campaign sample photos of Pascual and young girls: Creative Direction and Photography: Nicole Acosta, Graphic Design: Jazmin Delgado 

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Also in honor of being a WOC in advertising I asked her to answer the following questions to get a different perspective of advertising life in Milwaukee.  

1. How does being a Latinx creative influence your work in advertising?

"Being a Latinx creative first and foremost automatically suggests that I will create from a place of culture or of my ethnic upbringing. Which is true to a certain point. This is where being a Latinx creative in the advertising/marketing industry becomes a challenge. When I was in my final year of college at Alverno where I earned my degree in Marketing Management, I researched agencies in Milwaukee specifically seeking POC in the industry. The results were not very surprising as you can imagine. This is where I saw an opportunity to pursue marketing and advertising, I had a niche. I could reach specific target audiences that a lot of these agencies could not. I am Latinx, bi-lingual, I stay relevant with socio-cultural trends and I take pride in being a Millennial. I consider myself a hyper-intersectional artist, meaning I have studied multiple art forms and have taught and worked hands on in some capacity throughout the years as this artist but never really knew how to make a career out of it. I binged watched MadMen for an entire month and fell in love with the idea that I would one day I would be the Latinx version of Don Draper because this is exactly how I could channel my creativity. So I befriended my partner Jazmin Delgado, a graphic designer and together we began to envision Botaníca Creative, an agency that specializes in assisting clients through the creative process resulting in visual dialogue aka visual communications. We were intentional about our branding, that we plan to launch this summer. We want to be taken seriously, as as women of color in the creative industry without our culture being at the forefront defining our work because this is not the expectation for non-woc. Although our Latinx culture is extremely important to us. We want our work to speak for itself. Being Latinx influences us creatively no doubt, and we see this in the authentic relationships we build with clients, and most importantly representing Latinx in the creative industry, we hope more young Latinx women/girls pursue careers in marketing, advertising and graphic design!"

Campaign sample photos of Pascual and young girls: Creative Direction and Photography: Nicole Acosta, Graphic Design: Jazmin Delgado

2. If you could change one troubling aspect you’ve experienced in the advertising community into a positive outcome, what would it be?

"I would say the lack of women of color in the industry. It’s such a disappointment. Most times it’s because women of color don’t have access to the same opportunities as non-woc. I feel like agencies should see this as an opportunity to recruit from local colleges such as Alverno (shameless plug) or at least offer internships. A little outreach and authentic community building goes a long way."

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Nicole continually inspires me to keep working and developing my craft so that these conversations become a lesson from the past.

Follow our #WCW Nicole on Instagram @MOSSCROWNMUJER @BOTANICACREATIVE

And if you have a story you want to share about our #WCW or an experience in advertising; let me know in the comments.

Keep creating. /Syn

Amerikas Addiction - Betrayal (Video Submission)

Betrayal is not to be forgiven if you look at it from Amerikas Addiction 's point of view.  When it comes to the grind, sometimes the ruthless survive. In this video they make it clear since “the industry showed me no love”, they won't be looking for any. Catchy lyrics, head bobbin (like we mobbin') beat, it's worth a watch.

Did somebody get bodied at the end? Are they here to kill the game? Prayers up! Watch “Betrayal” by Amerikas Addiction and let us know what you think in the comments.

/CW

Amerikas Addiction releases their 1st visual of 2018 "Betrayal" produced by P.Beezy Beats. Betrayal is the single from their new album "Finish Em" produced entirely by P.Beezy Beats Pre order "Finish Em" on Itunes here

Snap Shot Press Release: Whats The Word on Milwaukee Hip-Hop Week?

Scrolling through our social media feeds, we often find things that interest us, whether it is a status from some old soul dropping gems, pictures of a dope new shoe collabo, or the flyer to an event hosted by any of our local favorites. There is always something to explore. But when a post stating, “Hip-Hop Week MKE...Common Council Support” (or something of that nature) flashes before your eyes, you stop everything!

“Who is responsible for this!?!”

Has the “culture” really found its way into City Hall? Is this actually a “real” thing, or a scheme? 

CopyWrite sat down with Milwaukee’s 7th District, to get the word, on what’s really going down with Milwaukee Hip-Hop Week and what the initiative means for our community as a whole. 

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Putting Milwaukee Hip-Hop Week on the agenda is a no-brainer from Alderman Rainey’s perspective. As a fan of Hip-Hop, he claims that having conversations about it and understanding the culture is indeed “a part of the lifestyle.”

Some have heard the news, and it has left them a little standoffish about government being involved in its cultivation. Rainey cues us in on the slight politics that will aid in Milwaukee Hip-Hop Weeks hopeful success:

“Well the only involvement the City of Milwaukee really has in regards to the politics of it is, it has to go through an actual approval process by the common council to create an (official) week in the city.” Making it an official city week engages the community and grants more opportunities to highlight hip-hop culture as it is celebrated.

Ald. KR: “We want to celebrate the culture. We understand for some who may be ignorant of what hip-hop is or some who may rely on what the mainstream media presents hip-hop as, they may have a misconception of hip-hop. But for those of us who are a product of hip-hop, have experienced it, and have been inspired by it, we want to give them an opportunity to learn [from it].”

For Milwaukee Hip-Hop Week, which is scheduled to begin on August 27th, 2018, there will be a focus on three major tenets, to cultivate the thematic opportunity of cultural knowledge exchange: Financial Literacy, Health, Civic Engagement.

Ald. KR: “What I envision is creating a framework within the context of hip-hop, where we can have some really important conversations.”

Ald. Rainey mentions that in regards to health, the age of the hip-hop community now includes members in their 50’s. This means the spectrum of health risks, including but not limited to obesity, colon cancer, and high blood pressure, is in fact hampering the lifestyle of many. He notes that there has been a cultural shift, where major hip-hop industry influencers like Jermaine Dupri, Slim Thug, Common, and The Game have been documented parting ways with destructive health choices and promoting positive alternative lifestyles. (Check out the documentary, Feel Rich: Health is the New Wealth (2017) narrated by Quincy Jones III, to catch that perspective.)

Ald. KR: “As a culture and generation, we went from cats talking about drinking 40’s and smoking on the corner to cats actually meditating and being vegan. Still flowing though. You know what I’m sayin’? It’s been an evolution. People have grown as hip-hop has grown.”

One idea is to use this same ideology here in MKE, where there are true health issues like high obesity rates, and where food deserts have created a disconnect with healthy eating to show documentaries (like the one mentioned above) and host conversations to improve the hip-hop community’s wellness.

Talking Financial Literacy, Ald. Rainey notes one of the points he brought up at the Community & Economic Development Committee meeting (where CW was in attendance).

Ald. KR: “...mumble rappers or super lyrical rappers, it does not matter how they rap, they are talking about money. We are talking about being prosperous, comin’ up. One way or another that type of mentality is infused and weaved into your rhymes.”

With that being a part of the hip-hop “mantra”, Rainey believes that setting up opportunities where we can discuss “money moves” like cryptocurrency (a growing market in the eyes of hip-hop advocates like Nipsey Hussle) and stock markets with brokers can increase the quest for wealth, which is vital to this community’s future success. Here the importance of even exposing the community to local resources, like Kiva, can elevate the opportunity for small business (yes, the ones that are a part of the hip-hop community) to level up the grind.

The third tenet, Civic Engagement, covers a wide spectrum, but one of the most important components Alderman Rainey would like to address is voter registration.

He notes that hip-hop artists as of late, have been very vocal about their political perspectives, especially on the presidency. This creates an opportunity for others to express their voices.

Ald. KR: “Right now is the time that we galvanize the people...and share these outlooks and say let’s do something about it...let’s take that same energy and connect it to things going on locally as well.”

#SupportTheLocal

The Civic Engagement tenet also opens the door to have major conversations about violence in our community, where the platform for young people and the institutions who are working on these peace incentives have an open forum discussing the issues (pushing the people and not just the numbers).

Ald. KR: “Milwaukee Hip-Hop Week has the opportunity through civic engagement to effect change socially.”

Just the conversation of having Milwaukee Hip-Hop Week has prompted members of MKE’s growing “underground” hip-hop community to come to the table. At the same Community & Economic Development Committee meeting mentioned before, rappers, producers, videographers, non-profit organization leaders, directors of public offices, artists, press, and the like, showed up to city hall to voice their support for the week and its future impact.

Ald. KR: “It’s an important opportunity to assemble something that brings together people...a bunch of people who were in there had never been to city hall before and that’s powerful to me...I think we have to create more opportunities for the unusual suspects to [be a part of the conversation]. To tap into people who are a-political and make them excited and engaged.”

Side Note: This year in Hip-Hop, a freestyle session broke out in MKE city hall and we have the footage! #ForTheCulture

Even though the week allots for conversations about heavier topics, Ald. Rainey assures us that the five elements of Hip-Hop (MC’ing, DJ’ing, graffiti art, B-boy dance and knowledge), will not be ignored.

Ald. KR: “I just want to have a whole lineup of activities. I want you to look at Hip-Hop Week and be like ‘Damn I missed something.’ But I also want you to break your neck to get to everything too.” He laughed, insistently.

MKE Hip-Hop week is on the theoretical tract to making major waves. In hopes of getting everybody in on the action, planning will highly consider every side of the city, so all communities have access to the celebration of one of the most influential cultures, worldwide. (Look at Nielsen’s 2017 music report...Hip-Hop is out chea’.)

CW: “So you have covered a lot of things here and all of these things sound great. So how are we making sure we include our local artists (and Hip-Hop movement contributors) into the mix? They want to be a part of this and this is their city so they should be.”

Ald. KR: [Following that the week is officially passed by the Common Council, which as of just yesterday February 27th, 2018, it was approved unanimously] “...after that, we have to set up some kind of advisory board that includes people in the community who have value” - And insight into what’s going on out here? *wink wink*

So Milwaukee here is the moment we have been waiting for. Here is the opportunity to shine a positive light on the scene and have some conversations that are way overdue. Where the revolution may not be televised, we guarantee it will be publicized. (Corporate America and the “other” will have their hand in this too. Local big business will be asked to partake...and of course, it is in their best interest that they do.) *This is the moment where we are supposed to digress...Ha!

As Ald. Rainey has become the “spokesperson” for this important initiative, he holds the scrutiny of its authenticity in his hands.

Ald. KR: “I would love for someone to come challenge me on my hip-hop validity. We live this.”

AND WE DO TOO!

/CW

Help us continue the conversation about Hip-Hop by following us on facebook.com/copywritemag and right here on copywritemag.com in the comments. 

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