BLANK MAGAZINE INTERVIEW
MUSIC X FASHION: A CONVERSATION WITH JIBRIL OSMAN
There’s always a moment after I put on my headphones and press play on my music in the morning that the most vivid image of an outfit appears in my mind. These outfits are always starkly different from each other. Sometimes they’re literal (thank you Mr. Cardigan), but most of the time there’s an energy to them that only the song can explain. I know that when that’s the case, the day is going to unfold beautifully. So, I spoke to self-proclaimed music-nerd Jibril Osman about music and fashion, and what they mean to us and so many people. Are fashion and music ever separate entities?
BLANK: Hi Jibril, welcome! For the people that don’t know you yet can you tell them your name and what you’re currently working on?
Jibril: Yeah, so my name is Jibril Osman. I’m currently at Sony Music Canada in the Associate Media Relations role. I basically help artists get press which is funny because for a really long time I was a music journalist and publicists would reach out to me. So, it’s interesting to be the one on the other side but that is currently what I do. It’s fun being on the other side.
BLANK: How did you initially get into music? How did this come to be?
Jibril: [laughing] That’s a funny little rabbit hole of a story but I studied journalism when I was in school. So, that’s the writing background and then of course when you go to J-school the only thing they care about is you writing for Global News or the Toronto Star or for you to be a reporter on CNN and I kinda don’t like that. I like sports and music, but then I made a blog after my first year after one of my professors told a bunch of us that we weren’t good writers and that it wasn’t for us. He was one of those old school professors that was like ‘I can already tell this isn’t for you’ and he was actually right. I did not enjoy being a reporter. I didn’t want to go to city hall and interview people. You have to write in a certain way and use CP spelling and Canadian spelling. I write streams of consciousness. I do online pieces, that’s where I write. So, he was right but I was also 18 and it wasn’t really cool for someone to say ‘hey, you suck.’ Yeah, I made a blog. It was called “kidfromthe6ix” funny enough. Drake had a week prior announced ‘Views from the 6’ and it was coming out that month, so I was like ‘kid from the 6?’ [laughing] It’s so funny and corny. But then I noticed as I was blogging I was doing more music content than sports. I clearly liked music more than sports. That’s where it started snowballing. I got a lot of traffic for my blog and I started going to festivals and getting media passes.At a certain point, I realized my blog wasn’t going to give me bigger access. So, then I started writing for UK publications because as you might know Canada’s media outlets, music and fashion outlets, are far and few in between. Even if you want to get into the industry, there’s gatekeeping and there are so few roles so you end up doing it yourself. A lot of my career has just been built on the internet. That’s how I got through, which is really lucky.
Blank: That’s so fascinating that you utilized your connection to the internet. We’re all on the internet but you used it to do all of this. Obviously you touched on this a little bit, but what role does music have in your life? It’s a big question but...
Jibril: I just love music. It’s just…it’s perfect. I love writing right, so the artists that I listen to are really good song writers and have so much meaning behind their work. It’s corny but when you’re having a bad day you listen to a song, when you’re happy you listen to a song. It’s so encompassing to how you feel as a person. Funny enough, I was a music writer first. I would do online pieces saying why I think Lorde’s debut album is like a masterpiece and why she’s the bedrock of why all these ‘Billie Eillishes’ and ‘Olivia Rodrigos’ exist. I’m a nerd. Even when I was in Grade 9. I wanted to be a writer or I wanted to be a history teacher, which is hilarious because there’s so much history to music. I watched documentaries and it was fascinating to me. When you look at the civil rights movement and the music that was playing at the same time. Music is way bigger than just listening to it. It’s really a part of the zeitgeist. It’s a part of us.
BLANK: Is that why you started writing about it as a fascination? The way [as] nerds, we’re always fascinated by weird things? Jibril: I made my blog for fun. It was only when it started getting traffic that people started saying ‘well you can’t really keep that up’ and I’m like ‘I think I can’ and it snowballed. I got a Canadian Music Week pass and I thought ‘oh this is real.’ I look at it in a funny way because I know I enjoy this and it’s fun so it’s an inside joke where I can’t believe I’m being taken seriously. Even though I know (and it took me years to not be self-deprecating) that I’m good at what I do, I still think it’s hilarious. A lot of my career is the internet. There’s me and my blog and then I go to festivals and I’m like ‘this is real,’ from real life to digital. I just realized I was good at it and so ‘let’s see how far I can take it.’
BLANK: Just listening to you talk about music and how much you love it is making me want to listen to music now. So, what’s a song that’s currently stuck in your head? Because you know everyone has a song stuck in their heads at all times.
Jibril: Come As You Are by Nirvana only because literally last night I was watching Howard Stern and he was doing a small clip on YouTube talking to Dave Grohl and Pat Smear in the studio. He was asking Dave if his daughter talks about Kurt [Cobain] in any way and he said that his daughter is twelve right and they’re in the car and Come As You Are comes on the radio and she starts singing it and he never heard her sing it before and so that’s why Come As You Are is stuck in my head. That story just shows you how much of a nerd I am.
BLANK: But that’s good because it shows that music is related to other things. It’s not like it was playing and now it’s stuck in your head. It’s a conversation and now it’s in your head. But now I want to know what role does fashion play in your life?
Jibril: It’s always been connected. I was that kid who was listening to Odd Future and saw that Tyler [, the Creator] wore Supreme and when I finally got enough money I got a Supreme hat. I thrifted this Moncler jacket and I literally only got it because an artist that I love, Bladee, always talks about Moncler. So, it’s combined with that. I love music merch. I love being a part of that. Artists like The 1975, their merch is amazing because you can tell their creative direction and they care about it. Fashion and music go hand in hand, basically. Everything I wear: my favourite artist was probably wearing it. People might think that’s corny, but I don’t think that’s corny. I think that’s cool. You want a connection, right?
BLANK: Yeah, I mean we’re so so defined by the things that we like. I do the similar thing where I’m gonna wear something because I think someone I like might wear it. I’m always like Florence Welch might wear this, you know? Those little moments of connection. You mentioned a few but who are some of your favourite fashion designers or brands that you’re really passionate about?
Jibril: I’ve been really into thrifting lately and vintage shops that are online. In particular, there’s this one [points to shirt] …I’m literally wearing this shirt from there right now [laughter]. So, there’s an outlet that’s called Fantasy Explosion. It’s the coolest thing ever. Every single Friday, they do drops at noon and it’s all this vintage stuff. It’s even crazier than a Supreme drop. If you don’t have autofill ready, it’s gone. I got this and I got this Marvin Gaye shirt from the early 2000s. I got so many cool things. There’s also a brand called AND AFTER T H A T and they do like mockups of band-tees and movies too. He made one with the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that I have. Those two companies in particular, I’ve been super into, but most of the time I like streetwear brands like Dime, Palace and just skate culture. I tried skateboarding when I was younger but I fell down a hill so I’m done. So, I can’t be called a poser. I tried [laughter].
BLANK: An attempt was made for sure [laughter]. So, you think music and fashion go hand in hand? Jibril: I think, not only do they go hand in hand but I feel like they both need each other. If you’re a musician and you don't really dress well, they attack you for it, but there’s also the opposite where you are into fashion. Bladee, right, he’s still relatively unknown to the masses even though he’s really big online but seeing him connect with Arc'teryx and seeing those worlds collide it’s such a validation as a fan. You’re like ‘see even though you don’t know him, Arc’teryx and these brands know him.’ It’s a very cool sort of thing.
BLANK: Wow, yeah. Thank you so much for that. Fashion and music need each other. I’m gonna be thinking about that one for a while. Thank you!
See more from Jibril Osman on Instagram.
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