We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cameron Hooks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cameron below.
Cameron , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I had knew for sometime that I didn’t like the idea of working for someone. Me knowing I was making someone else rich while I struggled to get by never sat well with me. So I would say since I’ve been working I knew I wanted something for myself I just didn’t know what it was. Fast forward to the pandemic of 2019 I have a lot of free time on my hand to think, and a lot idea started rushing to the front of my brain and that’s when I knew. I knew what I wanted to do with my clothing brand MYWAYHOME, and I knew I wanted to make it with my music..
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m originally from Columbus, Ohio. I’m Ohio to the bone almost 6 years in NYC still couldn’t change any of that for me. But when I was in my undergrad at Kent State, I had the opportunity to do a “study-away” program which brought me to NYC. Feel in love with the pace and the hustle of the city and knew this is where I needed to be to build the name I envisioned for myself. After graduating I made it my mission to get back to NYC. If anyone knows about moving to New York from out-of-state is not an easy task. I was finally able to come back when I got my acceptance letter from Fordham to obtain a masters in Urbana Studies. So during that time is when my creative business came to mind. As stated before during the pandemic I had a lot of time on my hands. During that time I was helping a friend make his new music / rap mixtape. He would come over to my apartment with all the equipment needed to record and we would work on his tape from sun up to sun down. It was a fun process but very draining at times. During these times is when my musical artistry came to life. A few guys were all at my house and we had hit a little road bump as far as the progression for the tape so we took some time to just relax and have fun. One of my friends came to me and told me that were are going to do a song together. I had never made a song before in my life and first refused in my head I was thinking “What I look like trying to rap” but, my friends were persistent. A few hours later I was in front of the mic rapping, I instantly feel in love. Months later I would be locked in my room writing out all the expressions of myself, still very much in the early stages I was self-conscious about sharing my art. I didn’t know if it was good and I wanted my work to good so bad. Finally one day I showed a friend that had no idea I made music. He would listen and would later come to me and insisted that I take it serious and make something out of myself through my music. Which is what I’m doing now I’ve been rapping for about 2 years now, and through my music I work through my own trauma while also attempting to make a connection to people to show the value they have in their own lives and how to avoid the traps of the system that is at play for many African Americans. Around this same time while I’m working towards my music career I’m also presented with the idea of running a clothing brand with my brother. One day also during the pandemic me and my friend were experiment with some psilocybin, half way through the trip I get a text from my brother, “How do you feel about MYWAYHOME?”. I instantly thought about one of my favorite artists Gil Scott Heron and thought it was an amazing idea. The Brand MYWAYHOME is a streetwear brand founded by me and brother. With the clothing brand we are trying to connect the cultural aspects of the African diaspora, along with a realization about this country we call “Home”. Much of the imagery we use for our brand is a reflection of how my brother and I grew up and the things we would learn and see around our house. Sometimes I’d think the brand and the music go hand-to-hand, I’m excited to see the growth of both facets and where they take me in life.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I think society could start taking their time to find new products, new sounds, new emerging brands and artists. I personally feel like the majority of things society like is do to them being induced and manipulated by social media. It feels like people are force-feed the stuff they like and often times people can’t tell me why they like certain stuff. When asking the question is get the simple response “it’s cool”. I think there are a lot of “cool” things that people are doing that also provide substance to humans lives we just gotta go out and find them.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn and it was a very hard one to unlearn, I’m actually still unlearning it to this day. Not everyone in business mean what they say. Don’t hold on to peoples words, put value in their actions. There has been countless times and I mean countless times where people have express interest in wanting to support my team and our vision. Rather it be financially, offering content ideas, connecting us with certain individuals, and so on so on but, they wouldn’t follow through. I’ve had to relearn this lesson multiple times because I tend to see the good in everyone and I always think of the best outcome. Which isn’t a bad thing I like being positive but sometimes it can let you down. I would say for me I learned to keep going and keep seeing things in a positive manner and anyone that can’t produce when it’s time then it means it wasn’t for me or the teams vision
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/tubesockcam?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=65205786-75bd-438d-8ae5-769a3f1cf5e9
- Instagram: TubesockCam
- Other: https://www.mywayhome.co/shop