User blog:Jpearson/A Culture-Shifting Moment with Inevitably Dope

Hey everyone! As we approach the end of Black History Month celebration, we want to continue sharing the impact of culture-shifters like Inevitably Dope and telling their inspiring stories. This month’s focus has been on Culture Shifting Moments in Entertainment, and we had the pleasure of connecting with a culture-shifter named Inevitably Dope. This content creator shares a love for gaming, movies, and television, and he brings people together by sharing his passion for anime with relatable and high-energy commentary. We instantly became fans of his work and truly love how this commentator and voice actor brings joy to his community as he expands fictional worlds through his craft. His journey from fan to creator is inspiring.

Culture-shifters' contributions make an impression, make you look, and make moments that turn observers into fans — they are the moment. It’s important to tell the stories of culture-shifters and individuals who make an impact on and off the platform all year round. Meet Inevitably Dope and learn how he’s turning observers into fans.

Meet Inevitably Dope
1. '''What are your fandoms? What movies, shows, and games do you love?'''

Inevitably Dope: I’m OBSESSED with action movies which I’m sure many can tell from my commentary, but I love foreign action movies like “Ong Bak, Ip Man, The Raid Series, etc. I’m a big fan of the style of choreography they have when it comes to fight scenes because it's so fast-paced and the way certain attacks are landed is extremely unique. They land hits that are so unexpected they shock the viewer. I’ve always admired that. I also love Horror movies! The Insidious series, The Conjuring, Sinister, Midsommar. I have a love-and-hate relationship with jump scares and being anxious, lol. I'm a big fan of 90’s/early 2000’s comedy shows like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, [https://wayansbros.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wayans_Bros. The Wayans Bros], Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show, and My Wife and Kids. I should be ashamed of how many times I’ve watched those shows lol. A lot of the jokes and sound effects in those shows are embedded into me and made me the person I am today, another reason why I’m very humorous. Games! SHEESH I’m a BIG gamer, so it's hard to keep all the games I love to a minimum, but I’ll try! Let’s see there's Marvel Vs Capcom 2, The Street Fighter series, Sonic Adventure 2, Viewtiful Joe, Spider-Man PS4, The God of War series, Tekken series, Super Smash Bros, Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Bloody Roar. I have to stop because if I don't the rest of this conversation will be me just naming games lol!

2. Please share a bit about yourself and what you do!

Inevitably Dope: Well for those that don’t know my real name is Graig. I was born in Staten Island, NY but moved to Orlando, FL when I was still a kid and have been in FL ever since. I'm a homebody type of person meaning I don’t really like to go out often, which is funny in a sense because with all the energy I give in my commentary and on my streams, you would think I love being outside but I can literally be inside all day and be completely unbothered lol. As far as what i do I’m a commentator/voice actor, streamer and Youtuber. I’ve started each of those things at different times but I began my content creation journey 5 years ago and I’ve been in love with it ever since.

3. How long have you been a voice actor, and what inspired you to start creating in your field?

Inevitably Dope: I’ve been taking voice acting seriously for a year now. I haven't landed any major roles yet but I do believe in speaking things into existence. If I call myself a voice actor then I'm going to do the things necessary to put myself in that position. It’s funny because I had never thought about voice acting in anime or video games until I started using Tiktok. My very first video was me recording a scene from One Piece, I thought nothing of it. A new episode had just been released and it involved Zoro fighting someone named “Killer”. Zoro used a move called “Purgatory Onigiri” to finish the fight and I thought the scene looked SO DOPE so I decided to record it to show it off. There's this whole thing about people not wanting to watch One Piece because it's too long so I was showing the scene to demonstrate why people should watch the anime. I made a couple of silly remarks and added some hype while the scene was happening because I was genuinely hype lol. I posted it on Tiktok and went to bed. I wasn't thinking “this video is going to blow up” or anything. The next morning I woke up to 99+ messages and thousands of new followers. Everyone LOVED the video. They were quoting certain things I said and enjoyed the hype. I knew at that moment that I had something.

4. What brings you the most joy about your culture and heritage?

Inevitably Dope: Being African American has always been something that has made me proud because we’ve had so many amazing Black leaders in history that have made such an impact that changed the world. Sometimes we made moves that changed the situation at that time and other moves were made to get the ball rolling and ended up having an even bigger effect as generations went by. Knowing that people before my life was even thought about, fought and faced so much adversity to change the world for us so our lives could be better is something that is embedded into me. It’s a memory that can NEVER be forgotten and I believe it plays a part in why I’m so ambitious and never give up. I’m forever proud and thankful for my people.

5. Do you remember the first time you became a fan of anime?

Inevitably Dope: Absolutely! As a kid I grew up watching Toonami on Cartoon Network and I was introduced to so many amazing anime. Inuyasha, Yuyu Hakusho, Bleach, and Naruto, but the thing that made me become a fan was DragonBall Z. Seeing Goku go Super Saiyan for the very first time. Seeing his friend perish right in front of him and getting so angry that his hair began to change colors, there was lightning behind him, you can see the veins popping out of him. It showed you how much he cared for those around him and what I loved the most was how calm he got when he fully entered the form. It showed he had full control, he was confident, and he was NOT GOING TO LOSE lol. After I saw that scene I was screaming in my room looking at my hair to see if it would change colors for the next year lol.

'''6. Your engaging commentary invites fans to share your passion for anime. What inspired you to share analysis on anime shows?'''

Inevitably Dope: Great question, when I was younger I always enjoyed putting my friends on to new Anime by showing them certain fight scenes from the anime and it always made them want to go back and begin the show. That always was an amazing feeling to me because now I wasn’t the only one who got to witness these amazing fight scenes and moments. I would give them a brief explanation of the characters so they had a general idea of what was going on and why the characters were in that specific moment. So now when I do my commentary videos, I just apply what I’ve been doing for my friends since we were kids. So in a sense, it feels like every time I record a new video it's just a 13-year-old me holding the camera and letting all that energy explode lol. On top of that I add humor and references from video games or tv shows that I grew up on so if the viewer isn’t familiar with the anime not only is the scene going to interest them but if they hear me reference a move from Street Fighter or say a certain line that was in Family Guy there DEFINITELY going to be engaged by the time my video is over. After seeing how well that first One Piece video I mentioned earlier did, I knew I could keep that momentum if I broke the scenes down—my way.

7. What are your top 5 favorite animes of all time, and why?

Inevitably Dope:  AHHHH THIS QUESTION IS ALWAYS SO HARD!!!! I’ll give it a shot though.

5. Samurai Champloo. I loved Mugen and Jin, they were so different but meshed so well at the same time. The action was amazing but the best part to me was the soundtrack. It still holds as the best soundtrack to an anime for me until this day! R.I.P Nujabes.

4. Bleach. Great story, great characters, great fights, and I really enjoy the Bankai abilities, and I like the soundtrack to that anime as well. I’m so happy to see it come back after so many years.

3. One Piece. The story of Luffy starting an adventure by himself and finding people along the way to help him achieve his dream of being King of The Pirates is phenomenal. He takes some big wins and some HUGE losses but at the end of the day he still moves forward, and to see his friends believe in him and fight for him to help him achieve his dream is beyond commendable and reminds me of the adventure that I’m on as well. I have friends in my corner helping me get to where I want to be and I can't imagine what I would do without them. That show is worth every episode and I don't care what people say about it being too long. IT’S LONG BECAUSE IT'S JUST THAT GOOD AND IT’S STILL GOING!!!

2. DBZ. It was the 1st anime that crossed over into my actual life. Like I said earlier I would literally scream and try to go Super Saiyan as a kid. The transformations were so cool to see along with the fusions. Simply put, A LOT of anime that we see today would not be what they are if DBZ was never created. Pure influence, and for that reason alone it has to be in my top 5.

1. Naruto. The story of him being abandoned and hated to adored and loved is astonishing and relatable. The things he went through and the characters around him like Sasuke, Kakashi and Rock Lee were stories that were so motivating to me and it honestly took a part in shaping me into the person that I am today. Naruto showed me that anything can be done as long as you believe in it, work for it, stay dedicated to it, and trust the process. That technique hasn’t failed me yet.

'''8. Our theme for the month is Creation & Cultivation: Culture Shifting Moments in Entertainment. Have you experienced a culture-shifting moment in entertainment that’s influenced you personally?'''

Inevitably Dope: Denzel Washington is one of my favorite actors. I was watching him give a speech and he once said that “dreams without goals are just dreams”. That line stuck with me but it never truly awakened until I began doing what I loved and hitting the marks that I set. I know this is such a cliche line but you really can do whatever you set your mind to. People are just scared to take the leap because they don’t know where they're going to land. If you enjoy the craft and you're willing to put the time, work, and effort in, I can guarantee that you’ll be successful.

9. What advice would you give to creators looking to build their online communities?

Inevitably Dope: CONSISTENCY IS KEY! I can’t echo that enough. Take advantage of ALL social media platforms, especially Tiktok. People are signing record deals and become legit food critics from Tiktok. It's not as hard to go viral there right now compared to what it will be a year from now so take advantage of that before it gets overly saturated and becomes very difficult to grow. Stay true to who YOU are. Nobody can be you better than yourself. Imitating someone else will only get you so far and your light will go out quickly. Most importantly, enjoy and love your craft, you’ll want to find different ways to get better at it and it wont feel like work or you're forcing yourself to do something.

10. In a time where more and more people have become aware of the origins of particular art forms, how are you approaching making space - and creating space - within anime?

Inevitably Dope: I think when it comes to anime the last thing I want to do is become a gatekeeper of it. There are people who use anime to gain traction simply because anime is becoming more mainstream now and those people are pretty easy to sort out because if you were to engage in a conversation about a very popular anime you would quickly find out that they have no idea what you're talking about, but within that same breath I can also say that there are people who really want to get into anime simply because of what they’ve seen and they find it interesting. Those are the ones that I try to make space and create space for because I firmly believe that there is a specific type of anime for EVERYONE. If you're not a fan of heavy action anime there are psychological anime, there are slice of life anime, there are sad anime, and there are comical anime. I get a lot of DM’s from people asking me what anime they should watch and I always do my best to give them at least 3 that are in different categories and 90% of the time they message me back saying how much they enjoyed it and now they want to dive deeper. I love that feeling. I just want people to know that if you're truly interested in the anime community, there's something for you and there are people like myself who find joy in helping find the genre that suits you best!

Check out our takeaways from Inevitably Dope’s interview!
Here are a few takeaways and key themes from the interview. Inevitably Dope champions community and encourages others to believe in their skills.

Takeaway #1 Speak it into existence! If you have a goal and want to achieve it, you should be the first to believe it and make it happen.

Takeaway #2 Consistency is KEY! Keep going. Consistency can be challenging but it certainly isn't impossible. Sometimes, we might be afraid to take the leap because we aren’t sure about where we’ll land and that's okay! Keep editing, keep connecting with people who share your interests, and ask questions.

Takeaway #3 Do what you love. Inevitably Dope’s love for anime and wanting to share that with others is powerful. He shared one video and others immediately gravitated toward his enthusiasm and genuine passion for it.

Follow Inevitably Dope!
Thank you, Inevitably Dope, for sharing your story with us and continuing to build community! If you want to keep up with Inevitably Dope, you can follow him on social media or tune into his weekly live streams! Check out Inevitably Dope on Tik Tok, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter! You can also catch him streaming on Twitch every Wednesday - Sunday 5pm EST.

This won’t be the last you hear of Inevitably Dope on Fandom; stay tuned to learn more about Inevitably Dope as he geeks out with our Community Manager of Anime, Lucas, in an upcoming live stream on Fandom’s Twitch channel!