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Upon hearing “Pink Friday,” most people’s minds immediately jump to the Queen of Rap herself , Nicki Minaj. The Trinidadian femcee released her debut album on Nov. 22, 2010, via Cash Money Records, Universal Motown Records and Young Money Entertainment. Even as a newcomer, she nabbed impressive collaborations from names like Eminem, Drake, Rihanna and Kanye West, ultimately selling 375K copies in her first week out. This placed Minaj behind Lauryn Hill with the second-highest sales debut ever for a female rapper, and the mother of one has only continued to prove her power since. Over a decade later, she returned with “Pink Friday 2,” this time recruiting J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Future, Monica, 50 Cent and other icons to join her on the tracklist. Minaj’s 2023 LP debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, making her the first female rapper with three albums to top the chart; she moved 228K album-equivalent albums at the time, 92,000 of which were pure sales. These statistics are all...
Working side by side, Ameer Brown and his brother, Anthony, have made strategic strides as founders. Ameer and Anthony trace their roots to a Jewish hospital in Queens, NY, on Long Island. From a young age, rapper Nas, also from New York, was an influential figure in their lives. In their later years as founders, that admiration would come full circle. The pair, both HBCU graduates , lead Breakr—a company empowered by technology that fosters collaboration between artists, labels, brands, and creators to create successful social marketing campaigns, its website mentions. Breakr removes barriers to entry, welcoming users at any stage of their journey and supporting them with AI-powered deal presets, contract templates, and automated payment processes. “At the end of the year, our clients don’t have to do 1099s and tax compliance paperwork with thousands and thousands of influencers that they’ve contracted and worked with across the year…So they’ll make it easy for you to get the...
Fanbase is on a mission to get creators paid, and the company’s latest news is proof. According to information shared with AFROTECH™, the social media platform has officially reached its $10 million equity crowdfunding goal. It’s a historic feat as Fanbase Founder Isaac Hayes III is now reportedly the first Black man in history to raise this amount of money in a seed funding round on StartEngine in a Regulation Crowdfunding campaign. “We have a plan, and we’re going to be able to scale and build the business in real-time without having to stop and start and stop and start,” Hayes told Will Lucas on “Black Tech Green Money” podcast. “This is a scale-up opportunity because there are so many things that people want out of Fanbase, and I myself do not like to not be able to deliver on what I want to give to the community.” He added, “This raise is definitely putting us in a position to not only catch up to the current apps that are out there but surpass them because of my understanding...
Three founders combined their backgrounds to launch an innovative technology platform that’s attracting the likes of Savannah and Bronny James.
For 12 years, Angela Yee was known as one of the faces of iHeartMedia’s The Breakfast Club. However, in August 2022, the radio veteran announced her departure from the popular radio show, CNN reported. After years in the making, Yee said farewell to launch her radio show, Way Up with Angela Yee.
A wise woman once said, “If at first, you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again.” And while the late Aaliyah was hinting at an exchange between her and a potential suitor, the same applies when it comes to shooting your shot as an entrepreneur — just ask the founders of Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria.
There is so much space and opportunity for today’s generation of athletes to allow their talent to open massive doors for them. For current Los Angeles Clippers player, Terance Mann, leveraging the world of web3 is taking his basketball talents to the next level. He initially wanted to learn more about the space after not seeing a lot of people who looked like him. Using his own persona to connect with Clippers fans is one skill set that Mann believes can be beneficial to other players looking for opportunities when it comes to investing and life beyond just basketball. “When you’re walking around, moving around with agents, or within facilities, you can hear people talking about what [players] are doing off the court,” said Mann. “People are investing in different things, [and] people, you know, take life in through their social media.”
There is more to being an athlete than just playing in a game. Andrew Hawkins, better known as “Hawk,” is a third-generation athlete. He has learned the mistakes made by previous professionals in the space and is using his unique journey to carve a path, not only for himself but for other athletes to come. Hawk has always approached sports from the business lens and as the co-founder of StatusPro, a sports and technology company combining data and augmented and virtual reality to provide a suite of training and gaming products, he is still using those wits to change the whole landscape of gaming for users across the nation.
If it’s one thing that Black founders know how to do, it’s make something out of nothing. During this week’s episode of Black Tech Green Money, viewers get a blast from the past from AfroTech World 2020 with Motley Fool Ventures Managing Partner Ollen Douglass. He gives insight on the keys to fundraising, trends in venture capital (VC) that founders who look like us need to tap into, and more. At Motley Fool, the underlying goal is to help people learn how to invest in the stock market to create generational wealth. “It’s really interesting in the sense that when you think about all the opportunities to create wealth, the stock market, I believe is probably the most democratized access by far,” he explained. “Ameritrade does not care what you look like and they don’t ask. Schwab doesn’t care. There are none of the barriers that you have when [you’re] just like [engaged in] real estate investing and someone has to sell you. I don’t have to call up Tim Cook to buy Apple.”
When the algorithm runs everything around you, it’s important that the people behind it reflect you. Matthew Finney is a guru when it comes to all things surrounding the process or set of rules that calculate how humans navigate the world through technology. As a data scientist and strategy consultant at Harvard, he is responsible for developing AI decision systems that help large organizations make noise when it comes to some of their most challenging business and mission problems. He joined AfroTech’s Will Lucas to discuss how there is still bias when it comes to the algorithm and how having more people who look like us in the data science industry can move mountains for us in the long run.
It’s no secret that Black culture runs the world. We possess a secret sauce that is often replicated but can never be duplicated because no other culture in the world does it quite like we do. From fashion to music to food, Black culture is at the forefront of many industries. However, representation is not always up to par, especially when it comes to technology. This week, AfroTech’s Will Lucas is joined by Tristan Walker, the founder and CEO of Walker & Company, which includes brands like Bevel and FORM that are specifically designed to meet both the health and beauty needs of people of color. No stranger to being a founder, Walker is also the board chairman and founder of CODE2040, the company that matches high-performing Black and Latinx graduate and undergraduate coders and software engineers to Silicon Valley startups for internships to jump-start their careers. During the Black Tech Green Money episode, Walker discusses the imprint he’s managed to make on Silicon Valley, the...