Howard Student Starts Company, Records CD

HBUC Pittsburgh Homewood Project 2001 Interns & Faculty (Omar Clennon, left).

Student, promoter, producer, entrepreneur, "multi-instrumentalist." These titles might describe a variety of individuals engaged in interesting activities, but in this case they're roles that one individual has combined into a career.

Omar Clennon, a.k.a. "Super Fuzz", is a Howard University senior architecture honors student who, at age 22, has accomplished much.

He boasts a 3.9 grade point average.

He is an award-winning design student, selected by Carnegie Mellon University for a graduate school internship.

He was also selected by Howard University to visit Germany and participate in an urban design session known as a charette. For architects, a charette is a relatively short session, typically one day, when a problem is given intense focus.

But above all, Clennon is the CEO and founder of Zero Gravity (Zero G), a "worldwide entertainment conglomerate" with a Caribbean theme that is seeking to create a new genre by using such vehicles as music, film, fashion and comedy.

His latest feat is an album, "Generation Z", that in its first week sold 25 copies on Howard University's campus and is now available on several other Washington, D.C., area campuses.

The album is being supported by an innovative and creative promotion and advertising strategy that includes eye-catching fliers highlighting the "Zero G" name in red on a blue background and a "count-up" (as opposed to a countdown) that will continually update the public on the album sales. The fliers are posted at targeted locations on Washington area campuses.

Clennon has leveraged his relationship with the local Caribbean community and Caribbean students to sell and promote his album, but Zero G and the album's "avant-garde" styles are bound to become well accepted and popular among people of all nationalities.

The foundation of the "Generation Z" genre is Jamaican and reggae music.

As Clennon is a Jamaican who received much of his inspiration from reggae music, that music forms the foundation of the "Generation Z" genre.

Clennon credits his music's "crossover appeal" to his international experience. Clennon has lived in Canada, where he adopted a "skateboarding, rock-music listening, radical spirit".

"Zero Gravity is a new way of thinking, an amalgamation of my experiences representing something that has never been done before," said Clennon.

He identifies VP Records and Island Records as his models for success, and his competitors.

However, he foresees Zero G surpassing the accomplishments of these two very successful record labels.

Clennon began his career in the music industry as a local DJ in his neighborhood in Jamaica at the tender age of 7. He began to build his popularity and recognition throughout the years and to venture into other areas of music such as piano/keyboard, and his "number one" instrument, the guitar.

Clennon compares himself to businessman and Island Records owner and founder Chris Blackwell, an icon in the reggae industry, and hopes to accomplish all that Blackwell has accomplished and more.

Clennon also gains his motivation from the likes of rock 'n' roll Hall of Famer Jimi Hendrix, who he calls "the greatest guitarist that ever lived," and Eric Clapton, who he identifies as "the greatest presently living guitarist."

Another inspiration, particularly with regard to his entrepreneurial aspirations and fondness for jazz music, is his father, a jazz enthusiast, chemical engineer and businessman who had many business interests, including owning a gas station in Jamaica.

Clennon is looking to add talented individuals to his management team who are skillful in the same areas of entertainment that Zero G includes in its business model.

In three years, Clennon plans on integrating the film aspect of his business into Zero G with a movie completed.

Long-term goals include global expansion and becoming the leaders in their field in about 10 years.

Tracey Austin is a student at Howard University who writes for The Hilltop.