The Airplane Project

Dec 10, 2017

min read

V

aynerNation,

I’m so humbled and excited to release a very special project for me today. A project which I think may be my best and most important work to date.

Last week I flew to Gothenburg, Sweden to give a keynote, and then something amazingly serendipitous happened on my way home to NYC, no WiFi on the flight.

This gave me the opportunity and free space to really start thinking and put me in a mindset where I was able to find more clarity and energy on the 12 to 24 themes I continue to express and read in comments, emails, and DMs… every single fucking day from fans and haters alike. As I went into my first rant my energy kept feeding me more and more and more and I was able to dig a little deeper into myself, my community and my content in a way that you wouldn’t normally expect.

As many of you who watch my vlog and Instagram already know, I have a deep respect for the influence hip-hop and music has in culture. As I hit video record on my cell phone while on the plane back home, more and more thoughts on specific subjects came out in my recording, and I started to see the fascinating parallel between my videos and tracks on an album.

I made the call that the rants would become tracks of a mixtape, and that mixtape would be called The Airplane Project, and boy do I love being able to put content in this type of format for me. All of my energy and intent is predicated on providing you the blueprint that I have been trying to articulate for myself and for all of you over the past years.

When I initially sent this project to my team, we debated how you would consume it. Even Drock and Andy K. wanted to debate with me on the raw format of releasing all 11 tracks versus a polished edited version. Here is the conversation that took place Friday night on the release strategy.

PROLOGUE:

I know this is something that I have never tried before but I just want to thank you in advance for listening to my special project. Serendipity is everything, and I’ve always valued the amazing random moments that can occur, if you allow them to. If the Wi-Fi was not broken on my flight from Sweden to NY, this project would have never have happened. I couldn’t get my work done so I just started thinking. Please bear with me for the quality of the audio. I was in the air and in my zone.

I have a funny feeling that there’s at least one person, someone, that will get tremendous value from not only listening to this project but understanding the strategy in how and why I wanted to put it out. Thank you for your attention, I’m forever humbled, and now without further ado, I present to you The Airplane Project.