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- The Resource: Donye Taylor Drops Gems, Grand National Tour, The Year of Resurgence + MORE
The Resource: Donye Taylor Drops Gems, Grand National Tour, The Year of Resurgence + MORE
2025, is that you??? 👀 We’re finally about to wrap up what feels like the longest year ever and we can’t wait. For creatives, we know a new year means new goals, new projects, new bags and of course a personal rebrand to remind people that we’re the creative directors of our own lives. That’s riiighttt - in 2025 we’re embracing pivot and reminding ourselves that at any moment we can take everything off the moodboard and start again and again and again.
That’s the beauty of being a creator. Possibilities are endless and we are ever-evolving into exactly who we think we are. One more time for the people in the back? WE ARE EXACTLY WHO WE THINK WE ARE 🗣️ okay.. now let’s dive into this month’s installment of The Resource!
BehindTheCreative: Pick up some gems from creative philosopher Donye Taylor 🗣️
Monthly Moodboard: The theme for 2025 is resurgence. What does it mean for you to become the comeback kid and start turning the ideas in your notes app into reality. Peep this month’s moodboard for some inspo 🎨
Picked For You: Check out these handpicked selects for you to watch, read and listen to 🧠
Culture Pulse: A TDE Takeover: SZA & Kendrick Lamar Win 2024, The Rise & Rise of Doechii, More on The TikTok Ban 🗞️
Donye Taylor
If you’re on social media and not following Donye Taylor, do it now & your algorithm will thank you. The Forbes 30 under 30 honoree is a creative philosopher and entrepreneur who has mastered the art of personal branding and world-building for brands. She has led marketing campaigns for Amazon, Tamar Braxton and Topicals to name a few. She also founded her creative company nüclei a brand repurposing everyday objects and philosophical beliefs into functional art.
Donye pulled up to REC’s Discord server, The Group Chat, to drop some gems on community, how she built her brand and more for our #spotlightsessions.
Q: How did you come up with the concept of nüclei?
DT: I feel like two things can always be true at once. If you're a woman, you can be sexy and you can be powerful. You can be cute and you can be fierce. Like, I'm just a living testament of that dichotomy as it relates to creativity. So I put all of these things together before I went in and figured out what I wanted my name and my product to be.
Q: Once you knew what you wanted your name and product to be, what was that initial first step to get started?
DT: I reached out to somebody in my community, like REC. That's why I love places like REC because there's so much power and value in people that are within your community if you just know how to leverage those opportunities correctly. People will help you if they see you help yourself. So as much effort as you put into yourself, I feel like people will naturally want to match that because everybody wants to be a part of something that's bigger than them.
Q: How challenging was it to maintain the level of creativity behind your brand?
DT: It's intricate, but it's very doable like creativity should not feel like that. It should be challenging in a fun way. But, it should not like stress you out to the point where you want to pull your hair out like if you're feeling like that about your idea or something that you're working on go back and try to figure out what the through line can be to make your ideation easier and to just make things kind of like fall into place.
For more #spotlightsessions like these with your favorite creators, join The Group Chat.
Sometimes the vision stays the same, but the path to get there needs a remix. Pivoting isn’t a setback—it’s a power move. Whether you’re switching up your strategy, testing new ideas, or learning from the L’s, every step gets you closer to the win. Don’t be afraid to shift gears, adjust your flow, and try something new—because the magic happens when you’re bold enough to evolve. Keep grinding, keep growing, and trust the process—you got this.
 READ: The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity The perfect read for any creative as you go into 2025. Complete with actionable tasks that will deepen your understanding of yourself as a creative. A MUST READ.  PULL UP: THE BUL BEY @ JOHNNY BRENDA’S If you love live music, this one’s for you. If you love good live music, this is DEFINITELY for you. Johnny Brenda’s present an intimate show featuring The Bul Bey with support from Balmour and AngelConcepcion on January 31st at 8:00pm. Get tickets HERE. |  WATCH: The Madness on Netflix Coleman Domingo puts on for his city of Philadelphia with this action-packed thriller that explores themes of race, politics and community.  LISTEN: DOECHII - TINY DESK PERFORMANCE Yes, it’s a month later and we’re still talking about TDE’s new lyrical princess. Check out her masterful performance at NPR’s Tiny Desk. |
 2024: THE YEAR OF KENDRICK LAMAR I think we can all agree that this year undoubtedly belongs to Kung Fu Kenny. And if it didn’t before, he solidified it with a surprise album and a world tour with label-mate SZA. Kicking off in April, they are expected to headline over 20 shows across the United States this summer.  INSTAGRAM LAUNCHES TRAIL REELS Instagram is officially rolling out “trial reels” to give creators a way to test out new content by publishing videos that don’t appear to their followers. The feature allows creators to experiment with new ideas and see what performs best without having to worry about how their followers may react. Trial reels are shown to non-followers, and if a creator feels good about how the content is performing, they can choose to share it with their followers. Is this a gamechanger for creatives? 👀 |  TIKTOK BAN LOOMS - WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR CREATORS? President Joe Biden signed a bill in April 2024 that will ban TikTok in the U.S. beginning in January unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells the platform to a government-approved buyer. The main impetus for the ban is national security. Lawmakers worry ByteDance could leak U.S. user data to the Chinese government if pressed to do so. The ban would force app stores to remove TikTok in the U.S., preventing ByteDance from supporting the app and providing users with app updates. What does this mean for content creators and influencers who have been monetizing off the popular app? Could this strike a huge comeback for YouTube or does this make space for a new app to come onto the scene?  J.COLE IS JUST WARMING UP It’s been a year for J.Cole but he’s ending it on a high note. He launched a new audio series – Inevitable – touching on his career, he announced a 2014 Forest Hills Drive tenth anniversary show in Madison Square Garden in New York City (plus a special physical edition with previously unreleased bonus tracks), and he also re-released his old mixtapes The Come Up, The Warm Up, and Friday Night Lights on digital streaming platforms for the first time ever. |
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