Converse strengthens its relationship with music and its position as a platform for creative young people.

A Converse has been on the feet of musicians, artists, athletes, dreamers, and thinkers for over a century, which is why the brand continues to build this legacy by acting as a platform to foster, support, and promote the work of young artists from various countries, many of whom are from underrepresented groups. These talents come together in the All Star Community. 

The brand invited emerging names from the rap scene, such as Whitney, Mulambo, Inara, Lux, and Xaropipe to collaborate with skateboarder Felipe Oliveira, Caue Gas, and Chuchu Kamei to co-create a musical track and a music video, mentored by Vandal, a prominent personality in the segment. 

The idea is to stimulate even more the names supported by Converse in Brazil and was launched with the exhibition of the collaboratively produced work at Espaço Fita, in Vila Buarque, in São Paulo. The event also featured pocket shows from participating artists, in addition to the project and the event, an interview was conducted with skateboarder Felipe Oliveira and rapper Vandal to discuss the project that blends experiences lived by various artists of different genres. 

Check out the interviews with Felipe Oliveira:

For generations and maintaining this legacy, CONVERSE as well as Chuck Taylor is present on the feet of creatives around the world. For you, what is it like to have the collaboration and encouragement of the brand for the creative development of new emerging artists spread across the world?

Felipe Oliveira: I’m happy to be responsible for this union of younger artists than me, who are more experienced in musical matters.

I’m launching my first project, an EP (N’AQUA), so it was really cool to participate and take the lessons along with everyone, to be able to use my experience from other things to bring together Xuxu, Cauê, the entire team that worked together and still manage to have VANDAL sharing with us in the studio, definitely very exciting! 

I've been waiting for things like this for years, to be able to bring my references from Salvador to create things that also resonate with my environment in SP.

In your view, what can we expect artistically and musically from this new campaign that mixes artists and creatives from various genres?

Felipe Oliveira: One thing that for me, is very Brazilian, is the mixing of things.
The Cauê, who was responsible for the production, greatly influenced the music, managing to convey a bit of each one, mixed with his style and direction in the studio.

In audiovisual as well, Xuxu directing the things in the video along with Xaropipe and Lux with various bold visions and besides that, with the willingness to make it happen. This greatly changes the rhythm of the work for me, having people enchanted with the process.

For you, what is the importance of Representation and Diversity for new generations who want to be increasingly active in the artistic scene? Any advice?

Felipe Oliveira: To be here today, I had to believe for years in this “diversity” that we talk about today. 

I spent many years coming from Salvador to the Southeast, and suffering a lot for not fitting in, or, honestly, just for being from the Northeast.

So, for me, seeing things like this project happening is incredibly gratifying, it relieves a bit of the shell that was created from so many years alone, trying to have strength and fighting against the lack of acceptance in our “scene.”

I hope this serves as a reference for other projects, and even for other young people, to also see that by joining forces, things become easier to happen!

Check out the interviews with Vandal:

1. What was your reaction upon receiving the invitation for the project by CONVERSE and being one of the national representatives of this elite team?

My reaction was a mix of feelings, especially because I knew that only something of this magnitude could come from Converse, something with the concern of this new perspective, with this profile and sensitivity. I was very happy and very grateful, in addition to feeling satisfied and accomplished because I managed to understand, or rather, I already understood the soul of Converse and seeing that this step was taken in Brazil and with me being part of it made me certain of what the brand truly has as ideology, as thought, as a change agent, and as truth.

2. For generations and maintaining this legacy, CONVERSE as well as Chuck Taylor is present on the feet of creatives around the world. For you, what does it mean to have the collaboration and encouragement of the brand for the creative development of new emerging artists around the world?

It’s a certainty. As I mentioned in the previous question, I had the certainty that I was waiting for something of this magnitude that could only come from Converse. Something with this concern, this perspective, and this sensitivity. For me, it was a stamp of confirmation that Converse remains faithful to its purpose within Brazil and continues to ensure that new stories are told, that all these new dreams are exalted and amplified, coming from the brand to the world through this new vision of a new world and new possibilities for collaboration, encouragement, development, creativity, creative sense, turning ideas into reality, looking at the new generation and making that link with other generations, that link with ideas and aspirations could only come from Converse due to its ideology and the role it plays. I study the history of the brand and know what its purposes and ideals are since its foundation, and the ideal is that Converse gives assurance of how it maintains this, not working with surprises but rather with a satisfying obviousness that embraces and generates comfort. In fact, Converse comforts with the certainty that it will do the right thing. 

3. What can we expect artistically and musically from this new campaign that mixes broad artists and creatives from various genres?

The delivery is grand, it’s an accomplishment in which all creative aspects, whether artistic or musical, were taken into consideration, enhanced, and exalted. Each musical detail, each detail of video, photography, editing, writing, look, sensitivity, and each detail of this range of creative possibilities was embraced, something that came from an idea of young and creative people eager to turn this into reality and deliver art to the world. Delivering new possibilities, a new perspective on the world by building something that goes beyond monotony and the “same old thing.” The key word is creative freedom and freedom of creative sense, of ideas and that leap in search of the new, of realizing a dream. Every aspect of this project was infused with extreme Freedom, that embrace of freedom is the main point, the freedom of creation to transform into something grandiose, into something worthwhile, into something that changes, into something that makes sense.

4. For you, what is the importance of Representation and Diversity for new generations who increasingly wish to become active in the artistic scene? Any advice?

The importance is to create links of honesty with yourself, with your art, and with history. These links of representation and diversity need points of culture, real and tangible points, living examples to nourish them and enable them to understand their own role within this process. Living and tangible examples, living and tangible projects, things that truly came to life, artists who commit and put their faces on the line for this fight for diversity and representation, and who deliver to young people what they so desperately need, which is the most clichéd phrase in this process: “you are not alone.” It’s about them understanding that there are people fighting alongside them, people fighting for them, and people fighting for them. My advice is to remain honest and true to what you produce, without fear of creating and without the need to fall into a creative cycle to please or to be accepted. Understand that each of you is an agent of change in this very petty and exclusionary world. When one of us starts something within representation and diversity, within the freedom of creation without constraints, we touch so many people that we might not even believe the power it has. When we look at everything being done, as an obligation to replicate things, to do “the same old thing,” to be or look like someone merely because the market wants that, to stifle your ideas and stifle your creativity, leaving aside the dream to follow another path that is implied to be correct, and when you look inside yourself and say your truth of wanting to do something, I have examples of people who represent this freedom, points of culture and representation. I love diversity within this; I can do whatever I want, I can dress how I want, I can sing the way I want, I can film the way I want, I can write and script the way I want, I can take ideas that are in my head and deliver them to the world without fear. This is the main point: not to be afraid, because God is art and art must be maintained with truth and honesty.