West Coast Mafia & Subliminal Tees – An in-depth interview
Hello and Happy NewYear everyone!
We wanted to shed some light on our collaboration with West Coast Mafia. And what better way than having an interview with the founder of Subliminal Tees? Check out this short interview to learn more about Subliminal Tees And West Coast Mafia:
How was Subliminal Tees created?
Well, the society in which we live is far from ideal. Of course, you can’t live in a perfect world, but as days go by, you start to realize that something is wrong. You turn on the TV and all you hear about is death and dread. You go out on the streets, and you see how separated we are. A person that smiles is as rare as winning the lottery these days.
And you keep noticing the same patterns – abused women and children, racist comments, degradation, and fear seem to go along hand in hand. Sometimes it seems to me like society has turned into a different kind of war front. And as I noticed these things, they really made me sad because, in reality, we are all the same. So, I started asking myself - why are we doing so much harm to each other?
As an army veteran, I’ve experienced putting my life on the line for the welfare of others. I spent 5 years servicing and protecting the rights of Americans. After I got out, a part of me needed to continue making a contribution to society. Not only that, but I wanted to find deeper ways to contribute to my country and society in general. I thought the best way to do this was to focus on one of our rights, the freedom of speech. People should be able to express themselves, air their fears, worries, the things they care about and call out when things are not being done in a way that’s beneficial to society as a whole.
As Americans, our constitution was created so we the people, can hold ourselves and our government accountable to their promises, to equality and freedom. This is why I created Subliminal Tees, as an outlet to express your beliefs, as a way to stand up for the things you care most about.
The thing is, not everyone can freely express themselves, not everyone can attend all the rallies and marches. Some folks are scared of truly expressing their beliefs. That’s where the subliminals come in. We really try not to make all of our items obvious in their message on purpose. Sometimes throwing subliminals achieve the same purpose (if not going further) than being direct. We give you the choice.
What was the idea behind creating Subliminal Tees?
Words are just one of the many forms of communication between a giver and a receiver. It’s no secret that even though there are so many ways to get information, it’s more about how we combine words and images to create and share messages that are important to us. Often these words and images can be used in a way to spread positive information that pushes society further or spread the opposite.
We, of course, want to focus on spreading information that pushes society further, helping them to share information aiding in informing and contributing to growing the understanding of the world. When I created Subliminal Tees, I focused on that single idea – understanding. Because if you understand how your actions, words or sometimes even staying quiet affects other people, people that aren’t that much different than you, people that struggle just as much as you to put food on the table - a lot of things would be different in America and In the globe.
You recently started a collaboration with West Coast Mafia. What is the story behind that?
West Coast Mafia is a recording label that started from the hip-hop movement in 1996. I like to think that hip-hop of that time was less focused on materialism and more focused on giving voice to regular folks. In the absence of such standards in today’s music, the music that they create is a way of standing up as leaders and protectors and saying – “it’s enough, we are not blind.”
We absolutely loved the idea of teaming up with a label that even after all these years, still fights to tell the stories of those often forgotten and ignored. They are like a beacon that shares the truth, surfacing unjust acts that were once hidden and distributing the knowledge freely. We thought that the collaboration would be a great way to share in their message.
