It’s been difficult to deny Atlanta’s impact on all things culture for years but today it is clearer than ever that Atlanta influences everything.
In just under a decade, the expression has grown to become a rallying cry for the city. More than a slogan, the simple phrase encapsulates the city’s soul and historical DNA, boldly speaking to Atlanta’s present, past, and future. Yet it’s an idiom neither conceived nor maintained by an official city office.
Unlike the famous “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” advertising campaign commissioned by the city of Las Vegas in 2003, Atlanta Influences Everything has a far more grassroots reason for existing. The concept, brand, and its must-have T-shirt, originated with three friends and business partners: Bem Joiner, Ian Ford and Tory Edwards.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
A native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Edwards came to Atlanta in the 1990s at the urging of his parents, hoping the relocation would help him escape what they saw as a bleak future for him in the city. Attending Atlanta Metropolitan College and meeting key city movers in those formative years altered what he believed was possible.
Today Edwards is a filmmaker whose career includes production work on current films and television programs taped in Atlanta, including Kevin Hart’s “Fight Night,” the ABC drama series “Will Trent,” and a variety of projects filmed at Tyler Perry Studios.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
This city still allows him to go beyond anything he imagined when he arrived, he said. “Atlanta, to me, is a microcosm for Black culture,” said Edwards. “It really is the place where you can come and see Black people’s best and worst, where you can see the problem and the solution.”
Ford, who came from Brooklyn in 1999 to attend Morehouse College as an entrepreneurial-minded pre-med student, agreed that Atlanta offered him more possibilities than what was available to him in the Empire State.
“Back home in New York, I would have to check in with a bunch of gatekeepers and pay a bunch of dues. And at the time, in Atlanta, you could walk into some place and be like ‘I want to do something’ and they’d take you seriously.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Ford, who works in Atlanta’s technology and creative agency communities as a project manager and consultant, began his cultural-entrepreneurial journey in Atlanta through his involvement in two legendary recurring parties in the early 2000s. “Sloppy Seconds,” which Ford said welcomed all races through a mixture of diverse music and people, catered to the burgeoning hipster nightlife scene of Atlanta in the aughts. Another event, titled “Broke & Boujee,” served as what Ford called “a safe space for Black, weird people” — one that, at the time, represented Atlanta’s community of cool kids coming into their own.
“We all had expensive tastes but weren’t making the kind of money to support those tastes,” Ford said.
While Edwards’ and Ford’s coming-to-Atlanta experiences help define the possibilities of Atlanta Influences Everything, it is Joiner, a native Atlantan, who brings rootedness and local passion to the brand.
“Bem is authentically a community guy,” said Edwards of his partner and grassroots activist. “He was raised to be who he is right now.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Growing up in the West End, Joiner, who is a regular presence in both community and entertainment spaces, experienced Mayor Maynard Jackson’s elevating vision of Atlanta through his parents, who met at the Atlanta University Center and found their slice of the Atlanta pie in social services. As a kid, Joiner rubbed elbows with children of Atlanta’s Black elite, including Mayor Jackson’s daughter Valerie Amanda Jackson and former Atlanta first lady Sarah-Elizabeth Langford.
“In my mind, I’m Maynard Jackson in strategy and Hosea Williams in accountability,” Joiner said, describing himself in terms of both Atlanta’s legendary mayor and iconic civil rights leader.
“In old Atlanta, it was normal behavior to be involved in things. And my age group, for a variety of reasons, just got away from that. But a lot of our parents were like that, just showing up, just being engaged. I think a lot of Maynard Jackson’s energy made people want to tap in in some form.”
Still, as gung-ho as Joiner is now for Atlanta, he admitted that he was happy to leave his city for Jackson, Mississippi, after graduating from North Atlanta High School. Referencing the famous 1995 speech given by Andre 3000 at The Source Awards, when OutKast won for best new rap group, Joiner explains how different the cultural landscape was then.
“In 1996 and ‘97, Atlanta was not this Atlanta,” he said. “I’m two years after Andre said, ‘The South got something to say,’ he added, explaining that Atlanta’s full potential had not yet come to fruition.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
After graduating from Jackson State University, where he studied mass communications with a concentration in marketing, advertising and public relations, Joiner returned to Atlanta in 2002. He found a place in Atlanta’s creative community which at the time was forming an economy — one that would help transform the city into the Black capital of cool.
In the early years of the Art, Beats and Lyrics annual art show, Joiner handled social media. Being immersed in the local music scene helped him find work at Tower Records, where he managed in-store events. He also played a key role as an event promoter in booking the first live Atlanta performances by two of today’s biggest hip-hop stars, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, when both were largely unknown.
It all came to a head for the trio when they began to notice that outsiders were not as enthralled by Atlanta.
In 2015, Ford and Joiner were developing a boutique creative agency called The Tomorrows. Through a friend at Nike, they learned of the re-release of the Nike Air Trainer SC High sneaker to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Olympics and wanted in. When that friend told them his superiors didn’t view Atlanta as a big enough market to warrant marketing dollars for the commemorative sneaker, Joiner was especially heated.
During Ford’s post-mortem phone call with Joiner, however, something miraculous happened. Out of frustration, it was Joiner, said Ford, who coined the phrase we all say instinctively today.
“Bem is known for his rants. And normally when Bem rants, I let him,” Ford recalled. Only in this expletive-filled one, Ford remembered a particular line Joiner spoke. “They don’t get it,” Joiner said on the call. “Atlanta influences everything!”
Ford sprung into graphic artist mode. He immediately put the phrase on a T-shirt, initially distributing them among their creative peers. At a pop-up at The Gathering Spot in 2015, Edwards, who was promoting and filming his own food event series titled “Dinner with Friends” at the private membership club, remembered purchasing one of those tees.
Months later, as Edwards took a break from the series to regroup, he couldn’t get Atlanta Influences Everything off his mind, and felt he could help Ford and Joiner grow. He approached Ford about partnering.
“What I think Atlanta Influences Everything is, is not about celebrities. It’s not about the famous people. It’s a storyteller brand about the people in Atlanta, like the creators, the entrepreneurs,” he said he told Ford at the time. “It’s almost like the Atlanta version of ‘Humans of New York,’” he added, referencing the viral video profiles which highlight everyday New Yorkers.
It was an easy “yes.” Joiner felt Edwards brought the stability he and Ford needed, and the payoff seemed instantaneous.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
After Edwards gifted the merch to a friend on Gucci Mane’s management team, the Atlanta rapper, who had recently been released from jail, was seen on social media jogging in the shirt. Not long after, Boston Celtics player Jaylen Brown, an Atlanta native, appeared on ESPN wearing the tee just before a playoff game against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018.
Edwards recalled the $600 purchase order because it was their single biggest at the time. “But I didn’t think it was Jaylen Brown from the Celtics,” he said.
Later that same year, Keisha Lance Bottoms embraced the brand, distributing a customized version of the T-shirt during the 2018 UNCF Mayor’s Masked Ball after-party, an event hosted annually by Atlanta’s mayor. Four years ago, she wore the tee as she spoke at a Biden-Harris campaign rally, underscoring its validity and Atlanta’s historic role as a change agent in her speech.
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@
Prominent figures in Atlanta’s music industry, including T.I., Killer Mike, Jeezy, and others have been spotted wearing the shirt. Feeding the early buzz, Ludacris memorably slipped one on during his 2020 Verzuz battle with fellow rapper Nelly.
Recently a hoodie appeared in a March episode of “Will Trent.” Even the elusive Billie Eilish, who is not from Atlanta, has been seen rocking the apparel.
Major brands with whom Ford, Edwards and Joiner have partnered include Sprite, Champion, Footlocker, and even Nike. They’ve hosted memorable pop-up experiences, including a 2021 bicycle and apparel pop-up shop at Atlantic Station with DJ Mars, who tours with Usher.
Their fruitful relationship with Atlanta United has resulted in collaborations ranging from The 404 Kit, a blue and yellow Atlanta United jersey inspired by the city’s culture, to short films like “How Freaknik Helped Atlanta Influence Hip-Hop and Culture.”
Today, Atlanta Influences Everything apparel is also sold in the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
During the pandemic AIE partnered with the Atlanta Braves to deliver fresh produce every Thursday in various Atlanta neighborhoods. And Joiner, who for five years served as community relations manager at The Center for Civic Innovation, helps keep them engaged with the community on a grassroots level.
Atlanta United commissioned a mural of the three partners for their Spirit of 17 campaign honoring 17 Atlanta community trailblazers. The mural, painted by Fabian Williams and located on Chamberlain Street, has been up since early 2022.
Atlanta Influences Everything is also responsible for growing Atlanta’s unofficial holiday, 404 Day. In 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns restricted in-person events, Joiner, Edwards and Ford joined with ChooseATL and Butter.ATL to launch a virtual 404 Day celebration. Jermaine Dupri supported the effort, spinning Atlanta hip-hop and R&B records for hours at the party, with tens of thousands of people remotely attending the live virtual event.
In 2021 they received a 404 Day proclamation from then-Councilman Andre Dickens, who included “Atlanta Influences Everything” in his inaugural address as the city’s 61st mayor a year later.
Their version of the widely celebrated 404 Day expanded this year to four days, adding a softball game and a scholarship gala, to the annual festivities that include a block party and after-party. “I really feel like there’s so much to celebrate here,” he said. “So much inspiration, so much innovation, so much influence, so much rich history, so much culture.”
They are particularly proud of the 404 Fund, a donor-advised initiative created in partnership with Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and guided by an advisory board made up of local community and civic leaders that include representatives of Monday Night Brewing, Finish First Marketing Agency, T.I.’s Trap Music Museum and others.
Edwards said they are looking forward to putting the funds to good use in Atlanta. “We started a scholarship to aid graduating seniors in the AUC to clear debt before they graduate,” Edwards said proudly, noting that they raised $20,000 in 2022, and more than $80,000 last year. They have since been able to spread financial resources to Atlanta Metropolitan State College and Atlanta Technical College.
Joiner was pleased with this year’s reception, which he likened to the early years of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and Art Basel in Miami.
“Scrolling through Instagram, 680 The Fan, 11 Alive and countless Atlanta entities have said something,” Joiner said, standing outside the Westside Cultural Center this year on 404 Day for their collaboration with AT&T. Jermaine Dupri DJed in an Atlanta Influences Everything hat, and Earthgang also performed.
AIE also recently soft-opened a new pop-up apparel shop in the building where their mural is displayed. “The pop-ups started being so successful that when they were gone people started hitting us up,” said Edwards of the demand. He said the company hopes to launch a community storytelling initiative soon.
Whatever the future holds, the one thing not in doubt, according to Ford, is their collective impact, and the truth of what their motto says about Atlanta.
“We know our T-shirts and our campaigns, and all our partnerships are doing something great for the city,” he said, “because it’s giving people something to brag about, to have pride in.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified one of the Instagram accounts commenting on 404 Day. It has been corrected to 680 The Fan.
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