In conversation: Ryhmezlikedimez
Ahead of their drop with KidSuper Studios, I had a call with rhymezlikedimez to talk about their backstory, what inspires them, and how NFTs have changed their creative process.
So I guess I’d start with just a brief intro from both of you get your names. I think most people maybe don’t know that rhymezlikedimez is actually two people.
Robin:
Yeah. Yeah, it is. I think, there’s a lot of artists that I know that work like this though. It’s a very time consuming job. So you need someone that can handle everything and help to organize all aspects of the business. So my name is Robin Velgh, Born in Belgium, and I think I started rhymezlikedimez, I would say, six years ago.
I started during the end of an internship, I realized I really wanted to have like my own visual aesthetic, because I had something, but it wasn’t out there enough. I also wanted to have a reason for myself to keep pushing my independent work because I was starting to do drawings and animations for money. I was afraid that I would lose that passion for personal work.
So I just combined my two biggest passions, which are visual design and music. I started this page on Instagram called rhymezlikedimez. I started just like sharing tributes to my favorite music artists and music albums, and just like street culture, as a whole. It blew up pretty quickly. Like it was just insane how quick I got in touch with record labels and artists and cool brands. Then I met Freek, he was like my Youth Movement leader in Belgium
Freek:
Yeah, we were together in a youth movement. That’s something that’s pretty big in Belgium. I was I was like his leader, I was responsible for Robin.
Robin:
Yeah, so that’s how we got closer. And then after that, we were like leaders of the movement together. After that we were in the same city studying. So he was in the loop for when I was getting going with rhymezlikedimez,
Freek:
Most of it has been said, I think in October is going to be two years officially, but think it’s almost four years unofficially in a sense of just like being besides rhymezlikedimez. I work in the music industry at a record label. Being an A&R manager I have a lot of contacts in that world.
And so historically, before you entered the NFT space you were mostly doing commissioned work, or collaborations with musical artist?
Robin:
Yeah, it was a bit of both. I started out like doing commissions, just for boring companies as a freelancer. Then I started doing commissions with brands like Nike and Apple in the rhymezlikedimez aesthetic. At that point, they weren’t really collaborations, but just commissions under the rhymezlikedimez name. I also did these collaborations with music artists and created visuals for their singles, I did a music video for Anderson Paak and knxwledge. I did some visuals for Dua Lipa, but again, those weren’t true collaborations between the two parties, but it was getting closer. Then near the end of 2019, I started realizing that I really wanted to expand rhymez and put out work where our side of the work was equal in weight to our partner or collaborator.
So I kind of decided to quit most commissions and really start working on my own stuff. So that’s kind of how we evolved. But obviously, as a visual artists, you need that financial freedom to ignore all commissions. So the NFT scene helps tremendously with that. I think a lot of artists would agree that it’s amazing to finally be able to sell your digital artwork. I always sold prints and paintings during that period, which is also a form directly capitalizing and making profit off your work. But it’s cooler to actually sell the digital work than to sell a derivative of it. At the same time, I still have a lot of love for paintings and prints, I will never quit doing that because nothing can really replace the joy of working on a physical piece.
it’s cool that both things can live together though. I think a lot of people think very black and white. They think NFT’s are here now, the physical art world is dead, and the other way around, but that’s not necessary. I think the two can live and grow together at the same time.
In terms of the visual aspect of your work, you have a very recognizable style. I think if you see a rhymez piece it’s very apparent. Do you have some artists who have been major influences or that you’ve looked too that have helped shape that aesthetic and style over time?
Robin:
Yeah, I think there’s not like one, but there’s a lot of artists that really influenced me and who I look up too. There’s sort of two sides to it, the visual side and the business and marketing side. From a marketing perspective, I love how KAWS, approaches things and Murakami. They were the first artist I saw really cross between fine and commercial art. From the visual side of things, I would say, artists like Piet Parra and Steven Harrington. And then some old school ones, like Edward Hopper. The way he works with light has always attracted me and blown my mind. There are some other mediums I’m inspired by too, like Tarantino or the Coen brother’s movies. It’s cool to pull from different types of of media. it’s not like because I do illustration and animation that I just like look to other animation illustrations for for inspiration.
Obviously music plays a big part in your work as well. I know this is probably a tough question for both of you, but I know you saw it ahead of time so I hope you prepared. Can we get a top five albums of all time? Or maybe some of your top musicians of all time?
Freek:
I think top five is super difficult. But like the the best hip hop album ever created for me personally is “2001” by Dr. Dre. No, that’s the best album ever. Also I’m a very big hardcore punk metal kid so definitely would put something by Type O Negative. I think Robin and I can agree on “Nothing Was the Same” by Drake is in there. Black Uhuru too, I’m a low key reggae fan. This is so difficult though. I’m gonna wrap my head around it more. Robin What do you think? I like this question.
Robin:
In terms of artists, um, I would say yeah, definitely like, like Pharrell, Drake and Kanye are the ones that are obvious. I would say and then you have Frank Ocean and a Tyler but that’s new school. Old School, OutKast would definitely be up there, but it’s so hard to pick just five.
Thank you guys for humoring me on that question. I do want to pivot into some more NFT specific stuff. I’m curious about when and how you found out about NFT’s and now having done some releases, have you found that it changes how you engage with fans?
Robin:
Yeah, I definitely think so. It’s, I got into it, I think, at the end of last year, like it was just a couple people reaching out and talking about it, like people that we work with, and people that we talk to sometimes. And then at the same time, I think Nifty reached out to us, or was it the other way around? I’m not sure.
Freek:
Yeah, we had two friends, shout out Jordan and Tommy, who were like, this might be something interesting for you. It was November of last year, but we were still really busy with commission stuff. Then suddenly it sort of clicked for us. For Robin, there was always value on the collaboration, but we didn’t really think there was inherent value to the animation he was creating. We didn’t have the train of thought that you can link a value to certain animation. It was more about what derivatives or the animation are valuable, like a print or a shirt. But suddenly it was like, Yo, this digital animation has a value because of this blockchain thing.
Robin:
Yeah it took some time to sink it. It’s so obvious and also genius at the same time. Once I thought about sort of like the certificate that would come with a print, but for the digital world, it clicked. For the past few years, I had I had been thinking about like, Okay, this print sell really well and shit, but I really want to find a way to sell these animations. I had already thought about trying to sell an animation on a screen, but never got into production with it. I thought it wasn’t not possible, but it was a dream of mine because my animations were always the most popular thing on my Instagram and people really love them.
I really wanted to bring the music to life that you heard in the loop. I was always thinking like that would be so dope if I could sell something like that. NFT’s are perfectly made for us, and these loops that I’ve been making, the visualizers. Me and Jordan from Atlantic, we actually coined the term visualizer. That’s been used a lot now for single promotions, where a visual is just repeating during the whole song. We came up with that with that word when we did a visualizer for Lil Uzi Vert.
Focusing in on your previous releases, I’d love to hear the creation backstory for one of the pieces you’ve put out so far.
Robin:
I think I think the Mac Miller piece was by far the most popular one, I would say it’s the most loved one because of the story behind it. Separate from that, it’s also just personally my favorite. Since we were finally able to sell animations, we took three still prints I had made and animated them, then added music to get the full depth of experience. That’s why the whole collection was called “The Soundtrack To My Life Is A Drawing”.
The Mac Miller piece was already made without the animation side of it. It was just inspired by his life and the impact that he made on me. I didn’t mention him as my favorite artist. But he’s definitely the artists I know the most songs by heart, because he’s just in my rotation every week. When he passed away unfortunately, it was a very hard one to take in. I didn’t want to create something right away because I didn’t want to profit or take advantage of the situation as it was happening, so I actually waited a year. A year later I thought it was finally time so I just started sketching and it came to me in a very organic way. I just thought, I don’t want to like show any negative vibes I just want to celebrate his life and the way he impacted so many people. I just imagined him still playing on his piano in a super peaceful and serene setting. It came to me very easily. It’s mainly inspired by the song “2009” because it felt like that song is just the perfect conclusion of his career up until this point.
Thanks for walking us through that. One final question for you both. Is there anything you can share about upcoming plans in the NFT space or any other projects outside of it that you’re working on right now that people should sort of keep an eye out for outside of this next drop?
Robin:
Yeah, there’s, there’s a lot going on here. We have a lot of stuff in the works. Stuff that we’ve been talking and working on for the last year. In the NFT space, we have some ideas, but I can’t talk too much about it. You’ll see it unfold though.
Rhymezlikedimez will be releasing a series of NFT’s in collaboration with KidSuper Studios that ties into a physical collaboration they did. The drop is this Friday, 10/01/21 at 6:30 EST.
