LYNN — Local hip-hop artist C. Wells recently had a billboard installed on Union Street to promote his business “Live Famous” and encourage others in the city to keep pushing to pursue their dreams.
Wells, 28, always remembers wanting to make music, but said he felt like he needed to do more.
During his sophomore year of high school at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, Wells started working on “Live Famous” — a brand built around showing love and recognizing people for their success.
Having always been into fashion, Wells said he wanted to create something that Lynn hasn’t seen before, similar to what he does with his music.
Wells took a graphic design class, created a logo and rendered it to make his first t-shirt.
“At first I just thought ‘Oh, it’s just a T-shirt,’ and some people liked it,” Wells said. “I stopped for a little bit, but saw that there was a demand for the shirts from like 2010 to 2012 before I started taking it seriously. That made me realize that I had something.”
Wells continued his brand but put more of his focus on his music. When the pandemic started and prevented Wells from going to perform at shows, he used that free time to promote his brand and merchandise more.
Within a few months, Wells said the boxes of sweatsuits he had were sold out.
“I realized that I had a business that could keep functioning throughout a pandemic,” Wells said. “That was something that pushed me to move forward.”
At the end of 2021, Wells officially made Live Famous a Limited Liability Company (LLC) when he realized he believed in it just as much as he did his music. He then created a website and continued to promote his brand, leading to him getting the billboard.
With the billboard, Wells hopes that people can look at it and realize that “your dreams are attainable.”
“Being somebody who continually sets the standard for artists and people from the city chasing their dreams, this (website) is the one stop place for them to keep up with what’s going on,” Wells said.
He got the idea for the billboard from walking around New York City and seeing local artists and brands on billboards out there, so when he came home to Lynn and saw an empty billboard on Union Street, Wells thought it was perfect timing.
The billboard promotes his website, which gives followers and consumers access to follow along with vlogs, music, merchandise, and news.
“It’s dope because before this, I’ve done a lot of other things that I felt like Lynn didn’t really get to be involved in — like big songs with artists and tours — and I actually feel like Lynn is now more involved and can see the stuff that I’m doing,” Wells said.
While he said nobody took his music seriously at first, the billboard can show people that he kept working hard to accomplish what he wanted.
“My message for Lynn is that you can really do whatever you want to do,” Wells said. “No one can tell you what you can’t do. It’s on you. If you have to leave here to get the resources, then do what you have to do. I found out through my journey that I have to go get these things and see people doing it, and then come back home and do things here.”
Wells said everything has now come full surface, with the billboard and success of his business, as well as the release of his new album titled “Where I’m from.”
“This project is designed to be what I call the soundtrack of Lynn, along with a headline show,” Wells said.
To learn more about Live Famous and C. Wells, visit https://livefamous.co.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].
