Steven Brown, better known as Steve-O, calls himself a renaissance man, and its not just because he's from Harlem. By definition the renaissance man is "a modern man who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field" and as an entrepreneur, music manager, marketing consultant and photographer Steve-O definitely falls within that definition and exists in a period of independence and innovation.

Reminiscent of how Langston Hughes and his peers created a magazine as a voice for the youth during the Harlem Renaissance by the name of 'Fire!!' Steve-O put his name on the map in his industry when he launched a sneaker mag called 'Laced.' Now, he's making his mark in the music realm, steering the careers of JIVE/Battery Records artist Mickey Factz and Def Jam artist Big K.R.I.T. While also launching tours such as The Smokers Club featuring Curren$y, Big KRIT, Smoke DZA and more. -- Rhonesha Byng

Editor's Note: For Black History Month, we've chosen to not only remind readers of African Americans' rich past, but to also spotlight some of the young people who're poised to make history in the coming years -- our "black future."

When we spoke about how you started out in your career, you mentioned the word renaissance, do you think being from Harlem influenced your perspective at all?

Of course growing up in Harlem, I always heard about the Renaissance. I'm from a place where it's about doing your thing, getting your own and being on your own; being an entrepreneur and creating your own McDonald's, you know, your own Starbucks. That's where I'm from. There's a new Renaissance in Harlem, it's just not discovered yet.

When you meet someone for the first time and they ask you what you do, what do you tell them?

One word to describe it: I call it "Steve-ography." Steve-ography is like a combination of everything. I do so much, and I learn so much, but the reason I've learned what I've learned is because I had no choice. We didn't have a photographer so I had to take the pictures. We needed to shoot videos so I had to learn how to use a video camera. We had to do it on our own. I didn't go to college for marketing, I learned.

Looking at sense of identity in terms of who you are, where you come from, and you as a black man, how does that fit into your work?

I look at it like, we weren't expected to do what we do. When I pull out my Canon camera, they look at me like wow, how did he get that? They really don't expect us to do what we do. As an African American man, you have to beat the odds. Regardless of whether Obama won as the president, we are still pushing the envelope. They still look at us like wow, he's educated. They expect us to only do certain things. So I just want to be one of those guys that's able to do it all.

Historically, they didn't give black people a chance to succeed, or access to the same opportunities that whites did and so in order to gain that chance Black people created their own platforms (i.e. The Black Negro League, Langston Hughes created his own magazine to showcase the work of all his writer friends that couldn't get published anywhere else). Do you feel like what we see in today's innovators is a refection of that?

It's like we were born rebellious, and we were always the underdog. So we always felt like we had to do it on our own. A lot of times they don't show us love, so we have to create it on our own to get a chance. Look at Spike Lee, I'm sure he tried to become a great director working for other people, and you know be an assistant to other people but he didn't get a chance to do that so he had to create it on his own.

What are your thoughts on those in the past who founded record labels like Berry Gordy, who founded Motown, and how Jay-Z and Damon developed Rocafella Records, and how their stories, their successes and their failures impact what you strive for today?

They taught us to do it on our own. When Jay-Z first came out he didn't get love, he didn't really become Jay-Z until he was like 26/27. They had to use their own money, that's just inspirational if you're starting your own label. Relationships and personal issues got in the way. In life, you have to separate business and personal. There's times when its business, and times when its personal, but keep it business when its business. When you start broke together, you share one common goal, but when you make that money and you rise, goals change. They didn't agree.

In the continuum of Black Achievement in your industry, who do you believe came right before you to allow you to do what you do?

Steve Stoute; he was directly working with Nas, he was right there with the artist and then he went on to do bigger business. He's the cool, he's the guy, he knows what's hot for a company like Reebok because he's in the streets directly. He's the middle man between urban and commercial consumerism. That's how I want to be when I get older. There's always a next person. But that's the problem with the game right now, they're not letting us in. Like how Andre Harrell put on Diddy, and I'm sure Dame had someone above him like Russell to school him, we don't have anyone that's schooling the next entrepreneurs on how to do it. I have personal mentors but not someone like Steve Stoute in my ear like this is how you gotta do it. It's not even about me, I don't see anybody. Who are they mentoring? Where are they at?

So, you appreciate history and the doors that have been opened but you look to and study the new innovators of today to really get you motivated?

People like Dee & Ricky. They're talented and I appreciate what they've done. They came from the bottom, where I came from, and they were able to turn LEGOs into profit. That's a success story. You can do it on your own. Someone tweeted today, when you're working for someone you help their dreams come to life, not yours. That's not your vision, it's his. That's so true. When you work at someplace like Best Buy, you are pushing Best Buy's vision of what success is, you're not pushing yours. You are pushing yours to the back.