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James Andrews

@keyinfluencer

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Cultural strategist. AI founder. Global operator.
Early on hip-hop. Early on tech. Early on what’s next.
LA• Bangkok · Dubai · Joburg
🎧@djrichcacao

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99 years ago, I met Jeff Townes, aka @djjazzyjeff (thx @bemostprolific) when I was working on “B-Balls Best Kept Secret” this crazy idea for an album with NBA players rapping. The album was “certified wood,” I think I bought more copies than anyone else but Jeff and I became friends. We bonded over NBA Live, hip hop, and all the crazy stuff that goes on in the record biz. That friendship and those conversations we had? They’re the backbone of Creators Union.

Back in the mid-90s, we had all sorts of wild ideas about where the music industry was headed and how the internet could change everything. Now, it’s finally time to make those ideas a reality. At Creators Union, we want to help creators, DJs, and producers find their passion and make a living doing what they love. It sounds simple, but for some folks, it can feel like a real battle both internally and externally

If you’ve got a creative spark, a way to get on the internet and you’re curious about how web3, AI, and building an intentional community can help you out, come check us out. We’re opening our doors soon, and we’d love for you to hang with us for a bit. taken in Beverly Hills, California by @keyinfluencer

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3 years ago

Happy Birthday @nas you are a King! Proud of how you walk in your royalty. Here’s when birthdays were celebrated with magnums of French champagne with yellow labels in a club with your people. by @keyinfluencer

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5 years ago

In 2018, I convinced @usher to join me in Stockholm for @brilliantmindssthlm and to spend a day in Rinkeby with @therealqd3, where we had the opportunity to meet young Somali-Swedes in the neighborhood. Despite being in India at the time, Usher made the effort to fly in after dedicating himself to deepening his yoga practice. It was during this time that our amazing friendship really took root, and Usher started to confront his own personal issues head-on, preparing himself for greatness. As Usher gets ready for UsherBowl, I couldn't be prouder of my friend who has worked hard to be on that stage today. Congratulations, 👑! taken in Las Vegas, Nevada by @keyinfluencer

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3 years ago

In 1994 James Andrews was at Columbia Records working with artists like Nas and The Fugees. Then in 1998 he went to Ecko to run marketing also working with rappers + DJs and athletes in their campaigns. Different industries on paper, same cultural family tree.

This is also the point the garmentos are investing in “streetwear” hence someone like James learning their language and MAGIC creating a section away from the traditional Menswear.

Hip Hop was and is the connective tissue. The real innovation wasn’t any single lane, it was what happened when we brought it all together.

This isn’t nostalgia. This is the history, the evolution and the stories directly from the people behind Hip Hop in the 90s. This is: Hip Hop is a Fad.

Follow, share and subscribe for more stories from the people who lived it: substack.com/@hiphopisafad

#HipHopisaFad by @keyinfluencer

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2 months ago

Two Palo Alto High alums run into each other after borrowing a lighter at an NBA All Star weekend party. While generally chit chatting about family, Golden State Warriors and mental health we both realize and freak out that we know each other from high school. Made plans to reconnect and stay in touch based on similar life places. Sadly this would be the last time I saw him. @owenv you were a legend and it was a pleasure to reconnect. RIP my friend. Condolences to your family and @brookevannatta taken in NBA All-Star 2025 San Francisco Bay Area by @keyinfluencer

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Hip hop was running “lean startup” methodology a decade before anyone drew it on a whiteboard in Silicon Valley.

The mixtape was the MVP, we shipped raw, unmixed, unapproved, not because you couldn’t do better but because you needed to know what the market did with it before you spent a label budget finding out.

The streets were the beta test.
The corner, the barbershop, the mixtape DJ, the car with the trunk open.

That was the feedback loop.

Which record they rewound.
Which verse got quoted back.
Which city asked first.

Build, measure, learn we just called it “the streets is watching.”

No capital, no permission, no safety net.
Twenty years later using AI everybody can build the thing in a weekend, which means building stopped deciding who wins.

Strong product, weak distribution fails quietly, and quietly is the part that should scare you.

You built it. Now go get chosen. by @keyinfluencer

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2 months ago

Drake sampled his work. Now he’s building AI twins of your favorite artists.

Joe Che joins Julien and James Andrews live in Canggu: “Will AI kill human creativity, or set it free?”

Tuesday, 28 July. 19:00 WITA.
Seats are limited. DM us to reserve.

#BaliStateOfMind #BSMPodcast #JoeChe #AIandCreativity taken in Canggu, Bali by @keyinfluencer

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3 months ago

My friend just got the keys to a 40 billion baht city.
He is a DJ.

Tomorrow, the most ambitious thing I have ever seen built for creators opens in Bangkok. I’ve had a front row seat to watching the final touches for the last few months

It is called @cloud11bangkok

Studios, a 3,000-seat hall, two hotels, the largest rooftop park in the city.

The man running it is my guy @pauliesirisant
He founded Def Jam Thailand.
He is a DJ before he is anything else.
They even let him co-design the 7-Eleven on the property.

Bangkok is the new Atlanta.
Nobody took Atlanta seriously either, until it ran the culture for twenty years.

You have been consuming Thai culture for years.
Lisa from BLACKPINK is Thai.
You just did not file it under Thailand.

When capital gets serious about culture, it stops managing taste and starts being led by it.
This is what that looks like.

Full piece, link in bio. taken in Cloud 11 Bangkok by @keyinfluencer

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3 months ago

Fable 5 shipped this week.
However your Monday looked exactly like last Monday.

That gap is the whole story.

The most capable model anyone has put in public hands.
It doesn’t just answer you, it executes.
Plans across stages, runs for days, hands back finished work.

The government export-controlled it for two weeks, the kind of move they save for weapons and chips. It was on every feed.

Nobody missed the news.
They missed what it meant.

Two rooms right now.

One is watching the World Cup, Cannes, Essence Fest highlights, NBA Free Agency, the next trip with the girls.

All good things.

The other is asking where they will be in ninety days, and more importantly where AI will be in ninety days.

Same calendar.
Two completely different lives, pulling apart fast.

You cannot watch what already played.
The films are playing today.

New piece on Soul Purpose.
Link in bio. taken in Thailand by @keyinfluencer

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3 months ago

I’m their paperboy.

The most influential rooms I’m in aren’t on a feed. They’re WhatsApp groups I show up for every single day.

I curate.
I connect.
I announce everybody.
And when I want to do a dinner, they show up.

That’s the shift nobody is naming.
The attention economy is dying.
The connection economy is taking its place.

Attention doesn’t convert anymore.
Connection does.
A million passive views is worth less than a thousand people who move when you show up.

Chasing views is just making Zuckerberg happy.
It’s what made me walk away from the social agency I built.
The day it became that, it stopped being interesting.

So if you’re exhausting yourself trying to win the algorithm, you can stop.

Show up for a real group of people.
Big or small.
Build something they care about.
Let it compound.

Even a small room.
If I have that, I can build from there. by @keyinfluencer

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3 months ago

Auntie Approved: Fourth of July Mixtape 2026

She’s in the penthouse now, but the walls still know where she learned how to move.

Look close.
The flyers are not decoration.
They’re receipts.

This one is for the auntie who can hear the first four bars and tell you if the bassline came from Brooklyn, Baldwin Hills, Bronzeville, South Jersey, or somebody’s uncle’s basement in Mount Vernon.

DJ Rich Cacao knows your hips.

He knows if you’re really from Philly or just went to Temple.

He knows if you’re a St. Mary’s girl, a Skyline alum, a Hyde Park house head, a Bed-Stuy two-stepper, a Leimert Park late-night, a South Orange silk blouse, a Jersey City shoulder-roll, or a Chicago auntie who still says “steppers set” with authority.

He knows if the wrist is Jamaican, the footwork is Nigerian, the shoulder is Dominican, the waistline is Cuban, the attitude is Boricua, the dinner reservation is Italian, and the prayer before the plate is somebody’s grandmother’s gospel.

This is grown music.

Cookout smoke with a passport.

1996 with a view of Miami.

Vinyl on the table.

Easter eggs on the wall.

If you know, adjust your linen.

DJ Rich Cacao works for hips, not tips.

Auntie Approved. Link In Bio taken in Thailand by @keyinfluencer

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3 months ago

Check this out. The tool was never the edge.

You were.

Everyone is racing to learn the next AI tool.

Which one, which is best, which to learn next.
Wrong question.

When everyone holds the same tool, the tool stops being the advantage.
What is scarce now is your lens.
Your taste.
The way you see, built over decades, impossible to prompt or download.

The models are apps.

You are the operating system they run on.

So if you feel behind, don’t collect forty more hacks. Sharpen the one thing that is yours.

How you see.

Full piece on the site.
MAKE is August 1 to 3.
Link in bio if it’s for you.

#AItools #AIcreators #creators #buildinpublic #operatingsystem by @keyinfluencer

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