In this episode, you’ll hear: 

• How Riders Against the Storm was an entry point for Mahone to start NefrFreshr, the fashion line
• How NefrFreshr combines ancestral wisdom and present perspective to share a message while looking fresh at the same time
• How Austin fails to support Black musicians, and how the Black Live Music Fund helps to address that issue 
• How DAWA aids community frontliners and artists of color in times of crisis 
• How to recognize your community’s needs and provide solutions to those needs
• The importance of being involved in the community to uproot systemic issues and keep them from getting worse

 

 

Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone lives and creates at the place where art, advocacy, and entrepreneurship meet. In fact, he can’t seem to stop combining his creativity, innovations, and drive to build a more just world into one endeavor after the other. 

He started with Riders Against the Storm, a hip hop duo he created with his wife, Ghislaine Qi Dada Jean. Then he ventured into fashion as the founder of and designer for NefrFreshr. The Austin-based fashion line features designs that, according to the fresh2life website, include “some spiritual, social, and/or political coding” while also looking “fly and attractive.”  

As an Austinite, a creative, and a founder, Mahone experienced first-hand the inequality and injustice artists and entrepreneurs of color experience in the city. These experiences prompted him to venture beyond the arts and into the world of social justice. 

In 2019 Mahone founded DAWA (Diversity Awareness and Wellness in Action). Dawa means “medicine” in Swahili, and through this fund, creatives and other community members of color like activists, teachers, and social workers, have access to help in times of crisis. 

Mahone also founded the Black Live Music Fund in 2020 to address the needs of Black music makers and Black creators, helping to fund projects without having to look to the wider Austin music industry for support — something that was, in Mahone’s experience, seriously lacking. 

While his journey has taken him into social activism and integrated him further into the Austin community of creatives, music was Mahone’s entry point to that world. And he says it’s still his “main thing.”

Mahone teamed up with PJ Christie, founder of Search & Convert, to create the SEO websites for all his projects. Through Christie’s Black Businesses Matter program, they were able to create an online presence worthy of representing Mahone’s work. 

In this segment, Mahone sits down with hosts Dan Dillard and PJ Christie to illuminate the systemic issues that plague Austin and offer insights into how he blends art and activism. Listen to the full conversation of the second episode in Search & Convert’s Founder Spotlight series. 

If you’re as titillated by this conversation as we were, share it with someone you know — or even a friendly stranger.

 

Hosts: Dan Dillard & PJ Christie

Guest: Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone

Find Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

Read the full article in foundingAUSTIN.

Learn more about NefrFreshr.

Learn more about Riders Against the Storm.

Learn more about DAWA.

Learn more about the Black Live Music Fund.

Learn more about Search & Convert.

This blog was written in partnership with founding_media.

This Founder Spotlight series is sponsored by Search and Convert, an Austin-based marketing agency that can help your business get more leads through your site.

 

Transcript:

I started up the black businesses matter to just help African-American entrepreneurs in, uh, Austin and around the country. And, uh, uh, and I had always said, well, if, uh, to my friends, if you know of anybody, tell them to come find me, I’m glad to help. And then I kind of, uh, uh, realized it’s not up to them to find people it’s up to me to get out of my safety zone and go out and find people.

I was speaking with my friend Naji, who, uh, was in the black businesses matter program. And I asked him if he could make any introductions to, to anybody I could meet. And, um, he introduced me to Shaka. Um, after I saw his, uh, uh, challenge to the music community, I knew that this was a guy that I really wanted to work with.

Tell me a little bit more about what you did or what you started in 2017. We were talking about those a little bit ago.

Yeah. So I started calling on a 2017, which is called Neff refresher. Um, the Neffer aspect is a, is a nod to ancient wisdom. Um, I’ve always been kind of intrigued by hieroglyphics and that it’s a art and also a science and that our ancient.

Ones that are still here with us we’re just generations the sequels to that, that, that, that wisdom of not separating science from language, from art, it’s all one. And I really liked that concept. And so the Neffer part is a, is a nod to never TD. Wisdom comes from Egypt. That’s still, you know, we’re still a, still a part of us today.

Obviously the Greeks learned a whole whole lot from Egypt and the fresher aspect is about being in and now being in the moment. So we’re in the moment, but we have to understand that we’re reflections of the past. We never forget that. So we don’t leave the past behind. There’s no way to do that. The past is in the present and the present is in the future.

So next refresher is a, is, is about, that is about, um, being fresh in, but also remembering where you’ve come. And so, um, I started that brand in 2017, after years and years of, you know, just expressing myself through clothing and I’m a performer and a good car riders against the storm. Um, we started that group over, ah, shoot, 2004.

We started that group. So that’s what 8, 8, 18 years ago. Um, me and my wife, um, we, we started that group, um, to basically just express ourselves and over the year, People have always commented on the fashion and clothing that I wear. And I thought I’m a visual artist. Uh, I paint murals. I do all types of things.

So I thought. What about tying this art into clothing? What if I turned it into what peril and around 2017 before that actually, but I became more aware of it in 2017, the print on demand world, where you can upload your art and it can be shipped out, drop ship for you. And, and you can basically just upload the art and put your price on it.

And market it and people will buy it from all over the world. So that’s what I did. Um, I had an art show at Antone’s and had a bunch of my art, which is also featured in the clothing line and launched in 2017. And since 2017 has grown a lot. Um, and it’s basically been marketed to my community and then has grown outside of that community, um, right as against the storm.

Is abandoned is one band a year, three times in a row in Austin, Austin Chronicle band of the year. We’ve traveled all around the world. We have fans from all over the globe. So I’m marketing. It was, was pretty. I don’t want to say it was easy, but we already had people that were paying attention. And, uh, so, uh, that was a great, great thing to access them and have them support.

What I love best is. Well, the best is what you talked about was that you saw this need, people were coming to you and saying, Hey, where do I get that? How do I do that? So, yeah, so, so, so just already seeing the need, and that’s what caused that push for you to start actually producing for others to buy?

What other projects did, um, did, did, did you guys work on, are you UMPG and searching and work on together?

Um, so, you know, I mean, that’s a great point about, you know, just the knee. I think everything. Not everything. Most things that I do come from that as like, recognizing that there’s a need, I don’t really want to do something that somebody is already doing.

Like if they’re already doing it, it’s not that people, other people aren’t designing clothes, but there’s a certain angle, a certain voice or a certain thing that you have that you can offer that nobody else has. And if I, if I see that, then that attracts me to it and it makes me want to, to pursue. Um, ex the exploration of it.

In case of other things, I work with PJ, um, something called the black live music fund was something that started in 2020, um, as, uh, to address the need in the Austin music industry, because a lot of black musicians are not at the table, uh, were not included in the discussions and were definitely not supported in the same way that other musicians are.

And this is the live music capital of. In 1991, they took on that name since 1991. The black population has gone down incrementally over the last 30 years. So there’s a direct relation to people coming here. Oh, this is a great music city. Let me check it out. Let me come here for a weekend or whatever.

Hang out to black people, not being in the city. So every year the black population has gone down, but every bar you go into, what music are they playing? Black. It’s black culture that they’re experiencing where there’s rolling stones, you go and see, or whatever this all comes from black people. And so, you know, you have a city here that’s benefiting off of music, largely generated from black, um, stories of black culture, black, black, everything.

And you have a black population that is. So those two things, you know, I’ve been here 12 years and I’ve seen them myself. When I first touched down here, you know, was living in the east side right off of web Advil. And I was encountering a place called the hub. And, uh, you know, everybody I was encountering was saying, you know, it’s going to be over for us pretty soon.

You know, the city’s changed and this was 12 years ago. And, you know, I, I was basically, even though I was listening, but I was also trying to express to them something I believe in it’s like, so self fulfilling prophecy, like, you know, we have to see ourselves here in order to be here, but I also didn’t have a real grasp on his story.

Racism and systemic racism that exists here in a, in a similar way, but in a different way than it does in other cities that I’ve lived in. Oh, I see. And so, you know, this is a very racist and segregated city. I did not know that when I moved here, but my experience, my lived experience here over time, uh, brought me to that understanding.

And so, um, you know, the inability of, uh, the Austin music industry to really, uh, address the needs of black music. And black creators causing me to create the black live music farm. And so, you know, the idea behind the black light music fund is to have our own fund. Well, we can fund our own projects and, you know, not necessarily, um, look to anyone else, um, for that support, including the city, because maybe we may not know I’m not going to go too long on this, but there’s something called the live music fund.

And that was created out of hotel tax funds from the city. And I w I w I am still a part of the music commission as a, as a chair. I was at. Vice chair and then chair the music commission. But before I was a chair, I made a whole lot of noise. And this is what ended up leading me to the creation of black live music fund.

Because all of these people sitting in these rooms were talking about how hard it is to be a musician in Austin, how difficult it was to, to make a living. But nobody was talking about the realities of black musicians in Austin and black people in Austin. So as soon as it was hard, as soon as it became hard for, um, a lot of times, Privileged people to live in the city.

Then it became an issue that we needed to talk about. But when it was black people that couldn’t afford here and had to move the Mainer around rock Pflugerville. It wasn’t it wasn’t headline news. So there’s a bias there. That’s clear. That’s not, it’s like the elephant in the room. Oh, it’s so hard for musicians to be here, but I’m like, why aren’t we talking about how it is to live here as a black person?

Why is this such a difficult conversation to have? So I was just like, you know what? The city is, is built off of black culture is built off of black music. We need to have a black live music fun. And obviously that is legally is something that the city can. Really accomplished you can’t say we’re just going to give money to black music, but I made the statement to make a point and saying like, we have designed music fund, we should give half of this money to black musicians, period.

That’s just, that’s just only fair. Um, but knowing that the city couldn’t really make that happen, I started the black live music phenomenon. And so far we’ve raised almost $20,000. It’s a part of an organism, another organization that started called Dawa and we’ll be hopefully in 2020 to start. Um, um, you know, releasing some of that funding so that black musicians can do their thing and the city.

Very cool. Yeah. And all I did, all I did was just build the website. Right. I could tell that that something, something really great had to happen and it was going to require a catalyst to, to make it happen. And, uh, and so, you know, me and my designer, Casey, we just got right to work and we, I mean, w when you do websites for a living, it doesn’t take that long.

It’s when you’ve never done a website before that it can take forever. We, we got the whole thing done in like five hours and it does everything that Shaka needed it to. So I’m proud of our contributions.

No. Yeah. It was definitely something that I, you know, I needed to have done. And with all the other things that I do, you know, it was just kinda like putting it off.

So having that, you know, taken off my plate was, was huge. It was a fundraising arm where we could just tell the story of the black live music fund and. Very helpful.

What I love about what you both are doing is just all recognizing the needs and some of the shortfalls that, that are not being met in the community, uh, through music and art and all these other things, and you just get out there as entrepreneurs and say, okay, how can I beyond.

Uh, and both of you have your own careers and got you. You’ve had like build for your families, but beyond that, the giving back to the community is, is super encouraging in the, in the work that you both are doing. I’m curious about systemic issues in the industry. Uh, shock. Are there any things, is there any systemic issues that you faced in this entrepreneurial community?

You’ve talked about some of the challenges and experiences, but maybe something that we could shine more of.

Um, in the, in the entrepreneurial community specifically, um, I don’t, I don’t know about the entrepreneurial community. I think, um, one of the challenges that I see as, as a tremendous amount of work.

Coming to the city and, um, that wealth, uh, tends to be consolidated and not shared. And so, you know, folks that work here, um, they may be even remote, you know, um, they’ve not really. Involved in, um, supporting the communities that they’re moving into. They just kind of, um, they move here and they don’t really get involved.

They don’t really look around and see what what’s what’s needed out here is there’s a real disconnection. Um, and I see that, you know, in LA and the tech community, which is huge here, there’s so many people moving here. Um, from other tech cities or, you know, coming here to create startups. Um, but there’s, there’s a disconnect between, um, these folks and the city that they’re actually living in.

Um, the people that have actually been here historically, and some of the issues that they face, um, as, as residents, because of these, uh, new residents that are moving here. So it’s like you’re moving here has a huge impact on property values and a huge impact. And just the city overall, but you’re not really giving much back.

Right. You take, you’re creating problems that you may not be aware of. And you’re living in a, in a sort of bubble, um, where, you know, you felt like, well, I’m solving these problems out in the world, but you have no idea of the problems that, um, exists. Right around the corner.

Yeah. Yeah. And I would say I would, I would just add on that, you know, that’s, that’s a tech challenge and that’s, that’s my challenge.

You know, my, my challenge was exactly what Shaka was saying, getting out of my own, uh, getting out of my own apartment, going out to see the music, but, but also just getting involved in the, in the community and, uh, you know, the. Challenge of black businesses matter is how are we as tech and as entrepreneurs are we gonna, are we gonna, uh, grow this, be a part of it and, uh, and help our brothers, you know, frankly, it’s a, it, none of us, none of us are going to enjoy living in a city without black people in it.

I can tell you that right now. Right? I don’t want to live in a city without black people

in it, for sure. Yeah. I am curious. We’re here to celebrate black entrepreneurs in us. Chaka. Do you have a favorite or inspiring entrepreneur?

Um, if you, uh, check out fresh, alive, calm, right now, you can see kind of my biggest, um, aspirations.

And, um, he has a quote. It says the highest human act is to inspire. His name was Nipsey hussle. Um, he was born and raised in LA Los Angeles. He’s an entrepreneur, he’s a musician it’s community activity. Um, he got, he was getting involved in tech, create opportunities for young people to learn coding and tech in his community.

Um, he used his influence and his brand, um, to impact his community. He understood the struggles in his community and he really, um, took it on himself to. Be the change that he wanted to see in the world. So he was really, really highly intentional about the moves that he was making. And he started from the bottom, like Drake said he started from the bottom, but he didn’t start from the bottom.

Um, you know, this guy truly started from, you know, the street level and, you know, ended up being nominated for a Grammy. Um, Um, unfortunately he, his life was taken, um, I think it was 35. He was murdered right outside of his, his store actually in the community that he was born and raised in. Um, so it’s a sad, it’s a sad ending, but, um, he lived his life to the fullest and he believed in, um, and, and community, and he believed in entrepreneurship and he believed in his ability to inspire the next generation and, you know, I’m a part of a group called riders against the storm.

And you know, some people have heard us, some people haven’t, but we get our name from a group called sweet honey in the rock. And they’re all female acapella group. Um, they’ve been singing, uh, since the sixties freedom songs and really have this beautiful, these beautiful harmonies of songs that they sing.

They have a song called Ellis. And it’s taken from the lyrics of taken from Ella baker activist, civil rights activist. And in the song, they talk about passing the torch, the young who will run against the stall. And so, you know, we’re, we’re children, other civil rights. My parents met at urban league conference.

They were involved in the civil rights movement. Um, I’m that generation that took the torch from them and we’re, you know, we’re riders against the storm. So I take that really seriously. I feel like we have a responsibility. Um, and that’s, that’s embedded in everything that I do. And I feel like Nipsey had that same feeling that, you know, we have a responsibility for future generations.

We have to show them, you know, the, the lead bags.

Very cool. I love that story. I’m so, so happy you shared that with us. Cause it’s, it’s, it’s through these stories. That mean something to us that others can learn and appreciate the art and, and, and people’s lives. So thank you for sharing that for sure. My last question, and this is really something I want to throw out for both of you.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs in Austin? This is, this, this program is called masters and founders because, you know, there’s, there’s people like yourself and people like myself and PJ that are out there, you know, put their own shingle out and doing their own thing. But there’s people like, as you mentioned behind us, that that need to carry that torch.

So what advice do you have French person?

Uh, you know, my best and entrepreneurs is, you know, once you find something that you’re passionate about, Just make sure that, you know, it’s something that’s needed, you know, because anything that I’ve done has been successful because it’s something that actually resonates with somebody.

I don’t invest in Intuit until I see that there’s actually, you know, a resonance, you know, If you want to start a cookie business and you know, you make cookies and you, you know, you hand them out to your friends and they don’t really say anything like positive about it. You know, you’re getting feedback there that, you know, maybe that’s not the right thing.

Maybe people don’t need these cookies from me, but you know, you have to, you have to really get feedback everything from the clothing line to music, um, to the, you know, the black live music fund to Dawa, which we didn’t even address. It’s about the need that’s out there and saying that there’s a new. Um, for, for something to be offered, you have to see, um, not to not just think about the money, but really think about the exchange.

Like why. Should I have somebody that is out there in the community. Why should I want to exchange this energy to have that worked for us? I stood up this energy. I go to work every day. I have this energy when we, why should I share it with you in the form of currency, in the form of, you know, money? Um, why should I share that with you?

I work hard for what? Why should I release this and give it to you? What am I getting in exchange? If you have a good answer. Then, like, I feel like, you know, you, you have something, you have something there. Like, if you can really answer that question, like why should someone, you know, make this exchange with you?

What, what is your, what are you offering us a value? If you have a good answer for that, it doesn’t have to be a, you know, mission statement or anything like that. But if you really have an answer for that, then, you know, go after it and be willing to sacrifice the time and everything that’s going to take to actually learn.

Learn the terminology learn the ins and outs of, of whatever your, you know, you’re wanting to do, um, believe in, believe in it. Um, there are going to be plenty of people. Trust me like that. They’re going to tell you that, you know, you can’t do it or that, you know, you should be spending your time doing something else.

Um, but you know, you have to believe in yourself. Um, and, and, and just put in the work, man.

Yeah. Yeah. I would say the same thing, you know, it’s, it’s got to matter to somebody because if it doesn’t matter to you, then what kind of business is it? You know? And if it doesn’t matter to somebody else, it’s not really much of a business.

Anyway, the part two to that, and I would tell any entrepreneur, you’ve got to get your bread, right. Quite simply, you know, you got to know, uh, what you’re making, what you’re spending, what you need. Which don’t need get your bread, right? Yeah.

Uh, a hidden thing. I think a lot of these, uh, entrepreneurs stories is, you know, they don’t, you know, ABI often talk about the money that, you know, kind of help them get started.

And so if you don’t have. Money. If you’re someone that’s starting without money, then you know, you, there’s something else that you can find this is community or support, you know, it until you, until you can find the financial support, you know, you’re going to have to do a lot of on your own. And, you know, don’t feel bad because a lot of these folks that, you know, they put on the cover of these magazines or whatever, the Zuckerberg and all they say they have family money, they had all types of privilege and things that create opportunities for them that, you know, The average person is just doesn’t have access to.

So, you know, if you don’t have access to capital, um, then, you know, look around and see what capital you do have, because there are things that you may have privileged to have around you, that other people don’t community experts, you know, people that are into whatever you’re into. You can, you can galvanize that until you can find the capital, but you know, it is going to take, if you want to really get.

To a level, um, certain level you’re going, it’s going to take some capital, but I think there’s this, this entrepreneurial myth where it’s just like, oh yeah, see the knee, you know, create the thing and you know, it’ll come. It’s like, no, like at some point you’re going to have to find, you know, some investment.

Right. But you know, do all the work that it takes. Until then. So when you get to the investment point, you can really tell them your story. You can show them evidence of even without, without the capital, because a lot of things I’ve done are without capital, but I can show them. I can say, Hey. We had this impact with no marketing with no, you know, just straight, straight bootstrap.

Like none of that, we had this impact. We sold this much. So if you invest even more, this is how we can, how it can scale, but you have to have some type of record of that. Yeah. You know, so don’t worry if you don’t start out with a lot, it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Take a lot and figure out ways you can do it without a lot.

I started clothing businesses, print on demand via Printful the cost was the website cost and the, um, the Shopify page. And that was it. You know? So maybe that was 50 to 100 bucks. I don’t really remember, but at most a hundred bucks a month, um, and I was able to sell things online. You know, it doesn’t take a whole lot of money to get started, but don’t, don’t be afraid if you don’t have it because you know, a lot of these folks, they try to tell you that they, they bootstrapped.

They did it themselves. But behind the scenes, his mom, his dad has the uncles, aunts, um, that like really give them that initial star. So, you know, don’t be afraid to start with nothing. You can do it, but also make sure that there’s.

I I’d say also start young, you know, I don’t think that there’s any reason if there’s somebody out there just because they’re young that they shouldn’t get started in entrepreneurship.

And in fact, when, when you’re young is probably the best time to get started, because before you have a lot of responsibilities. Yeah. No, I’m glad I started young.

Yeah, no for sure. Well, this was a great interview. I really enjoyed, I enjoyed so much about. This conversation that we had, uh, mostly what speaks to me is the sense of community, but also the art and the, the need of opening your eyes as being present to, to what has been given to us.

Uh, even if we don’t have it, like the. Uh, the ability to create from nothing, which is, which is, which is really powerful, but also looking out for the rest of the community and seeing how, how, how to be helpful. Because I think that’s the part of our human journey is not only looking out for ourselves, but looking out for the community and how can we be part of that?

Yeah, I would definitely like to say, you know, people are interested in supporting, we didn’t get a chance to really talk about Dowell, but that was something that started in 2019 is, uh, in Swahili, dowel means medicine and the acronym is diversity awareness and wellness in action. And I started it because a lot of people like me create us.

Um, healthcare providers, people, we call the community frontline as people that are providing a high value to our society, but honestly receiving the financial rewards. Um, so you can be a social worker, you could be a musician, you could be a therapist, you could be having a cocky community impact, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect itself and your bank account at the end of the month.

So we created Dawa to be a resource, um, financial assistance, a safety net to people, um, that are giving back in our country. So, if that resonates with you, go to dabble hills.org, DAW, a H a L s.org. Um, we’ve given away over a hundred thousand dollars to that community over the last two years. Uh, we have plans a lot of plans, so join, uh, join the newsletter, it to a website, check it out.

We really appreciate your support. If you can, on a monthly basis, just a one-time basis. We’re part of the amplify Austin. Thing that’s happening in March. Uh, so check that out. You can find us if you do a search there and figure out a way, you know, that, you know, you can learn more about what’s happening in Austin.

Figure out an organization that you resonate with and, you know, support that organization on a monthly or annual basis.

I, yeah, Shaka, I love the basket. T-shirt I get comments on everywhere. So I know it’s discontinued. That’s why I love it so much. Cause nobody else is going to be wearing it. Uh, uh, but what’s what’s next for net.

Um, again, the journey has been, you know, it’s been a long journey for maybe not for other people, but, you know, launching in 2017 and, you know, just seeing the growth has been incredible. But this year I’m part of an incubator national incubator through Macy’s. I think people probably car to Macy’s before.

So it’s an opportunity to learn from them about how to possibly, you know, van and have my clothing line. At Macy’s or company like that could be a real game changer for you.

Yeah. So there was 600 applicants and 25 brands were chosen. So super I’m just a privilege and I’m really excited to be a part of that.

And they’re really teaching a lot about scaling your business. Um, applying for loans. You know, getting your business proposal together. And these are all things that, you know, I’ve been looking to the next steps I’ve been looking to take. So, you know, thanks to, you know, all the support I’ve had out there, like has got me to this, to this moment.