Fountain of Yus - #009
Ola, back to occupy your emails once again with the latest issue of FOY, this time discussing the power of creators and community. Enjoy.
Pharrell takes his collectables to JOOPITER
Multi-hyphenate and seasoned cultural tastemaker, Pharrell Williams, has launched JOOPITER, a new collector economy platform for auctioning cultural objects with historical context. It's no surprise that this comes from Pharrell, considering his diverse body of work over a 3-decade long career. With multiple Grammys and fashion collaborations with brands like Bape, Louis Vuitton and Chanel to name a few, one can only imagine what they could possibly get their hands on.
For Pharrell the idea to create an auctioning platform was not only inspired by his stack of cultural artefacts but also by the lack of an existing all-encompassing platform.
What’s most interesting about JOOPITER is that it once again highlights how creators see the commercial value of their contribution to culture, a trend we’re increasingly seeing in culture and a part of the new landscape of the creator economy. For instance, American rapper Future recently sold his publishing catalogue for $75 million, 16x what he would’ve earned annually from it.
Of course, it's easy to think, why sell your work? Why not archive it? But as Pharrell puts it himself “I was born without it, and when I die I won’t have it, right?”
Why not give the people who supported you an opportunity to own a piece of your story?
STEELO connects with its South African community.
STEELO, a community-based platform that covers the intersection between fashion, music, culture and tech by bridging communities across the UK, the US, Europe and Africa recently took to Johannesburg to connect with their community in South Africa as well as introduce itself to new potential members.
Hosted at The Great Dane in Johannesburg, attendees could get their hands on STEELO clothing, Boy Better know tees and also t-shirts from Skepta’s ‘Vicious’ and ‘Hypocrisy’ EPs, all for free. The event also served as an opportunity to introduce guests to STEELO’s discord channel, where community members engage and stay up-to-date with the latest announcements in the world of STEELO. Also upon entry, was a QR scan for people to get access to $STEELO tokens, which will be key to STEELO’s expansion into Web3 as well as a DAO too.
The event was also filled with performances from local tastemakers, Uncle Partytime and InsertCoinz to name a few.
Overall this opportunity served as a great opportunity for STEELO to bridge its URL community with an IRL experience, welcome new members and increase its visibility in the region too. Such activations play an instrumental role in cementing STEELO’s place as a global community-platform.
SIDEMEN Charity Match
A few weeks ago, SIDEMEN returned with the fourth edition of their charity football match at a sold out Valley stadium, with 27,000 capacity. Playing against the ‘YouTube Allstars’, the match saw internet sensations battle it out on the pitch, including KSI, Noah Beck, iShowSpeed, JME, Chunkz, Niko Omilana and MrBeast to name a few.
Observing the dialogue on social media, the match felt as big as an El Clasico fixture and garnered more live viewers than the 2022 champions league final. This is no surprise considering the combined reach of all the stars put together, the SIDEMEN on their own have a combined reach of 30 Million+.
With 27,000+ in attendance, 2.6 million+ live viewers, 16 million views on the stream in under 24 hours, and over £1 million raised in charity, the numbers truly speak for themselves.
The SIDEMEN charity match is living proof of the influence creators have, the attention they demand and the impact they can achieve when they collaborate.
Deji to get in the ring with Mayweather
Popular UK content creator Deji is set to fight Floyd Mayweather at the Coca-Cola arena in Dubai. Yes, read that again.
No doubt, for Mayweather, this may just be another opportunity for a big paycheck, but for Deji it speaks volumes to the power of the creators in current times. Whilst a YouTube sensation entering the ring with one of boxing’s greatest fighters may seem comical, such fights have kept the sport relevant in recent times.
Over the past few years, celebrity boxing fights have become the norm, often getting more views than professional boxing bouts. Floyd Mayweather has been at the centre of most of these clashes but so have creators like Logan Paul, KSI and South African Rappers. There’s also been a surge in amateur celebrity boxing bouts: Bouncer v Armz Korleone, KSI v Swarmz and Cassper Nyovest v Priddy Ugly in South Africa too.
The social engagement of these fights are testament to the fact that in the streaming era, attention is the strongest currency. Who holds the most attention? Creators.
Boxing has found a way to stay relevant to Gen Z and it's not completely down to its professional athletes.
Logan Paul gets a shot at the WWE title
Following a successful debut at Wrestlemania 38, Logan Paul is set to take on Roman Reigns with the WWE title on the line.
While the announcement left a lot of WWE fans bemused and agitated, this move is inline with WWE’s new global strategy, to bring in more viewers who aren’t necessarily interested in watching the sport, but rather the fighters involved.
Logan Paul has the cultural pedigree to achieve just that, it would be hard to argue that anyone on the WWE roster can match his reach. One of the world’s most famous content creators battling for the biggest title the WWE has to offer, I’m sure this match had WWE executives rubbing their hands.
No matter the perspective, WWE is in the business of entertainment and this is a battle that serves to entertain an audience that goes beyond the WWE universe. Once again, a creator is at the centre of it all.
Yuseful Notes
Palace x Gucci merge worlds.
Drake’s OVO will be Barcelona’s shirt sponsor for the upcoming El Clasico fixture, born from the club’s partnership with Spotify.
Prime Video roll out the stars on the red carpet for the premiere of UK series ‘JUNGLE’.
Nike wages war on resellers.
Black Arrow FC partner with Umbro, for a kit collection aimed to raise funds for schools in Ethiopia.
New Horror movie ‘Smile’ has invaded Major League Baseball games as part of the marketing tactics for the release of the film.
Lyrical Lemonade link up with Nike for AirForce 1 sneaker collaboration.
GRM Daily launch new series ‘Out Loud’ spotlighting rising stars.
Dr.Martens have reunited with Rick Owens for a new collaboration.
Dave teases a Stone Island x New Balance collab at this year’s Santan Cup.
A$ap Rocky gets his own game mode in the upcoming ‘Need For Speed: Unbound’ game.
Balenciaga launch resale programme.
Mcdonald's tackle UK’s child literacy problem.
Burberry continues to redefine itself with latest ‘Night Creatures’ film
Football stars Messi, Neymar and Pogba rumoured to feature as operators in the new ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’.
‘Amazon Music: One Take’ will pair up with UK's biggest gamers for battle on Fortnite.
Raheem Sterling releases a pair of boots in an ode to his sister and the multiple journeys he had to take just to make it.
Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond are in FIFA 23.
McDonald’s release happy meal for adults.
What Would Yus Do?
Sharing upcoming experiences that I find interesting and you may potentially too.
In celebration of the release of their latest issue, Gauchoworld are throwing a party on October 21st.
Peaky Saku has reintroduced himself as an artist, with a satirical political commentary piece. The artpiece is currently on exhibition at the Cartoon museum, running until April.
‘Grime Stories: from the corner to the mainstream’ an exhibition exploring the history of Grime is currently running at the Museum of London until the 4th of December.
Movement director Yagamoto, is performing his debut show “THE CONDUCTOR” at The Strand, currently running until the 6th of November.
That’s all for now.
Until next time,
Yus