“Atlanta’s been on top. I couldn’t have done what I’ve done with my product if I wasn’t in Atlanta.”
It was while in preparations for her own A3C event that Tialer Scott, publicly referred to as Flockaland, sat down to discuss the significance of Atlanta’s culture as it relates to the formation of her clothing brand Stay (+).
Setting up a table full of her merchandise for the Pop Up Pizza Party that she was to host in less than an hour, it was easy to pick up on the tone to be set for the remainder of the week: one signifying a certain impalpable takeover.
The 25-year old is now at the head of a personal brand that has thrust her into the circles of Atlanta’s elite, given her the title of a top influencer, and even a landed her a Revlon partnership.
“I think with me dealing my brand within the Hip-Hop industry: it could only happen here,” explained Scott.
The most inspiring facet of all, however, is that her success story and constant grind isn’t an isolated incident because, as the rest of A3C week in Atlanta would show, the marriage of creativity and hustle runs deep in the city.
While Atlanta’s most recently been a hotspot for Hip-Hop music, it’s role in Hip-Hop culture has been mostly overlooked externally, and during this year’s A3C Festival and Conference, influencers and creatives were gifted with the perfect opportunity to unearth the best of what the city’s youth has to offer.
In a little under 24 hours, just a few blocks away, Tialer would make her way to host fellow creative Nikia Knight’s ARTista art show at the relatively young ARTlanta Gallery.
Bringing some of the best of female artists and graphic designers from within the city and beyond, Knight’s objective was to tap into the reserves an often overlooked population.
“Women in the city are underexposed in general,” said the 19-year old poet and author.
First started approximately a year ago, the ARTlanta Gallery is owned and curated by Nikia’s mentor Tyree Smith, and in a relatively short amount of time, ARTlanta has built itself up to become a staple venue among Atlanta’s youth.
The nature of Smith and Knight’s relationship is pretty common around these parts. The very act of “putting someone one” can have monumental effects in a city that hasn’t grown too big for itself–yet.
“I love working with him. He’s honestly one day one of the best teachers I’ve had. He’s the reason why I’m so heavily involved in this art shit.”
Considered by many to be a big city with a small town feel, Atlanta’s heralded appeal of camaraderie couldn’t have itself situated in a better setting than A3C, whose overlooking theme was a general blast from the past with discussions ranging from famed producer Zaytoven speaking on Gucci Mane’s first time in the studio to Future’s mother describing his initially self-funded career.
However, there’s no way that the allure could only find itself confined to residents of the Capital of the South.
Next on the list of stops would be ChromaFest, a show curated by promoters Mia Chapman and H Eighty-Eight of The Sound Gallery. Hailing from South Florida and Philadelphia, respectively, the two came together to bring artists from around the country for an Atlanta edition of Mia’s buzzed about ChromaFest show–a show that Chapman built to an average audience ranging from 600 to 1000 in Florida.
“I reached out to Mia through Twitter,” said H. “I saw she was doing her thing. Long story short, we ended up collaborating on an event in Atlanta that we did called Trap Tsunami, and we just kept the relationship going.”
Good vibes all around were the backdrop of A3C’s festivities this year, and in its true fashion, the spotlight wasn’t restricted to the boundaries of headliners.
The week’s greatest takeaway, and perhaps the most reassuring, was that young tastemakers have no plans of pumping their brakes anytime soon, and we couldn’t be more excited about it.
