Artist-in-Residence Joey Bada$$ On Uniting Art and Activism and Vanquishing Creative Fears

At a glance, Joey Bada$$ is far too youthful to be a sharp-edged veteran--but he plays the part with aplomb. A breezy and precise wordsmith, the rapper and actor is at once a portrait of hip-hop’s hard-won progress and a vestige of its soulful past. On an October afternoon at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in Downtown Brooklyn, the Flatbush-born creator was kicking off his artist-in-residence by furnishing insights to a room full of students who could easily pass for his peers. The 29-year-old is already more than a decade into a commanding career anchored by three studio albums, two mixtapes, and a role as East Coast torchbearer in perhaps hip-hop’s most nebulous era. Amidst tales of artists imperiled by premature success, Bada$$ has cast himself as a steady hitmaker and a credible tastemaker well-schooled in rap’s golden age.

Last September, when Joey Bada$$ was revealed as the Clive Davis Institute’s next artist-in-residence, he joined a respected roster that has included Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beats, and Dev Hynes, among others. During the fall semester, he would lead Clive Davis Institute students and alumni in an assortment of talks, workshops, and informal discussions, surveying everything from the arts and activism to film, TV, and music. The move jived with the rapper’s ascension from indie rhymist to do-it-all artist, an evolution that has seen Bada$$ stepping into more serious acting roles and shepherding the next generation of young creatives. As Clive Davis Institute Chair Nick Sansano described it, Bada$$ has molded himself into a most contemporary breed of entertainer.

“Joey represents a new generation of creative professionals who are thoughtful and forward-thinking, diversified creative entrepreneurs,” Sansano said. “He is a multi-hyphenate success story that is extending his reach and influence beyond the world of music and entertainment. He has a wonderfully altruistic reach.”

Just last year Joey Bada$$ announced the creation of his ImpactMENtorship program, aimed at providing free career guidance for men of color 18 years and older in the U.S. The new venture reaffirmed the artist’s tendency for stewardship, which then took center stage during the kick-off event of his residency at Tisch. Alongside artist manager and longtime mentor Sophia Chang, whose own Unlock Her Potential program provided the inspiration for ImpactMENtorship, Bada$$ discussed his commitment to community building in a conversation titled “The Intersection of Artistry & Social Impact.”

“I've always had a natural instinct to want to help people,” the Brooklyn native said. “Once I made it to a certain place, I felt that it was almost my duty to be able to help carve a lane for others--to help show others the way, because I believe in that leapfrog effect.”

Chang, who helped shape the careers of industry legends such as RZA, A Tribe Called Quest, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, emphasized the scarcity of that mindset within the industry. “I've been in management for 37 years and I've seen a lot of artists, and not everybody has the heart, not everybody has the thought and the concern and the true passion to give back to the community and to build community.”

That work is detectable when you trace the artistic history of Joey Bada$$ back to one of his creative birthplaces at Edward R. Murrow High School. The Midwood, Brooklyn, school is where Bada$$ first connected with the founding members of Pro Era, the rap collective that includes producer Powers Pleasant, rapper CJ Fly, and the late Capital Steez. In recent years, he’s revitalized his relationship with Murrow--an arts-focused high school--through music equipment donation and other volunteering. Murrow High School teacher Joe Reilly recalls the rapper’s summer attendance at the school’s student festival.

“This past June, Joey gave an inspiring talk to students at [Murrow’s] Music Tech Fest, encouraging them to follow their dreams and to remain persistent and consistent,” Reilly said. “He also took time to talk to some students one-on-one and take photos with them.”

Bada$$ returned to the Clive Davis Institute in late October for “The Foundations of Creating a Hit,” a conversation and listening session with renowned music journalist Rob Markman and legendary producer Just Blaze. As part of the event, the trio contemplated the creative seeds of songwriting, riffed on lyric development, and provided feedback following a listening session with students. November then welcomed the third phase of Bada$$’ artist-in-residence, which featured Tisch professor and music journalist Naima Cochrane in conversation with rapper-actor on the challenges of “Navigating Hollywood.” In recent years, Bada$$’ foray into film and television has seen him perform in the acclaimed series Mr. Robot, the Oscar-winning short film Two Distant Strangers, and most recently as smooth-talking ‘Unique’ in Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Ever the diligent architect of his own career, Bada$$ noted that his exploration of this new terrain wasn’t without a blueprint. 

“I never wanted to do the street role,” he said to an audience that included a group of Murrow High School students. “Not never--but I didn't want to do that initially. I didn't want to start there, because I feel like they would only see me as that once I did it. After I did Mr. Robot, I did some other smaller things, and then I did Two Distant Strangers… I was like, okay, cool, I could do the street role now because I've laid enough work out there where people know that I got that versatility.”

To round out his time at the school, Joey Bada$$ returned to Tisch’s Brooklyn campus for a culminating conversation with journalist Dometi Pongo on “The Art of Storytelling.” During the talk, Bada$$ illuminated his own process of cultivating and sustaining inspiration, breaking out of creative blocks, and confronting imposter syndrome. Responding to one student’s question regarding the anxieties and insecurities inherent to artistic pursuits, Bada$$ recounted his own battles and triumphs.

“I’ve struggled with that for a long time in my career,” he said. “Finding myself in rooms that kind of made me feel smaller, and not want to have the confidence to just be me. But what I realized over time is, once we’re all in the room, we’re equal. I would encourage you to embrace that. A lot of your success and a lot of your growth as a human being is going to come with facing that fear and putting yourself out in front of the headlights… They say the best things in life are on the other side of your fears.”

Later that evening the Clive Davis Institute hosted the rapper for a closing dinner with students. For both mentor and student, it fostered one more moment to share the room together, to embrace the fullness of the experience and imagine the possibilities of what is still to come.