yo what’s good! i’m malik henderson, an artist from milwaukee, wi. i’d like to consider myself a jack of all trades (i’m a gemini) but at the core of it all, i’m a storyteller. when i initially decided to create, it was out of sheer curiosity. i spent the majority of my life playing basketball and like most athletes who decided to hang it up i had no clue what the fuck to do with my life. i would study intensively and tinker with everything from photography to music to design. this incubator period revealed to me that my life’s purpose was to be an artist. coming from where i come from i didn’t know many people who shared the same view as me and my homies. so in order to cultivate this philosophy, we created a collective called trp (short for the roses prevail). as a collective, we’ve made various projects, curated events and created brands in hopes of broadening the horizons for not only our lives, but for those who come after us.

as the years went on and i got a little older, shit started to get real… the biggest shit was the birth of my daughter zola. having her not only scared me to death, it forced me to really examine my life and where it was headed. yeah i was making art and i loved it, but i really had to consider what i needed to do to provide for my family and being a starving artist was not an option. before zola was born, i was jumping job to job “waiting” for my career to take off. i quickly realized that instability was not going to cut it, my gf at the time (zola’s mother) suggested starting a business so that’s what i did.

right off the bat, running the business was a double edged sword. i was a new parent, we just moved into a bigger place, and covid 19 was running rampant. this is when my life began to become a roller coaster, for so long i thought i had control of things but i quickly realized i didn’t. i was working ridiculously long hours trying to grow the business, my relationship was on the rocks, and i barely had time for art. eventually everything came tumbling down and i was forced to pick up the pieces. i had TWO major accidents in TWO work vans, i lost my insurance, broke up with my gf, and constantly fought depression…

with all the shit happening in my life the one thing i never truly did was ask for help. i figured asking for help would make me look inadequate so i avoided it. i harbored a lot of guilt from the mistakes i made and the things that didn’t go according to my plan. i’d like to consider myself a spiritual person but these circumstances really tested my faith and i had to go deep within. i got back to the basics so i could get my life going in the right direction. the first thing i did was get a therapist. i figured if i wanted to make any progress, i would have to develop the necessary coping skills to regulate my nervous systems during these trying times.

during this entire period of me figuring my life out, the two things that kept me from losing my fucking mind was my art and my child. it was the reason i’d get up in the morning driven to be better because i knew it was my mission to become all i can be not only as an artist, but as a man so my baby could see firsthand. all the things i endured brought me to this point… ghetto griot is a manifestation of all my life’s experiences. i’ve learned to welcome the pressure and its granted me clarity, god has prepared me to deal with whatever is thrown my way! this is only the beginning so whoever chooses to embark on this journey with me just know it’s going to be a wild ride full of excitement, plenty of fucking lessons, and most importantly, LOVE.

-lik