JASMINE SOLANO

There’s something truly admirable about a person who has let their passions in life lead them in all the right directions. For Brooklyn-based DJ Jasmine Solano, a.k.a. JSMN, her love of music has taken her all around the world and back to spin for high profile brands (DKNY, Apple, Nike and Topshop, just to name a few), and celebrities (including a little artist known as Beyoncé…) alike.

But it’s not just her incredibly diverse taste in music that’s impressive; the Philadelphia-native and one half of the DJ party duo Electric Punanny has the kind of work ethic and intelligence that would make any workaholic jealous. While in college, Solano created her own major, “music activism quest,” which was basically a triple major in music production, marketing and socio-politics. Then later on in life, she was inspired by her non-stop work schedule to create and host MTV Iggy’s Scratch The Surface. The show documented her efforts to discover something new and interesting in every city she finds herself in because, for her, music is anthropology.

TR: How did you first encounter music?

JS: My first encounter was through my mother playing strictly classic soul in the house. I was 5 years old listening to James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding. Classic soul connected me to music. With that being the first genre I was ever introduced to, it set my standards pretty high. My musical taste varies, but it always has to have soul.

TR:  What are your go-to tunes for:

– Getting out of bed and seizing the day?

JS:  Aretha Franklin “Groovin’”.

– Hitting the gym/spin class/going for a run?

JS:  Gappy Ranks “Baddest”.

– Hyping up as you get ready for a night out?

JS: JamieXX ft. Popcaan “Good Times”.

for the full article head to the Rhapsody.

Words: Portia Baladad / Photos: Olivia Seally

THEOPHILUS MARTINS

My name is Theophilus Martins, I am 29 and I was born in Providence, Rhode Island.

FF - What were you doing five years ago?

TM - I was just starting to bubble off making music and I was connecting with a lot of the kids in New York, I really wanted to be a part of that scene. And so Myspace was my way of connecting… I remember I hit up Mickey Factz; he was like the first person to show me so much love. I was just trying to be a part of all that. And I ended up being the tour manager for this group from LA called U+I. They actually contacted me online… I put out something with okayplayer and they liked my shit and asked if I wanted to come on the road as their DJ.

So we ended up going on tour with Warren G. I connected with Curtains and Kidz in the Hall, they were so popular… they were like one of the bands in LA who were doing shit that was progressive and innovative and they were cool with a bunch of New York cats. So they were like my introduction, I’ve always been the kid on the outside of the group trying to get in, so I just tried to find whatever relationships I could (laughs). We did a song called Beautiful Day, it was me, Evidence, Aloe Blacc was on that fucking song! and Mickey Factz was on it, so that was my way of getting into that.

FF - What do you do now?

TM - I’ve always been into entertainment. As a kid I did some child acting, I did performance… I didn’t like it because I was super shy, so I started DJing, which was my way of being a performer in music without being the face of it. And then I got more comfortable and wanted to start to make my own music. I lived in London for a good part of last year, I took some time off and I felt I had an understanding of what I want to do, as opposed to trying to be this great rapper, or an amazing DJ. I was just like why don’t I build the world that I want to live in? So I just do cool shit now; I DJ, I perform, I creative direct. I think that it’s more appropriate for me to just do what I want and plant those seeds now and let that grow and let people see it. 

Being a part of art and a part of so many things that you like… I used to look at it as a burden, but then I realized well, for one, I don’t like putting out music regularly, I want to build it and look over every detail because I care about it.

If you get one from me and I don’t feel like putting another one out for a few months, then you’ll just have to accept that. But I also realize in those moments the art never dies,  the passion never dies. It can be applied to so many things and I feel like I was trying to channel that energy into one lane, but I don’t want anything I have to force, nothing. So I’m just going to do what comes natural. And for me, that took trust, like do what comes natural?! No! College! Bills! but I was just like I’m gonna be good regardless and things changed from that point.

FF - Tell us about your company ‘Good Posture’

TM - Good Posture… it’s a little bit like I birthed the baby, like I spent last year figuring out who I was and what I’m doing and how to launch it and in January I premiered a collaboration I did with this company called Flexfit. I partnered with them to design this product and then designed this experience, so I had these big 15 foot walls that I designed at Agenda and it introduced my company and what inspired it. Colors drove the idea for the music, which translated to the hats… yellow and blue are primary colors and yellow is this color, like how I felt when I was making this music, it was very much lively, it was cool, it was fun. And that canary blue was like a lot of the music I was making while I was in London, it was very melodic, it was sad, it was emotional. And so I designed a yellow corduroy hat and a blue hat so just attributing those colors into a physical manifestation, so now I’ve designed some clothes that will accompany those hats too. Just making it a full experience, so like I’ve given birth to the baby by premiering it at Agenda, where it got great press and people fucked with it.

FF - Do you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior now?

TM - OK, well in music… I had my debut LA show two days ago! That show was like a graduating step, I was watching myself while performing, like wow this is what I’ve always envisioned! I performed in a way that I’ve always wanted to and delivered it the way I wanted to and it was a very joyous experience. I felt like ok! I’ve graduated one level, I’m a freshman entering a new stage of being an artist and being fearless. It feels very new, it’s like first day of graduation, you have family dinner and walk around like yeah! (laughs) it’s that kind of feeling, where I feel accomplished. I know who I am now, God damn! It took twenty five years (laughs) but I’m thankful, it took a lot to get here but it was worth it.

you can listen to Theophilus Martins here.

As told to: Olivia Seally / Video: Olivia Seally / Photos: courtesy of Theophilus Martins

HUSTLEGRL

My name is Karla, I am 23 years old and my birthplace is the Congo. I've lived in Toronto for about seventeen years.

FF - What were you doing five years ago?

KM - I was fresh out of high school and I took a year off to tour with Drake. It just started with me being a fan and him not having enough online presence so I took it upon myself to start a fan site. So he asked me to come on tour and I already wanted to take a year off because I didn't want to go straight into University, so I took a year off and just hustled hard that year. It was fun! Going from city to city, it's the same show every night but a different crowd and I was eighteen years old and ready to explore the world and it was a really great experience.

FF - What do you do now?

KM - Now I still design, I still do photography on the side, I work on the Remix Project - I am the Creative Arts Programmer here at Remix, and I also DJ. 

FF - Tell us about the Remix Project…

KM - the Remix Project is an amazing arts program funded by the government, there’s three streams: the art of business, creative arts and recording arts, so obviously music, visual art and business. So it’s a 9 month program for at risk youth age 16-23. We only accept 15 students in each stream every year, it starts in February and ends in November. We help them accomplish their goals, get internships and jobs and stuff like that. When you’re here you’re surrounded by likeminded people, it’s not often that you’ll get to meet another creative person that has similar values and morals, so it’s really cool to be in a creative space like that.

FF - How did DJing start for you?

KM - I've always loved music and always tried to think of different platforms to share the music that I love, so I was like hey why not start DJing?! I was surrounded by performing artists and DJs and so I reached out to a friend of mine, DJ Romeo, and working at the Remix Project, we have access to DJ equipment (laughs) so I'd stay after work and learn how to use turntables and the mixer and DJ Romeo put me on to the DJ game. I'm still learning, I need to polish my scratching skills but to get a hang of it it took a month and a half just to know how everything works, but for me to be able to perform and be comfortable with that it took me like three or four months.

FF - What's your goal?

KM - My end goal is to have a creative agency, I would love to be able to have my own creative space and staff to provide marketing and branding services. I want that team to design what we need to do for a client, or come up with a marketing campaign, so I want to have my own Hustlegrl universal empire... Right now Hustlegrl lives on the web and Hustlegrl lives on the streets too, but Hustlegrl needs a home! So I would love to have my own creative space.

FF - If your life was a movie, what would be on its soundtrack?

Destiny's Child - Independent Woman

Rick Ross - Hustlin' 

Eve - Who's that Girl!

you can follow Hustlegrl here.

As told to: Olivia Seally / Photos + Video: Olivia Seally

TYRONE EDWARDS

My name is Tyrone Edwards AKA TRexXx, I'm a blogger, TV personality and Dad. Five years ago I was unemployed, I had no children, I had never been on TV and I was a blogger.

Promoting parties came first… And then in 2007 I created 1LoveTO for the mayor at the time, mayor Miller. He was participating in the 40th anniversary of Caribana and I found out about it the night before and so I wanted to come up with an idea that would speak to the mayor's role in the city and a message that he would be able to stand behind and also a concept that I thought was cool enough to lend my face to. And so the idea is celebrating the diversity of the city, the people that make it up, the idea that we're the world in one city, the idea of really encouraging an exchange versus just tolerating people.

The city needs pride in itself. Civic pride, identity, self worth.

We always used to say that we need exposure, but we have exposure. We don't even really need it as much as we need to understand the contents of this city; like how cool and talented the people are, how much of a benefit it is to grow up in a city like this that is so culturally diverse. I feel like Toronto really needs to expose themselves to each other. And then connect and build.

FF- Who are five people in Toronto to look out for?

TE- Bryan Espiritu from the Legends League is already very accomplished but I just know that there’s so much more that he’s going to do. There’s this young girl named Killa, she’s a DJ but I just know this… she’ll do well in that, some people just have that it factor. She'll be great. Also, I love Shannon Boodram, we have great conversations, she's the shit. Oh! the model Winnie Harlow of course! And then one more… PReign, because he’s a great rapper but overall, he’s a leader. And even though he’s a gangster he’s one of the reason why a lot of people are united and not fighting within Toronto. He’s an influencer, he’s super smart, he’s cocky as shit; he just has all the right ingredients to do amazing things.

FF- Would you say 1LoveTO was the vision that kind of broke you out of the freshmen field?

TE- Yeah, it was one of the first things that I was noticed and recognized and praised for something that came from my mind.. and from my heart. At the time when I did that pitch to Mayor Miller he told me right away you need to trademark this. And I didn't know anything about intellectual property lawyers but, you know, I sourced the information and figured it out and got it done. To be honest, that platform that I created is, I think, the reason why I even got hired on TV. Because there was people at Much following my blog and then when there was an opportunity that they thought I was suitable for they thought of that guy from 1LoveTO.

I didn't go to college with the intent or the idea that I was gonna do any of this but what I did take in college helped out. I mean, first I started out as a kinesiologist, but then when I became a student athlete I actually appreciated learning and the opportunity of going to school for free, on a scholarship for basketball. I really challenged myself and asked myself what it was that I liked… I became an English major, I took some business courses, then a lot of speech courses so I ended up declaring as a speech major, because the courses were more interesting.

The school that I was going to at the time was a private school in Michigan and they had alum that were working for NBC, and there's people that worked on Capitol Hill and DC so I thought some sort of public speaking role might be a good route for me. So yeah, they all kinda just came together in the end.

But what I learned from that was I just needed to do what I felt like doing, like what I was actually passionate about, what I couldn't really go two weeks without doing, without feeling that itch. And

once I started to follow that energy is when, I believe, everything started coming together.

Because it ultimately is who I am and what I've always been interested in. So I planted those seeds and now I'm just trying my best to nurture them.

FF- Do you feel like a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

TE- I think I'm a sophomore. I started off in music television with Much Music, where I felt like I was in my junior year, like I was about to graduate. And then I changed my program and went into movies with E!, so a lot like my education, I made the switch before I could graduate. So last year was my first year going to the Golden Globes and the MTV movie awards and really participating in that whole award show season and so I was a freshman, again. And now I'm kind of a sophomore, because there's still a couple things I need to do here… A part of the reason I haven't left Toronto yet is because I understand and feel the pulse of this city. And

there is no Puff Daddy of Toronto,

there is no... well, we'll just leave it at that. There's a lot to be done here.

FF- Do you consider yourself an artist?

TE- In a sense, there’s an art to what I do. And some of my closest friends want me to be a little more strategic and figure out exactly those intricate details of the art of what I do. But I just do. I just make it. I gotta do what feels right. It’s just constantly being humble and being open and wanting more. Wanting more and doing more, you know? My boys and I created this basketball camp years ago called Concrete Hoops and we started off small here in Toronto and then we went to Africa and Brazil but the idea was that we would always be teaching the older guys how to coach as well as play. So they plan and direct and facilitate and create a real infrastructure. Something that can live long after… So that’s what I wanna do with all the other seeds I’ve planted. It’s like.. I have this tattoo on my ribs and LIFE is the prominent thing that you see in big letters. And then around it, it says create… love… live… so I can keep on adding different words. I hate unfinished tattoos but that’s the one tattoo that will always be unfinished because I will constantly be adding to it. And that’s a metaphor for my life, that's what I want to end…

FF- So when it’s all done where do you see yourself? You’re 85, where and what are you doing?

TE- I wanna be in love with one woman, I wanna be in love with my children, I wanna be in love with my legacy, I wanna be able to see my work, I want to create opportunities for other people to do their work.

you can check out Tyrone's blog here and follow him on  twitter and instagram.

as told to: Olivia Seally // photos: Karim Ash