Girls From Here

My mom was a single mother, and I was raised in a household by my mother and Grandma. I was raised, spoiled, disciplined, nurtured, taught, etc. by women. Living in the south the most pure thing ever was protection and love by a woman in the south. Nobody was to mess with that. You take that from us a motherfucker will do some all types of off the wall shit. We take our women real real serious from this area especially the elders and mothers of the neighborhood, churches, etc.

I wanted to do a passion project just for the fun earlier this year and was trying to find a idea of what to do. I sat and sat days about what the subject matter would be and what the purpose would serve. All four of my sisters had been on my mind heavily this year and I show no favoritism to any. There's things in each of them I tremendously adore. So I was at my oldest sisters house and the idea hit me. I was going to do a campaign celebrating or shining light on the beauty, history, story, heritage, and power of the women from the south.

The baby picture on the tee shirt was a shirt I had for years that I casually wore. It's my sister on my mothers side who's the most important to me outside of my mom and grandma. Our bond is very special and grew a lot over the years, and I just randomly decided to make a tee out of that picture. It was like eye candy and such great imagery to me and I started to wear it out and out of state and people got to stopping me and asking me about what this shirt was or who was on it. I got a lot of looks and compliments… granted people figured this was Beyonce or her children or Jay z mom and man you know I even got a Martine Rose at one point like damn man really you get Martine's face from this?

Moral of the story is the greatest energy and motivation and inspiration I had growing up and even currently comes from all the women in the south, young and old. It's my inner peace and my ultimate moodboard. It's the reason I even became a musician. My family is mostly women orientated and as a kid learning the drums I would play behind the mothers of the church and listen to their hymns and the way they praised God and sung. That was the first type of singers I studied. The elderly women in my family. I always say the best musicians and singers come from the church but honestly you can add that it's specially the "south" too and it's probably a woman.

The shoot serves the beauty of my sisters heritage. The models are her 2 half sisters(we have different dads) and her son. We shot it on the land that my sisters father built when he was young. They got so much fucking land and it's all family owned and built from ground up. Like over 50 years maybe even more to they name. I was geeking during the shoot. My sister was a toddler when she was on this land and in that house and years later her own little sisters grew up in the same house and are also now both smart young women that's looking back on the history of the land. Much love to the Hairston family. If you read this far thank you for even giving a fuck.

This is a love letter and honor to my Mother, Grandmother, my aunts, all of my nieces, my great Aunts, Cheryl, Ciera, Aunt Liz, my four sisters, and every woman who made sure I was safe growing up in the country side of Virginia. When you wear this shirt you ain't just wearing a cool image you wearing southern beauty and history from the women of the south.