“It’s Time That Art Is Purposeful”: KK Obi Takes Us Inside Boy.Brother.Friend

“Canon building is empire building, and canon defense is national defense,” Toni Morrison once wrote. In the past decade, as the financial model for print media has been upended, the magazine industry has witnessed a seismic power struggle between old-guard editors and a fresh, more diverse wave of storytellers. Enter KK Obi, the founder of the fashion magazine Boy.Brother.Friend and an editor-in-chief with a mission. Since launching in 2020, the UK-based publication has highlighted Black communities around the world, sweeping whole cultures and stories out from under the rug of colonial history. “We’ve had hundreds of years of artistic expression,” Obi explained. “It’s time that art is purposeful.” One person in his corner is Riccardo Tisci, former creative director for Givenchy and Burberry, whom Obi tapped to edit the latest issue alongside the virtuoso writer and actor Michaela Coel. To mark the release of Issue 8, we called up the Nigerian-born creative to talk about collaboration, documentation, and scaling up the Boy.Brother.Friend empire.

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EMMA STOUT: Hi, KK. How are you?

KK OBI: Good. I’ve just been running around London and sweating all day. But thank you so much for talking to me.

STOUT: I know you have a lot of stuff going on, so thanks for taking the time. I heard that you split your time between London and Lagos.

OBI: Yeah, I was in Lagos last year, and I’m going there again at the end of this year. I try to spend at least two months there a year. My mom is there, my sister, and my cousins—I have a lot of cousins. I always say that there’s things I crave there. It’s different food, different experiences. But when I’m there, there’s things I crave here, so it’s so complicated.

STOUT: I feel like Boy.Brother.Friend straddles that line between cultures, between Nigeria and the UK.

OBI: Yeah, that’s always been the crux. It’s bridging this diaspora, homegrown gap, trying to make it all one and not be separate. I think a lot about how the world works or how capitalism has worked historically. Also, there’s a lot of focus on queer culture and queer creatives. I think it’s important, especially for Africa, to have that representation.

STOUT: Right. And there’s something hopeful about the Boy.Brother.Friend ethos, which is the power of community and the power of archiving.

OBI: Yes, exactly. Documentation—it’s very, very important.

STOUT: This latest issue’s theme is faith, which struck me as quite optimistic. 

OBI: Yeah, optimism. But also, just connecting to belief. Connecting to a space where you don’t even have to think about it, you just feel it. Belief in spaces where you really feel authentic and honest and safe. That’s really, I think, what we were trying to do and where we were trying to start from. I feel like the world is in such a space right now, and we’re consuming so many different types of information.

STOUT: What’s your life mantra, your personal beliefs? 

OBI: I believe in friendship, which has been a cornerstone of my life. The story behind this publication centered around friendship and community. I was raised Anglican, but I’m definitely more agnostic now. I definitely do believe that there are spirits, there are other realities.

STOUT: Was there anything that you and Riccardo [Tisci]  were reacting to in the world in arriving at this theme?

OBI: No, there wasn’t a reaction. It was literally friendship. I met him, I saw him in Lagos, and then we spoke. Initially, I was wanting him to do a project, and then I think he saw a wider picture. Every issue, we have a geographical focus. Milan was this issue, so I was looking for an Italian person that I had a strong connection with. I think Milan is a very intense place, so it was important to have someone who was from there but wasn’t living there.

STOUT: How so? I’ve never been to Milan.

OBI: Obviously it’s a fashion capital, it’s an art capital, creative capital. I think the racial politics are very intense, maybe how history played out has allowed for that. But I feel the hypocrisy of Milan is that it pulls in so much capital from all different parts of the world. So, it is, by definition, a very international space—but it just doesn’t feel that way sometimes.

STOUT: That’s interesting. So you’re exploding that in the issue.

OBI: Exactly. Exploding that and keeping it within play. We have Francesco Risso, who’s the creative director for Marni– he’s part of the issue. We have Jordan Anderson, who’s this incredible Jamaican writer living in Milan. We really just try to find interesting people who are redefining that landscape.

STOUT: And obviously, the fabulous Michaela Coel. 

OBI: And obviously, Michaela.

STOUT: I love the spreads with her. But one image really struck me: Michaela with a white face mask on. Was that evoking some kind of double consciousness?

OBI: It was really just Michaela as an artist; Michaela as a shapeshifter; Michaela as a writer, director, producer. She was as much involved in the creative process as myself and Riccardo [Tisci]. She wanted to evoke things, and it was incredible to see her transform into different characters. And that character is wearing a Chanel suit, like a French bourgeois kind of moment. 

STOUT: I feel like this issue delves more into the Girl.Sister.Friend aspect of the magazine. Which, I’m assuming, has always been part of your vision? 

OBI: Yes, Girl.Sister.Friend is the sister publication that we’re hopefully launching at the end of 2025. It will obviously be female-led. I’m trying to find that space or that person at the moment. But we always try to weave it in.

STOUT: I love that you can feel the magazine and flip through it. From what I’ve read, print is important as part of your archival process.

OBI: Absolutely. Especially for Black stories, documentation is needed. I feel like a lot of our stories exist in the digital space. And, of course, that’s amazing and that’s warranted, but I think it’s also important to have our stories in print. This model for the magazine is one that hopefully allows for a frequency where people collect. Hopefully you display it on your beautiful table in your library. I have a corner in my bedroom with books and magazines. So I wake up and I look at them, it inspires me a lot.

STOUT: I was going to ask you that. Are you a big collector of physical media?

OBI: Yes, definitely. I have quite a few bags in storage. I mean, I love it. There’s no better way to view imagery. Obviously, we all love going to the cinema. We see images on our phone. But print, it’s a different feeling. It’s also incredible when someone can tell a story in print. There’s nothing like it.

STOUT: What are your recommendations? What are you reading? 

OBI: Obviously, I love Interview Magazine and the work that Mel Ottenberg is doing. Magazines like Fantastic Man, New Currency. It’s incredible to see Black writers and creatives coming out with their publications as well—I think that’s what we need more of.

STOUT: Well, what advice do you have for young Black creatives looking to break into the fashion media space?

OBI: It’s very hard work. You have to learn how to deal with a lot of people at one time. The challenge—and no one really talks about it—is you have to be resilient and try to be as authentic as you can. Somehow what’s grounded this project is that it definitely feels like a singular perspective. Even though there is a team, it’s very emotional. I try to connect to real stories and real narratives as much as I can.

STOUT: Yeah. And I feel like authenticity is such a big point of contention. If I’m representing a culture, can I represent everything?

OBI: Exactly. But I don’t think it should be about representation. If that’s the point, we can all tell different stories.  I think it’s about honesty—how you tell the story, and also what you’re talking about? We all have to be thinking and talking about how to improve this reality that we’re in. We’ve had hundreds of years of artistic expression—it’s time that art is purposeful.