Business Lifestyle & Culture
South to North, chasing artistic dreams
By Corey Leathers Jr.
Eighteen months. That’s how long it took a transplant from South Carolina to go from being a broke college dropout to paying New York City rent with what he’s earned selling his rap records, designing clothes for his BoofNYC brand and walking the runway at New York Fashion Week.
He couldn’t have accomplished any of that all by himself, he said.
“Your network is your net worth,” said Tydm, which stands for Thank You Don Moretti.(Tydm’s real name is Mario Jordan.) “If you don’t really have a network, it’s going to be hard for you to stay busy and build a career. But if you have a very big network, opportunities are just going to follow you. Definitely.”
He’s been building his network since 2016, the year he moved to New York to intern as a record contractor for Warner Music Group and signed with Redfoot Projects, a music publishing and management company.
In 2017, he signed his first record deal with Foundation Media LLC.
Today, he juggles his designing and music-making.
“The day-to-day is just like I wear so many hats, it really just depends on what the work is for today,” Jordan said. “I’m never too proud to roll up my sleeves and work.”
Tydm dropped out of Coastal Carolina University in 2016, believing his academic studies were keeping off a faster career track.
For several weekends before he left his old Carolina campus, took Amtrak to Newark Penn Station and, from there, took a New Jersey Transit commuter train into Manhattan’s Penn Station He financed his move to the Big Apple with savings from gigs managing social media accounts for several creatives in and around New York City NYC and working as the sports coordinator and social media manager for a YMCA.
“Just me being in New York a lot, and then getting an internship up there, that really just solidified, ‘This is where I want to be,’” Tydm said. “It’s opened up life to me.”
In addition to music, Tydm co-owns with Frank Santos Trip and Trap Space Club, a Brooklyn barbershop. On the parlor floor, barbers cut heads and customers can buy from racks holding Tdym’s designs and those of other New York ateliers. In the basement, Tydm used to have a recording studio.
“We would be down there, vibing out and creating things, figuring out more content,” Santos said. “And, from there, he started working on people’s content for Instagram and stuff like that.”
They eventually collaborated on music, advised each other on their respective clothing brands and shot photography together for Rolling Loud hip hop festivals and parties. Tydm has kept making music in New York and continued to work at the YMCA, focusing on gear and uniform styles for youth programs.
Tydm said COVID-19 slowed down the music industry as funding for social media and creative directors decreased, prompting Tydm’s shift to fashion.
Around that time, he jumped off BoofNYC, fashioning fuzzy long shorts, football pads and mouthguards, according to artist and Coastal Carolina graduate Kyle Genesis.
He said that Tydm’s lack of concern about what others think of his art is part of why he’s come so far, so fast.
“We all think about the opposite side of ‘What if this doesn’t work? Or, “What if people don’t like it?’” Genesis said. “But I think the most important part is having the fearlessness to take a chance on what you believe in or what you’re trying to accomplish.”
Tydm said he’s been able to build a network and a career mainly because of his ability to connect with others and his self-assurance.
“I don’t care what room I’m in. I could be in the room and it’s the president of Universal Music Group sitting across, I got to go talk to him,” he said. “When people see that confidence, they don’t deny it. Because successful people need to be around confidence.”