Old Cool Revisited - Matt D'Avella & Asher Roth

asher roth ground up magic matt d'avella mistah f.a.b. mos def set free undrcrwn Dec 14, 2017

This post is going to be a little trip down memory lane as we revisit some old school as two once "young bucks" sit at a table and Ground Up on a wide variety of topics.

I first met Matt D'Avella back in 2008 when we moved the headquarters of UNDRCRWN to Philadelphia, PA. Before Philly, UNDRCRWN was literally a worldwide company with me (Jeremy) in Los Angeles, Dustin in New York, Pete in Taiwan. Ironically, we were brought to Philly because of our group's AND1 Basketball connections.

(The Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, photo taken at 2am on a little Philly walkabout)

When we arrived in Philly, a whole new era in UNDRCRWN had begun. My time there was perhaps short lived, but one thing I can say is the time spent in Philly was action packed and filled with lots of amazing people. Living near and working with Set Free (now of The Compound) was awe inspiring to say the least. I learned what a true Connector of people, places and things is through Free.

That brings me back to this quick tidbit about Matt D'Avella & Asher Roth.

I just saw on Facebook that Matt did an in depth interview with Asher Roth, some 8-9 years after these two first met, which I believe was here...

Asher came through to our UNDRCRWN warehouse/office in the Northern Liberties/Girard St area of Philly because Free was going to do an interview while Asher was in town. Asher was riding the high of his I Love College hit. Matt was just breaking into the land of video/film/documentary making. Both were about to begin a great journey. Not just them, but Gilbere Forte is in that photo, and he has been making lots of beautiful noise since those days too!

Matt came around and made some awesome videos for us at UNDRCRWN and got to follow Free around on his journeys. After I left UNDRCRWN in 2009/2010, our paths split but thanks to Facebook, I was able to follow Matt's exploits. He started making real thought provoking videos and eventually led to a great documentary you can watch on Netflix, "Minimalism".

Fast forward to 2017, and we see Matt and Asher connect once again. This time, they are both in the 30's (Right? I think.) and almost a decade removed from UNDRCRWN and Philadelphia. Check this interview... Ground Up.