From PREP.BOY$ to PREP Culture — A Note From The Editor

My name is BJ Teriba . I’m the CEO of PREP Studios and its subsidiary, PREP Culture . This is personal for me.

PREP.BOY$ started in 2016, right after I graduated from DePauw.

What began as a culture blog with a deep focus on music became a crash course in digital marketing, event management, and entrepreneurship. I immediately enlisted the help of my friend & business partner, Mike Onuroah , trying things in public and learning in real time.

Between 2016 and 2019, that experiment turned into a beautifully twisted journey through nightlife, concerts, and the grassroots music industry in Indianapolis and across the Midwest .

At the time, I wasn’t trying to “build a media company.” I was trying to figure out how the media in the digital age actually worked — how marketing, events, and business really move when you’re not just reading case studies, but living them. PREP.BOY$ was my lab. Music became our playground.

We did a lot. We saw a lot. Here’s a glimpse:

• We produced media, concerts and parties with the likes of Gunna, YFN Lucci, Moneybagg Yo, Rick Ross, Lil Baby, Victor Oladipo , and a host of others.
• We shot for people and orgs like The Steward Speakers, Al Sharpton, Angela Rye, Gary Brackett, the Indianapolis Colts, Mike G, DJ Strick, Wudi , and other major players in the city at the time.
• We managed artists like Paris LaDame, FreshDuzIt, and Norrie G. , and we toured around the Midwest with them.
• We published over 200 blogs and an endless stream of social content — recaps, interviews, think pieces, and all the little posts in between that kept our corner of the internet alive.
• We produced media for fashion shows and shot fashion films , playing with the intersection of style, sound, and story.

We were everywhere: backstage, side-stage, front row, green rooms, 3 a.m. debriefs, last-minute venue changes, delayed wires, surprise wins. We watched artists break, fizzle, & pivot. We watched the stars of local & global talents rise and fade. We analyzed the market and played an active part in its development. We watched ourselves grow up in real time.

And even after everything we did, I knew there was more.

Not just “more” in the sense of bigger events or bigger names — more understanding. More intention. A clearer sense of what we were actually building and why.

So we took a step back.

Personally, I wanted to understand how this all fits together:

• How businesses actually see ROI from content & advertising and what they need from publications and platforms — not just for vibes, but for value.
• What creators are really looking for when they collaborate — not just exposure, but partnership and respect.
• What subscribers and audiences want from their platform of choice — not just content, but context, trust, and consistency.

So we studied. We unlearned. We redefined.

I spent time – at agencies, in full time work, and in my spare time – looking at how campaigns are built from the inside, how publishing works beyond the blog era, how brands think about storytelling, and how culture is documented — not just amplified and forgotten.

That’s where PREP Culture comes in.

PREP Culture is the result of that first chapter and the reflection that followed. It’s the archive born out of the chaos: all the shows, shoots, tours, late nights, early flights, blog posts, strategy decks, and quiet realizations that came after.

This time around, we’re not just here to make noise. We’re here to document how it moved and why it mattered — with a new understanding and a redefined purpose.

If you were there with us in Indianapolis, you’re part of this story.
If you’re just finding us now, you’re right on time.

An archive in motion. PREP Culture is now officially live from the Bay Area.