Back in September 2014, FUXWITHIT was still in its infancy. One morning taking the bus to work I came upon Quest’s Searching Sylvan. The project instantly captivated me and remains one of my personal favoruite hip-hop albums of the past 5 years. Contained at the end of ‘No Love In The City’ is an audio clip taken from Steve Jobs’ 2007 D5 speech. The quote is of Jobs saying, “People say, you have to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing. And it’s totally true, and the reason is because it’s so hard, that if you don’t any rational person would give up. It’s really hard, and you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don’t love it, if you’re not having fun doing it, you don’t really love it, you’re gonna give up.” This hit me hard at the time and immediately applied to FUXWITHIT, at least part of it. The passion and love were definitely there, but the sustained commitment was yet to be seen.
Today marks 5 year’s since Kash and I launched FUXWITHIT and this quote rings truer to me than ever before. My passion and love for music and the platform has only deepened with time. I’ve given FUXWITHIT my heart and most of my energy. I’m still writing on the bus, at lunch, late nights and weekends (I still work a full-time job). Most rational people probably would’ve given up by now. We started the site no clue what we were doing and no connections in the industry. I wear this as a badge of honour because it shows how far we’ve come. The first few years were a slow go, we were really just figuring things out and I was still working to refine my skills as a writer. We’ve come a long way from, “I wonder if I’ll ever be able to get an interview,” to sitting down and working with legends. But it hasn’t been an easy road and it definitely hasn’t been a quick one. That’s okay though. Not everything you want comes fast and sometimes you really need to put the work in to get where you want to be.
Watching FUXWITHIT grow over the years has been one of most beautiful and fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. I’ve been able to do so many things I dreamed of and connect with so many incredible people; from artists, to managers, label owners, publicists, promoters and fans. In addition to that I’ve had the honour of building an incredible team. I truly believe we have one of the most talented and caring writing teams out and we’re only getting stronger. Not to mention, the amazing things we’ve done with our video team and collaborators and the awesome photographers we’ve worked with. If you’ve ever worked with us in any way, I want to extend a massive thank you, every single person’s contributions have helped us get here.
To our loyal readers and fans, if you made it this far into this post, you’re definitely a real one. Thank you for every article you’ve ever read, every post you’ve liked or retweeted or any conversation you’ve taken the time to mention us in. Your support is a big part of what fuels my fire.
Lastly thank you to the artists and everyone in the industry who we’ve been able to work with. From interviews, to premieres, guest mixes and features, you’ve allowed us to create so much special content.
5 years is a huge milestone but it truly is only the beginning. We have a lot of big plans for 2019 and the years coming. I don’t want to give anything away but trust me when I say we’ll continue to get bigger and better with each passing year. I’m so happy that after 5 years, I love doing this more than ever and I am still having so much fun with it. Thank you for being here with me <3.
-Colin
P.S. If you’re in the Toronto area on Feb. 1 come and celebrate 5 years of FUXWITHIT with us at Nightowl. It’s going to be everything you love bout FUXWITHIT IRL.
