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2/20/2006 Interview with Adam Bach, Founder of The Originators What's up Adam? I'm just chilling. We're working hard trying to make this thing happen. What was your inspiration for starting The Originators? I've got a background in filmmaking. I received a Master's Degree from the American Film Institute. I graduated in 2000 and I had a real strong desire to tell these early cats' stories in films. I had a strong desire to tell these pioneer's stories. I graduated film school and I needed to find my way. One day, I got the idea that instead of taking money that I didn't have and telling the story of one person, I got the idea to tell everyone's stories through t-shirts with their biography on the hangtag. This happened in 2003 and I spent the next year educating myself on the early years of Hip Hop and the individuals that were instrumental to its inception and growth. I was able to track these cats down in New York. I sat down with a lot of the pioneers in November, 2003. I pitched them the idea and they really loved it. I got them down in licensing contracts, which was really important. This is about them, not us. I was born in 1971, when most of these cats were rocking parties. I have a film and writing background, and I really felt that I could get a lot more information out through clothing. God-willing, maybe one day we can tell these guy's stories through film and documentaries. Hip Hop is a culture that has been around for 35-40 years. It's really time, with this strong culture that we have, to bridge the gap and know who was important to its growth. There are so many contemporary rappers that profit and make so much money off of the culture. I often ask myself, "Do they know who paved the way for them?" I felt the strong need to do what I'm doing. What's your philosophy in running The Originators? We're the original clothing line committed to the education of the early years of Hip Hop, honoring the DJ's, MC's, writers, and b-boys that paved the way. They paved the way, and it is our goal that they not be forgotten. My ideology in running this company is that we have a very, very, very big responsibility with what we're doing. We're putting out information on the early individuals in Hip Hop, and we always want to get that information right. Our philosophy in running this company is to do things correctly and with integrity. This isn't about doing things quickly and making the quick dollar. We want to be around for a long time. I would rather grow slowly and do things correctly than over-saturate the market and not be around two years from now. I feel that what we're doing is so important to Hip Hop that we need to continue to do what we're doing. We're distancing ourselves from the other clothing lines because we are the original line honoring the pioneers. There are so many cats that deserve to be honored and we are not going to stop until all of these cats are honored. This is a lifelong endeavor. We will not stop until all of these cats have been honored. People are always looking to see who we'll honor next, so there is a high demand. It's made the whole education process easier to digest the information. How do you decide who to honor? We're committed to honoring "the originators" of Hip Hop. We're really trying to honor the cats from the '70's. We try to do it in some sort of order. We try to focus on the early cats and then honor those that came after them. There are so many important people. We educate ourselves and see what we need in the line. We cover all four elements of Hip Hop. Our next step would be to honor a big b-boy. We also try to honor those that have made the biggest contributions to Hip Hop. It's only a matter of time before we honor all of them. How do you go about designing the shirt? We'll look for older images that come from back in the day. We tend to like images that come from the '70's. We'll show the individuals the photo for approval. We always give the pioneer final approval. The reason we do that is because we're representing these people and who better than them to check their shirt or biography on the hangtag? Who better to say, "That represents me. That represents that time in my life"? Are a lot of the artists eager to get down on this? At the beginning, I didn't know these cats and I was contacting them through other contacts. It wasn't easy in the beginning. I can't tell you how many people said "no" to me at first. I've been very persistent with this. There are many things in my life that I haven't been persistent enough and I've given up too easily. This is the only thing that's motivated me to get out of bed every day. It was so important to me that I continued knocking on doors and trying to find ways to make this happen. We finally got artists signed. Now we have people calling us on a weekly basis asking us to honor them. Stores want our stuff now and certain movie stars and athletes want our stuff. You can gauge your material based on who wants it. We have something legit, you can see it, you can touch it, and it's exciting to think that all these cats are coming out and wanting us to honor them. We're also working on a skateboard line. We're working closely with Sodalicious Skateboards. We're doing a co-brand where we're putting out some skateboards of some of these individuals to go along with the shirt. A lot of true Hip Hop heads have seen our new skateboard designs and we're getting calls on a weekly basis of people wanting to be involved in this. One reason why we decided to get down on the skates is because we want to reach as many markets as possible. We want to reach anyone that wants to be educated on the early years of Hip Hop. That's where we want to be. Certain people would say that skaters aren't Hip Hop or urban. A lot of skaters love music and love Hip Hop. Getting these biographies on boards is another avenue and demographic that we can hit to try to educate people on the early years of Hip Hop. A lot of people are now coming out. It's either a time issue or a money issue where we can't necessarily honor everybody. This is something that we're committed to and something that I will do for the rest of my life. This is a marathon, and I know that because we're looking at it like that, we will stay. We'll be here as long as we want to be here. What have you accomplished so far that you're most proud of? I've had a lot of great ideas but nothing ever came of it. Now, we're here. I'm here and I'm looking at these clothes in the office right now. We're prepared for Magic and I know what we've got on board. I know the products we're selling and I know the skateboards we're selling. All of the pioneers are coming to us now. It feels really great to make this a reality and something that's so strong that we're just going to continue to build that. I'm excited to do that. We've also built something that's so important and unique. For me to be involved in something that is so fulfilling and educational and to give back to the people that created Hip Hop, I realize how fortunate I am. That's what I'm most proud of. This is one of the only things in my life that I'm actually able to do. I'm a big dreamer. I have a lot of ideas and a lot of those ideas never happened. I'm also happy that we're growing as a company. Things are getting better for us. Our product line is getting bigger and iller. Everybody is coming out and trying to get some Originator gear. I met Funkmaster Flex a couple weeks ago and I can't tell you the love he was giving us. I can tell you those types of stories, but that can seem superficial. For me, the thing that I'm most proud of is that we're actually able to do this and we're the first company to do this. It's too fulfilling to not keep it going. At the same time, the pioneers are able to get paid. Who's been supporting you guys so far? All of the artists involved with us have been extremely supportive, and without their support we would not be where we're at. DJ Disco Wiz, Tracy 168, Lovebug Starski, Kurtis Blow…there have been other cats that have come out too, Jurassic 5, KRS-One, Funkmaster Flex, Kevin Garnett, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson…it's almost on a daily basis how many athletes hit me up. Even old-school cats call me up to tell me they're feeling it. We're growing from a grassroots, organic place. I think you can sense our integrity just by seeing our product. Even without speaking to me, you can see how passionate we are about this. Funkmaster Flex gives us shout outs on the radio because he knows. I look forward to tomorrow because I don't know who's going to come out looking for some stuff. It's exciting and it's a great gauge to let us know that we're building it properly. Do you see yourself in competition with companies like Sean John or Enyce? I don't necessarily consider us in competition with Sean John. We have a lot of respect for lines like Sean John and Rocawear. If it wasn't for some of the things that they've done and them opening the doors, I don't know where we'd be at today. I want to give them respect for that. The urban market is so big and I think there's enough room for all of us. There's not much competition between us and Sean John because those are two different demographics. At this point, we're very true to what we're doing and it's very different from what the other lines are doing so it limits the competition. There are other lines trying to do what we're doing and I would call them competitors. There are lines that came after us and are trying to do the same thing. Where do you see The Originators brand going in the future? I see us going to the top. I see us being the top urban line. This may take time. We're not afraid of time. This is a very big thing and we have a large responsibility to what we're doing. We're not in a rush. With all that said, I feel that the streets and the kids will respond to what we're doing. They will respond to our integrity and our desire to do things correctly. I think there will be more companies that try to come up and do what we've done. Instead of me looking at them like they're competition, those lines are actually helping us to pave the way as to where fashion is going. I don't think they have the integrity that we have and that will be easily read by the consumer and the streets. Because of our commitment and our desire to do things correctly, I think we'll be the ones standing. There is no limit as to what we are doing. We can be one of the largest urban Hip Hop lines that there is. Every kid in America could and should be wearing Originators gear. What do you want to say to everyone? We all appreciate the support. Hip Hop is a culture that we love very much and believe in very strongly. Obviously there is a need for what we're doing because the response has been so great and we could not experience that response if it wasn't for the people. We're all in this together. Without everyone in Hip Hop, we couldn't be doing what we're doing. For more information, visit www.theoriginators.com

By Brian Kayser

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