Introducing metalabel | Metalabel

In 2020, Tariq Trotter, better known as Black Thought in hip-hop group the Roots, explained his involvement in an unusual new collective called the Wide Awakes. “Throughout history, it’s been young people, creatives, intellectuals, and philosophers — the visionaries — who understood the power in uniting and who contributed to the greatest progress,” he told the New York Times. “What the Wide Awakes represent is the modern-day version of something we’ve seen at different points throughout history.” The Wide Awakes call themselves an “open-source network.” Anyone can contribute, and projects are made collaboratively using a toolkit the group developed. The project was awakened by celebrated conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas with an invitation to his artist peers: to make political change, let’s do it together under one name. This structure has produced a wide diversity of projects — public art installations; events; a mobile soup kitchen; fundraisers for social movements; fashion and

In 2020, Tariq Trotter, better known as Black Thought in hip-hop group the Roots, explained his involvement in an unusual new collective called the Wide Awakes. “Throughout history, it’s been young people, creatives, intellectuals, and philosophers — the visionaries — who understood the power in uniting and who contributed to the greatest progress,” he told the New York Times. “What the Wide Awakes represent is the modern-day version of something we’ve seen at different points throughout history.” The Wide Awakes call themselves an “open-source network.” Anyone can contribute, and projects are