The Black Hokage joins XSET: \u201cEveryone\u2019s big brother\u201d continues to push boundaries XSETThe Black Hokage is officially joining XSET. We dove into a wide-lens interview with the content creator, covering everything from spirit fish and navigating the gaming industry as a Black streamer, to his plans with the new org. XSET call themselves \u201cthe world\u2019s most diverse, innovative, socially conscious esports \u2018set.\u2019\u201d Corey \u201cThe Black Hokage\u201d Smallwood\u2019s tagline is \u201cwho your GOAT considers their GOAT.\u201d They obviously share high standards and them partnering up makes more sense than a vending machine. As TBH joins his new org, we got a chance to talk about his journey, his interests, and new team. But first, some quick facts. Quick Facts Favorite color? My favorite color\u2019s green \u2018cause I like to make money. – Favorite food? My favorite food is pizza, but I don\u2019t eat it no more \u2014 that stuff makes you fat. I recently lost over 100 pounds so I stay away from the carbs. I had my Uncle Iroh moment. – Favorite hobbies? Exercising, reading, anime. I\u2019m weirdly obsessed with just improving myself as a man. That\u2019s what I try to preach as well. – Favorite animes? People know I like . But it\u2019s not my favorite, my favorite anime is . \u2018s just a gateway drug. Then, , , , \u2014 those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. – Favorite animal? A lion. That\u2019s kind of how I view myself, I just want to be at the top, the cream of the crop. – If you were a fish, what kind of fish would you be? I would go with a shark, \u2018cause those are the lions of the ocean. – Streaming & Gaming The tagline is \u201cwho your GOAT considers their GOAT,\u201d so who are among your inspirations? \u201cWhen it comes to content creation, I watch a lot of people, study, and take little bits, but I don\u2019t consider anyone in gaming a heavy inspiration. My heavy inspiration comes from stand-up comedy, that\u2019s what I love. So Dave Chappelle, Paul Mooney, Bernie Mac \u2014 a lot of my inspirations are classic stand-up comedians. And I try to implement a comedic style into my content and commentary, where I give a little bit of the medicine and the candy.\u201d As a streamer with a lot of cultural discussion and viewer interaction, how would you describe your community to newcomers? My community is level-headed, open-minded, loves to joke; they\u2019re quick to roast you when you make mistakes. Oftentimes your community is a reflection of who you are and things that you allow, so I think it often is a reflection of me. Read more: SuperEvan joins XSET: \u201csomething to prove\u201d – My chat always jokes \u2018we don\u2019t watch you for the gameplay.\u2019 I\u2019m okay at games, I\u2019m an above-average player, but I\u2019m not a pro player, dude. I\u2019ve recently kind of rebranded myself, \u2018cause I kind of started off as joking content and \u2014 the jokes are still there \u2014 but I\u2019ve kind of rebranded myself as everybody\u2019s big brother. Every time I learn something, every time I learn a new lesson, I bring it to the stream and it creates a dialogue and\u2026 that\u2019s what it\u2019s about. As far as games go, you stream a lot of Apex Legends. Is that your favorite and why do you prefer it over Warzone? Warzone\u2019s full of hackers and also I\u2019m just not a big Call of Duty fan, they just camp and stuff. Apex, I feel like people pull up more and I\u2019m \u2018bout that action \u2014 especially in the Arenas. But in BR, just learning the mechanics and how the different characters coincide with one another and how you can complement one another, I think the teamwork is what appeals to me the most. But I play a lot of single-player games too. I do game reviews on YouTube, so I just beat Ratchet and Clank. I\u2019m playing Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition, that\u2019s my favorite game of all time. I actually grew up as a single-player gamer. I play Apex because it\u2019s my go-to multiplayer game to play with friends, but in all honesty, my best streams are when I play single-player games; that\u2019s when I start going on tangents. (I am looking forward to Battlefield 2042, when it comes to multiplayer, though.) I low key enjoy when @TheBlackHokage plays single-player games more because he tells hella stories lmao. \u2014 TheFroWhoKnows (@thefrowh0knows) June 28, 2021 Inclusivity in gaming Shifting gears, XSET emphasizes diversity and you have an important perspective as a Black creator. Considering how long gaming has felt like a white-dominated and discriminatory space, have you noticed any progress? I\u2019ve been around for a really long time and I\u2019m to see progress maybe in the last three to five years. But it\u2019s been a long time coming and I still think we\u2019ve got a lot of work to do. It\u2019s about accessibility, people just don\u2019t know that we exist. A lot of times I\u2019ll meet other content creators at events and I\u2019m often actually the biggest content creator in the room\u2026 and they have no clue who I am. And then they wanna be your friend once they see your social media following. But it\u2019s because the world is a big place and a lot of times we operate in our own little bubbles and echo chambers, so you just don\u2019t know. I think as long as we keep continuing to talk to one another, things will improve, but nah, it\u2019s not where it needs to be \u2014 it\u2019s just recently started to improve. Given that vantage point, as someone who\u2019s grinded through the industry, do you have any advice for aspiring Black (and minority) creators? Closed mouths don\u2019t get fed and don\u2019t walk around with a chip on your shoulder. I think that actually stunted my own growth. I feel like in the last maybe three years, I\u2019ve really accelerated and started to put my name out there even more. And don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ve actually had situations where I\u2019ve gone to events with very prominent companies, my name would be on the VIP list, and they told me \u2018you don\u2019t look like you\u2019re supposed to be here.\u2019 I\u2019ve had some foul shit said to me, dawg. And that shit does exist, but what I will say is there are a lot of really good people and I feel like I\u2019ve blocked my own blessings by walking around with that chip on my shoulder, assuming that everybody was judging me. A lot of times I would walk in the room and I\u2019m the only Black person \u2014 and people stare at you. And the way I would interpret it is \u2018oh what\u2019s this Black person doing here?\u2019 But it\u2019s really just genuine curiosity: \u2018you\u2019re different from everybody else.\u2019 And then you find out, when I talk to people, oh we have gaming in common and they\u2019re really not being judgmental, they\u2019re just curious. So once I stopped walking around with that chip on my shoulder assuming that everybody was judging me, I made a lot more connections in the industry. I think the truth is in the middle. There\u2019s problems, but then there\u2019s always ways you can improve yourself too. TBH x XSET What about XSET makes it feel like a strong fit? The reason it appealed to me and what was presented was: they really want to put diversity on the forefront and not as just some talking point. They want to lead that way. I like how when they first announced the team, they said that \u2018gaming needs to clean up.\u2019 So the fact that they\u2019re leading that way and they just wanna be positive and put out dope shit, they\u2019re giving opportunities to people who might not have gotten it before. I think that\u2019s what appeals to me the most. It feels like inclusivity is not something they are checking off, it\u2019s a part of the program. What kind of content are you excited about down the line? I can\u2019t get into the specifics, but I\u2019m looking forward to being able to produce higher-grade quality content. They\u2019re gonna be giving me tools and assets that will allow me to present myself in a way that I previously wasn\u2019t allowed to. And it\u2019s going to be focusing a lot on pop culture and lifestyle, not just gaming. That\u2019s the way things were presented to me and I was like \u2018yeah, that\u2019s what I like.\u2019 Because I always preach \u2018don\u2019t just be a gamer.\u2019 A lot of times, gamers get trapped in the idea of this identity, \u2018oh I\u2019m a gamer and that\u2019s it,\u2019 and you should be a multi-faceted person and it feels like that\u2019s where XSET is going. They\u2019re focusing on being multi-faceted and that\u2019s dope to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Black Hokage joins XSET: \u201cEveryone\u2019s big brother\u201d continues to push boundaries XSETThe Black Hokage is officially joining XSET. We dove into a wide-lens interview with the content creator, covering everything from spirit fish and navigating the gaming industry as a Black streamer, to his plans with the new org. XSET call themselves \u201cthe world\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}