Meet Tre Hunter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tre Hunter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tre, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset I guess. But the idea of having “my own business” was never really the main focus. I just began to grow and evolve in different areas where I started to feel I had something I could contribute to the culture discussion. Traveling was a big component for me as an adult because it helped me begin to truly understand what I liked more in depth.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
After chasing basketball for so long as a career and defining myself as an “athlete” for the majority of my life, once I came into the creative space I loved the fact you don’t have to identify as one thing. Again, something I saw via Virgil Abloh. Being a designer, but also a DJ.. Having Off White here but also LV over there as well as doing a Coachella DJ set and then an IKEA collab.. I saw it and was just like “what is THAT?!” I want THAT level of creative freedom. And now having looked more into the field I’ve came across so many individuals who are just creatives and express themselves through different mediums. That is something I’m most proud of and still honing the art of, is realizing I can use various forms of art to express who I am/what I love. Teaching myself to DJ 2 years ago was definitely the starting point on that journey for me, I never intended to “become a DJ” I just loved music, bought a small deck, headphones and desktop speakers and began messing around with it. I think I naturally always had a producer mindset with DJing because my interest was always “what would this vocal sound like over this beat?”. And the endless possibilities of creativity that come with that. Lately I’ve been more inspired by the house music scene and trying to learn to mix songs together harmoniously. Inspired by the likes of David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan, Terry Hunter, David Mancuso etc. It’s funny as far as the “overcoming” question. My heartbreak with my first love of basketball and choosing to give that up taught me that just because you love something, and no matter how hard you work at something, sometimes things just won’t align for you. That is a mindset I would have previously fought against until my last breath because I always felt like if you work hard enough at something it’ll happen. Now I believe that (obviously you have to work really hard at anything you want to succeed at) but that also sometimes resistance can be the universe leading you to another possibility, chapter, area of your life that you didn’t even know could exist. It wasn’t overnight but once I started to embrace the change of direction my life was taking me, doors in this field started to open up SO fast for me. And I truly believe it’s because I’m doing whatever the universe has destined for me. I think that it’s our job to be open to finding out whatever that thing may be, and 90% of the time it isn’t what we’d imagine or believe it to be.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh no, I’m definitely not the person you want to ask this question to I’m a little over LA to be honest haha. Well not the real “LA” but the part I’ve been stuck living/working in within the Hollywood, West Hollywood/Beverly Hills area.. Yeah not much there. But if you go Silverlake way, Culver City, Inglewood I think you find a much better vibe. Hollywood is weird man.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Wow, this could be an extremely long list. Nothing could be more influential than my family though. I was raised with so much dedicated love that really helped shape who I am as a human. Aside from family, I’d have to say Virgil Abloh was a huge inspiration for me. His mindset and way he chose to go about his success/position was such a breath of fresh air. To be honest though I have always drawn inspiration off of so many people I’d be doing a disservice to point to any one particular person. I’ve deep dove Oprah’s super soul Sunday’s series, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Kobe Bryant, Gary Zukav.. reading “Mans Search For Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, reading “The Celestine Prophecy” by James Redfield, every Jay Z album, a Whitney Houston song, everything Michael Jackson.. I mean this list would go on forever. But every single person/book/song stays with me in anything I do.

Instagram: @treleehunter & @noidea___________

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/treleehunter

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@treleehunter 

Image Credits
Danielle Rose ( @theawakenedcreative )