‘Business of HYPE’ Returns as Limited Series with New Host Angelo Baque and Inaugural Guest Tremaine Emory
The first episode of the limited series sees the longtime friends discuss Emory’s career path, how he doesn’t see himself as a political activist and more.
New host. New guests. New insights. Hypebeast’s Business of HYPE has returned as a limited series with five episodes dropping over the upcoming weeks. Sitting in the host’s chair is Angelo Baque, the creative director and founder of Awake NY, who welcomes a range of culture-shifting creatives, brand-builders and entrepreneurs to discuss the journeys, learnings and realities behind the dreams they’ve built.
The first guest to be featured on the new Business of HYPE season is Baque’s longtime friend and contemporary Tremaine Emory. Known for his own entities, Denim Tears and No Vacancy Inn, and his work at Marc Jacobs, YEEZY, Stüssy and Supreme, Emory designs with pride and intention, using clothes as a visual medium to explore deeply personal stories, a process that’s crafted compelling collaborations with the likes of Levi’s, Converse and even Emory’s contemporary and dear friend Virgil Abloh‘s PYREX VISION label.
Well before his design career, however, Emory was a kid growing up in Jamaica, Queens, who would commute to the Lower East Side and immerse himself in the area’s thriving street culture. It was there, more than 20 years ago that he met Baque, and the two have remained close friends ever since — Baque introduces Tremaine as a “best friend” and a “brother” at the beginning of the episode, and also mentions that he’s “hands-down the best storyteller in streetwear.”
During a nearly hour-long conversation, the two discuss everything from what they see as modern-day streetwear culture’s lack of parity and intention to how Tremaine is often cast as a “social activist” by outlets eager to hoist a narrative onto his work.
“I find it funny when I … read writeups and people are [talking about] ‘Tremane’s social activist clothing,’” Emory notes. “I’ve read books on activists. I’m not an activist. I’m a commercial design artist that tells stories of the human condition through clothing, through the guise of the African diaspora.”
Towards the episode’s end, Emory opines on seeking validation from the industry, noting that that seeing kids in his childhood neighborhood wearing his clothes are the highest form of validation he can receive He notes that in the past his ego craved the validation of esteemed positions — like his tenure as the creative director of Supreme, a role he said he only felt compelled to take after Virgil Abloh’s death — but that he’s worked to ensure the love of his peers and community stands above all. “That’s the only validation I need,” he notes “The streets I used to walk [as a kid and a teenager], the kids there are wearing [my friends and I's clothing]. Why do I need any more validation than that?”
Stream the full episode above, or check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other major podcast platforms, and expect future episodes to roll out weekly.
