We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fùnké. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fùnké below.

Fùnké, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

Although, it is by no means easy, I find my work as a creative very fulfilling knowing that I am doing what I am supposed to do on this plane of demonstration. I look at my mother and many others relative to me who chose to focus on obtaining their slice of the “American Pie” while sacrificing the tending of their creative gardens and overall joy in doing things they loved. I think we are all surviving capitalism in our own way yet, I chose to move on my own terms that feels good in my spirit. In the book, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, he talks about the creation story where he breaks down two kinds of people; the agriculturalist and the hunter-gatherers. The agriculturalists took themselves out the game of competition (nature) by hoarding food and laying claim to resources while the hunter-gatherers only ate what they killed or foraged and migrated to other lands for survival versus depleting the land of its resources. I think creatives are more so aligned with the hunter-gatherers as we truly eat what we kill…we eat by the works of our hands, hearts and minds. I find the security of a “regular job” an illusion and gives people a false sense of safety and I think we all saw that on a worldwide scale when we came into the pandemic. Not only that, so many people are helping companies fulfill their goals, all while giving up on their personal dreams which I think provides a deathbed for the creative spirit. I’ve had regular jobs that were mentally demanding where the financial security was lush yet, I had no time practice my craft or even wash clothes. I remember having a b2b sales job in which I had to travel all over the country every week. This specific time, the job gave me in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi region to work right before Hurricane Ida. I remember I had to drive from Jackson, MS to New Orleans to secure my home after hearing the hurricane was on its way. After the hurricane, my job still required me to go to towns like, Raceland, Houma, Galliano, LaPlace and others to secure business contracts from different retailers. Some of these retailers no longer had a building or even a home due to the destruction of the hurricane. Yet, the company insisted I meet a quota all while some towns not having electricity or even an infrastructure. I was already overwhelmed sadness with how it affected me and those around me but to have to drive around with disaster all around me, sent me deeper and deeper into depression. I cried every single day driving through it all. The company wanted blood from a turnip and it was simply not possible for that to happen when so much around me was destroyed. My mental state was declining and that job did not care; they wanted new accounts. They refused to move me to another territory and I was eventually let go because of my performance. That moment, I saw the beast for who it really was and how it only cared about me if I performed well and to hell with my mental state. Living off my craft requires me to keep my arrows sharp and my bows taut all while continuously improving my dexterity within my craft. This life more fulfilling but it ain’t for the wimpy.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Art and music have been with me since I was born. I like to think my uncle Chauncey Bolden was the motivating force that got me where I am today. I am honestly living out his wildest dreams; he was killed a month and a half after I was born at 17. Some of his belongings were still in our house so when I was little yet big enough to ramble, I would go through his art history books, his 8-track tapes and play with his saxophone reeds. I remember seeing a drawing of my granny, Irean Carroll in her big white bible that he drew and being in love with the realness yet simplicity of it. Between this drawing of my granny and a huge painting of my grandmother, Armelda “Pete” Means (not created by my uncle) these became my first real life introductions to figure modeling. I am always in awe of how that came to be. Pete always wanted me to be a model and I thought it to be nonsense at that time because she was referring to JC Penny and Sears ads. I never saw my life as that type of model nor did I see myself as a figure model despite the everyday influence of seeing both my grandmothers as such. As time passed, I befriended Heidi Knockenhaur who was a figure model and coordinator for Memphis College of Art. She was a figure model in Paris to one Pablo Picasso’ s students. She took a chance on me and encouraged me to figure model. I went on to model for institutions such as Memphis College of Art, University of Memphis, Christian Brothers University, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Capital University, Columbus College of Art and Design, Vanderelli Room sometimes being the first black figure model in these spaces. I love modeling in institutions because sometimes it’s the first time students drawing or painting black bodies. It was a challenge for the students and myself. While I was pushing myself in certain poses for an extended period of time, the students were learning all about gradients and shading. I learned more about art in these spaces than I did in college and found my love of art re-awakened.

Music has been the longest commitment since breathing. I started playing instruments when I about five with the infamous recorder. My biggest influence was Sesame Street as it gave me a taste of music and artists I wouldn’t normally hear on the radio. I remember being in awe the first time I saw and heard Celia Cruz singing ‘Zum Zum.’ She was the most beautiful woman I ever laid eyes on at the time. Her, and many others such as Tito Puente, Patti Labelle, Linda Ronstadt shaped me as a musician and DJ. Around the age of six, my mother gave me a keyboard and a brown Fischer Price boom box. By then, my cousin was a radio DJ for K97 in Memphis. I found out very quickly the limitations of my little boom box compared to my mom’s Sony dual cassette boombox with the 6 band EQ and would begin to make mixtapes from my cousin’s radio show, recording over my granny’s recorded church sermons using wet tissue to fill the holes to record over the cassettes. I had a fascination with EQs and how these faders would manipulate how the music was heard. Mixtapes became a secret passion of mine because I couldn’t dare let my granny find out I was dubbing over her recorded sermons. By the time I was in the fourth grade, I was introduced to the orchestra and began playing the viola. My orchestra teacher Mr. Brooks always encouraged me to stick with it and even put me in a position to get me in a creative and performing arts school. He made sure I excelled and I got into Colonial Jr. High, which is a creative and performing arts school. It was like the Jr High version of the 80’s TV show, Fame to me with Overton High school being just a few blocks away. If Colonial was the jr High version, Overton was definitely the Memphis version of Fame. It was my dream to attend there and pursue my passion as a violist but my mom remarried and we moved to St. Louis, MO once I completed the seventh grade. I was devastated not being able to complete my education in Memphis and found that the rigorous musical discipline I received in Memphis was not there in St Louis. I no longer competed in state competitions once I moved but I was encouraged by my new orchestra teacher, Ms. Heffercamp in a new way that fostered my love for the viola. She took Medhi Boyd and myself to Alton, Illinois where we would sit in with the Alton Symphony Orchestra where we were the only black people in the room and the youngest. Little did I know that we were being prepared to move with our full selves in white spaces. I am not sure what she saw in us but I am grateful for her taking us in and showing us the ropes of orchestral life. This was also the start of my musical pivot. Although I enjoyed the viola and cello, I wasn’t sure if I wanted this to be my life yet I wasn’t ready to let go of it either. I was still finding my way in high school by composing operettas and learning how to conduct orchestras. This led me down the rabbit hole of Circle of Fifths and music theory which gave me a very slight advantage when I became a student at Jackson State University in Mississippi, majoring in Music Education. Music ED was HARD and having the band directors of the Sonic Boom as my professors didn’t make it any better. I decided to something crazy and pursue a double major in Art with. concentration in Graphic Design, really thinking I could do both. Art was no better and all my work was trash to me. Sometimes I forget, I majored in Art because of the lack of support I received and how it made me feel. That feeling made me judge all of it to be a waste of time and a waste of my parents’ money, so I left.
The idea of DJing came about years later in 2005 while eating at Bluefin in Memphis. DJ Irie was spinning tunes while we were eating sushi one night and was fascinated by the concept of food and music. I was already collecting music due to my love of mixtapes and thought DJing would be a great way to bridge my love of music with my aloof personality. I told him I wanted to learn and two weeks later, I was there every Thursday eating sushi and learning the ropes of DJing. I already had the ear for music it was the technical part that was lost on me. He was a great teacher for me. I watched him play, learning all the knobs, faders and buttons and I would recall all the things I learned from him as I played my set. He was pretty hands off and guided me when I had questions. This was my DJ apprenticeship; learning how to mix music, avoiding train wrecks all in a live setting. I enjoyed DJing because I could still be a part of the vibe all while being my loner self. I would say coming from a musical city and having pioneers like Larry Heard drop in on nights for my sets, kept me on my tippy toes. The caliber of DJs in Memphis were sharp and would give out of town DJs a run for their money. I think we wanted it more, we were hungry. That “Grit and Grind” mentality of Memphis runs through all Memphians in some shape or form. Shortly after, I started curating my own events and co-promoting with others due to the lack of the sounds being heard in the city. Because I didn’t really trust others to see my vision, I started designing my own flyers and in turn, had local promoters and djs hiring me to design graphics and promote their events. I didn’t see any of this as a profession and did it solely because of the passion I had for it. Angela Hadl and I started Jungle Boogie in 2010 which changed the landscape of the black dance scene in Memphis. Before Jungle Boogie, there was no space for black people to truly dance and no one was catering to that. Sure, there house music in Memphis but actual those creating black spaces for black people to dance was pretty non-existent unless it was a Top-40 night. We did our part in turning the city on its head, musically, culturally and fashion wise. Jungle Boogie will be 13 in April and has paved the way for events such as The Hood Rave led by Talibah Safiyah and family. It was 2011 when things turned another corner and I got invited to play Sunday School with Salah Ananse in Atlanta. Atlanta took me in and I would say this was the start of DJing becoming more than a hobby.. Someone was taking me seriously which meant I needed to take it more serious as well. I then became a regular on the line up for Atlanta Weekender, which is centered around House in the Park on Labor Day weekend. These lineups included artists such as Minx, Jihad Muhammad, Ron Trent, Omar S, Karizma, Osunlade and other high caliber international DJs. The same people I looked up to as DJs and producers were now my colleagues and peers right before my eyes. Although a DJ future looked bright for me in Atlanta, my heart and soul needed to be in New Orleans and I moved here in 2019 after trip to Cuba. I basically never went back home to Memphis other than to retrieve my things shortly after moving. Being here in New Orleans has been challenging and rewarding all in the same breath. It’s here in New Orleans, that I have taken on my biggest curatorial undertaking with IDAPO, which highlights international black and brown DJs, spearheaded by Tiffani Sheriiff and myself. I’ve brought some amazing talent to the city with IDAPO, played some amazing gigs but also experienced great heartache and sadness that almost stopped me from curating events altogether. This city will either mold or fold you. I am empowered by all the molding and folding it has done to me. I like to think I am better because of it.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Living on my own terms; doing the work to make my dreams come true has been the most fulfilling thing I could imagine. I judge creatives to be sort of hunter-gatherers, where we eat what we kill. I am grateful to be able to live a sustainable life from my own hands.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Support is paramount. I think if the education system focussed more in the arts, we would see a shift in the world. So many parents, mine included, never saw art as a steady livelihood but a hobby one can do perhaps after capitalism and the 9-5 has sucked the 85% of the air out one’s body. Paying artists what their worth is another way as well as providing other resources to ensure we as artists are in the best mental, emotional and physical shape to shift the planetary vibration.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.idapo.net
• Instagram: @i.am.funke, @idapo504
• Twitter: @IDAPO504

Image Credits
Photo #2 @Jakobi1319 Photo #4 @CarlosSanchez.img