“People are my motivation.”
Timothy Phipps is a junior criminal justice major and visual arts minor who also just so happens to be a rapper, photographer, videographer, full-time college student and owner of his own online clothing company, Outcast Culture. According to Phipps, every task he takes on is enjoyable and a step towards making a difference in the world. No obstacle is too problematic, and nothing will impede upon his ambition.
“I’m driven by my desire to provide for my family, my friends and the world as a whole,” he explains. “I like to socialize with new people as well, to learn what the needs of others are.”
From selling clothes to working in executive protection for the military, Phipps is always trying to act as a positive influence in the world. Outcast Culture’s motto is “difference defined”, and it strives to promote and advocate courage, as well as a strong willingness to be different.
Phipps does anything he can to spread that message.
“Everything that happens within a single day or a year affects me in some way,” he says. “What is behind the business, the idea of the business, that’s what is most important about it.”
With his degree, Phipps plans to work in executive protection to “protect people and give someone [control over] their own life,” he says with a clear goal in mind. “Then they can go find their values, and the paths and purposes they want to take.”
One would hope that Phipps’s selflessness is enough to change the world. He wants everyone to fulfill their dreams and potential without the burden of worrying too much about life’s problems. Phipps is there to deal with those.
The visual arts minor was inspired by his close friend and roommate, senior Imari Anderson, who owns the media arts company Surviving Child. Phipps quickly learned that photography and videography are effective ways to spread messages to as many people as possible. These skills help him in running Outcast Culture.
Phipps considers another of his creative outlets, music, as just a hobby at this point.
“I don’t promote it too much,” he says humbly. “But I do gigs as they come.”
Primarily, Phipps has performed in South Carolina, but he has extended his talents to Georgia and North Carolina. He writes music in the little free time that comes his way.
“I’m not trying to be the next, as they say, Mac Miller or Eminem. I just do it for my passion to the music, to express myself, to get a message out.”
