Cashew Co. Journal documents Atlanta on the come-up
Cashew Co. Journal pays homage to Atlanta’s anti-heroes and trendsetters in a new print format
When Diwang Valdez and a couple of old college friends dreamed up the idea to publish an expansive 250-page color journal documenting Atlanta’s urban underbelly, the death of print media was the last thing on their minds.
“I know there’s been trouble with print, but we really didn’t pay attention to that,” says Valdez. “It’s just something I’ve been wanting to do for a really, really long time.”
The inaugural issue of Cashew Company Journal may fly in the face of everything espoused by print’s prognosticators, but that makes it a perfect match for the anti-heroes and trendsetters heralded within its pages.
From the hard-knocks life and grind of Snow On Tha Bluff’s Curtis Snow to the visual art and vices of quintessential ATLien Dr. Dax, Cashew Co. Journal: Atlanta presents an authentic portrait of the creative culture and nearly 30 defining characters on the come-up in Atlanta.
The Cashew crew boasts its’ own creation myth. While attending Louisiana Tech as graphic design students in the early ’00s, founders Valdez, Bobby Finch, and Kenny Keil started a line of t-shirts they sold out the trunk.
? ? ?
“We were just like art school kids,” says Valdez, recalling how they made up a fake frat called Cobra Chi, based on the name of original Karate Kid Danielsan’s dreaded rivals. “It was just our way of making fun of fraternities.”
The Cashew Co. brand name grew out of the two CC’s they used to spell Cobra Chi, and the name stuck. The crew separated after graduation, with Keil and Finch pursuing design and photography in L.A. and Louisiana, respectively, while Valdez moved to Atlanta where he would eventually become one-third of the music video directing team Motion Family. For a spell, Valdez also served as creative director of Juice, the short-lived hip-hop magazine published by convicted kingpin Big Meech of BMF. Though he knew his publisher wasn’t hurting for money, Valdez had no idea what the alleged source of it was at the time.
“I never got to see any of that,” he says. But working as staff photographer and sole designer at Juice taught him how to produce a publication with minimal resources. “That was the biggest thing that I took away from it. You don’t need a huge staff to do anything. If you know how to do it, just do it yourself.”
Chock full of candid interviews and the kind of documentary-style photo shoots most surviving hip-hop and urban culture rags can no longer afford to duplicate, Cashew Co. Journal: Atlanta is a passion project that took a year to produce as Valdez and company worked on it between their paying gigs. Valdez’s photos fill the pages, along with contributions from former Creative Loafing photographer Dustin Chambers and others. Keil provides hilarious comic book illustrations featuring rappers such as T.I., 2 Chainz, Future, and Lil Jon rendered as superheroes. (Full disclosure: Many of the interviews and features were written by Cashew’s editor Gavin Godfrey, who, at the time of production, was between jobs at CNN and Creative Loafing, where he now serves as associate editor/operations.)
With a seemingly disparate cast of subjects that ranges from Trinidad James to Frank 151 founder Stephen Malbon and DJ Speakerfoxxx to art/fashion label +Fresh.i.Am+, the connecting thread is in the coming-of-age stories that sew the scene together and the collective sense of pride everyone shares for Atlanta.
“The grind and the come-up, that’s something that won’t change,” says Valdez. “If you read this book 10 years from now, it will still tell the story of how they came up and why they chose Atlanta.”
Collectors item though it may be, the Cashew crew didn’t totally forsake the tenets of new media. For the rest of the year, they intend to roll out online videos shot by crew member Matt Swinsky to complement the print content. Meanwhile, they’ve already selected New Orleans/Baton Rouge as the focus for the next issue of the journal.
In regard to the sustaining model for the journal, they’re “still trying to figure it out,” Valdez admits. “I don’t know about advertisers, but I guess we’ve got to figure out a way to keep this thing alive.”
Cashew Co. Journal launch party. Featuring Two-9, DJ Speakerfoxxx. Plus photo exhibits from the issue and a limited number of available copies. 7-11 p.m. Sat., Jan. 11. ABV Gallery, 659 Auburn Ave. 213-915-6448. abvatl.com.