"For the Love"
As people immerse themselves into a given area, they develop a “love for the culture”. Today, I want to discuss what people do with this “love”. The phrase “for the love” means doing something based on a genuine appreciation of culture. This could be sharing experiences with the world that has deep personal meaning or providing a service/good with no ulterior motive. For me, this phrase has the most positive connotation of the “for the” group. There is a level of altruism that exists when doing something “for the love.” It’s not driven by likes or retweets.
You are not looking to create future earnings by performing this act. Examples include selling a pair of shoes for retail price to someone who really wants the shoe to wear or throwing out a freestyle on a popular beat just because you love to rap over it.
These are the type of acts that built the foundation of the cultures we see today. I think about the times I’ve shared my thoughts about shoes with different companies. I can think about a time when I was pumped to talk about my favorite shoes (Air Max 1s, specifically the Parra x Patta AM1). My excitement in sharing my knowledge/experience to the world shined through my responses. I can remember going to sneaker shows with a dope pair of kicks and chopping it up with like minded people. I was just as excited to learn about a new pair of shoes I
had never seen before as I was to show off my pair.
During my last years in Indianapolis, nothing topped visiting my favorite stores – Got Sole? and KTF. I would literally spend hours chopping it up about sneakers, hip-hop and sports. The conversations that came out of those times have built friendships that stand to this day. For me, this is what “for the love” represents.
For a lot of people who have been in these cultures, their support of the culture was birthed in a similar fashion. There was a real interest in talking about hip-hop or technology and sharing things with others. Those efforts helped uplift the culture and bring others in to see what the big deal was. I believe all these cultures benefited from those actions. As time has passed, other people have entered in. While the love still exists, people now see opportunity for other things.
Fame and fortune have become common currency that people look to obtain. Those things can always come to people who invest the time. It is becoming clearer who is doing it for the love and who is doing it for other reasons.
By K Miles II