Playing With Networking (Weekly Recap 9/13/2025)
September 13, 2025·0 comments·zg
How Being a Fan Got Robert Glasper on Hip-Hop's Greatest Album
Robert Glasper was supposed to play piano on one song for Kendrick Lamar. Instead, he caught a cab across town when he was tired, listened to nine tracks once each, and laid down parts for what became "To Pimp a Butterfly" - all in a single session. The foundation wasn't just his incredible musical ability, but years of authentic fandom and genuine friendship with Terrace Martin, built on mutual respect and shared musical obsessions.
This story perfectly illustrates how breakthrough moments aren't really about lucky breaks - they're about the compound effect of being genuinely curious about others' work, building real relationships, and showing up when called, even when it's inconvenient. Your network isn't just who you know; it's who knows your work, respects your craft, and thinks of you when something special is happening.
Sunday Music: Soul Sista, Make Me Over, and other Bilal-isms
What looks like creative dead ends often aren't dead ends at all - they're experiments that weren't quite failures but couldn't claim obvious success, gathering momentum for the right moment to break through. Bilal's shelved album "Love for Sale" seemed like a career setback in the early 2000s, but those studio sessions with Glasper and the Soulquarians created connections that would later contribute to transformative albums like "To Pimp a Butterfly."
The lesson extends beyond music: those little expeditions and apparent detours in your creative or professional life aren't wasted energy. They're where the real work gets done, building the villages and relationships that make bigger breakthroughs possible later. Villages are full of main streets, little roads, and dead ends - but the dead ends are where experiments happen away from the spotlight.
Money, Class, and the Armani Legacy
Giorgio Armani's philosophy reveals a crucial distinction that applies far beyond fashion: money can buy attention, but it can't buy the kind of respect that lasts. His approach was built on quality over flash, timeless elegance over trend-chasing, and being remembered rather than just being noticed. This mirrors the authentic relationship-building we see in creative communities - substance creates lasting impact in ways that surface-level networking never can.
The Armani lesson connects directly to how authentic creative relationships form: through genuine appreciation of craft, consistent quality, and the kind of understated excellence that earns respect rather than demanding it. Whether in fashion, music, or professional relationships, authenticity and class can't be purchased - they're earned through consistent choices that prioritize substance over spectacle.
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