DAI BURGER

Hi! My name's Dai Burger, I'm from Queens, New York... but I run New York City!

FF - What do you do?

DB - I am a hip-hop, rapping, singing, trapping, lovable, performing artist. I just do it all... I hit stages and shut shit down. And make cool music along the way! I started as a back up dancer for Lil' Mama. Some people know that, some don't, but I always say that because it's how I started. And from there I started just doing more shows in the Lower East Side and Brooklyn and hosting parties. And I haven't really gotten a break since then (laughs). I love dancing! In high school every one knew it was either dancing or fashion, like if I wasn't going to be in fashion, I was going to be a dancer. You know... going to school, getting new Jordans, showing up... I customized my belts to match the latest Jordans. I kinda paint too so I would paint some stuff on my shirt or on jeans and people would always come to me in high school! I was kinda the jeans girl... I would put their name down one side and some splatter paint on the other, like do the back pockets, like what Jordan's you got? Ok I have pink paint! Oh you got the New Balances?! I got yellow! (laughs). It was fly! It was lucrative for me too, like a little side cash out.

FF - How did Patricia Fields happen?

DB - My homeboy brought me into the old store, it was my first time. And the manager at the front asked if we were Lil' Mama dancers, we were like yes... how did you know?! She saw us at the Heatherette show we just performed and she was like you're so cute, your style is so cool, do you want to work here? And I was kind of hesitant like I was still dancing and stuff but I kept coming back and they're like girl, just come on! I was like alright! You got me! And we've been married since. It's been a while, almost as long as the music... they kind of go hand in hand.

FF - Are you signed for your music?

DB - I'm not! I have management now. I don't even have a project out right now and I'm super booked up so once I put a project out, who knows what could happen! I feel like I've been on the underground for so long, and you know how sometimes you hear a name like it's hot, it's hot... then a couple months later you don't hear that name anymore.

I just feel like I've been consistent for so long that someone has to recognize here, it's not a roller coaster, I've just been smooth sailing for all these years. So I'm just ready to, like you said, have a platform so I can share it on a bigger plateau.

FF - Are you working on a project?

DB - I am! It's almost done! So it should be ready soon, and it's going to be released overseas as well!

FF - What's the goal / What do you want to add to the world?

DB - I'm just tired of people taking themselves so seriously, I'm so free spirited.. I don't know, people should just let loose sometimes.

I feel like everyone should just loosen up, be themselves and experiment, you know? Try new things! Everything doesn't have to be a race, or so serious like if you're doing you, that's enough!

I do me and I'm not competing with anybody and I feel fine! And just being smart, using the brains we have to do anything positive. All that negativity is just tired... negativity is tired, it's last year! Stank attitudes are a thing of the past! So 2013 (laughs).

you can follow Dai here and check out her music here.

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

KITTY CASH

I got the chance to shoot one of my favorite DJ's, Kitty Cash, for a brand new hip-hop magazine that has just released! "Brick is a bi-annual music and lifestyle publication representing the new age of Hip-Hop culture," says founder Hayley Louisa Brown, and editor Grant Brydon, explaining the story behind the launch of their new hefty 264-page tome. "We want to provide an elegant and aspirational platform that examines Hip-Hop, not hirsute as a style of music, but as a cultural and sociological movement that pays respect to pioneers, forgotten heroes and the most cutting-edge contemporaries."

'Edition One' is available here.

you can check out Kitty Cash's music here, and follow her on instagram.

photos: Olivia Seally

JEFF LAUB

My name is Jeff Laub, I’m 30 years old and I’m originally from South Jersey. I’m the co-founder of Blind Barber and within that I’m a producer; I maintain and create visions and concepts that operate and exist within the Blind Barber umbrella. We are a barber shop, with a bar, a café, a restaurant, with a product line, with a content side… but in all actuality it’s just a barber shop that wants people feeling good about themselves. I just wanted to make cool stuff and feel good about what I was doing and once I realized I was able to do that for myself I wanted to pass that on to someone else. It just happened to occur through hair cuts, beers and pomades.

I had planned from probably before 8th grade to be a lawyer. That’s what I said when they would ask ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ That’s such a bullshit question… it should be ‘What 18 different things do you think you’d be interested in when you’re 30 years old?’ So I had always been told that I’d be a phenomenal lawyer, from people watching shows and never having worked in the field. But that was my plan up until about five years ago. In 2009 I was working in a law firm that I hated. I was working as a legal assistant, a tier below the lawyers, at the number one law firm in the world. I was at the pinnacle of something that I planned for so long. I remember being in a meeting when the financial crisis happened, with every world bank sitting there, with the White House on a conference call and I just hated every second of it… it wasn’t for me, wasn’t what I was interested in… I didn’t feel good, I didn’t feel like I was pushing myself. So I hit rock bottom, I was depressed... I spent $200k+ on NYU, I had a plan, my plan sucked and what now?!

I used to work odd jobs at cool salons with my Mom, who would manage the salons. When I went to NYU that’s what I knew, so I would get part time jobs doing that. I realized people are making $100k+ a year at this, if they really dived in and did it well. I knew with my attitude and rapport with the customers, if I really dedicated and educated myself, I could do it! So Cravath was from 9 to 5 and then I enrolled in Aveda cosmetology school and was going there from 5 to 9. Aveda was probably more detailed and strenuous than any other education, just in terms of punctuality. It was a nice introduction to learn what it took to be a cosmetologist, what it took to be a service professional.

I went to Aveda when I realized my first path of being a lawyer wasn’t going to happen. But I realized very quickly that that wasn’t what I wanted to do either… even touching hair grossed me out! Honest to God, I threw a temper tantrum. I literally threw a round brush on the ground while I was sectioning hair and walked out (laughs). I went back because I hadn’t had the plan yet and then one day I was talking to my Granddad and told him I’m going to be cutting hair and he said

“my favorite place to hang out is the barber shop”.

And it was that simple sentence… I was like that’s what I want. That’s what I liked about the salons, it wasn’t cutting hair, it was walking in, hearing some gossip, a bunch of babes walking in, flirt with them a bit, go to lunch, see people and most importantly, every single person walking out felt great. So I really wanted to harness that feeling and produce it for my friends, the way we would want it. So every day after cosmetology school I went back to my desk and spent an hour writing the plan; a friend helped me with an inspiration deck and I called businesses to write a business plan and got numbers from bars and salons, then I added in my view, my story, my passion.

I found out that Josh Boyd, who owned Plan B, Gallery Bar and Ella, was selling his first bar Plan B across from Tompkins Sq Park in lower Manhattan, and I had no money, like zero dollars… but I had this finished business plan that I spent a year and a half writing. I didn’t think Josh really wanted to part with it because it was his first bar that set his life in motion, so I told him I’d buy it from him with this great idea that we could be open basically 24 hours a day; I could run the salon portion and you guys teach me your bar section and we’ll work it out. The name caught his attention and I think he felt my excitement towards it. The only hurdle after getting Josh to agree to the idea was me confessing that I lied about having any money (laughs).

I had to hustle my way into a partnership, I just told him I’d wash windows and earn my way… and I did.

And once Josh saw the people coming around, all his homies, the neighbors coming by, he felt it! We were building another neighborhood staple. When we first opened both my partners, Josh and Adam, thought the barber shop should close at 9 because they didn’t want to risk loosing customers not knowing that there's a bar behind the shop. So they were like let’s open up the bar door after 9 and shut the barber shop. I said no fucking way! They have to enter through the barber shop. Trust me when I tell you… it’ll be slow for the first few months, but once they discover it, you’ll never loose that customer because at that moment, they found their bar. That became their hidden space, that they found. And once that proved true, people started to switch their own mentalities and be like OK what would I love within a bar? Rather than what would make me money?

So far, all the locations have come to us. We’re in no rush to expand, like I said our primary goal is to put out a feeling of confidence. So products, content and service are number one. The spaces are exceptional and super cool but very difficult to run, so it has to be perfect. After pitching Josh on a plan and a space that went from a neighborhood staple to another neighborhood staple, having parties there, one of Josh’s friends mentioned that he had a space available. So we drove across country to LA and said sure!

And then the third location, in Brooklyn, came about because I actually wrote the Blind Barber business plan in Second Stop, so I kept an eye on that when I was living there and made it happen. Now we’re just making people feel good, like they can be themselves. We’re selling confidence and doing it through quality services and products. We’ve made our own website, we produce videos, we do photo shoots, we produce on site marketing pop ups, we throw parties, we put play lists together, we have a bar, we have a restaurant, we have a café, we have three barber shops, with products that each take a year and a half… what is Blind Barber?

It’s a bunch of peoples passions all combined into this one thing and we facilitate our growth through, you know, shaving cream.

FF- Do you consider yourself an artist?

JL- Well in Blind Barber, I’m a producer. I think I have an appreciation for everything without having a specific skill set, other than recognizing every one else’s strengths. I have a decent eye, I appreciate art, I understand how to tell a story, I love photography, I know bits and pieces… thanks to my Lynda account (laughs). I understand the service industry, I understand how to connect to the emotions of customers and translate that into customer service, or into a product and really make an engagement. And I’m also teaching myself a lot of new things for the business to take the next step. I’m really diving in to more traditional business ideas and methods. I get to do whatever I want, it’s kind of crazy. I feel so fortunate and blessed. I’m truly living my dreams, but a dream project of mine would be to secure real livelihoods of at least five of the employees that I hold really close to me. I think the way to do it is as an open platform; you could be a barista, a bus boy, whatever… if you have an idea, I’m here to listen. All I want to do is learn, I don’t care where it comes from. That’s how we constantly re-brand and retell our story. I succeed as a producer and boss, because I’m so proud of the people that have helped me build my dreams and

I recognize how talented they are and I’m relentless in making them fulfill their efforts.

FF- So is there a con to working so closely with your friends?

JL- Absolutely! Two cons of working with your friends… One; you don’t hang out with them after work. There’s no more of that. It doesn’t happen. You’re so sick of each other by the end of the day. Two is… I am the boss. And there are certain things that I don’t compromise on. It’s beautiful to have so many different passions and ideas about what should be done within a business, but you do have to remain focused and make sure that you understand what your business actually is. Costs of goods and the excel sheet portion of a business is important, it has to funnel towards one thing so that people understand what they’re buying.  Maintaining that focus sometimes hurts people’s feelings. Sometimes you got to put your foot down and people take it personal. And the resentment lasts a day longer than if they were just an employee, and that weighs on me.

FF- Would you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

JL- I’m a sophomore because I have the lay of the land and I can sit with the upper classmen and we can vibe a little, but in the nitty gritty of it, we aren’t there yet. I have to learn more, we have to keep working as hard as we are and probably a little harder and smarter to put ourselves in another position to take advantage of luck and timing. There’s no formula, we just need to work incredibly hard to maintain the integrity, the uniqueness and the consistency of our story. So I definitely want to expand my education and skill sets to really take us to the next level, finance-wise. But on a brand level, we’ve already graduated. You can’t fuck with us… there’s no brand in our arena that can come close to Blind Barber, they aren’t getting calls from Milk Studios, from real estate developers asking to open 50 new locations. The problem is that we’re sophomores and we don’t know how to answer those calls yet. So from a business and personal standpoint, I’m a sophomore. Brand level… youngens can’t hang with us! Because they’re only looking at bottom line and then they copy what’s cool, whereas we work the opposite way.

FF- So when it’s all done where do you see yourself?

JL- Well on the walk over here I was thinking of opening a new restaurant! I also want to open up a creative/ad agency. I want a huge office with real facilities so we can work for clients. Even when I retire I’ll still be doing something! But hopefully chilling on the West Coast with my babe, my dogs, some kids, hanging around with their kids and doing the same thing… I’m doing everything right, right now. I want to continue to hang with family, show up at the barbershop, get a cut, talk about the good ol’ days and laugh.

you can check out Blind Barber's website here and follow them on instagram.

as told to: Olivia Seally // photos: courtesy of Blind Barber

ASHLEY OUTRAGEOUS

My name is Ashley Outrageous, I’m 24 years old and I was born in South Florida. Five years ago I was fresh out of high school and that’s when I decided to go to the Art Institute of Graphic Design and I was just starting this thing called blogging. Which, at the time, I definitely didn’t know much about it, I was just learning about it from a friend who had one. So I was just doing personal stuff, covering what me and my friends were doing, or covering what music I liked and then going to school. Before I started mine I would look at blogs like NahRight and the blog DCtoBC and how Modi would put a lot of personal touch into his content and it was really something I always enjoyed reading. It wasn’t fast facts, it was still personalized. So that was the first blog that made me want to write more about why I like this music video or why I like that song. And that’s when I was still on blogspot and then one day I just woke up and wanted to take it more serious. So I took it down for a month and I did a full redesign. And then from there I went to South By South West a month later, after I re-launched and I went to wordpress, who Modi from DCtoBC actually told me to do.

After that specific trip to South By in 2010, that’s when I knew that I wanted to take it seriously.

After South By, I came back to school and decided I didn’t want to be there so I didn’t finish. But I still apply everything I learned in that time to now with my own website and brand.

I started blogging in Miami and there wasn’t that many bloggers at the time so it was a bit easier for me to get content, rather than say if I started out here (in New York) where there’s so many people, every one’s trying to dish for that interview and get in front of each other. So back in Miami it was easier for me because there was maybe only me and two other bloggers, and when artists came in to town or even when I brought them myself, doing my own events, I felt that that gave me a little more credibility and I was able to get more original content. Plus I wanted to keep all my interviews fun. Like I interviewed Dom Kennedy from a pool before. And then I interviewed Erick from the Zombies in his home studio… Just a bunch of different things where I feel I took people somewhere else, instead of just the standard interview. So I definitely feel it was the strong content that got me out there.

And up keeping that personality is so important, like… people want to know what I like to listen to so I want to create a Spotify play list and show people exactly what I listen to, which is anything from Gucci Mane to Michael Jackson.

FF- Speaking of… If your life was a movie what would be on its soundtrack?

AO- Oooh! Coldplay ‘Green Eyes’ would be my mellow one, for when I’m reflecting. Then I’m gonna go with Young Jeezy, the trap star song… because I like to call myself a digital trap star. And that’s my entrance song. And then Michael Jackson ‘Beat It’, I feel that is totally my personality right there (laughs).

And I really want people to see more of my personality and back when I first started, my personality was hip hop.

I’ve loved it since I was little, my Dad threw my Juvenile mixtape out the window once. Out of my two sisters, I was the one that didn’t really know what I wanted to, always jumping around. They both went to private school and I went to public so I was the loud one at the pep rally, always talking to every one. I learned a lot from my sisters; the oldest one was a singer, she doesn’t do it anymore but growing up she wanted to pursue a singing career, so my parents would do everything for her – I would be dragged along to the studio sessions and dance practices. And my other sister is a model and I’d always have to go along to her photo shoots and back then I hated it. It’s so funny because now I’m combining all those things in my career.

FF- Who are three people we should chat to that inspire you?

AO- My new Brand Manager, Meko… he’s really motivating, very smart; he manages an artist named Deniro Ferarr, he used to manage Mystikal, which is crazy! So yeah definitely Meko. I’d also recommend Eric from the Zombies; another super creative. And I’m going to say… Vinny, from Madbury Club. Three guys (laughs)! They’re all very talented.

FF- Is there a specific post that significantly impacted your following?

AO- Hmm… I know I definitely have had a few of those moments… There was an interview I did with AbSoul, where I got real answers out of him because I know him, so I was able to ask him personal things… about the loss of his girlfriend and he spoke to me about that. And definitely one of my Big Sean interviews.

He was talking about a possible Good Music tour so that was the big thing, people were like who is this girl and why is Big Sean telling her that exclusive?!

And he’s actually one of my really good friends now. He shared the story, lots of people shared it off that, I sent it out and a lot of websites picked it up, so Big Sean definitely got traffic.

I actually met him through my friend Hustle Simmons in Chicago. He knew his road manager at the time and he was like Hey! Big Sean is coming to Miami, do you want to interview him? And of course I said yes! Please! Do the intro! Give me the stamp of approval. So yeah that’s usually what I do.

FF- So what’s your advice for people who don’t have that time to get comfortable and aren’t the best at networking?

AO- I mean, you have to be. If you’re not going to network how are people going to know who you are? Say you’re out during CMJ and you’re at SOBs and it’s packed full of people…

if you’re not saying anything to anybody, how are they going to know who you are? I never wanted to be just the girl behind the computer screen.

So even though… that first year in 2010 was like my burst! I’m telling you, I went to South By and I was like OK this is it! So then I went to Chicago for just one day, then went to NY, then to LA, then Atlanta for A3C. That whole year I went to all five of those places because I wanted to go meet these people that I was talking to on twitter, back then… that was all we had! Instagram didn’t exist yet. I was really using Twitter and I feel that was my big networking thing but I didn’t just stay online. Like I was on Twitter talking to people from NY, LA and ATL… then was in their city and be like let’s link up! So I would go to all these events, then if I saw some one that I knew off Twitter I wouldn’t… you know how people get weird, they’re like staring at you… and it’s like OK who’s going to say hi?! So I would just go up to people and introduce myself. You have to interact with people, if you’re not then… what are you doing?! You better get that 9 to 5 in the office where you don’t talk to anyone and you’re sitting in a cubicle. To be in this work, you have to. If you’re scared then you’re in the wrong lane.

FF- So what’s the goal with all of this? What would you like to add to the world?

AO- I feel that’s what I’m figuring out right now. I’m going through a phase, especially since I moved to New York… this is my first time moving away from home ever. You know, I did college twenty minutes away from my house. I didn’t need a dorm, nothing, I’m used to seeing my parents every single day. And you know, I’m away from my comfort zone, I don’t have my car, now I’m in a city! At home it’s like trees growing, grass everywhere. So I feel the first six months here have been a very personal growth experience and even finding things out about myself.

And the whole point OF COMING here was to challenge myself. I was getting very comfortable back home. I felt if I stayed there I was going to be on cruise control,

unless I wanted to say, get into the party scene, there was really nothing else there for me. That’s home and I’m always going to go back as much as I can, I always want to bring stuff back to Miami because that’s what got me to where I am now. And I’m going through this whole reformatting and rebranding phase because I want to go back to my original roots, where I started… that passion that I had back in 2010. I felt that I lost it last year and I’ve told some people this before… I felt blogging became a fast food chain or something, where every site has the same thing and every thing is just very quickly posted because people only care about hits. Which I admit I fell into that hole one time, but that steered me away from what separated me from every one else. When people ask what separates your blog from everything, I say my content! I’m giving my original point of view. And that’s what I want to do, I want to make everything more original. And all these artists that I personally know, that are friends of mine, when we have conversations about their music and other random things that journalists wouldn’t really be able to get. I don’t really call myself a journalist, I didn’t go to school for it. I like to say I’m a creative,

I like to do a lot of creative things and I like to be both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

So now the goal is to become more of that personality, and creative and a curator and really show people who I am and it’s still always going to go back to music but I do want to expand into fashion or gadgets or food. I always have to clear my head and ask myself Where am I? Where do I want to go? What am I doing? How am I going to get it done? And at the end of the day, I tell myself this… no one is stopping me from anything but myself, if I don’t get this done today that’s my fault. I’m the only one responsible.

you can check out Ashley's blog here and follow her on twitter and instagram.

as told to: Olivia Seally // photos: Olivia Seally & courtesy of ashleyoutrageous.com