Filtering by Tag: Liam Ian Black

TAKING A RISK ON ME...BUT THAT'S OKAY!

November 01, 2025 / William Burrell Philpot IV

I am what I am and that’s complicated. Not more complicated than anyone else but then again perhaps.

—A Message from Liam Ian

It isn’t my goal to become a grand commercial corporate platform. No. It’s not my goal to hide behind lies or misperceptions. It’s not my goal to create a character of my “authenticity” but more my goal and intention to be as best as I can be to appreciate, encourage and inspire others. My goal is and has been to some degrees to have served the communities that have made my life so abundantly complicated while rich. Thru the traumas of abuse and dysfunction, deprivation and loss, depression and a lack of self-confidence, mistakes and muted successes, I’ve succeeded in achieving much more than what I would have ever guessed. It is today my task—as an Artist, Designer, Photographer, Father, Husband and “Black” Man—to serve as the representation of what an African American Man could be…beyond the confines of descriptions and identities that have become socially acceptable and commonplace.

I’m not here to submit. I’m here to create.

As I continuously point out—to a fault I might add—I am not a perfect person. I am not perfect but I am also unique and very different. I’m not more special than the next yet I am special nonetheless. I’ve survived much while never giving up on my goals nor the gifts for which I was blessed with early on. A man of the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, I am complex full of good and bad stuff. I grew up in different hoods never really having one particular “home” except for those areas I would then come to represent. I’m DC. A DC native, I’m heavily artistically influenced by New York to Los Angeles to African European ideas and concepts. While I’m much more now a Jazz, R&B and Alternative music enthusiast, I embrace the fact that I used to submerge and saturate myself within Hip Hop, Rap and Go-Go. Smoking Black-N-Milds, drinking Old English 40’s and going to the club every weekend was my thing. My fellas were more my family than anyone or anything else while the pursuit of fine Black Women were always on the agenda. Sleeping on couches and even benches, I’ve grown. I’ve grown to sleep in peace within my own bed with someone who would not only be the mother of my child but my Ride or Die.

Within the “positives” of my life I’ve also had to deal with the negatives that helped paint if not just reveal those positives. I’ve grown…and yet…I’m still me. I’m still me and I’m proud of that. Not perfect. Still toxic. Still nasty. Still a lover of everything that was once the pinnacle and prime of Black and Brown African and Latino American Urban Culture, I am still me…but more.

Working With Me…

…will always be a risk. People should know that. I’m an Artist, Designer and Photographer willing to take on just about any project to push the boundaries of what is familiar and what I can do. Taking a risk on me may pay off or not. Taking a risk on me may pay off early or later. Taking a risk on me is a risk but I have yet Mohave let anyone down. Models paid. Contractors paid. Clients served. Collaborations achieved. I’ve had my ups and I’ve had my downs but after over 12 years of entrepreneurship with 4 years being LIAM IAN™, I’m proud to say I’m still here. I’m still here, this business is still here, the goals are still here…and still being pushed forward.

I’m no saint and I’m willing to admit and stand on that every single day…but that’s what makes me, my business and what we do authentic; I’m truly doing me and us and if you can’t see the artistry within that, then we just won’t be working together. It’s that simple.

I can be found in many places within social media as a man and a business. No matter the location I will however stand on also appreciating those that have given and supported me. My artistry is continuously fueled by Art, Design, Fashion, Style, Photography and other forms of media that helped convey the changing landscape of Black and Brown Native American, African American and Latino American identities and communities.

*Truly I never thought I would be at the place that I am but I feel fortunate. I feel fortunate to have it and because of it. I never considered myself to be much but I also knew that there was a lot inside me and I’m thankful. I am thankful. For whatever I gain—thru the failures as much as the successes, I’m thankful and grateful. As I am—we are—poised and positioned now more than ever to include and collaborate with others, we’re striving to making it happen. The transition is from Artist to Art Direction is proposed to be the goal of 2026. We’re planning now to gain a creative foothold on tomorrow.

CONNECTED: TAKING A RISK ON ME...BUT THAT'S OKAY!

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categories / MESSAGES
tags / A Special Message, Liam Ian, Liam Ian Black

What kind of Artist am I?

October 14, 2023 / William Burrell Philpot IV

When I think of artists, it’s often off of a rigid mindset that an artist is and/or can only be one or two things or can only fall into one or two categories. I think this is one of the dysfunctional concepts of what it is to be human; as if we cannot grow past one point, stage, shape or function within reality. I believe this is what informs our level of comfort as seeing someone becoming unfamiliar and changing as a discomfort. A person being recognized for a long period of time leaves us comfortable with them whereas when someone is constantly changing and evolving and capable of being an outlier or standout because have not or do not conform to society leaves us impacted. What’s key to recognize is when one is moving from stage, phase or shape of being, it’s a kind of growth.

Me?

I started this life as William Burrell Philpot IV. Named after a man and a family not my own and often disregarded, Abandoned and left alone more than I should’ve as a child, I had to rely often on me. I began and grew within dysfunction. As I grew older, I came to understand that I needed to change and adapt to the often new, changing, different and difficult scenarios of life—my life. Beginning with a talent for art, art would often be sidelined or unconsciously sidetracked to maintain my survival or a sense of survival while becoming a man.

As I finally became stable, I began to focus more and more on my abilities as an artist. I then became…an Artist. As an office worker, I learned my capabilities as a desktop publisher and graphic designer. Aware of the need to compartmentalize the normalized life of being a Father and a husband, I began to step into Photography—a world I had only previously glimpsed while working in news and events publication. It then became my (then) newest artistry. Liam Ian (Black) was manifested and brought to the forefront.

I was—and still am—informed…by what was around me; a pride for what was current, hood, urban and Black. Hip-hop. Clothing, Fashion and Style. Women. The DC Go-Go scene. The New York thug persona. The dogmatic and stigmatizing identity of the urban Black Man. Black Women as goddesses and then play things. Sex. Poetry. A hope for the future due to Sci-fi and an associated interest technology. The urgency—the then urgent need—of African American Intelligence and Sophistication as the new African American Identity. Now?

I create because of the resources given to me. I create because of the advantages I’ve worked hard for. I create for the Blessings set upon me that have remained my possessions that I feel they should’ve dissolved away some time ago due to laziness, hesitation, procrastination and avoidance throughout the years. Then again, perhaps it was more due to distraction and dysfunction that just prevented me from being able to make artistry a substantial part of my life.

Now, I’m into the resurgence—The Resurgence—of intellectualism within being African American but now…beyond that. Whether as a Man, Artist or Entrepreneur, I act because of an acknowledgment that I soon will not exist in this form anymore. It is thru our artistry, our acts of creativity, compassion and analyses of Life that we become more. I create whatever my heart, mind and soul moves to because it is what resides deeply within. Whether cartoon art, inspirational designs, nude photography it is—at the end—the cumulative body of work that then becomes the masterpiece.

I am an Artist of late 90’s to early 2000’s Hip Hop, Rap, Soul and R&B culture. I’m an Artist of maleness and manhood…loving the female body in the most respectful and dysfunctional forms available to me. I am an Artist of Integrity, Honesty and a Loyal adherence to a Pride of Intelligence, Ethnicity and Innovation. I’m vulgar and angry and peaceful and modest. I’m organic—shifting and changing. I’m an Artistry loves the word Fuck and responds to the need of empathy to those who show it. I’m a complex Man of Color, Ethnicity and Culture born out of the many cultural dysfunctions that would either demonize, diminish, encapsulate, incarcerate, or truly destroy those who look like me therefore I am also a complex Artist and Work of Art.

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categories / JRNL, OPINION, REFLECTION
tags / LIAM IAN, Liam Ian Black, William Burrell Philpot IV