Camille, Los Angeles

Born and raised in LA, Camille, better known as the MC and writer Ill Camille, also represents Inland Empire, Southern California. Straying away from the hip-hop zeitgeist, her transparency, cleverly constructed rhyme style, rhythm, and choice of subject matter have earned her the love and respect from both underground and mainstream worlds alike. “I’m an MC first”, she told us. “But I’m a creative person so sometimes I’ve shot videos, sometimes I’ve helped organise festivals with leaders in the community and sometimes I go to school for music, sometimes I’m chilling – I’m a creative but an MC is what I do”.

You’re focused a lot on uplifting the community, from that perspective what’s exciting to you lately?

I’m starting to see more and more expression, see people really taking information, process it and then turn it into things, and it’s a beautiful exchange happening. People are realising the importance of being of service, I’m seeing that. I’m seeing people that were afraid to leave certain situations, seeing billboards and stuff with them on it, or I’m like, “is that your stuff in that store? Oh, you own this store?!” At the same time when all this negative change has happened, I’m seeing people blossom in the neighbourhood, in LA, in Compton, in Watts, in San Bernardino, in Rialto, in New York, I’m seeing that people are believing in themselves during this time, there’s a lot of expression. People are tapping into the artists, I think everybody is an artist and now maybe they’re all realising that, because man, there’s an album dropping every day, there’s somebody playing every day. I love it. People are gardening, I got tomato plants now! That’s what I’m seeing, people are tapping into their skill, and sharing the information.

I’m seeing a community book exchange, that’s so dope!

We have a community fridge, a community pantry. I hope there are some on every block.

That disrupts the idea of paying and taking?

Yeah, it’s sharing. Basic needs – come on! Why are we charging $20 for masks? They cost like 30c to make, even if you sold them at a dollar, that’s reasonable and you still make 70c. Why are we doing this? We can use recyclable materials if we recycle in our communities as a whole, and that’s also revenue. I feel like community is when we’re sharing and exchanging and being of service to one another, bringing different leaders to the table.

People are coming together in groups, practising group economics and buying buildings and turning them into businesses, and employing people so we’re sharing employment opportunities with each other, we’re thinking about more events, like community movie nights, yoga sessions, bike sessions, all that kind of stuff. It’s contributing to a collective pot.

What are the things we need to make sure adidas is aware of when it comes to social work, community work in your city, or your country? Are there any cultural nuances you want to explain?

I don’t think there’s one leader, there can’t be, the black community is multi-layered and it’s very important that they always consider the ones that paved the way, the pioneers. Yeah, it’s cool to talk to millennials and the newer folk that are carrying the culture forward and preserving the community aspects of everything. There is still a council in our communities that we confer to that helps us shape the culture too. We borrow a lot from them, we’re inspired a lot from the matriarchs and the patriarchs and the OGs in our village. We are still borrowing from our elders in real time about how to even approach community matters, we’re even in the process of thinking about putting a formal council together so that we can ask them about key decisions. Those elders encouraging young designers in the neighbourhood and bringing them up through almost a system, those are the things we’re thinking about doing right now. adidas should just know that it isn’t just the newer ones, that we’re always working in partnership with our elders at all times, to be guided with art.

How does the mainstream tend to react to the idea of activists, and how do you feel about brands jumping into these spaces?

I can’t judge anybody for jumping into the activism space late, especially when I feel like there were things that I could have done that I didn’t do as a person in this community, but I also feel like it doesn’t come across as genuine, especially like people will scream Black Lives Matter for three minutes, and then the actions and that advocacy fades away because it ain’t popular anymore, it’s just a catchphrase, something to keep your business from shutting down. Nah, if you really say that, be about it, let’s see you reach out to those community leaders on the ground and figure out ways to help them without you telling people publicly that you did it. Let’s just know that you came to our community, our city, and did that, and now you ain’t trying to put it on the news and get an award for it. That’s what I pay attention to with brands.

What difference would that make to the community?

In this community we need this. We need help with this, we need employment opportunities, we need people from our community on the executive boards, are you coming down here and taking a visit? Are you trying to reach out? Because if you’re not reaching out and you’re just putting stuff on your social media, then it’s for social media, and that’s how I make an assessment about celebrities, even myself, and companies – I hold us all equally accountable. I’m not going to scream that I’m this leader and all this, and I’m not doing the work, you gotta do the work, it doesn’t matter who you are. Don’t just find endorsees, why don’t you talk to the kids that are trying to design a shoe because they were inspired by y’all? There’s plenty, I can name. The best way is to be direct and that’s what I pay attention to in determining whether that allyship is real. Let’s see what happens 90 days from now, let’s see.

How can brands get involved with activism at this level?

Just come and collaborate with us, that way it can be authentic and we can really put our flavours in it and keep it, and just because things have been going in terms of corporate sponsorships with non-profits or community people, man, yeah, things can go a certain way but it doesn’t have to be like that, how about y’all just help just to help?! Why does it have to be exploitative? People are alive and breathing and we have ideas, just put us in there with you, that’s something that I always wanted to tell brands – collaborate.

What do the discussions look like around issues like diversity and inclusivity in the community?

I don’t think people necessarily are thinking about inclusivity, I think they’re thinking about village preservation, the community preservation, because we’re already collectivised and we’re already inclusive, there are so many different pockets of people and demographics and cultures in one place, we’re used to that, that’s what we’re already doing so we don’t even think about inclusivity until it comes from a corporate entity, and that’s when it means something different, it just means we dropped the ball so now we’re going to try to make more room for others that we didn’t normally consider. It just doesn’t fit, we’re already doing that so I don’t know if there’s anybody thinking about it, we already come together in that way, we already consider the different representations, it’s a village, and villages have different tribes within them, so that’s how black communities function, we don’t know what inclusivity actually means until we’re talking about in the world outside of us, in the corporate system. Other than that, it’s like a foreign word, a new thing. We’re already together.

What role can adidas play around these issues in the communities?

I’m a part of the hip-hop culture, I’m a hip-hop baby, and those three stripes in my mind are like stripes of honour, because arguably the most hip-hop group that we know that shaped the way we just freak our outerwear were adidas, that’ll never not be hip-hop, I don’t care what anybody says, that’s the hip-hop shoe for life, so then the sweatsuits, that’s our whole B-boy culture, you put that on I already know what time it is. Out here, that was in our street culture. Just like the windbreakers. As far as I’m concerned, I feel like Adidas has a heavy responsibility to always make sure that the hip-hop community is always respected because we also contributed a lot to Adidas and how they’re being looked at, there’s real rawness, there’s truth, there’s consciousness here and we wore those clothes and we still wear them to send messages, and that message is this is the real shit! This is flavour. It says a lot about who we are when we put it on.

It’s like you’re the brand’s ambassadors?

adidas just needs to respect the fact that when we put it on, we put other people onto it too. I don’t know how many people I’ve seen wear it and that made me go out and wear it because I thought I like their flavour, like how they carry their self, that says a lot, some of the people that influence me to be the sort of woman or activist or leader I am, or Adidas. I see them so subconsciously it’s in my mind, so you can understand that I’m about my art when I put this on, without telling you that, because I’m really a quiet person, so I don’t want to have to be like, yo, I’m hip-hop and I’m about the culture. You see it. I’m just asking adidas to make sure that we’re always incorporated in key decisions when it pertains to our community and how you market to us.

How can adidas stay connected to their legacy?

We’re all connected, it’s like we’re on a string. I definitely went to South Africa and saw the soccer jerseys with a bucket hat, they call them sporties, tall socks and some soccer style adidas. I’m like, exactly, that’s the flavour! And they probably don’t even play. I’m saying come on, you gotta put people from actually in the culture in these rooms to have discussions on how things need to go, that’s the only way it’s kept real, we’ll always come back, we’ll always put it on our backs, if it’s real, if you got one of us in there from the culture, from these different communities telling you what’s up. Don’t come to Camille, asking me about Brooklyn, I know about Los Angeles. I know about Inland Empire, I know about this community, don’t ask me what’s up, go to Brooklyn, they’re there, they’ll tell you, they can give you all the flavour, and then tell them that you got it from the folks in Brooklyn that are on the ground shaping the culture every single day, that’s the other part – give us a lift.

What have you seen brands doing around sustainability at a community level?

Nike has done things like recycle products and make new products out of it, or turn them into playgrounds, things like that in the neighbourhood, taking the rubber off the soles, turning them into the grounds of basketball courts and community arts centres, I’ve seen that. It was really dope. I think it was the bottoms of – you know how sometimes the bottoms of Jordan’s crumble over time, or the sole comes off, so they took all these soles and made a very cushioned basketball court in a couple of different cities and playgrounds that needed a facelift in the inner cities and I thought that was dope. Then they gave away school supplies and back to school clothes to the kids that are native to those community centres, I thought that was a dope idea, because even the kids thought it was cool, like man, these are made out of my old shoes?! The social engagement factor was there too.

Hip-hop is a culture that comes completely out of the exchange of different cultures, and it’s one of the most incredible things ever; if adidas were to do something around originality, what would you expect adidas to do when it comes to creating this?

I think that the best way to keep it authentic is if those style mavericks are still alive, to go source them to be in an executive position to map out the planning and the development of that brand. Go get people that have an attention to detail in certain ways, it doesn’t matter, you can hire multiple people, say I like the way that they branded their product and we’re inspired by that so help us reimagine our thing with your eye on it, then go get that person. You guys literally have the capital to do it! Don’t withhold, go get those people, that’s the only way to keep it real, and I think you’ll get those nuances that you’re trying to recreate but no need to reinvent the wheel, just go get the wheel maker, if they’re alive. 

Do you think adidas achieved that  with their Dapper Dan collaboration?

I thought it was a smart thing, even though I don’t wear their brand, to go get Dapper Dan, cos y’all understand that even though the Gucci material wasn’t from your store, you understand it’s ingrained in our brains as black people to rock Gucci with a certain flavour because of Dapper Dan. We were rocking leather, putting on with dookie ropes, cutting the pants to fit over the adidas just right. Come on! I’m just saying go get the OG, whoever started that thing, and bring them a part, or go at least pay homage, just do it right. Nothing is new under the sun, we’re all borrowing from each other, but come on, you guys have the financial capital and the network to keep it real. There’s nothing wrong with saying you guys are inspired by these independent artists every day.

It’s so simple. If you’re going to talk about how you’re a brand of the culture, or these different cultures in the world have had influences on your brand, then you have, right there, a responsibility to make sure that they’re always preserved and recognised in that way. Continue to pay it forward by putting into their future artists and designers and creators to keep that system going even without you. 

Do you think adidas has got it right  or is there something more you want to see from them?

adidas is doing a good job, because adidas to me always represented a global culture. I love the fact that one of my favourite adidas shirts is a white shirt and it’s some kind of programme that adidas partnered with an African coalition to support athletic students, high achieving students or something like that, and the way that it was designed, you can tell it wasn’t inspired by an African person, you can tell that an African person did it. The font, the logo, the colouring, you can tell and I even looked it up and it was actually the community organisers that designed the shirt, and I was like, word, it should be that every time. adidas does a good job of having those nuances be real and authentic, it feels like wherever it’s coming from, so they should do more of that. That Y3, I like it because it feels Japanese. But you could just tell, if you didn’t know the full thing and you see somebody wearing it, you can tell by the cut that’s some Japanese shit. It’s like, yes, more, more, more. Keep letting these different representations come through the product because that’s what I like adidas for, that global feel. I feel international.

What role do you think adidas has moving forward? Where do you want to see them in a few years time?

I would like to see adidas really just try to figure out ways to make clothing or continue to make clothing that represents all these different styles of all the cultures that support the product and the communities, with something we can see and make use of. 

Clothes are great, everybody needs clothes, it’s a need, but what happens with the surplus clothes? Where do those go? What happens when the stitching is incorrect? Sure, you could sell it and make a profit, but maybe there could be a monthly drive or a quarterly drive in some of these youth centres where you can give away this clothing, or even employees of adidas, y’all get hella stuff, I know y’all not wearing it all and even if you do, if there’s stuff you can do a clean closet programme with, and have everybody that can’t fit their old adidas shit give it to people that need it. You stay giving, it’s the gift that keeps giving. Donation centres, cubbies where people in the community can be like, I can’t fit this adidas jacket anymore so I’m going to go put it in the cubby. 

There are so many things that they can do because they have the bandwidth and the power to do it, and people like me like adidas overall, like I said I feel like they’ve been the most true to the communities, if you can be that. They’ve at least never tried to act like we didn’t exist. I just think keep doing what you’re doing but do more. We need to see adidas and it not be just on our clothes, but in the form of a little centre we can go to and maybe learn how to be designers and stylists and cut and sewers and leather preparers, deal with fine textiles and materials, maybe we need to learn those different trades so we can be our own adidas too like an adidas resource centre.

I think in order to really respect and protect culture, you just gotta let people that are in the culture do it. And, if you’re inspired by it, there’s a respectable way of making sure that the inspiration turns into a mutually beneficial thing for everybody. We are all influenced by each other, but we gotta figure out a way, especially if we’re in a position of being a support to other people, if you can incubate other people or help them build their thing, as a corporation, have a model that’s built on that and making fly clothes. Not just having consumers as case studies but as collaborators. We’re your creative directors too, we’re telling you what we like.