BLXST SPEAKS ON OWNERSHIP AND SELF-SUSTAINABILITY DURING NIPSEY HUSSLE-INSPIRED COURSE AT LMU

Class is in session and who better to give us a game than hip-hop/R&B artist BLXST. Since the establishment of his record label, EVGLE (2018), his independent artist-label journey has stood out in a major way and embodies the “ground up” formula introduced and displayed by Nipsey Hussle and his TMC camp. For Nip, the biggest concern within his community was entrepreneurship and ownership, so it’s only right that BLXST popped up at LMU to drop gems that expand on the late rapper’s brilliant business mind and inspire students to embark on their own entrepreneurial journey.

The EVGLE CEO, along with partners Victor Burnett (President) and Karl Fowlkes (entertainment lawyer), participated in a panel for the campus’s marketing course titled, “The Marathon Continues: Building Brand Through Culture.” Facilitated by Professors David A. Gross and Mitchell Hamilton, this course honors the legacy of Nipsey Hussle, detailing his business mindset in and out of the music industry while keeping self-sustainability and accountability as a set theme throughout the teaching.

“It’s not just talking about money, but even from a protection standpoint, just being able to protect yourself as a human being and not having all your eggs in one basket.” – Blxst 

Blxst, whose real name is Matthew Dean Burdette, spoke to students about collectively being an independent artist and entrepreneur, crediting his team for their major contribution to his success. “I got to a point where I got smart enough to know that I’m not smart at all…” he told the class. “I’m a student at the end of the day, and I’m willing to learn, so I just surrounded myself with people that I felt like I could benefit just being around [their] presence.”

Throughout the lecture, BLXST stressed to students the importance of educating themselves, ownership, and the recurring theme of accountability and being self-sustainable. He stated, “I will say, at some point, you have to take accountability. We have information out there — we got so many examples [of] … our legends that don’t even own a percentage of their whole culture that we built. How many times are we going to watch the same story continue?…for me, I’m leading by example. You got to be the change you want to see. I feel like the label situation is all predicated on how you want your future to be. I want to be self-sustainable…and that’s what I want for my people as well. Ownership is everything.”