On Saturday July 29, 2017, Wa Boogie of Highly Favored Clothing hosted her first event at Greenhouse Loft in Highland Park, New Jersey entitled, “The Winners Circle“. The Winners Circle aims to empower and inspire up and coming creatives to pursue their dreams and leverage their passions.
For more on this event as well as future events, please be sure to check out Highly Favored Clothing on Facebook for the latest. Ohhhhh…we almost forgot, “How can you look like the brother and sister duo in the photos wearing Highly Favored?”
A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group is a brand development agency and content platform. We specialize in brand strategy, content development, and storytelling. With an emphasis on culture and lifestyle, the primary focus of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group is to bridge the gap and build value between brands, communities, and culture. Our social mission is to leverage the influence of popular culture to create social change and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership. We are driven by AMBITION, fueled by PASSION, inspired by INNOVATION, and suckers for STRATEGY!
We initially came across the wonderful work of Blavity over one month ago on April 10, 2016. Thanks to Lauren Miller (@cantstayput_), Blavity was brought to our attention when she announced on her Instagram profile that she would be speaking at their inaugural #EmpowerHER conference later this month.
After looking further into the event, #EmpowerHER is a black women’s conference that will be exploring the impact of creativity, leadership, and technology on their daily lives. The extraordinary line-up of women will consist of bloggers, designers, entrepreneurs, and techies who all play a vital role in helping to shape today’s cultural movement.
Blavity’s #EmpowerHER Conference will be taking place in New York, NY on Saturday May 21, 2016 from 8 am to 7 pm at 404 Event Space.
Some of the topics that will be covered throughout the day include:
Using The Internet To Empower Change.
Growing Into Yourself and Creating Community.
Turning Your Side Hustle Into a Start-up.
Pushing Your Boundaries Through Exploration.
Owning and Becoming a Brand.
Here’s a look at the conference agenda and here’s where you can scoop up some conference tickets. Still lurking? Morgan has you covered. Use her discount code “blavityfam” for a limited time only and receive a cool 15% off!
_________________________
(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers centered around love. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
Upon looking further into the event, we found out that the first official Next Up concert will be held at the W Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA on May 25, 2016. This launch will then be followed by events in Seattle, WA and Minneapolis, MN. The last stop is expected to be at the W South Beach in Miami, FL sometime in October of this year.
In September of 2014, W South Beach Hotel & Residences, in partnership with Vision Compere’s creative house, VISION, extended their W SpeakerBox concert series music program. It was also a live music program featuring intimate performances by celebrated and emerging artists from a variety of international genres.
We personally worked very closely with Vision Compere’s creative house. Our particular focus was to curate and identify emerging artists from various cities throughout W Hotel properties in Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; and San Francisco, CA.
On October 2, 2014, Daryn Alexus was featured as an artist who was #NextUp and performed at W Hotels City Center property located in Chicago, IL.
On October 30, 2014, Kyle Dion was featured as an artist who was #NextUp and performed at W Hotels South Beach property located in Miami, FL.
On April 30, 2015, Lara Johnston was featured as an artist who was #NextUp and performed at W Hotels San Francisco property located in San Francisco, CA.
Overall, we love the fact that W Hotels and Billboard are teaming up to provide a platform for emerging artists to shine! This is exactly why we teamed up with VISION for their W SpeakerBox concert series 2 years ago.
We’re glad to see that Billboard expanded on a similar model of music programming with W Hotels. Lets continue pushing culture forward and allowing artists the opportunity to showcase their talents!
_________________________
(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers centered around love. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
Our homegirl Mikara Reid does it for the culture and one of our favorite cities as she PROUDLY sponsors her first event presented by Props & Bonds entitled, “SELFMADEMIAMI.” The event takes place later today, Saturday April 23, 2016 from 3-8p at The Showroom by 8&9 Clothing located at 7814 NE 4th Court in Miami, FL. Grab your tickets here!
Props and Bonds is a division of SilenthandENT that organizes live events focused on independent music and artists, with genres including Hip-Hop, R&B, Indie Rock, Reggae, Jazz and much more. The name Props and Bonds denotes the “Currency Of The Culture”, alluding to the idea that Miami’s unique music scene is based not only on supporting artists, but also building relationships…how dope is that!?!
Mikara is Personal Stylist, Shopper, and Creative Director who will be launching her very own website mikarareid.com on her twenty [______] birthday this upcoming Wednesday April 27, 2016. We’re super excited for the release especially considering all of the hard work she’s been putting in behind the scenes as she continues to build and develop her own enterprise.
Until her launch on Wednesday, feel free to follow her online @TheMikaraLife!
_________________________
(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers centered around love. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
On Friday, February 5th 2016 from 7-10p our good friend Thomas Johnson Jr. of GetUpNGetFit will host his very own Master Minds Connection at 110 Duncan Ave in Jersey City, NJ. This will be a platform that will allow creative and entrepreneurial minded individuals to connect in a friendly and welcoming environment all in an effort to support the ambitions, dreams, goals, and visions of one another.
(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Brand Strategist, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies and organizations such as Cornerstone Agency, City Year Miami, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and their consumers. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe and invest in the collective future of society through the arts, education, entertainment, and leadership.
In 2008, I was an intern for a wonderful woman by the name of Elise Wright. She was the SVP of Urban Music at Universal Republic. At the time, Doug Morris was the CEO at Universal Music Group. It just so happened that his office was in the same building that I interned in on 1755 Broadway in midtown Manhattan. One afternoon, Monte Lipman’s assistant asked me if I could bring lunch downstairs to Doug Morris’ office. As soon as I was gifted with the task of doing so, I knew that I had to handle this particular package with care. As ambitious as I am, I was delighted to make the delivery. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet Doug in person. Had we met, it may have led to a very interesting chain of events.
Flash forward 7 years. Doug Morris is now the CEO of Sony Music Entertainment. Doug was recently invited to speak at Midem in Cannes, France. In his keynote speech entitled “Visionary Talk,” Doug shares a plethora of insight that he has gained throughout his 50+ years of experience in the music industry. Throughout the interview, he praises his fellow industry icons and pioneers. These names include, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, Berry Gordy, Jimmy Iovine, Suge Knight, L.A. Reid, and Steve Jobs.
Doug on The Impact of Urban Music
A few interesting stories that Doug shares includes his first encounter with rap music. The first group that he signed was 2 Live Crew. Shortly after, Jimmy Iovine was responsible for introducing Doug to Suge Knight. This meeting would eventually lead to Interscope signing Death Row Records which Doug mentions as an “Incredible moment.” Doug also goes on to mention that his strategy at Universal was to fill it with urban music. “I don’t think a record company can really be successful without urban music” says Doug. “We had Death Row, Def Jam, and Cash Money. Just with those three companies, we probably had 40-45% of all the urban music in America.”
Doug on The Importance of A&R + Content
When asked about the importance of content and distribution, Doug mentions, “If you don’t have a hit you have nothing. We’re all slaves to the brilliant people who are in touch with the culture and can spot an artist. The people who can spot a record that’s going to be important, that’s where we invest our money, in these people.” Although the people and titles may vary, the process of identifying and developing talent at an early stage is what we call A&R. To this day, I consider A&R to be at the pinnacle of necessity in regards to the future expansion and growth of our entertainment and music industries.
Words of Wisdom From Doug Morris
On Leadership – Doug has a philosophy that it’s important to be nice and treat people with respect. It’s important to make the people that work for you feel great. It’s important to make them know that you appreciate what they do. When Doug was coming up, people would degrade others and make them feel bad. Doug runs his companies based on mutual respect and loyalty. This is the culture that he believes in.
On Identifying Your Talent – Find what you’re good at. Some people are good as recording engineers. Some people are good at publishing. Some people are able to identify great artists. You have to look at what you think your strength is. Don’t listen to the naysayers. It’s your life, live it. Don’t be afraid of anything. When you’re doing something that you love, it’s fun. When something is fun, you actually get good at it. Do what’s fun. Do what you love going to work for.
_________________________
(Uh • Kway • Us) Aquaus Kelley is a forward-thinking Creative Consultant, Educator, and Music Publisher. As the Founder of A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group, he specializes in identifying talent and creating opportunities for brand development, exposure, and growth. Aquaus has worked with companies such as Cornerstone Agency, Universal Music Group, and W Hotels. He is extremely passionate about helping companies adapt to culture and building value between brands and consumers. His ultimate mission is to use his influence to project positivity across the globe.
Hello Lovers…Happy Valentines Day! NYC has been buzzing since earlier this week and the festivities will continue over the course of the next 24+ hours or so. Not only is it fashion week, it also happens to be NBA All-Star weekend. On top of that, Monday is Presidents Day; which adds another layer to the madness. With everything that is going on this weekend, what is there not to love?
Yesterday night, as I was making rounds through Jersey City and Manhattan, I received a call from one of my good friends. I couldn’t answer at the moment, but when I called her back, she asked if I heard about Kanye’s fashion show with Adidas. I told her that I did and she sent me an email to check out an article and some footage of how the show was received.
As I began to read the article, the number one statement that initially caught my attention is when Kanye mentions, “I want people to think awesome is possible.” I immediately identified with that philosophy. Too often we idolize the achievements of others to a point that we no longer believe that it’s possible to achieve great things in our own right. We become desensitized to mediocrity. We view greatness as an anomaly. We become comfortable with things being fine just the way that they are. I extremely disagree! I believe that our existence in itself grants us an opportunity to achieve profound accolades beyond our imagination. Why settle for anything less?
Push culture forward. Push creativity forward. Live legendary, leave a legacy!
On Wednesday November 6, 2013 “InfluencerCon” will be invading New York City for an exciting three-day conference. Attendees will include the likes of influencers, innovators, and tastemakers in the arts, entrepreneurial, philanthropic, and technological spaces. Through panel discussions, keynote presentations, 1-on-1 sessions, and workshops, Influencer Con will tackle the landscape of influencer culture.
The event will take place at SPiN New York, 48 East 23rd St, New York, NY 10010.
On Thursday, August 29th 2013 from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm, I AM MUSIC WEAR will bring to us “The Touring Class” which will be a panel discussion on “The Business of Touring For Musicians.”
The event will be taking place at “The Adrienne – Skybox” (2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103).
Click here for additional event details, confirmed panelists, and registration.
I came across Izzy Bizu just a few hours ago when I found out that she was one of the Coda Agencies (Akon, Emeli Sande, Icona Pop, Yuna) most recent signings. At just 18 years young, the Singer + Songwriter … Continue reading →
A Lovers Ambition Lifestyle Group 