Fishing Differently: pgLang’s ‘Project 3’
Last February I wrote “Preventing ‘Legacy Loss’: The Afrofuturist Vision of pgLang” to document the emergence of pgLang, a multidisciplinary creative communications agency founded by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free. Earlier today pgLang launched Project 3 Agency that provides a “creative direction, brand design, strategy, content creation, event planning and production service.” Project 3 Agency is part of pgLang’s creative ecosystem, which focuses solely on external client work, aiming to scale creativity and fill a gap in the agency landscape. According to Free, the “3” (in Project 3) stands for pillars of storytelling: beginning, middle and end.
We were seeing companies we admired, but the storytelling was lackluster. And a lot of it is because the agency motto became a turnover business of more, more, more. Sometimes that’s great, you need that. But [the storytelling] also has to help people. It has to change the world. It has to latch onto people. — Dave Free
That’s not that generation’s choice of fish.
PgLang acquired Frosty, a company made up of creatives and strategists with deep knowledge and experience. Frosty once facilitated a creative collaboration between pgLang and Calvin Klein. This acquisition enabled the newer company to expand, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, and Asia. Of the 30 staff members, leadership includes Dave Free and Kendrick Lamar (creative), Cornell Brown and Jodi Sweetbaum (strategy and operations), Jared Heinke and Anthony Saleh (business development), and Jamie Rabineau (production). Like Sankofa, Project 3 Agency emphasizes the importance of learning from the past to build a better future. This is alluded to in the video that accompanied the launch.
The launch video features a Black boy wearing a mask and a snorkel. He is holding a clear plastic bag with a live fish in it. The lettering on the back of the kid’s jersey spells out “FUBU 05” that refers to the classic urban streetwear company of the same name. By 1998, FUBU’s reached its peak with sales over $350 million. John and his partners had used hip-hop culture to put FUBU’s clothing in almost every rap video at the time. In 1997, LL Cool J starred in a commercial for Gap Inc. in which he wore a FUBU hat and incorporated the phrase “For Us, By Us” into his rap lyrics. And then, suddenly FUBU disappeared from hip hop culture. In the book The Brand Within founder Daymond John explained that one of the major factors that led to the company’s demise is that they had too much product. By 2003, FUBU left the U.S. market completely — except for its footwear division — and built business in Europe and Asia.
Once you hit mark-down bins, it’s tough to climb out, because you’ve lost the sense that your clothes are fresh and vibrant. — Daymond John
Now replace FUBU with pgLang’s Project 3 Agency and the push for new ideas. The phrase “fishing for ideas” means actively seeking or generating new ideas, often by exploring different perspectives, experiences, or information sources, similar to how one might fish by casting a line and waiting for a bite. In this case, youth (a young boy) has done the ideation work and offers up a new idea. We also see two workers arguing about the type of fish (idea) that was in the boy’s bag. I was reminded of the Soul Train-inspired letter board in the music video for “Squabble Up.”
The two Soul Train dancers spell out the Latin phrase Omnia est aliquid that translates to ‘Everything is something’. This can also be interpreted as ‘Everything has significance’ or ‘Everything is significant’, emphasizing that everything holds meaning or value. After seeing the music video I learned to look for meaning in pgLang productions, including the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show that was the most-watched in NFL history. What stood out to me most was the centering of African American voices, stories, and cultural expressions. It’s For Us, By Us vs. Not Like Us. In the Project 3 Agency video, when asked if he had an idea, the young boy reaches down to dig out a piece of paper in his sock with a phone number written on it.
This morning I called that phone number and the greeting says,
Welcome to Project 3 Agency. If you have or need an idea, please press 1 to leave a message.
The greeting immediately cycles through different voices and languages indicating the global reach of the project. Also, the graphic for the Project 3 launch features a ‘target ball” game board with empty holes except the spots for ‘pgLang’ and ‘Agency’. There are three empty holes left on the board that, overal, represents the company’s ecosystem. A quick online search reveals the buzz that this launch generated today. YouTubers and social media influencers have been reacting to the video, as well, with their audiences trying to figure out the meanings behind what is presented.
And this buzz is half the battle. Culture and storytelling are the vehicles.
In a pre-Super Bowl halftime show interview (scrub to 32:00 in the video above), Kendrick Lamar talks about the importance of culture and storytelling. When asked what to expect from the show, Lamar says:
My initial process is how can I open them up to the story and how can I drive them to the ending point to make them feel exactly what I’m trying to convey.
And you best believe Lamar’s intention carries over into Project 3 Agency.