Johnny Rapp

Enrico Moses

Gary Sheng

Dayana

Samuel Armes

Joshua

Marcus Noel

An Airchat-Podcast where Johnny interviews his friend Gary Sheng—a technologist, superconnector, and creator who devotes his time to all things human flourishing.

 Hey those are all really cool points Gary. While we were at the beach you were

 also chillin to Afro beats. What's your story behind Afro beats? Why you like it

 so much? How did you even discover that type of music and what kind of overall

 Man, first of all, Afrobeats, I think I go 

 through different phases in my life, but Afrobeats,

 it's hard for me to imagine why it would 

 stop being up in the top three favorite genres

 I'm very, I think I'm more optimistic than 

 I've ever been in a very grounded way as well.

 So I like to joke that you can't listen 

 Afrobeats for a long period of time with a

 frown on your face. You can't be in a bad state to do that, right?

 I almost feel like it filters, it's a self-selecting filter of people.

 If someone says that they love Afrobeats, you don't have to know what Afrobeats is or

 listen to it or have been exposed to it.

 I'm not saying it's like an exclusive thing 

 where I'll have to only hang out with people

 to Afrobeats, there's a high chance you have

 a good personality, you're a fun person.

 I was just listening to a song that was 

 about positivity and it was just on one of these

 top Afrobeat song charts. How did I discover Afrobeats?

 How I discovered Afro beats? I first discovered a sub-genre of Afro beats

 called Amapiano, which is closer to a lot of the electronic music that I

 listen to. Amapiano is just like this generally very little lyrics like chill

 like low tempo electronic music that has Afro beat elements. You just kind of have

 when you want to listen to other people's what they have to say. You're

 not like focusing on any sort of vocals. Afro beats it's great to put on

 the background. And then like for whatever reason people like just oh wow

 oh I'm a fan of Afro beats, I'm a fan of

 Amapiano. And then I was like oh Afro beats is the the super genre of Amapiano

 is so good. It's like a better form of pop music in my mind and look

 can't understand most of the lyrics so I

 can still study to the really good vibe and good vocal music. And then

 like Zuzalu came around when I was like I want more people to experience the

 Afro beats party with some of my friends at

 Afro-politan, this digital nation for black empowerment. And people had a great

 time so it just keeps reinforcing this loop.

 And as far as the role that music plays in my life

 I mean, I've kind of felt like an outcast for 

 almost all my life or at least I have not fit in a mold

 And I felt more at home listening to R&B and hip-hop

 like Usher on MTV and VH1 You know all sorts of like 90s hip-hop

 Etc just listening in my room alone and kind of 

 feeling a loner but like feeling also empowered by this music

 so it was kind of like a spiritual medicine 

 even before I had the words to describe it and

 I was in the kind of a depressive state and then I discovered feel-good electronic music

 Mostly tropical house and that was my my cure and I like 

 over time. I've just become self speaking of self-awareness

 I've just become more self-aware that I'm a very 

 inspired person where I really like hearing people's voices

 I really like hearing music and it charges me up

 so like The mix of the two is very nice coffee and music

 But like if I just need to get a boost and I just 

 listen to some high-energy music I can just wake up

 So that's for me personally on one dimension

 And then on a broader dimension, I've been throwing parties for years in different regards.

 I threw unsanctioned parties in my boarding school in high school.

 I would literally roll out giant speakers to this common area and the parties were so

 negotiate with the school to just give me certain hours

 where I could have these little dance parties.

 And then I, fast forward, I threw a bunch 

 of parties in college and then fast forward

 I threw two dozen parties and concerts in 

 New York and LA as part of this brand called

 Dancing Pineapple, which was just so much fun.

 I wanted to bring the spiritual medicine to people that I was getting so much benefit

 from and it was amazing. A lot of the artists that I 

 worked with in 2016 and 2017 are now really high up on the

 Coachella roster and other huge music festivals.

 Speaking of events, I think there's a few 

 things that are more exciting to me than the

 prospect of contributing to the biggest music festivals in the world that are also going

 to be innovator festivals. So I like mix-mashing different kinds of stuff.

 Like I like a lot of music that mish-mashes different sounds.

 I just feel like there's so much love, so many beautiful patterns that we can mix-mash

 together. Then like, okay, music itself is like a macro pattern.

 Innovation and tech is another macro pattern.

 How do we get an artist to talk to innovators a lot more?

 So I want to create these global, cultural, and innovation festivals.

 And then within just culture, I want to see country music be headlined with Afro beats,

 be headlined with reggaeton and other Latin American music, and also K-pop.

 And I want to create global cultural festivals 

 where you get a taste of these different global

 cultures. Also in a way that is not wildly inaccessible like Coachella is for most people.

 I also want to host, not necessarily for consumers, but for artists and innovators, just smaller

 summits. Imagine 200-300 person summits where everyone is super, super finely selected, and they're

 all people that want to help usher in a golden age for humanity.

 So it's two kinds of events that I want to be 

 part of, these leadership summits of visionary

 artists and innovators, and then also mass market type of huge music festivals, cultural

 festivals where thousands and thousands of people attend, and there's entire documentaries

 It's fun for me to be in this car right now 

 you, Sam, and listen to a lot of music you love

 because I just love understanding what other people love in general, but especially their music perhaps.

 And I just don't think that there's one best genre.

 I mean, Afrobeats is definitely one that I'm most listening to right now,

 but I think different genres have different purposes at different times for different audiences.

 And I think if you're able to appreciate more kinds of music, it's kind 

 a good proxy that you're able to appreciate more different kinds of life.

 I think life is beautiful overall. I think there's many different valid ways to live life.

 So, you know, one genre that we bonded over was funk.

 This high energy Russia, Russia origin genre 

 that's just super good for working out and just like,

 almost like if you want to assassinate someone, you put on funk.

 And then I also love classical music. I like country music.

 It just depends. It really just depends who you're hanging out with and what you're doing.

 And music and diverse music creates so much spice in your life.

 Hey Gary, great answer. I love how passionate you are about music. It's

 freaking amazing. One thing that I really want to pinpoint out though is you said

 that culture can be a Trojan horse. I think that's a really interesting

 statement. Can you expand upon that? What 

 exactly you mean when culture can be a Trojan horse?

 And what I see it as a Trojan horse for is,

 well, it can be a Trojan horse for good or bad things

 And what I, I think a big reason why I think

 it's so effective is because culture just resonates

 If some music sounds good, if some fashion looks dope,

 we can really, it's just kind of a great way

 to wrap ideological thinking. So I think a big part of why I would say MLK's

 civil rights movements, not just MLK's, right,

 just the civil rights movement was so effective

 was because the leaders dressed really nicely.

 And they also were carried by a lot of amazing gospel music

 and other kinds of, and other revolutionary music

 at the time, like Jimi Hendrix, you know, the list goes on.

 Culture really speaks to your spirit. It 

 speaks on such a more primal level in a way that,

 for at least most people, like a manifesto or like a book

 or like a super long podcast doesn't resonate, right?

 I want to use a specific example of how 

 I want to use culture as a Trojan horse.

 I see Africa as both a huge responsibility and an opportunity.

 colonialism and just, you know, it's had a really tough

 century. At the same time, even if you're just 

 acting from self-interest, there's just so much hungry

 talent in Africa that wants to build for Africa but also build for the world.

 And I think part of how you even get people 

 aware of that, people that have a lot of money,

 a bunch of money in China or whatever, is

 dope music festivals. If the coolest Afrobeats and 

 just like almost objectively good global cultural music

 festivals are happening in Africa, some of them already are, and you have some kind of

 innovator element to it, you bring them into the festival where it's very low risk for

 them because they're just going to have fun, they're going to see some really great artists,

 and you just make sure that they also meet some 

 of the leaders there that are local entrepreneurs,

 local artists, local civic and political leaders.

 You come for the music festival and you stay 

 for the long-term empowerment of the local area.

 Using culture to bring people in is a playbook that I encourage anyone to use.

 Especially people that feel like they have great intentions and 

 making a great impact with the movements that they're trying to build.

 Because people that are not very well intended are using culture to build their movements.

 So I'm in Florida right now with you. I believe in Florida's future.

 I think a great thing that they've done, a 

 very smart thing they've done is welcome Disney.

 They've almost become synonymous, or part of it, Orlando has become synonymous with Disney.

 And that's been hugely beneficial for the tourism economy in Florida.

 A lot of these kids and their parents, they may come for the Disney experience,

 they may stay for the Everglades and all the other things that Florida has to offer.

 So you've got to meet people where they're at to start, and then you 

 show them all the other things that they should value. And often it works.

 One thing you said that helped MLK be respected is that he dressed nice, which

 for some reason just reminds me of how important aesthetics are when you're

 movement building. Whether it's art or how you look or how you dress, you know,

 every movement, every political party, every political movement especially, has

 an aesthetic. So when you're looking to create movements, do you think about the

 aesthetic you want that movement to have and what aesthetics or what

 role do you think aesthetics play when you're movement building?

 I am absolutely a believer in the importance of fashion for movement building.

 Let me just go through a few examples. So 

 this first one is the Black Panther movement

 definitely an attractive ideology for a lot of people

 that feeling oppressed at the time, but they also had a very attractive

 set of attire that their leaders wore that just made 

 them look fucking badass. I think it's almost undeniable.

 Another example of a movement builder that looks good is my buddy Sager who

 runs, co-hosts the most popular independent politics show, has a left

 right perspective. He likes to rag on in a half-joking way people who dress like

 and I think it's smart of him to do that.

 As I mentioned earlier, culture can be used 

 be a Trojan horse for all sorts of ideologies,

 designer that worked closely with someone we do not

 like but was very effective at helping grow that movement.

 But to kind of further expand upon that, when you think of 

 movement building, what helps build movements is creating an identity.

 And I think clothing, fashion, and style help create an identity.

 But if the current movement that's kind of popular is based around the sovereign individual,

 how do you plan on balancing the idea of sovereignty with the idea of aesthetics,

 given that aesthetics are almost objective and sovereignty can be subjective?

 but I think it's just really important for