Based on the little we’ve seen of the man featured above who goes by the name Jazzsoon, we know this: Jazzsoon is one very alternative version of the modern self-made man. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. He’s a man of certain assertive rejections. He rejected his father’s dope-addicted existence; he rejected a day job that sucked the marrow out of the bones of every week; he pretty obviously rejects your notion and my notion of what a modern entrepreneur is.
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How about what he doesn’t reject — what he embodies. He calls himself a collector of his childhood, which in this case seems to mean he sells lots of stuff, records and sports jerseys (“I might sell five jerseys for $30 a pop”) and Gucci sneakers (“they crispy”) and comics. You can see a lot of enviable characters in his character: he’s one part The Dude, abiding. He’s one part Churchill, stoic, absurd. He’s one part Ali G, silly, spouting strange street-level aphorisms.
The silliness warrants further examination. Jazzsoon’s 15 minutes of fame came when videographer Ivan Cash interviewed him for a series called “Last Photo”. Jazzsoon made a silly response about the last picture on his phone, which was of him at a spa, robed, holding a pitcher of cucumber water: “That’s me chillin’ out with my girl at the spa. I’m over there with the cucumber water and all that shit. You gotta live your life on the weekends, you know what I’m saying? Fucking steak and shrimp on the weekends.” Cash immediately saw that this quirkiness was built around a soundly interesting person rather than oddity for oddity’s sake. He followed his gut and gave us this video about Jazzsoon’s life — the record collection, the obsession with music and the sounds of the city, the ambition forged in the hustle, and the new, contented hustle he’s molded to himself. “As long as I supply a demand, I can make a living. That shit’s exciting”, Jazzsoon says.
It’s an oddly inspiring video, largely because this odd guy has tapped a wellspring of healthy ambition in his life, and the feeling is infectious. Why not bend life’s cookie cutter template for the ideal person into your own amorphous shape? Jazzsoon did it. Why not be upbeat, unpretentious, aspiring, content?
“I know I’m destined for greatness”, he says. “And if not yo, I can’t complain with what I’ve been given. If nothing ever happens at the end of the day man, I tell you what, I was happy to be this dude.”