Enter the Friooverse
We all know someone “lost in their own world.” Frioo, an Atlanta-based artist by way of St. Louis, is anything but lost, and he wants to share his world with the rest of us.
To begin every live performance, Frioo monologues over an intense musical score to welcome the crowd. It’s not something they’re expecting, which draws their full attention. This theatrical opening serves multiple purposes: it helps ease any pre-show jitters he has, but also states his intention to give others an experience they can share in - not just watching an artist perform their music. It draws an interesting parallel to the first time I saw Frioo perform when, although he was the first artist, there was a guided group meditation given immediately before he went on. Although his brand of intense music and electric stage presence were in stark contrast to the energy prior to his entrance, it was still a ritual that allowed the crowd to be more open-minded and welcome to share in experiencing his live music.
“Instead of ‘I’m going to do this for you’, it’s ‘I’m gonna do this with you.’”
Also on stage is a doll affixed to an easel with tape that says “Product” over it - a reference to his Beez in the Trap video, which kicks off the Friooverse timeline. The Friooverse is a story told not only through music, but also film, graphic design, clothing and other merchandise, and eventually, a web-based application. In the video, he symbolically kills himself - “I killed the part of me that I thought was what I should've been as an artist, and then I just started doing what I thought I needed to do.” This mentality switch happened both within the timeline of his artistic vision and also in real life. With this, he became The Man from Winter Hill: a glimpse into Frioo’s mental state during this time period where, in order to shed outside influence, he began to do everything himself. From that moment on, he has made his own beats to sing and rap over.
[TW: pantomimed self-harm - see above]
It took time for Frioo to figure out what he wanted his music to sound like. He didn’t like his own voice at first, and he struggled to reconcile the music he wanted to make with what he thought his friends wanted to hear. In high school, a guidance counselor introduced Frioo and friends to Jon Bellion. Although his crew was all about trap music then (think Migo Gang, Skippa Da Flippa), Bellion’s The Human Condition was like nothing Frioo had ever heard before, and to him, it was perfect. He watched all of the videos he could find on Jon, and learned that he was a heavy collaborator, which set the wheels in motion for Frioo to find his own people to work with.
In making music with Frioo, he told me he views the process of making a song similarly to painting. “You kind of just draw with your body instead of trying to make it all perfect. Like, you get the form right and you get comfortable with it. You take away things and then put them all together, almost like a collage. I just have to do it. A lot of people will wait on the finished beat to do something and have a whole polished track before they even do it - I have to build the whole thing from the ground up.”
Frioo has been an illustrator his entire life. He’s always drawn characters, oftentimes football players or wrestlers. In middle school he went to art classes in the evening, and he designed his first clothing line. When Frioo finished high school, he decided to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design. He didn’t really want to go to college, and especially didn’t want to have a ‘real job’ - “I felt like that’s the worst thing that could’ve happened, like, ‘I gotta get a job’” - but he knew he wanted to hone his creative skills, so to SCAD he went.
“I guess if I’m gonna go to school, I’m gonna go for some art, you know, enjoy it. I wasn’t expecting to really have friends or like anybody, ‘cuz I just thought they were all weird art kids.”
On the first day of orientation, Frioo realized he was also one of those weird art kids, and made fast friends with many classmates. SCAD helped him realize that he didn’t have to be solely a rapper; he could be an artist of all methods and mediums. No longer focused on impressing others with his music, his visual and physical art was brought to the forefront instead of behind the scenes, as he previously thought was best. Now, he understands how different art forms work together. “I don’t have to be known for just rapping or graphic design or drawing or modeling, whatever it is, it’s all the same shit. I don’t have to sell out for one thing. Of course you need consistency, but I don’t think it has to be all in one place.”
photography & editing by Ryo Sato @ryoo.satoo
Although music, design, and merch receive the majority of Frioo’s creative energy these days, he might be most recognized for modeling. At SCAD, Frioo knew another artist named David Vegas. Today, David is more fashion-focused, but the two originally bonded over music-making. When David left SCAD and moved out-of-state, the modeling work he’d done for classmate and photographer Ryo Sato needed replacing, and thus the Frioo/Ryo one-two punch was born. Their combination has been incredibly successful so far, as their collaborative efforts have been featured in Nike and Adobe commercials, along with being physically displayed at their alma mater. These shared accomplishments helped Frioo become more comfortable playing his role in various situations - understanding what he’s best at, and combining that with things that others are best at to create something greater than the sum of its parts. He mentioned how there are plenty of instances it took a village to create a work of art - both Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy had a lengthy list of collaborators, but neither are discredited because the team effort allowed the visions to be fully realized.
In 2019, shortly after dropping out of SCAD, Frioo wanted to build a portfolio of graphic design in order to attract potential clients. While scrolling through YouTube, he came across a video of an artist doing a rebrand for a soda can/company. Ironically, he’d been assigned similar tasks in school, and hated it. But this time, with a self-controlled vision, he had an idea that stuck - Coola. He actually went a bit overboard at first, designing not only packaging but also drink flavors and a full clothing line, and the idea was moved to the backburner when Frioo realized he didn’t have the resources to bring everything to fruition. Years later, he came across his logo design (two dice-shaped cherries on a stem) and knew that he could take the first step to bring Coola to life by making a limited-edition flavor, only available on-location. He draws a parallel to Dippin’ Dots and how you can’t buy them at a store - only at a Dippin’ Dots stand at an amusement park. Some might not appreciate the exclusivity, but anyone who’s been to a Frioo event can testify - everything Frioo does has the end goal of bringing people together.
Frioo has been working on building out The Friooverse for years. I asked him to tell me what it would look like if he had all of the resources needed to make it happen now. He wants his fans to be able to customize their avatar while also being able to play field day-type games as Frioo himself or his friends. He envisions blurring the lines between the Friooverse and real-life - imagine buying in-game clothing with in-game currency that also shows up on your doorstep later that week. Even with the large-scale ideas Frioo hopes to implement, the mission of the Friooverse is simple: provide his fans (and all creatives) with a peaceful online environment to interact and share experiences. Part of his desire to have consistent output as a well-rounded artist is to repeatedly show people who he is and what he does, so that they know what to expect spending time in a world of his design. Within the past year, he has hosted three different events centered around outdoor team sports, branded Frioo’s FunDay. Each of these events has had its own music, merchandise, Coola drink flavor, and storyline taking place within the Friooverse. The FunDays have been successful so far - participation has increased with each installment. The programming is a labor of love for Frioo’s inner child, especially.
“There’s a lot of nostalgia for when you were a kid in the creative process. And there’s a certain freedom that even people who didn’t have the greatest childhood still remember; not being so concerned and stressed and wary of everything. At FunDay, you can directly see that. Everybody is so happy to be there and see each other, it just rubs off.”
Frioo sees great value in real life experiences, and wants the Friooverse to encourage people to meet up and do things together in real life, too. Participating in a Frioo FunDay or trying the latest flavor of Coola currently requires one to be in Atlanta at the right time, but the virtual world he’s building is meant to be a sample of what people are able to experience in person. The comparison here is that the Friooverse is Disney+, whereas a FunDay is Disney World - with the Friooverse app, you’ll see what’s going on in Frioo’s creative timeline, but with an event like FunDay or a Coola pop-up, you can fully immerse yourself in his world in real-time. He wants future FunDays to be livestreamed for all to enjoy, with commentary provided by characters from the Friooverse.
“I thought I had to be in a big position, like Drake or something, to do all of this. But no, I can do it right now. We might never make it to the NFL, we might never get our song on that playlist...but we could put ourselves in a video game with our own playlist right now.”
Frioo toes the line between chasing nostalgia and creating the future. Although the Friooverse virtual world is the common thread tying together his imagination, there are still other artistic modes he is excited to try out. When I asked what art form he’d like to try next, he quickly answered with “sculpting. I want to work with my hands. Being on the computer, I still appreciate it because I can do cool shit - the technology of computers is awesome, but you’re still on a computer. I want to feel it. I want my hands to hurt.”
This ties back into the concept of FunDay - it’s great playing Madden with your friends, but it’s simply not as fun as actually playing football with your friends. Everything Frioo creates - whether it’s music, clothes, Coola, FunDays, or the Friooverse as a whole - has the same energy as knocking on a friend’s door and asking if they can come outside to play. Frioo does what he wants to do and what makes him happy - he hopes it will make you happy too.
find Frioo on IG & Twitter @theylovefrioo and on streaming - Theylovefrioo
