Piano music plays and blurred images cross the screen. Laid out in chronological order are the nine singles released by enigmatic R&B singer Frank Ocean. The images slowly fade, and the steadfast voice of YouTuber Philip Damico begins.
“it’s been four long years since the last Frank Ocean album,” Damico says. His voice, much like Ocean’s latest single and topic of his video, “Dear April,” is calm and unnerving. The screen shifts. Gone are the nine images, with the only remainder being “Dear April’s” cover and Damico’s voice, doing what he has done for 61 prior videos, his formal introduction. “In this video, we’re going to take a closer look at the song’s instrumental, lyrics, and vocals to better understand what makes it a unique entry into the Frank Ocean musical catalog,” Damico says. And just like that, we’re off.
The internet is a living, breathing, organism and YouTube, a cell within its body, is one of the most active and informative websites in pop culture. The video sharing website has, over time, become a job creator. Being a YouTuber is now a legitimate career path, and one you don’t need a college degree for — just passion, some technical skills, and luck.
Katie McLaughlin Photo
Damico.
One of the more popular rising genres on YouTube is the video essay, a style filled with analytical videos about a given topic backed by audio, graphics, animation, and found footage. One of the leaders in that genre is New Haven’s own Philip Damico, known on the internet as Volksgeist.
Anywhere from one to four times a month, Volksgeist releases a new video analyzing a piece of music, an artist or an aspect of entertainment culture. Since starting his channel in March 2017, Volksgeist has earned over 200,000 subscribers and received co-signs and shoutouts from musical artists and personalities such as Matty Healthy of The 1975, A$AP Rocky, Danny Brown, J.I.D. and fellow YouTuber Anthony Fantano.
At 20 years old with no high school degree and a handful of college credits at Gateway Community College, Damico is making a living off of YouTube. Which is crazy, considering there was a time when all this seemed like a myth.
“My first video was a comparison of the Beatles and Radiohead, talking about how both bands commented on contemporary political issues and were also the most popular bands of their time. I posted the video on Reddit, it got 600 views, and the few people that did see it thrashed it. I thought to myself: if I want to continue, I’d better get good.”
Damico got good. Good enough to be retweeted by Anthony Fantano, a fellow Connecticut resident and YouTuber with over 2 million subscribers.
“I was going to give up,” said Philip. “I was in school and frankly, I had gotten bored of YouTube. I decided I was going to make a final few videos on topics I had always wanted to speak on and see what happens. One of the last videos I made was called ‘How Anthony Fantano Rates an Album.’ Fantano posted the video to his Twitter page a few days later and I went from 5,000 to 17,000 subscribers overnight.”
Today, in addition to its 200,000-plus followers, the Volksgeist channel has over 13 million total views and 60 videos full of in-depth musical analysis. “I felt so proud when I passed 130,000 subscribers” — roughly the population of New Haven proper, he noted. “But now I’m looking forward to the next thing, which for me, is 300,000 subscribers.”
Damico’s aim isn’t to tell you if an album is good; instead he breaks down the themes within, taking you inside the minds of your favorite artists. Everyone knows, for example, that popular musician The Weeknd loves drugs; all you have to do is listen to one song. But Damico aims to explain why The Weeknd loves drugs and talk about how exactly The Weeknd has successfully marketed his aesthetic.
He creates his work in his home studio in Edgewood. Each video is accompanied by a four-to-five-page script and a range of creative motion graphics — skills he learned through YouTube. “I’m actually fully self-taught,” he said. “I learned everything I know by watching YouTube videos.”
That said, Damico has ambitions beyond YouTube; he would like to parlay his success into real-life activism within his community. “I grew up near East Rock,” in Jocelyn Square, “but it wasn’t East Rock then,” he said. “It was the neighborhood, not student housing. Just working people trying to get by. There were a lot of neighbors involved in drugs and other things that my mom didn’t want me to see. I remember seeing multiple shootings before I was 10. But I think in some ways it was good for me to see how the world really is. I remember seeing an abandoned building near my childhood home turned into luxury apartments. When I was younger, we never walked in that direction because wild dogs would roam around inside.”
For Damico, growing up in New Haven taught him, at an early age, the importance of acceptance and caring about others.
“Thanks to my upbringing, I gained a strong moral compass and saw up close the effects of gentrification, and how our educational system is broken. It affected me, but it affected people around me much more as well. I used to deliver UberEATS on my bicycle to make ends meet. Going all over the city for hours, just trying to make a few dollars, I saw up close what people mean when they say Yale owns New Haven.”
Damico was primarily raised by a single mother who suffered from chronic illness. It made him want to strive for stability and community in his private and public life.
“I’m glad I didn’t slip through the cracks,” he said. “Growing up, I saw a lot of people struggling to get by, and for a long time, I went through the same things. It’s stressful to not have enough. It alters your thoughts and motivations. But my goal is to help others, shine a light on my community and maybe even seek public office one day. Don’t be surprised if I run for mayor of New Haven in 10 years. Life is meant to be lived for others.”
Damico at Lebanon Valley College, November 2019.
Influenced by the likes of Malcolm Gladwell, Damico’s personal view of New Haven turned him onto activism. He joined Sabir Abdussadur in his bike activism as one of the Masked Maniax. He has already led discussions and events at UCONN and various universities in Pennsylvania on video essays, entrepreneurship, and urban planning.
“I don’t want to see the people of New Haven, the working-class people, pushed out of their homes. You look around and see the rent price, and you begin to wonder who the city is made for,” Damico said.
This idea will soon flood Damico’s YouTube channel as he looks to not abandon music and culture, but tie in discussions around issues that face his community. “My work is done with the intent to spark a conversation with like-minded individuals — a conversation I want to lead toward change, change within our community,” he said.
Damico has been splitting his time between New Haven, Philadelphia and rural Texas due to business commitments (he is currently in Texas). Pandemic restrictions allowing, he hopes to use the summer of 2020 to host community events in New Haven, helping build up the community that made him who he is today.
Volksgeist can be followed on YouTube and Instagram and can also be reached by email for any questions, comments or ideas on how he can better serve the people of New Haven: philip@volksgeist.org.