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At Memphis Made Brewing Co. on Saturday, Aug. 16, a local creative agency and storytelling label will host “five hours of being unapologetically yourself.”
From 5 to 10 p.m., Unapologetic will celebrate a decade of existence. Since its inception, the organization has gone from being run from spare bedrooms in founder James “IMAKEMADBEATS” Dukes’ house to renovated studio space on Central Avenue.
 IMAKEMADBEATS in Outerspace, Unapologetic’s studio. (Gabrielle Duffie/Courtesy Unapologetic)
More than a birthday party, the Aug. 16 event is an experiment of what an Unapologetic Festival could look like.
The theme for the free event is “How you can you be?”
Dukes explains: “I want everybody to come through dressed as if they’re the artists. It’s a festival, a small festival, a block party. It’s encouraging people to come, not just as you are, but challenge ‘as you are.’ Like, ‘How are you stepping into you every day?’ Turn that up when you walk in here.”
Dukes said the first half of the event will have a carnival atmosphere, with fair games, beer, beverages, food trucks and CxffeeBlack coffee.
Kid Maestro (Keynan Harden) will DJ, as well as Duke’s dad, known as DJ Toby Lane.
“My love for music comes from his love (of music),” Dukes added.
The second half will feature performances in a reverse chronological order of Unapologetic’s history. Performances will begin with the newest act, multidisciplinary artist Nubia Yasin, and close with the first, Dukes, a musician and producer.
 The Unapologetic team. (Trey Easter/Courtesy Unapologetic)
The organization has hosted numerous events and created collaborative merchandise and apparel with the Memphis Grizzlies, among other accomplishments.
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Creating an app eight years ago is one of the most important things the company has done, Dukes said.
It was a way not only for people to experience content outside of platforms like Spotify or YouTube, but for Unapologetic to collect and use its own data.
“Which would make us much more strategic in understanding who was interested in us and how to find other people interested in us,” he said.
Along the way, one thing the label did extremely well throughout the years was capture everything, Dukes said.
“We have 10 years' worth of videos. … Every event, everything in between every event, random conversations, in the studio, jokes we played on each other.”
That includes Unapologetic President Kid Maestro showing Dukes how he makes guacamole.
“We have 1,000 videos that really show the growth of this team,” he said. “In half of the videos, Maestro looks like he’s 7 years old. Now he’s 31. He started officially when he was 21. … He was a junior in college.
“It’s just a beautiful thing to see people stay together that long.”
Since the label’s launch, Dukes said new generations of creatives have become active and that Unapologetic is dedicated to introducing itself to those new audiences.
“We have to be dedicated to being really good at introducing ourselves to new young people who might find what we’re doing valuable,” he said.
Dukes said the label is excited about its three latest artists: Yasin, multi-instrumentalist Eillo and multidisciplinary artist Uni’Q.
“They are artists unlike what Unapologetic has seen before,” Dukes said. “I’m excited about where they go as artists and what they do for themselves and the organization. … This is a new batch of artists, and they are just as disruptive, just as changing, and just as artistful as the first era of our artists.
“And I love that they get to do it with the first era of artists. ... That it’s still (singer) Cam(eron) Bethany and (rapper) AWFM (A Weirdo From Memphis) and (rapper) PreauXX around that can guide them and help them.”
Unapologetic’s party will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16 at Memphis Made Brewing Co., 16 S. Lauderdale St. Admission is free; no registration required.
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