Sean “Jay-Z” Carter has always been one of Hip-Hop’s most influential voices. From the early days of “Reasonable Doubt” to “4:44,” Carter’s lyrics have consistently told the stories of the culture — amplifying Black narratives, voices, and movements. And in 2017, his song “Legacy” paid homage to a conference that would expand in ways some didn’t see coming. “We gon’ start a society within a society That’s major, just like the Negro League There was a time America wouldn’t let us ball Those times are now back, just now called Afro-tech” A year before HOV name-dropped what would become the biggest tech conference for Black professionals, AFROTECH Conference was all a dream. Two years after launching Blavity Inc., Co-founders Morgan DeBaun and Jeff Nelson had an epiphany inspired by Meta’s (formerly Facebook) and Google’s conferences.