Writer, activist and Grammy-nominated musician John Forté—best known as a collaborator of multi-platinum hip-hop group The Fugees—is joining agency ONWD Collective as its first director of brand development.

Many celebrities who take marketing positions at brands or agencies assume creative director duties, but Forté’s role comes with a broad directive to help improve client inclusivity, as well as the bottom line.

“Brands are finally beginning to understand the importance of representation in their marketing,” says Amanda Patterson, founder of ONWD Collective. “Yet, we encounter so many brands that need help navigating the process. John’s ability to craft beautiful stories will undoubtedly elevate the messaging and visuals of the brands we work with.”

In the face of the issues of the day—COVID, state-sanctioned police violence—some brands have responded by throwing “proverbial hats in the ring by putting Black Lives Matter decals into their windows,” Forté says. “But beyond the explicit statement that folks outside of the majority matter, what is actually next for brands? As far as conversations that matter go, marketing is where it's at.”

Forté comes off three years of working with private equity in the legal cannabis sector, and he intends to bring an outside perspective, as well as that of a working artist, to the role. His latest album “Riddem Drive” dropped last year and will be followed by another album out in October.
 

“If you approach creative dilemmas as a monolith, then you're either going to get it right, or you're going to get it wrong. However, if you approach creative dilemmas with openness and an expanse of different viewpoints, I think that you have a better chance at success,” he says. “Oftentimes when something doesn't go according to plan, it's deemed a failure. Those brands end up losing out on an opportunity to legitimately learn from their exercises. There is a sort of nobility in the attempt to do the right thing in the first place.”

Forté also brings a rarer perspective to the industry, that of a formerly incarcerated person. He spent seven years in prison due to mandatory minimum drug sentencing before receiving a presidential pardon. Upon his release in 2008, he recalls being handed an iPhone and BlackBerry and having no idea how to use either one.

“While everybody was getting familiar with the algorithm and our propensity to scroll and dive into our screens, maybe there's a scenario where I was removed from it just long enough to have a different perspective—one that might have value because it's atypical, not because it is unrelatable or foreign, but because it's different.”

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