aNYthing interview . A-Ron the Don . founder of aNYthing
Click here to watch the film. He answers different questions other than the ones below.
ME: What did you do before aNYthing?
A-RON: Everything.. I got a lot of good stories of Brooklyn and NYC. The 'teenage years". Then I was in SOHO helping run Supreme with James, Gio, Pooky, Alex, Chappy. That was the nineties then the early thousands came up it was too tuff working somebody else's crack-house so then I hit the streets with the hunger to get my own crack hustle on. Cleaned out the old spot and moved to my new office, the streets.
ME: How did you get the opportunity to do a collaboration with Agnes B and how was it working with her?
A-RON: I was apart of the What About New York art show that she had. She flew 21 artists from New York to Paris. I was the emcee for the whole event. They were producing a shirt for the show. I did a graphic for the t-shirt, but I handed it in to late, so they couldn't make the shirt. So I made my own bootleg, un-official t-shirt and put her logo on it. Someone from Agnes B found the shirt on ebay, and got mad. Once Agnes found out it was me she was cool with it. We are going to make an official t-shirt together for the opening of my store, but Agnes is great person she has looked out for a lot of talented artist through the years. She hooks up a lot of the dirt bags in NYC with suits and gear when needed to be presentable.
ME: Please share with those unaware of Kid America, what the whole venture was about and where we can expect to see Kid America in the future.
A-RON: The Kid America project was a workshop where a couple different creative heads a.k.a. "creative differences" came together to make a TV show. We quit waiting around for a good TV show to come on so we made our own. Kid America was a good time. Traveling. It was a musical TV show. We had talk shows and puppets. A highly worked on DVD is coming out. And also a 12inch by Bandy. There is a rapper on the 12inch called "Little A-Ron". He's a hand puppet. The do it yourself era, a time when we all came together. I missed the days of spit and handshake projects like this, nowadays working with friends isn’t as easy.
ME: Inspirations and businesses you look up to?
A-RON: Def Jam. Rick Ruben, Russell Simmons. I use to always use that as one of my examples to hype up people. That Def Jam started in a NYU dormitory. That shit is amazing to me. Gray Papayas for slinging all those hot dogs. Dr.Bronners, he is kind of a wild dude. Eazy E, Pete Rose , 86 Mets & Darryl Strawberry, Wilt Chamberlain, Lawrence Taylor, Johnny Thunders,... Supreme is on this list too, SSUR, Union, New York 1989. That was a long time ago.
ME: What keeps you focused?
A-RON: Not letting the haters get the last laugh.. My family. My pops is a hustler. My mother is an artist. They are an inspiration for me more than ever. The legacy of downtown. The pressure to keep the whole creative scene alive.. I don't want it to die down. Un-focused. There's a lot of that to. That comes with the territory.
A-RON: My outro could be long and painful instead. I want to thank Heron Preston for putting me up on his block , big on the blog's, he got the youth and is attacking the scene with his crew of SF hustlers, they here and they ain't goin' back, inspiring to watch. All you young New Yorkers better keep up with these dudes or they will take your jobs.
