Profile 001: Jasmine Martin, 5735 Studios
My name is Jasmine Martin.
The fullest description of what I do? I’m a creative brand strategist. So I connect the music fashion, art, and film industries through varying levels of strategic partnerships. I build a long term strategy for a client -- understanding where they want to be in 10 years, on top of where I think they can go in the market -- and then we work backwards. 10 years, 5 years, 3 years, 1 year, 6 months. I work with their creative teams to identify the right brands for partnerships, from campaigns to capsule collections to merch partnerships, seats at New York Fashion Weeks to exclusive parties and events, or even a song licensed in a commercial or on the runway. Art partnerships, from visual artists to the right museums for performances, galas, support...because the top museums have a wide reach.
I’m essentially a connector. I’m an ideas person, so I come up with all types of ways to get them in the right rooms, in front of the right people. Help create the concepts that we pitch for partnerships to help these brands who get pitched all day pause and listen. That also lends itself to creative direction; identifying visually what a musician wants to say, or who they should work with to translate their vision artistically. Identifying the right collaborators and team members to build an image and their brand, which is essential in this industry and honestly helps them gain leverage in others.
And then, I’m a writer. That’s just something that I do every day, and I guess this is the outlet and platform to do it. I’m a magazine junkie, so I love reading profile pieces. But I hate when interview pieces are just solely about the writer and their interpretations. As readers, we’re pretty smart. Why not print the transcript in full, after you’ve asked the right questions, and let us deduce and decide how we feel? What we walk away with? Why don’t you just give us their voice and let us hear it, understand, let the speaker shape their own narrative.
I’m sure that’s why podcasts are so popular. Because everyone wants the truth unfiltered. And it’s more interesting. But those have to be truly fascinating for me to listen. I zone out. At least with interviews you can zoom through to the juicy parts.
How did I get here, personally and professionally?
I knew I wanted to work in the music industry since I was 5 or 6, whenever I wrote my first song. It was a little tune, gospel, about Jesus [laughs]. Somehow in that moment, and I remember it so clearly, but I knew that music was for me.
My family knew no one in the business as a family, but I knew I needed to be in NYC. For college, I didn’t like NYU so I only applied to Columbia -- early decision, I’m not that crazy -- and then used that network as much as possible. I found an internship my Spring semester of Sophomore year at a small label called Soda Pop, a J/V between Babyface and Def Jam, run by Babyface and Jeff Burroughs. Alphonzo Terrell, who now works for Twitter, was a Columbia alum. He hired me. We were focused on marketing,and this was around the time I started becoming obsessed with branding. Understanding how a musician or DJ’s -- I was DJing -- look could say so much about them. Jeff had tasked me with studying fashion, hair stylists, Rihanna’s whole campaign for one of his clients. I was combing through portfolios, understanding the entire Rihanna strategy -- this was 2010; which red carpets she attended, what did she wear, how did her hair progress, when did she start wearing Gucci vs when the partnership was announced. Somewhere in my research I stumbled on John Galliano’s Fall 2010 Dior Couture collection and I just...was speechless. As many Teen Vogue’s as I had read as a teen, I had never seen something so stunning.
That level of analysis really made me look around the market and see who else had this formula? What were they doing? I was also a Kanye stan at that point. Like, waited in the rain of Scranton PA to see his Glow in the Dark tour, and Graduation got me through a hellish first trimester Senior year. I was looking at his album covers and researching Murakami. Kanye’s videos. His fashion. Gaga was also at her height, and I was realizing there was a trend of conscious integration of fashion and film amongst the greats in music. Beyonce too.
My Dad flat out told me that if I didn’t get an international internship for the summer and ended up home he would be extremely disappointed in me so again, through Columbia network, I found a summer internship program that allowed me to work in Beijing, China at the second largest indie label called Maybe Mars. Specialized in indie rock bands. And China, as a whole, was a crazy experience.
Backtrack, I had spent the entire Spring Semester super depressed at school. I was an English major taking bullshit classes that I thought would never help me in music. I remember telling my mom that I wanted to drop out; this was before my internship. Even though I loved my internship, my depression intensified; school seemed so incredibly pointless to me having now experienced work doing what I loved, in the real world, but I was stuck there. But shout out to antidepressants because it worked out and I got through.
Back to Beijing; it was incredible. Freeing. And cheap as hell so we really lived our best lives, eating, galavanting around the city, partying, and working. I had never lived in a place where I was so outside of the social norms that social norms didn’t even apply to me. Meanwhile I was working with a few amazing people and these bands...they were phenomenal dreamers who had given up everything to do music. In a market where there were literally no music sales because of Google, everything was about these stunning artistic album covers and dope. Ass. merch. I still have a shirt from them and it’s still the best quality merch item that I own, both design and T Shirt quality.
These bands would travel to London for this big Battle of the Bands. I wondered, especially after studying Lady Gaga who also broke in London, what it would take to make an artist pop there? I decided to take the year off and find out. My Dad was SHOOK [laughs]. But I thought, when else could I do this? Everyone told me not to do it but I was so damn courageous back then. Again, we knew no one in London as a family.
So I show up in London, no Visa, saying all the wrong things which caused chaos with customs, found a craigslist ad for an intern and I ended up at a publicity firm with a woman named Pip Gill, who was and is an absolute Angel. Pip repped film stars, so I learned about red carpet publicity and pulling looks, pitching and finding clips, scheduling and how to be a confidante and friend for your clients. Meanwhile I was also writing for music blogs and getting into shows for free, sneaking into fashion shows like Vivienne Westwood, actually getting invited into others. Falling in love with fashion. Loving, loving London. Then I started working for a music management company, doing bios, digital strategy, and a bit of creative direction as I had met a lot of different fashion PRs and showrooms, being on the scene.
When the money ran out, London got really hard. And that was around month 7 because we were totally unprepared for the 2 to 1 exchange rate. But I hustled through -- got a ton of help from Pip -- and came back to NYC empowered, feeling super inspired and decided to launch my own business. My London contact in music hooked me up...and then I failed. Miserably. To this day it makes me cringe but I learned so many lessons. And even though I failed, I learned how to stand by and fight for my vision. At that time I had come to a new life thesis; musical icons were created when they integrated great music with fashion, art, and film.
I called Jeff in my dejection who taught me another valuable lesson — get over it, you’re going to fail and piss people off but it’s fine — and introduced to Al Branch at Hip Hop Since 1987, who were known for managing Kanye, Drake, Nicki Minaj. After two months of stalking him by calling him every single Friday [laughs] I finally got in his office. They were at Geffen at the time, and I got the internship the next week. When the work at Geffen slowed up Laura, Al’a incredible assistant who truly looked out for me and got me in the door, introduced me to the Interscope branding team. And I started working my ass off to build contacts for partnerships and licensing, focusing on fashion houses and agencies. I remember my biggest in was getting in touch with Faberge, the jewelry company who made the famous Fabrege eggs for the Russian Czars during the height of the Lana Del Ray hype. And I sold them on her. They wanted a face of campaign, song licensing, digital series and videos...the deal would have been worth low seven figures, high six. I was still an intern.
And my industry relationships really started there, at Interscope. HHS team conducted itself like a close knit family, so we had team dinners, they asked for our opinions on music. It was an incredible learning space.
It was finally time to graduate, late, and I had found a Columbia alum who was working at Columbia Records in a similar brand partnerships division; I reached out for an informational interview...this was around March/April...and by June he had let me know that there was an opening. I got the job, started in that department. It was great for a while, but I came in super determined to really gain more contacts in fashion and in art. I told my bosses this, that I wanted to keep my contacts from Interscope and expand, and they were cool with it as long as my work got done. Columbia taught me a lot too.
Around year two it started getting tricky with me and my boss. The whole department had restructured, he was stressed, I was absolutely over being an assistant and didn’t conduct myself like one at all. It got contentious. I thought the best way to support him was to bring in deals, pitch ideas. He thought the best way to support him was to be an assistant.
Long story short, it led to me resigning. Meanwhile, he apparently had resigned at the same time. And our CEO countered. Eventually I did leave Columbia, for other reasons entirely -- my mental health had, again, crumbled, with the onslaught of a lot of personal issues and me seeing that my entire path at Columbia wasn’t right. I was ready to grow, I was super scared to do it and to leave, and the Universe made me so uncomfortable that I had to go.
So I lept. Took a medical leave and during that time, realized that going back to Columbia was definitely not going to be good for my mental health. I left, and started my own company with my older sister helping me. It’s 5735 studios, named after my grandparents home address, where my grandfather was a painter and had a studio and listened to jazz music every afternoon while my grandmother read upstairs with me. That address was for me, a different type of creative home. I wanted my company to be that, to feel like that. I’m always about supporting the artists, the creatives, and the creative people who support the artists. It’s critical to me. Doing that makes me feel like I’m living out my purpose. Especially supporting Black artists and their teams.
When was the first time you felt seen in your industry?
The first time I felt seen in the industry...honestly, what jumps out to me is when I first resigned from Columbia. Kathy Baker was mentoring me through how to resign and said that they would counter. I was surprised...shocked. Everything had gotten so bad with me and my boss, I had an HR wrap sheet despite the work I was doing...I literally thought no one at that company saw my value. So I turn in my resignation letter and Joel [Klaiman, former Columbia GM] calls. We have a meeting and he’s like “Rob [Stringer, then CEO of Columbia] doesn’t want you to go. We thought you were happy here.”
And he asked me what I wanted to do. And they worked it out.
The other time that stands out was also then, when I was thinking about resigning. I was trying to get clients lined up, and had made managers and artists some money at that point so was trying to lock it clients before I jumped. I called Sean McNichol [Famoso], asking about Raury. We had been back and forth and I was ranting for a minute and he cut me off and said, “Yo, just jump. We got you. We’ll figure something out.”
I will forever and ever have his back for that, he has no idea.
Shareen saw me, when I started at Interscope. The managers and artists saw me. I was always able to convince people of my ideas, and could always relate to artists.
When was the first time you saw yourself?
I honestly didn’t see myself fully until I went to therapy.
Again, the Universe will make you so uncomfortable in your current situation that you are forced to move. When I was 26 that happened, in work, in my personal relationship. And I saw it coming, like a slow moving train wreck. Subconsciously, I think I actually was waiting for it. Sometimes that type of pressure just makes the hard things a little easier, but darker.
Again, I left Columbia on medical leave and had to go to therapy to work everything out. But my therapist...my God. A gem. I don’t remember exactly how many months we had been working together but it was a sunny Friday and we were going through all my feelings at work, feeling closer to artists and their teams than 90% of my colleagues. Not understanding why people didn’t get my perspective on what was a worthwhile endeavour, why I wasn’t about the bottom line or getting in on time and she, after having been listening, just simply said:
“You see yourself as an artist. That’s why you relate to artists and their managers more. It’s why you want to be respected for your ideas and are confident about them. It’s how you want to be seen within a company. It’s what you yourself respect.”
It was the crystal clear calm of the eye of the storm. Where suddenly the winds cease and the sun cracks through and you get aligned with the soul of the world and everything...everything makes sense. Life has meaning, purpose, vision. That truth, that honesty, that clarity was like the connection to my higher self had been fully restored, newly alit, and it would shape everything that I did from that moment on. My vision of myself has only increased, and gotten even more clear.
What inspires me?
Everything. A beautiful shot in a movie. My little sister’s laugh. A walk at night with my boyfriend. My bedroom. The tenor of an artist's voice, when it cracks when they’re singing something emotionally raw. Jackson Pollock paintings, and Carrie Mae Weems’ photographs...and her voice, her voice is crazy. Spring blossoming. The Frick Museum, in NYC. A stunning portrait, or magazine image.
I always wanted to grow up and still be a child at heart. Still see the world with so much possibility instead of darkness or stiflement. I wanted to have hope. And so I try to maintain that, in all ways.
How do I see the industry changing for creatives of color? Black women?
Man. Ya’ll gonna respect us. Women, Black women especially, and all women of color --- we are the backbone of this swell country. Of this industry. I trust Black women to spot trends, uphold loyalties, maintain accountabilities, get creative, and get things done. And it’s really amazing to see how we’re shifting.
That said, it needs to continue to expand. I want to see more Black women for every Black artist I see. I want us to be given that respect, outright, instead of having to demand it. I want people to get out of our way instead of trying to steal our juice, or act like it’s not us giving these projects the edge they have. I want people to feel our power and bow down, like that Beyonce line. Honestly that line meant so much to me because that’s how I feel, 70% of the time. “This MY shit. Bow down bitches.” The other 30% I’m willing and wanting to learn, understanding that I don’t know it all.