Q&A: How to Be a Concept Artist from South Memphis with Dame Mufasa

Dame Mufasa

Dame Mufasa, poet and conceptual artist, is like really creative. Read the Q&A from our interview available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

ZACK: So I'm joined by none other than Dame Mufasa. Dame Mufasa is a visual artist, a poet, experimental performer, hip hop artist. Everything. I found out about you through Havi Green. I asked him, I was like, “who should I have on the podcast?” And you were the first person he mentioned.

DAME: The first.

ZACK: Yes, the first one. And I researched you, and I was like, I gotta have you on. So thanks for joining me.

DAME: Thanks for saying that. I'm happy to be here.

ZACK: So you recently released Church in the Wild, which is a magnificent album. Narrative rich storytelling, has seamless transitions. So I'm kind of a project process nerd. How did you start that? How did you conceive the idea?

DAME: I think for me, I wanted to do a serious album because I kind of had been doing fun projects to establish a foundation for streaming and fun stuff for people to come out to.

ZACK: Playing the game.

DAME: Yeah. So when I bust out trying to be serious, people be like, “where the vibes at?” And so when I got accepted into the Residency program.

ZACK: Crosstown Arts.

DAME: Yeah, I got awarded that. I was like, this is the perfect platform for me to kind of get away with doing the serious one. And it was the most important story. It's a bunch of stories that I just want to tell all the time. And so anything that I want to yell from megaphones, I just try to make it into a concept, and get them out as a project of some sort. It's a way that I can do that through a show, a visual arts exhibition or an album or visual video project. It's just me trying to get those things out. And so that was one of them. And it's something I can talk about for days, I could make it into a bunch of things.

ZACK: You can really experiment. What were some of the stories that you were trying to portray with Church in the Wild?

DAME: So it's a lot. One, it's a personal, autobiographical look into my personal journey with faith, spirituality, but also just "God is a love" type shit and what that means to me and my personal experience, and it kind of guided me through the process or whatever. It's the simplest way to put it.

ZACK: One thing I recognized was you're a very good poet. One of my favorite lyrics you said was, "My heart is beating my ass."

DAME: Yeah.

ZACK: That's such a powerful line. It has so many meanings. It's such a good play on words. How did you hone your poetic skills? When did writing start for you?

DAME: That's funny. I think as a young kid, English and writing was one of my strongest areas. And I always liked it. I always liked reading books or whatever. I liked the classics. Shit that people wouldn't think I would like to read, and the writing. I would be a poet if this wasn't 2025. If it wasn't not the vibes to be a poet.

ZACK: You have to be more than a poet.

DAME: I rap because if I was trying to do poems y'all would think I was lame.

ZACK: Yeah. I'll post a poem on Instagram. Two likes. But if I'm talking on camera, I get more. Just posting a poem is not as engaging.

DAME: Yeah, we gotta go back to olden times. That's what I would be doing.

ZACK: You'd be a bard.

DAME: Here ye, here ye.

ZACK: I can totally see that.

DAME: I appreciate you saying that. I'm really Trojan horsing poetry through gold teeth and hip hop.

ZACK: It kind of goes along the lines with being an experimental performer. What does that mean to you? How do you do that?

DAME: So another thing is, and this is something I was saying on a panel I did recently—I'm good with words, which is why I say I'd be a poet, but I don't think I'm the best at technical rapping. Putting the words together themselves—for sure—and I can deliver, I've been doing it a while and I deliver well enough for my style because it's my style, but when you think of people who just - they - I. You can hear me now. My tongue does weird stuff. My diction ain't sharp. I'm not no sharp, precise rapper. I can't dance, I can't sing, and so my strengths are in concept, words, and aesthetic. And so I'm really a poet and a performance artist. But so the experimental performance, it's because that's how I get my stories across, and I just, once again, I can't say I'm a poet and I can't say I'm a performance artist, right? So I just got to do this stuff and then the cool people catch on. Other people, they just vibe and it's fine too. But it's really what it is. I have to do these things because I can't do anything else. This is how I storytell.

ZACK: Yeah. And it's not easy becoming a conceptual artist. You don't wake up one day and be like, I'm going to be a conceptual artist. What was that process like when you realized, oh, I have all these different strengths and I can put them all together to create a concept?

DAME: I think it's funny because it's kind of just natural to me. I think I'm drawn to a lot of conceptual work, films, and concept albums especially.

ZACK: Yes, I love concept album.

DAME: We all love concept albums, people don't realize it. It was kind of like musicals, people think they hate musicals, but you love musicals, you love Lion King. You love Wizard of Oz. You love musicals. And so to me, it's actually harder to not make conceptual stuff. I have to challenge myself to do things that feel random because my brain just makes those connections, which is kind of how I get into the visual arts and curating. It's that my brain works in narrative, whether it's linear or abstract. It's going to make connections.

ZACK: That's the definition of creativity is connecting disparate thoughts.

DAME: That's real. That's true. And so I can't help it. And it won't stop. One of the reasons I have to make things is because if I don't stop, it'll start doing it too much. It'll build out into an entire universe, that I can't possibly—because I gotta make it before it becomes something I could never make.

ZACK: I got chills when you say that because I can relate. You want to create these huge universe, but resources.

DAME: Resources.

ZACK: Not having a team. How do you bring your worlds to life? How do you manage to make your ideas come to the tangible?

DAME: So I'm glad you said it, because that is another thing. Shoutout to artists. And people who aren't artists: this is something that you gotta understand. Whenever you see an artist do something whether it's me or anybody, even to the highest degrees, keep in mind that there is a compromise. So whatever it is, no matter how cool you thought it was, it was supposed to be better. And so we don't have team members. I don't have more resources than anybody. And so the other element of creativity—and shoutout to being Black. There's an artist experience and a Black experience. It's kind of compounded when you are a Black artist and you are making do with what you have.

I want to do cool stuff. Shoutout to Spek, he's my producer/engineer and the only other person that helps me do anything. No, that's not true. Day-to-day. It's like, we want to do all of these things but sometimes we just have to dial it back and go to concept. I gotta go high concept and intention. Concept and intention will take you a long way. And sometimes, it's actually cooler. Sometimes I'm like, it'd be cool if I could do da-da-da-da-da-da. And then I try to do the thing, and I'm like, ahh, I can't do that. And it's way fucking better.

ZACK: Yeah. It's more precise.

DAME: Yeah, because it communicates, but sometimes I'm nervous about getting too many resources. I've been in an experience where I was working on a project before with a larger group. And we had limited resources, and we did a bunch of cool stuff, and then we got a lot of resources, and I feel like they kind of slipped off, because of people getting comfortable with resources. And I could just feel it happening, and I just hated it so much. And so it's something that I always keep in mind, it's frustrating when you want to do the thing. But you got to be grateful for your ability to still create and still move forward. And bring things to life. And people appreciate it a lot of time when you can find the audience. Which is a whole another thing.

ZACK: Yeah. One of my favorite kind of artist is an artist will have an idea, create a project, and that project will spur something else bigger. You did a film. Called Eyes of God, based off Church in the Wild. And you premiered it at Malco, right? And you wrote an Instagram post. I'm getting somewhere with this. And the post you were talking about how you lost your job, lost someone close to you. Life was shit. But at the same time, you had this artist residency, and one of my favorite things you said in that post, you kept repeating it, was "Fuck it. Create."

DAME: Yes.

ZACK: Where does that mindset come in?

DAME: It's all you got. I know it's kind of toxic artist talk, but it is, it's all you got. And the people who love me. One, it'll give me something to focus on and something to put the—so I'm not a super emotionally expressive person. I don't actually understand my emotions all that well anyway.

ZACK: I think all great artists are a little like that. That's what they're trying to get out their art.

DAME: Yeah. So it's just when it's a lot on me and it's also I think another cliche, it's we just create more or better or more consistently or it's something that happens when life is kind of on your ass. If it comes, it bleeds through the process in some kind of way. And so for me, that might have been necessary during that time. I'm in the Residency now and I was like, this is what I'm doing all day. And it's like, well, I don't have to worry about the work thing. I got to still earn the money. So that's tricky. But I'm driving around a lot less because my car got smashed up. And so it kind of took some of the distraction. I'm just like, well, this is all I have left in the world is working on this. And I have some sense of control completing this. And it was a project that was first for me. Completing it all would have been a success for me. So I was like, people don't have to listen to this album. I don't give a damn. I needed to do it. And then same with the film is I did it and I was going to be satisfied. Even I did the screening, a lot of people came. I had to move to a bigger theater. Fucked me up. Because when we moved to a bigger theater, I was like, we might not need it. It's going to embarrass me. There's going to be people peppered in? But still, I wouldn't have cared if me and three people can come, I'm like, this is cool. To watch it up here. It's cool.

ZACK: You made your own definition of success, which is hard to do.

DAME: I just knew I had to make that stuff. And I think in times when I'm making things for other people, it makes sense that I need other people's validation because it was for them.

ZACK: That makes sense.

DAME: It's like if I'm making me dinner and is a little salty, but it slaps. But if I'm making it for someone else, I'm like, are they going to taste it? It's way different.

ZACK: It's a sense of care.

DAME: Yeah. I'm going to be like, it's a little salty, but it was my first time, and it was great.

ZACK: I want to talk more about Eyes of God because I think it's such a cool concept. Especially I love when albums when universes spur out of albums. What was the process like beginning, middle and end of creating a film?

DAME: So we shot the film on iPhone. People act surprised about that, which is the greatest compliment. Shoutout to iPhones. They are kind of terrible and kind of great.

ZACK: They get the job done.

DAME: Yeah. I think, when we were first—once again, shoutout to Spek because he helped me to do the album and the movie. He had to come on a journey with me because, sometimes I'm so conceptual. I hate explaining stuff. One reason why I hate artist talks—I did a Q&A after the film. People kept asking me the same question. I can't answer that. I'm not creative enough on the fly to give you a sexy, vague response. I was like, I can write it all day with, if you ask me on the spot, I'm like, uhhhh.

ZACK: We're so similar in that way.

DAME: It's like, I feel like it makes sense. I kind of just shot it scene for scene, we worked out the scenes or whatever, and I was kind of explaining it to him and I know when we get into editing he'll start catching it. That's how it is with me sometimes because he's super sonic heavy and I'm a words person or whatever. And so we kind of meet at the axis a lot and sometimes I'm doing certain things on the song and I don't think he knows what I'm doing until he's engineering on it, and it's like, oh shit, I see what you're doing. It was the exact same with the film. And super low budget, very, very cheap filming to make.

ZACK: I mean, it gives it a real quality.

DAME: Yeah. It was such a holistic process, by the way. Because if I showed you my calendar from back then, it looks insane. I was just looking at it the other day. Then I was like, so the album and the film and, then the residency, because I did a residency performance. All of these things was kind of just one big thing. And so it's hard for me to even try to separate what this was versus this because, we'll go shoot a scene for the film and then we'll go to the studio and when I get out and then I'll go over here because I go to this thing, and I’m still doing other projects on the side, but for the most part, I'm just immersed in all of the aspects, trying to get them done and not knowing if I will. So that's another thing, because I wanted to get it all done before the residency was over. Way too ambitious. But it's kind of a normal thing, I think, for people in residencies. I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna do that, and I'm gonna do this.

ZACK: When is the residency over?

DAME: It was a short one. It was maybe three months.

ZACK: Okay. Do you think you accomplished want you wanted to?

DAME: In a way, yes.

ZACK: What would you have done differently?

DAME: What I would have done differently. I think the only thing I would have done differently is—again, nothing. I can't do anything differently. Yeah I think I would done differently is have more help because I also shot a lot of documentary footage. Put together a doc of the album creation and the film creation and the residency and we got a lot of footage but we just don't have time to do all of this stuff. It's just us two. And so I was like, we can't do all this stuff. So I still have that stuff. And if I could put it together and put it out, maybe in a year anniversary thing, I'll still do that.

ZACK: The world needs it.

DAME: Sweet. We got some good, crazy stuff on film. That's all I can say. But what else I accomplished—I feel like I gave it my best shot. I kind of applied under the thesis of, hip hop is the most important art form the last 50 years. And it was the 50 year anniversary year when I applied and I made my case for that, and I was like, I want to give my interpretation of the art form at its highest level, to make the case or whatever. And so I did my best at doing that, with the space given. So I kind of used my visual arts background as a curator as a way to leverage to make sure I got in. But I really wanted—because I was going to do an exhibition, curate an exhibition there. And I never did it because I really was there to make that statement. Hip hop is fine art. And so I wanted to one, make sure that I put my best foot forward in that aspect. And then two, make it easier for future rappers to be seen in that light and get into that specific program. And so I'm like every time I'm doing something I'm like, I'll do my performance, I'm doing my things. I gotta make sure I knock it out of the park because I don't want to fumble it. I want to make it to okay for rappers to come in here and boost this program, make it look great. And so that's also something that was the only pressure part and in my brain I was like I can't fumble this for the guys. "Guys" being gender neutral.

ZACK: Where does that ambitious care come from? Where do you think that comes from?

DAME: I love this shit. I love hip hop music. I love art, I love Black art, I love expression, I love writing, I love film, I love people telling stories, I love relating, I love archiving, and all of this stuff is the most important shit to me. And so whenever I do it, I'm like, Tupac did this shit. James Baldwin did this shit. It's kind of how I look at it. It's sacred. When it's time to do it for real—I could play around, I like to play because I take thing seriously. I do projects where I play, like my Henny Hendrix projects. I to sing. I'm playing. But when I'm serious, this shit is for real. It's so clear, this shit is fine art. It is for real. Even when you can take a playful approach to it. This is a big deal. This stuff saves lives. It saved my life. As cliche as that is. So you gotta care. When you come in here, you got to think about how these things ripple into society in greater culture.

People will be like, oh, I just love Chris Brown. He's the greatest. Because Chris Brown loves Michael Jackson. Because he's the greatest. Because Michael Jackson loves James Brown. Because he's the greatest. And it's that happens and it happens back to somebody you just don't know. And it's that might be you. As egotistical as that can be, you kinda gotta move, you don't know who you because it's not going to be you. You're not going to be Kanye, but you could be the person that influences the person that does what you need to be doing. So you can accomplish what you're trying to accomplish through others. And that's kind of the point. And so it's up to you how much credit you want for it. But the purpose should be whatever your greater vision and mission is.

ZACK: You're talking about ripples, your art going in ripples. What kind of ripples do you think you've made with your art or what do you hope to make?

DAME: So my art specifically, that's a tough question. I know as an artist in the arts community, I try to stay tapped in or whatever. And so as an individual, I want to be somebody that support people when I can, help further other people's visions, whether it be actual hands on help or advice or plugging somebody in with something. I try to do the work I make, and it's not up to me to decide.

ZACK: Once you put it out there, it's their problem now.

DAME: I have people who I would hope appreciate things. But it's not up to you to decide. It's just those who get it, get it type of thing.

ZACK: So you're multifaceted whenever you're consuming all these things. How do you kind of channel that into your art? Is there a certain thing you do? Do you have a creative routine?

DAME: Routine? Nah. I be trying my best to be a cool creative. Because I don't think I actually am. I think I'm a nerd that has ideas and concepts and can walk right in and try to walk through them, but it be feeling so unartistic. And so I try to force myself to be more eccentric. And so I'm like, I'm gonna do this randomly or I'm gonna throw myself into it. I look for ways to challenge myself to think different. Because the streamlined way my mind conceptualizes stuff is such a reflex. And so, I keep it as a guide, a guideline, a basis foundationally and then on top of that kind of fuck around. And then see what happens. And find out.

ZACK: So one of my favorite questions to ask artists, we're talking about time and resources. If you had all the time and the resources what would be your dream project?

DAME: Dream project. It's going to be so lame and anticlimactic. So being able to do the project I just did with the film and the live show is kind of my dream project that I did. I want to think a big pie in the sky, inaccessible thing. But I think the things that I want to do I kind of do them. But yeah, I mean I kind of wish they were bigger deals but I feel great about doing this stuff that.

ZACK: You had fun.

Yeah. I think every project is a dream project. I dreamed it up and I did it.

ZACK: I love that. Do you have any concepts or themes you're exploring right now? What's going on in your life that is inspiring you?

DAME: So right now, I'm still on this recoil from this project. I'm kind of working on a bunch of different ideas and whichever one hogs all the food, that's when I go in.

ZACK: That's how I am, too.

DAME: And so right now I'm working on a few things. It is not yet clear who's going to come out on top. They are still kind of still rumbling it out. I got an idea. But I’m not sure yet.

ZACK: It's good that your inner demons are your creative ideas. They're fighting each other. It could be worse.

DAME: They keep me up at night just the same.

Where to find Dame Mufasa

Instagram: @damemufasa901