Meet Cnote | The Bridge

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

Hi Cnote, how does your business help the community?
The Bridge is a community based brand focused on enriching & nurturing creative relationships throughout the city of Charlotte. We do this by curating spaces, activities, & events that bring people together in their most appropriate settings. Creativity and artistry are responsible for advancing cultural aspects of our communities. It inspires what we wear, how we speak, how we interact with one another. In certain societies however, the contributions of artistry towards productivity may not be as explicitly displayed or appreciated. Especially against other sectors such as Finance here in Charlotte.

Some of the spaces we’ve developed have served as evidence of the boundaries that can be pushed by regular individuals with a particular amount of passion & drive. Since it’s conception, our space has hosted over 1,000 guests, over 20 creative events, 50 studio sessions, as well as countless more accolades.

We’ve birthed the first of many people’s event series, we’ve graced many artist’s with their first time performing on stage, helped people shoot their first music videos.. There’s been many, many firsts which is something we pride ourselves on heavily as a brand.
There’s also a small sector of people that see what we’re doing & are striving to keep up, which is a positive sign in itself as well. Like we are raising the bar for community based creative brands in Charlotte.

What should our readers know about your business?
The Bridge is a creative community based in Charlotte, NC. We pride ourselves in our efforts towards collaboration, spreading love, & good hip-hop. We’ve got two locations within Charlotte where we record music, shoot music videos, throw events, produce merchandise, as well as countless other creative endeavors. The Bridge is a product of hustling, financial management, & community efforts. It was never too late in the night for me to take a session at a certain point, & it was never to early for me to get back to the studio the next morning. As long as there is persistent effort and proper cash flow consistently, it can only end when you decide to end it. Finding the perfect medium between commercial appeal and personal passion is quite honestly a never ending battle. It’s easy to forget the passion you started with as you start to maneuver through the financial needs of your mission. As opportunities for expansion present themselves, it’s over important to gauge what personnel, brand partnerships, events, activities, projects identify with the initial purpose. Maintaining this integrity requires a broad, large scale vision because the path towards your success will almost never look how you expect. In my personal journey, I had to pivot and re-write 50million different stories as to how we are going to do what we’re meant to do. To be able to properly adapt to what’s appropriate for your audience while maintaining your own personal values, practices, and ideals is the superpower we’re all working towards.
You also must be willing to relinquish certain control & allow other leaders to come in and lead within your organization. There are going to be areas of expertise that would be extremely difficult to reach a certain level of proficiency while also maintaining your regular operations. It’s disrespectful to specialists to assume you can be great at rapping, recording, mixing & mastering, making beats, shooting and editing videos, coordinating events, teaching piano lessons, printing clothes, as well as all the other facets of The Bridge. Sometimes it’s best to take a step back & conceive some profound vision most people couldn’t fathom, and place the experts in position to do their best work within the organization. With that in place, the organization can operate as an ecosystem with a collective mission.
Within our organization, we’re dedicated to creating an infrastructure from within Charlotte than can support the development of an artist’s endeavors. Particularly the underground hip-hop community, where the arts is a lot of our only means of expression & some’s only foreseeable path towards true freedom.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There are actually a few really cool spots in Charlotte if you want to get acquainted with the creative community. Street Commerce is a dope luxury consignment shop, run by a young man in his 20s. Archive CLT is a black owned coffee shop that holds occasional community events as well as holds some of Charlotte’s most historical and most black artifacts. BYOP is a dope retail clothing shop owned by a young black man in his 20s. The amount of physical locations starting to open up dedicated to culture, hiphop, & community serves as an extremely exciting outlook on the future of the city. Numerous nightclubs and lounges to kick back at. Of course, we’ve got two locations where you can find us at! We started with a small recording studio in the NODA Studios building, a building made up of roughly 40 studios to rent. Most of the substantial Bridge characters came around during this time & started to consider it a 2nd home just based on the comfortability and hospitality. These were some of the most formative times for The Bridge because these were the times where the organization defined itself.
A year later, I acquired a 2nd studio in the same building where I put together a small photography/production studio. Eventually that room evolved into a snack room that services the whole rest of the studios and bands that rehearse in the building.
About a year and a half later, we acquired the Northlake location as an organization. In this building, we’ve got a small boxing/conditioning gym, two recording studios, a room for merch/apparel production, a room for tooth gems, as well as an event space with a stage. It’s dope! Be sure to check us out next time you’re in Charlotte.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are countless individuals that have played a key role in the progression of The Bridge. First & foremost, my family; shouts to Mom & Pops. Some of the homies that were around before we had quality engineers, such as G Phatz, Goji, Deb, Audley & Mav. Some of the first engineers, such as E. Cain, Marquise, & Cam. Rogue, Kash & Lamaj, Shouts to the media side, Adu & Omar primarily. Richie & Cotty who work in the print shop & help with merch. The lead of events, Caleb & Tim who’s always just a call away. & I’m sure there’s still more people that I’m missing.

Website: thebridgeclt.co

Instagram: @thebridgeclt

Youtube: thebridgeclt

Image Credits
AVMG Media Devin Blake Media Heer Designs