[SIC] 180: Heavy Metal Capitalism

Volume 4, Number 24

Feb 17, 2022

But you CAN pay, if you want to. It helps. Monthly or yearly, or founding support (which includes a dinner at my house, if you’re in / can get to NYC). I’m open to offering other benefits, if you’ve got ideas.

Feel free to share, too.

Hi all.

To begin with, shout out to James Ellis from the oft-cited culture plug Public Announcement for the title this week and to longtime buddy and frequent contributor Kevin Johanessen for the Misfits-inspired suggestion of “Hybrid Moments” - very much in keeping with the feeling of the time. Thanks also Iolanda, Celeste, Tim & James for contributions this week.

No [SIC] Talks today, but do please take the time to check out last week’s edition, with “The Cutting Room Floor” podcaster Recho Omondi, here. It was such a fun and interesting one. And welcome to all the new folks who signed up for the newsletter as a result of seeing it, too.

Speaking of podcasts, Ed Cotton did me the honor of inviting me on his “Inspiring Futures” podcast this week to talk [SIC], Web3, being a contemporary brand in a world of inflection points, and what the kids are listening to. Would love your thoughts on it.

Good news to close: “5 Questions For” returns with Dan Runcie of Trapital as my guest. Dan’s another favorite source for news and analysis from the music and entertainment biz, and is a must-read each week, so I’m feeling honored that he’d contribute, too. See below. Links follow.

Hand lender.

5 Questions For Dan Runcie of The Trapital Newsletter

I found Trapital a few years back, and it’s become one of my favorite sources for perspective and analysis. Coming from the finance world to cover music and hip-hop entrepreneurship made founder Dan Runcie’s POV instantly distinguishable from other things I was reading at the time, and he’s built up from strength to strength, becoming a widely-cited pundit, podcaster and consultant under the expanding Trapital banner. Highly recommended, all of it.

Dan’s also a very warm, nice dude, so when I reached out to ask if he’d answer some questions, he got back immediately. Here’s what I asked, and what he said…

BD: What are your favorite sources of daily information? Do they overlap with sources of inspiration for your work?

DR: Every morning, I check the headlines from Variety, Billboard, and Music Business Worldwide to see the latest news.

For more in depth insights, I often read Lucas Shaw's Bloomberg newsletter on entertainment, Ben Thompson's Stratechery, Cherie Hu's Water & Music, Zack O'Malley Greenburg's newsletter, Patrick O'Shaughnessy's Invest Like The Best, and The Joe Budden Podcast. I get different things from all of them. I enjoy them all, and often reference them in my work for Trapital.

Judging by your newsletter, you do a fair amount of communicating with readers. What’s one story that they’ve turned you on to recently that’s worth mentioning?

Yes, all time time! I was recently put onto a podcast episode from The Wall Street Journal called The Business of Dua Lipa. She recently launched a newsletter and podcast as a way to extend her brand and have more direct communication with her audience.

So Dua and I pretty much the same with our music industry newsletters and podcasts (if you factor out her chart-topping music career!)

It’s an average Thursday afternoon. Where do we find you, and what’s keeping you busy?

On a Thursday afternoon, I'm most likely recording an episode of the Trapital Podcast. Thursdays and Fridays are my most common recording days.

If I'm not recording a pod on a Thursday afternoon, I'm either on a phone call with a potential business partner, working on some big picture strategy for Trapital. Once I'm done, I'm getting ready for a late afternoon or early evening workout.

Who do you admire? And what for?

Rihanna. I still don't think enough people realize how incredible it all is. She wasn't one of these kids on Star Search or the Disney Channel. She came from Barbados and built it up herself. Then when her career took off, she was still on that "every album a year" cycle and almost went bankrupt due to a shady accountant.

She turned that around and built one of the most successful consumer businesses ever with both Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty. Now she's a billionaire, releases music when she wants, and is fulfilling her dream to start a family.

The odds of all that happening are slim. What she's accomplished is inspiring and incredible.

What can [SIC] readers help you with?

Help spread the word about Trapital! I write a free weekly newsletter that breaks down the latest moves in music, hip-hop, and entertainment. One of my goals for 2022 is to make sure Trapital reaches all the right people. I send the newsletter out every Monday. You can sign up here or share this link!

=====[SIC] 180: Heavy Metal Capitalism=====

Trends

The internet turned “money” into a hobby. So many young people have made crypto and sports betting their thing. Vox via Public Announcement
Hence: the crypto craze is spawning a new niche in psychology / Quartz
Also new: Africa will be the world’s fastest growing video game market / Quartz
Tinder announced a new feature on the app which will let users go on “blind dates.” According to Tinder, the feature is something Gen Z wants because of their interest in “old school” dating trends. Input via Future Party
What happens when you put an emoji and NFT together? You get a Yat, a string of emojis that can be linked in a social media bio. WSJ via Protocol
Related, from Iolanda Carvalho: "Opera said on Monday that it had enabled emoji-only based web addresses “to bring a new level of creativity to the internet.” You don’t need “www” or “.com” to access these sites—only a string of mini icons..." 😎👍😱🙌💃🦄 / Gizmodo
Every Gartner Hype Cycle from 1995 to 2020 / imgur via Public Announcement
Related: Princesscore is the next big core. Screenshot via After School
Corollary: How the pandemic warped Gen Z / Salon
Also: Psychedelics 2021, A Year in Review. Overview of the sector covering clinical trials to investment to policy. / DocSend via Declarative Statements
Drones Shooting Microwave Rays: the Drone Killers of Tomorrow / Nextgov
The Great Resignation is fueled by a lack of babysitters / Axios via Future Party
Related: The Jobs Americans Want / Vox via The Trend Report

Style

Apropos of Dan Runcie’s Rihanna shout out: key strategic decisions and partnerships have gotten Savage x Fenty to where it is today / The Cut via 2pm
Corollary: Sky’s the Limit — Why Size Is Really Not an Issue for the Big Luxury Brands / Jing Daily
The Rise of the $2.5 Billion Ugly-Shoe Empire / Bloomberg via Blazer
What happens to IYKYK fashion when everyone knows? I-D via After School
Here’s what actually happens to all your online shopping returns / Rest Of World via Motive Unknown
How Louis Vuitton, Nike & Sotheby’s Tamed the Metaverse / Jing Daily
Meanwhile: Gucci’s opening a store in the Sandbox / Future Party
And from ‘Celeste Blewitt: A great read into a partnership at NYFW to bring to life holograms in the virtual space of fashion. / Glossy

The Arts

From Tim Nolan: “Must have documentation of the city's hottest nightcrawlers.” S/o SIC homie Rob JEST. / RAB Arts
Fave gallery The Hole opened an LA outpost / The Art Newspaper
Also in LA: Barbara Kruger’s Teaching Legacy. To mark Kruger’s retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, artist Math Bass reflects on their former professor / Frieze
Another from Tim: “Spike Jonze for Rone. Eight minutes of visual luxury. Shot in 4x3.” / YouTube
Half traditionally-written and half AI-generated, K Allado-McDowell’s Amor Cringe is "deepfake autofiction" about a TikTok influencer seeks God. / Deluge
Related: The Rise of “Immersive” Art. Why are tech-centric, projection-based exhibits suddenly everywhere? / New Yorker
Nude modeling will make you a better artist / The Art Newspaper

Entertainment + IP

Snoop Dogg is converting Death Row Records into the first NFT music label / Fortune
How Tuma Basa is Bringing Black and African Music to the World with YouTube / Trapital via Music Redef
Shasha, the world’s first streaming service for South-West and North African cinema, announces a new programme / It’s Nice That
From James Friedman: “Another wild read: The Casio employee behind the Under Me Sleng Teng riddem.” / Nippon.com
The Never-Ending Quest to Make a Great Video-Game Movie / The Atlantic
The album skit is back / The Guardian via Music Redef
Morgan Wallen Is Not on an Apology Tour / The New Yorker
Maybe more than you need to know about glaive, digicore wunderkind / Stereogum via The Unskippables
And another from James: Also not new and potentially not [sic] related but this is a really cool record. Notionally part of London’s resurgent jazz scene but super cosmic, electronic… on some Alice Coltrane if she was making records for Warp shit. And it’s indeed on Warp.” / Bandcamp
Oh and here's an archive of 8-bit Steely Dan covers / Metafilter via Music Ally

Platforms & Influencers

Is Google search dying? Reddit via 1440
Gorillas, the German delivery startup partnered with record label MNF to help employees release their music. / Chain Storage
Snapchat put ads within stories and share the money with creators / The Verge
Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney has a TikTok burner about renovating classic cars / TikTok via After School
While Elon Musk’s love for video games has informed his career, from PayPal to Tesla, more than perhaps anything else / Airmail
How Telegram Became the Anti-Facebook. No algorithm. No ads. Courage in the face of autocracy. Sound like a dream? Careful what you wish for. / Wired UK

Marketing & Advertising

DTC brands are experimenting with sampling programs / IG via Thingtesting
While Uber and Lyft are finally starting to look like different companies / The Verge via Micromobility Report
[SIC] homie Humberto Leon’s Chifa launched a collection of merch with Vista (s/o [SIC] Talks alum Ricky Engelberg)/ NYT
Elsewhere, what [SIC] homie Jonny Bauer is up to at Blackstone and why the ad industry should care / AdAge

Media Business

80% of publishers don't see big future for them in the metaverse / Digiday
Hypebeast: Come to Brazil / BoF
OG street photography mag Hamburger Eyes turned 21 / Hamburger Eyes
Texas Monthly thinks a pivot to video will help attract subscribers / Digiday via NiemanLab

Metaverse & Web3

The Ethereum community gets to ask itself everyday, “what is money?” Before cryptocurrencies and tokens even emerged, a rich intellectual history has been written on the anthropology and sociology of money. Ergo: Friends With Benefits: A New Model for Social Tokens on Ethereum / Consensys via Beats & Bytes
Related: FWB founder and [SIC] homie Trevor McFedries On His Vision For A New Kind Of Internet / Interview via Beats & Bytes
Meanwhile, the NFT photographer and urban explorer Drift talks to Coinbase about his work and crypto as the future of Black ownership. / Coinbase
And Reese Witherspoon is on the NFT Now pod, talking digital identity, the metaverse, how to ensure equitable gender representation in NFTs / NFT Now
NFT Drops Are Broken, But We Can Fix Them. Problems + solutions / NFT Now
Corollary: Why the infancy of NFTs may last a long time / FT
Free your mind: meditation could be VR's next killer app / Protocol
What happens if a cryptocurrency exchange files for bankruptcy? / Credit Slips
Corollary: Crypto will change the way people pay for weddings / Protocol
And, related: Cryptocurrency is increasingly being used to hide assets in divorce cases, giving rise to a cottage industry of forensic investigators who hunt down Bitcoin troves / NYT via Dealbook
Crypto Is Funding Ukraine's Defense—and Its Hacktivists / Wired via Dealbook
From Iolanda Carvalho: JPMorgan becomes first major bank in the Metaverse, opening a lounge in Decentraland and releasing a new report outlining the Metaverse as a $1 trillion market opportunity. / Cointelegraph

Food & Drink

From Celeste Blewitt: “’A descriptive and warm conversation into culture, cuisines and life while also sharing the history of cuisines and culture, French Revolution and how Pad Thai came about.” National Cuisine Is A Useful Illusion' / The Atlantic
The State of Food & Beverage / Morning Consult
Taco Bell's parent company opened a restaurant every 2 hours in 2021, and it shows customers are loving fast food more than ever / Business Insider via RIW
Meanwhile, Crypto Fans Want to Buy McDonald's / The Street
My neighborhood favorite Edy’s Grocer was on the Drew Barrymore show / Drew Barrymore Show via Coolstuff.NYC
The future of outdoor dining is “roadway cafes” / Gothamist
Or roadkill, maybe? Rack of squirrel, anyone? The chefs putting invasive species on the menu / The Guardian via PSFK

Miscellany

Fave author and FT columnist Tim Harford guests for WITI on the Arrows Impossibilty Theorem edition / Why Is This Interesting
How Architecture Could Help Us Adapt to the Pandemic / NYT via WITI
Dance Yrself Green: can clubbing generate renewable energy? / DJ Mag via Music Redef
From James Friedman: Ideal [sic] long read [Getting to grips with the ‘C-Word’]. / Martin Wiegel

Things to Do

Get tix to DFAs 20th Anniversary party at Knockdown Center / Instagram
Go see fave painter Chrissy Angliker’s show at Massey Klein on the LES / IG