- [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by.

- [Narrator] Chattanooga Funeral Home Crematory and Florist, dedicated to helping you celebrate your life or the life of a loved one for over 85 years.

Chattanooga Funeral Home believes that each funeral should be as unique and memorable as the life being honored.

- [Announcer] This program is also made possible by support from viewers like you, thank you.

- [Alison] This week I learn how this Chattanooga creator found validation in the international art world.

- I was in rooms with the very best in their industry and when they saw my work they were like, "Oh this is dope, when is your show?"

For me, that was like, "Oh, I'm."

Then that made me think, we all are kind of like there already.

We just gotta put ourselves in those spaces or those rooms where we can be reminded that there is just buried beauty that we have in us.

- [Alison] Join me as I sit down with Genesis the Greykid.

Coming up next on "The A List".

(uplifting music) Genesis the Greykid is a visual artist, a poet and a musician who has spent has colorful career infusing a love of language into his many creative pursuits.

He's dubbed his visual style as PoAnguardia, a merging of words and paint on canvas.

It's this unique approach to his work that has made Genesis the Greykid a name to watch out for in the world of fine art.

Though he's based right here in Chattanooga, Genesis has made a big impression around the United States and abroad.

In 2021, his piece, "Computer Love", sold for a remarkable $87,000 at the London-based, Phillips auction house.

But despite the support he's received from art lovers around the globe, Genesis remains deeply rooted in his community here at home where he finds inspiration and poetry all around him.

(calm music) Well Genesis, welcome to "The A List".

- How you doing?

- I'm doing great, I'm doing great in here.

This is just a wealth of happiness, this room.

- It feels like it, yeah.

- Thank you for creating this.

- Oh absolutely, absolutely.

- So I wanna talk about your childhood first and then the evolution to becoming Genesis the Greykid.

Now I know a lot of people will go to a different country to have a child.

But I hear that your mom actually came purposely, to Chattanooga to have you.

- Yeah, she was.

So she was pregnant in Georgia and she drove, I don't remember how far it was.

Maybe an hour or something.

She drove to Chattanooga because there was a doctor that she just trusted and she loved Chattanooga, she wanted me born in Chattanooga.

She was born here, her mother was born here, her whole family and so, I stayed after I was born.

Stayed for three days and then we left.

And been traveling ever since but I moved back after I got grown.

- So your dad was in the military and you kind of went all over the place?

- Yeah, yeah, military.

The Navy.

We have a lot of people in our family in the military.

I used to kind of not like it at first 'cause you would make a friend, this was before social media.

So you would make a friend and then it's the whole you're leaving, they're running behind the car and you, and then you never see them again.

But over time you learn like, I don't know how to fall in love with just different type of people.

In one neighborhood, everybody's white and then another neighborhood, everybody's Black and in another neighborhood, everybody's Asian.

And in another neighborhood, you know what I'm saying?

So like, I grew to appreciate, I cultivated a love for people with all the moving.

- And it feels like that in turn cultivated this diversity of talents that you now possess.

- Yeah, I think so.

That then, and spirituality, very spiritual guy.

- When did you first realize, and not to put words in your mouth.

But that you loved words?

Because it's very obvious if you read your poetry, if you admire your artwork, your visual artwork.

Even if you listen to your hiphop or rap lyrics.

- Yeah.

- That words are sacred to you.

- Yeah they are.

I had a teacher that really cared in middle school.

A lot of the teachers didn't really, they didn't really seem like they cared as much.

Adults kind of seemed like they didn't care as much about kids in general, I feel like back then.

Like, not in a mean way.

Just, I don't know.

I probably, I probably shouldn't say it but I just remember back in the day being six and it was normal for just, like we'd just be out.

Just outside or hey, stay here, don't open the door for nobody.

Okay, we just stayed in the house and just don't open the door but anyway, a lot of the teachers didn't really invest in what we wanted to, what we loved doing, what we were excited about.

But I had a teacher in middle school, she really loved poetry and she challenged us.

And I wrote something, I took a lot of time on it and she read it in front of the class and then she framed it and hung it up the next day and it was just, it blew my mind that an adult cared that much about what I was creating and I have amazing parents.

Very loving parents and we're, I'm best friends with my parents but it was just somebody outside of that dynamic saying, "Yo, this is amazing.

"I'm gonna hang this up."

It blew my mind and I think that's when I started to really fall in love with language.

(calm music) - That early validation sparked a curiosity about the power of words and encouraged a young Genesis to pursue his very creative interests.

He spent much of his time sketching, rapping and writing poetry but when it came time to build a career, it was his talent at songwriting that opened the door.

So how did your art become your profession?

- A big leap.

Yeah, I always sketched.

When I was writing in the studio, I used to go write for hiphop artists in the music industry but I would always sketch.

I would always draw.

If I got put on punishment when I was young, I would always draw.

I loved being creative but I didn't, I wasn't surrounded by artists making a living so it always kind of, I didn't know how it was going to work and it wasn't until I was offered a record deal, and I'm not gonna say the label.

I don't want no problems with nobody but I was offered a record deal and it was just not a cool situation at all and they were trampling on my creative, my creative control.

My integrity, my, a bunch of things that are red lines for me.

And I was broke at the time.

I think I might have had $500 in the bank and I'm in New York and they put a contract on the table.

And at that time, it was the most money I had seen but it still wasn't a lot.

It was just enough to make you do something goofy if you, I don't know.

If money was something that was a motivator for you and fortunately at the time, it wasn't for me.

So I turned that down, I was like, "You know what?

"If I'm gonna take a swing for the fence, "I'm gonna just pour out everything into poetry and art."

And do some creative projects while I can have this inaction with people 'cause I love people.

So those were like the three things that I wanted to really dive into after music.

And yeah, I just, I linked up with some good people and I slept with my art for a year.

I just locked in.

I didn't come out for real unless I had to eat and I just, my diet was horrible.

I was eating wings and waffles every day but I locked in with the art and I really got to be okay with whatever, whatever happened.

You know?

If I didn't make any money, I was very happy still which is, you have to get to that place.

If, you know?

I gotta do this.

I can't not do this.

And yeah, I did a show.

At Church on Main, it went really well and then I made some calls from some friends in the music industry and one thing led to another and you know, I think if you, if you reflect some good energy, a lot of people buy into you before they buy the work.

And so, it just, yeah.

That's my long answer to your question.

- Well no and look, as much as art was a fixture in your life from a very young age, obviously.

It wasn't necessarily the career path.

You were an engineer for many years.

- Right, yeah yeah.

- And so you had, I mean, you did have to make a living right?

- Yeah.

- People have to, have to put food on the table.

But what made you, because that was a bold move.

To say it wasn't worth it even to have a steady job when I have this passion.

- Oh my folks said I was crazy, yeah.

That was the first jump was leaving the engineering.

I was at Earthworks.

And great people over there but it just, it wasn't for me.

When I want there I was sketching and I was like, "Man, I'm at work but I'm writing poems "and rhymes and sketching."

And I took the jump to pursue music 'cause I started making relationships in the industry but then when I got there, it's like, "Oh man this is not how I thought it was gonna be."

The breaking point, I was in Kid Cudi's studio off of, I think it was Houston Street and I'm writing a song in Kid Cudi's studio and I finished the song and the A and R, the guy that's linking me with the label he's like, "Yo, it sounds real good.

"Let's throw some gunshots in here."

And I was like, "Bro, I don't even own a gun.

"I wrote poems and fields and roses and paint and stuff.

"That's not even my energy."

He's like, "Nah, nah man."

He was talking about algorithm, it was just.

I don't, it was just weird.

Like yo, wear this leather jacket.

Put these shades on.

It was just weird and that was going to be what I had to deal with if I would've went ahead and signed that thing.

And I think I was like, "Man I already quit the engineering job."

And then I did this and it's like, man this ain't really the way I want to get it and my sketches is all right here and I love to create.

Why don't I just show people this?

And if they want it, they'll buy it.

If they don't want it, it's okay.

And once I got to that place, I felt like a lot of, that was my leverage in my mind, you know?

- It was that mental shift that allowed Genesis to go all in on his art.

With the freedom to produce on his own terms and fueled by the support he found here in Chattanooga, he began building a one of a kind creative brand.

So when did you go from being Russell, your birth name.

- Yeah.

- To Genesis the Greykid?

- 2002, well 2002 Genesis.

- Had you always been thinking about changing your name?

Or was this just one of those felt like an authentic moment for you.

- No, no.

My best friend, well I haven't talked to this guy in like 10 years.

I don't even know if he's alive.

I know that sounds crazy.

He went through some crazy moment in life and he just kind of vanished.

But yeah, his name was Joe Hares.

Really good brother, he just was dealing with a lot mentally.

But 2002, he was like, "Yo, I'm gonna start calling you Genesis."

We kids at this point and he says, "I'm gonna start calling you Genesis."

I'm like, why?

He's like, "I don't know bro.

"Just the way you be putting words together, "it's just different.

"The way you draw, the way you put words together."

Like you honest with your stuff.

'Cause at that time, everybody was rapping about drugs.

It didn't matter whether you really did, whether you shot anybody or not.

Everybody was just rapping about shooting people and all this crazy stuff.

So yeah, that's where the name came from was Joe.

He called me Genesis, Greykid came maybe 2005 or six.

I just kept running into a lot of people that reminded me of these kids with gray beards.

We all have a lot of, we're all optimistic and we have imagined anything is possible.

But you're not gonna get over on us, we still wise.

We old souls, you know what I'm saying?

Like, and so in my head, I pictured a kid with gray hair and so, I was like, Greykid.

So yeah, and plus, Genesis, whenever someone would look for me, this other band will pop up and I love Genesis the band.

But they pop up, or the Bible will pop up.

All this other stuff will pop up.

You'd have to go to page 50 on Google before you found me.

And.

- You were right there, right after God and Phil Collins right?

- It was crazy and so, I was like, "Yo, I like the way this feels."

So 2006 was when it all kind of came together and that became the brand.

Genesis the Greykid.

Yeah, I'd be walking down the street and my pastor would be like, "Genesis."

My mom calls me Junior and everybody else call me Bubba.

I was a.

- Bubba.

- I was a big baby, so they called me Bubba.

- So how does Genesis the Greykid go from the poet, right?

The middle school poet to this renowned artist right?

At what point did you get the validation you wanted that was on that same level as your middle school teacher but now as an adult, using your art as a way to express all of yourself?

- I think at the moment is, probably when I, probably when I went to L.A..

The love I got in Chattanooga helped sustain me.

It was like, it was like soup.

It was just warm, I needed that.

And that fueled this exhibition I did in LA and the days leading up to it, I was in rooms with the very best in their industry.

The very best in the world at what do.

They've dedicated their life for a very long time and when they saw my work they were like, "Oh this is dope.

"When is your show?"

And it was just a fellow person, that's just, that's pouring their everything into something.

You know?

When they say, "Yo this is fire."

When is the exhibition, when is the show?

That just, for me, that was like, "Oh, I'm."

Then that made me think we all are kind of like there already.

We just kind of gotta put ourselves in those spaces or those rooms where we can be reminded that there is just buried beauty that we have in us.

The world just has this way of making you numb or blind to it but yeah, that was the moment.

It was, and then after that, it just allowed me to take more risks and that led to some of the bigger things that I got press about.

(calm music) - That penchant for risk taking has certainly led to some big opportunities for Genesis.

During the height of the pandemic, he partnered with London jeweler Jack Moore and began a series of paintings that incorporated an unusual component.

Hundreds of hand-cut diamonds.

It was a piece from this collection that made a big splash abroad and made headlines here at home.

(calm music) Let's talk about "Computer Love".

- Yeah, that was scary.

Because that painting, it arrived like 20 minutes, 30 minutes before the lot number got called up and it would've looked really bad because they gave us, it already belonged to a patron and they gave like, two or three weeks to get it there.

But then some logistically fell through and it almost didn't make it.

And it was, and then once it gets there, the scary thing about an auction, like what we're doing, I love this.

Because it's cool and it's like, it's easygoing, it's laidback.

At an auction, the spotlight is on you and it's like, "All right, you got like 10 minutes to sell this, go."

Everyone's watching, you gotta sell it in 10 minutes.

If it doesn't sell, everyone saw that it didn't sell.

And this, and at that level it gets all political so then it's like, "Oh well, maybe it's not worth $60,000."

You know?

And then you're fighting ghosts.

Like right?

The person that ended up buying that piece, he also bought an Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol was the second lot after mine, four lots before that was Picasso.

So it's a blessing to be considered with these you know, greats, so to speak in history that have created, dedicated their life to creating this work.

But it's like jazz music.

You always, you always fighting Miles Davis.

Who's gonna, you know what I mean?

- Right.

- It's similar with poetry.

In Barnes & Noble's, your book and then it's like, "Ah well Langston Hughes got it again."

You know what I mean?

It's wild.

I personally kind of don't like auctions but I think it's just to continue to push beyond conventions, I gotta keep diving into water where I feel a little out of my depth.

I learn and I grow more.

I learned a little more about a certain side of the business I didn't know.

Yeah, I made some new relationships that are great.

It was, all around it was good but it was the scariest thing that I've done.

- So how you balance that?

This idea that you want to remain this authentic artist right?

And you've said the money part doesn't matter if it compromises your moral, that compass.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And to reconcile that it's okay to find validation.

- Yeah.

- In the fact that famous people or significant buyers find value in what you produce.

- Oh yeah.

- How was that balance achieved?

That feels hard.

- Yeah no, it's easier than you think.

I think, as long as you're being you, man it's all good.

I walk into every room as me.

"Hey what's up, hey what's going on?

"I got some new art, let me know if you like it.

"Ah cool.

"No, all right no worries."

Where do you want to eat?

Then we go switch it to something else.

The people appreciating what you create, that's just like getting flowers.

It's like oh thank you, I appreciate it.

They don't, it's cool.

That's how I, that's the only way I don't worry about it.

I think if you hang too much on it, like if you need to get a flower, like I gotta get some flowers today.

I got, somebody gotta tell me they love me today.

Then that can be dangerous, but yeah.

- So now in this world as you have become increasingly more well-known.

Even across the pond and, and a collector right?

People are collecting your work.

Whose opinion matters most?

- Oh I mean, mine.

I'm doing this for me.

I'm painting for me.

If I go through something sad, it's for me.

If I go through something where I'm happy, or I'm excited or it's for me.

And that goes back to it not being, no stress.

It's, this is all for me.

If you can see a part of you in it, then that just means I went deep enough in the well because we all get scared about something you know?

If we go deep enough into you or me, you go deep enough into that well, there's gonna be some common ground where it's like, "Oh yeah, you know?

"I'm kind of scared of that too."

Or, yeah I worry about this.

Everyone wants to be loved.

Everyone you know?

And I think once you get into that place and you're being very honest, then yeah.

People will see themselves in you.

(calm music) - Whether he's writing poetry or painting on canvas, it's clear Genesis is finding common ground with art enthusiasts around the world who can see themselves reflected in his work.

So I couldn't say goodbye without getting a closer look at some of his creations.

Okay, so I want to get this right.

You call your art, PoAnguardia?

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

PoAnguardia.

- What does that mean?

Did you make that up?

- Yeah, yeah yeah I did.

It's like, just me conflating the idea of something poetic with some avant garde.

I just, I wanted to give it a new word.

I didn't, yeah.

Some, my homegirl Audrey Schilt, she was the one like, "Yo, you need to call this something "or someone else is gonna name it for you "when you're long and gone."

So yeah, PoAnguardia I like it.

- And I like it.

- It's a long name.

But I like it, I really like it.

- It sounds, it has essence to it.

- Yeah right?

- Not that I know what I'm talking about.

- You do, you do.

I feel the same way, I feel the same way.

- Now Audrey is one of the many people you've collaborated with on your art.

What is that like having a solo piece or working alone versus having to collaborate with someone?

- It's like cooking in the kitchen with another chef that you trust.

And so, you know, I think we've collaborated on four or five pieces.

She roommated with Salvador Dali.

Her history is insane and she's a walking legend.

So I trust her a lot and it took her some time to trust me because she will spend like three months on these faces and I'm like, "All right here I go."

And she's like, "Whoa whoa, wait.

"Whoa whoa."

But she's learned to trust the way I cook and so when we get in the kitchen, it's good food.

- So when you're cooking alone, I mean you can tell some of it incorporates your poetry.

- Yeah.

- And some of it doesn't.

So is there a specific process you use?

Or are you just sort of like, I've heard you say many times, I love this.

You just try to get out of your own way right?

- Yeah and I get out of the way.

- Yeah.

- Sometimes I have a poem in mind but a lot of times, I just get out of the way and poetry, it is not all words you know?

My mom has the sweetest laugh and there's poetry in her laugh.

There's poetry in my grandmothers hands.

There's poetry, poetry is all around us.

It's like a feeling.

So yeah, there's more of that.

- And do you still do your music?

- Oh I'm always write.

You know the artist Mon Rovia?

He's from Africa?

A very talented artist.

They asked me to write a poem.

My homie EC asked me to write a poem on his song.

It's more like poetry, I don't really.

I get in a car and rap by myself sometimes but I don't know.

I haven't put out music in a long time.

I'm just focused on art.

- Well, and this art sings to us all, so.

- Oh thank you, I appreciate it.

I appreciate it.

(uplifting music) - [Narrator] Watch even more of the shows you love on the free PBS app.

- [Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by.

- [Narrator] Chattanooga Funeral Home Crematory and Florist, dedicated to helping you celebrate your life or the life of a loved one for over 85 years.

Chattanooga funeral home believes that each funeral should be as unique and memorable as the life being honored.

- [Announcer] This program is also made possible by support from viewers like you, thank you.