Many remember Damon Dash as one of the brilliant business minds behind Roc-A-Fella Records. Now, Dash has ventured into other arenas of lifestyle and art entertainment with America Nu, an exciting continuation of his brand in magazine form.
The entertainment executive recently chatted with rolling out about how he plans to impact print media, the passion behind urban art, and how he hasn’t necessarily left the music scene completely. –amir shaw and archel bernard
Tell us about the new magazine:
The new magazine is a continuation of the old magazine, it was America before, but now it’s called America Nu. Before, it was trying to be as cutting edge as possible in discovering things before everyone else did, being a forward thinker and being a team leader. Now, I’m doing so many different things that I’m approaching this with a completely different business model. So America Nu is just a system of things that are evoking interest in my life. From art to fashion to music, to just lifestyle in general. It’s geared to someone who loves fashion first and foremost, and loves everything that comes with it after that. It’s print, but print is more for awareness and branding, but as far as reaching everyone, everyone’s online. The content you’ll read about, there’s always visuals and real documentation for it.
How will your music come into play?
Well, if my life is music heavy at the time, it will reflect that, but more from an inside view of what I’ve got going on.
What makes now a good time to start a magazine?
My business mind is probably not the same as other magazines. I’m not trying to make money from ad [revenue], so that won’t allow an advertiser to dictate who I’m putting on the cover. I’m not going to spend the money on printing unless it’s already paid for. Mine is more a branding situation. Getting people the information rather than making them pay for it. If they pay for it they pay for it, if they don’t, it’s still there.
It’s also about good content as well. With every story that you read, there will be a visual for it, and I don’t mean a picture, I mean an actual movie. My agenda is to take art that’s conceptually urban and get it to everyone. I don’t think people don’t want to see good urban fine art, but I know that maybe the platforms aren’t necessarily there. I’ll just be packaging it and giving it to the people in a way that they’d understand it.
Look out for new business models. We’re trying to sell more art and more creativity, and figure out how to monetize it on our own terms.