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Dr. Dre is using his influence to support students at Compton High School. Los Angeles Times reports Dr. Dre teamed up with city and school leaders for a ceremony announcing plans for the $200 million performing arts center at Compton High School. The center will be named “Andre ‘Dr. Dre’ Young Performing Arts Center” following a $10 million donation from the rapper in 2017, according to a press release. “When I was approached about finding a performing arts center that will provide an arts and technological education to students, and be accessible to the community at large, I was all in. I wanted to give the young people in Compton something I never had,” Dr. Dre said during the ceremony.
Sometimes the American dream is what you make it. For Nicole Enearu and her family, that dream has paid off. When the word “changemaker” comes to mind, one’s mind may go to the person who is out and about making things happen in the community. Enearu has been making it happen with one McDonald’s franchise at a time! As previously reported by AfroTech, Enearu and her family have managed to successfully open 13 McDonald’s franchises, generating nearly $50 million in revenue and employing more than 700 people in the community. The impact that this has had on her family is one thing, but for the community — it’s a whole different story.
Patricia Williams opened her first McDonald’s franchise store in 1984. Today, Williams and her daughters Nicole Enearu and Kerri Harper-Howie own every McDonald’s in the city of Compton, according to Black Business. Williams and her daughters, who began working with her in 2000, have successfully opened 13 stores, generated almost $50 million in revenue and have employed over 700 people. Williams’ journey started over 30 years ago. She and her husband — inspired by family members who already owned McDonald’s franchises — cashed out their retirement plans and set out to open their first store. Their risk reaped major rewards, as the McDonald’s brand grew throughout the 1980s, Williams and her husband were able to purchase a second store before making another bold business move. When her marriage ended, Williams bought her husband’s share in their business, sold their stores and opened five more. This leap of faith required her to take out a small business loan, attend the required...
New music from the late legendary rapper Eazy-E could be on the way, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). There are mixed reaction from artists regarding the use of AI. However, the technology has been embraced by some, including Timbaland. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the artist is an advocate for the music AI creation tool Suno. “You can put out great songs in minutes,” Timbaland told Rolling Stone. “I always wanted to do what Quincy Jones did with Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ when he was [almost] 50. So my ‘Thriller,’ to me, is this tool. God presented this tool to me.” Tag teaming in the appreciation for AI is Lil Eazy-E, born Eric Darnell Wright Jr. He is the son of Eazy-E, who passed away in 1995. According to TMZ, Lil Eazy-E has expressed interest in creating an AI-packaged biopic film about his father’s life and has teased a potential joint album in the future. “I actually just got a sample of him talking to me. It made my mind go another route with the possibilities...
Companies are increasingly blending storytelling, commerce, and technology in today’s rapidly evolving media landscape. One such company is pgLang, the multidisciplinary agency founded in 2020 by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free. While it has often been described as a creative agency, pgLang operates across multiple industries and platforms — from music and film to brand partnerships and live events — positioning itself as a hybrid model within the broader creative economy. Based on a previous AFROTECH™ report, pgLang describes itself as a “multilingual” company, referencing its spoken language component and ability to communicate across forms: music, television, film, books, podcasts, and visual media. The company’s creative outputs reflect this flexibility, leveraging cross-platform strategies to distribute content that resists traditional industry categorization. This approach earned the company recognition from Fast Company, which named pgLang one of the World’s 50 Most Innovative...
Method Man has hesitations around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). During an interview on Hot97, the rap artist had several reasons for his heart posture toward the technology. One of his reasons include Drake’s single “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which was a shot at Compton’s Kendrick Lamar. It also featured AI-generated audio using the lyrics of the late Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg. “Kendrick we need ya, the West Coast savior/Engraving your name in some Hip-Hop history/If you deal with this viciously … Call him a b-tch for me/Talk about him liking young girls as a gift for me,” a AI-generated Tupac Shakur lyric read at the song’s intro, per Rolling Stone. The song was later removed by Drake after Shakur’s estate stated they were willing to move forward with legal action, per NBC News. Method Man expresses the song is one of the reasons he is raising an eyebrow toward AI. He also mentions challenges around intellectual property (IP) and streaming, which he says complicate...
When most people think of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), southern schools like Morehouse, Spelman, and of course Howard immediately come to mind. This is understandable, given the history of when most HBCUs began to pop up around this country. Before the Great Migration sent many Black people north in search of prosperity, the bulk of Black Americans lived in the South. So, when white colleges and universities barred Black students from attending, the community answered the call and began to create institutions of higher learning , and eventually also fraternities and sororities. However, the first HBCU was actually Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1837. Overwhelmingly, most HBCUs are located in the South, with a sprinkling of schools in a few northern states. But, there is an HBCU on the West Coast, and it’s located in California. The Only HBCU in California Even though there’s just one HBCU in California, it’s an integral one. Charles R. Drew...
When Serena Williams sets her mind on a vision, it transforms into greatness. Before the tennis champion’s retirement in 2022, she launched Serena Ventures in 2014. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Williams founded her VC firm after learning of the alarmingly low amount of venture capital that goes to women founders, with Black and brown founders receiving even less funds. “I learned that less than 2% of all VC money went to women,” Williams shared via TikTok. “And when I first heard that, I actually thought it was a misquote. I thought, ‘Well, they can’t be real.’ Like, we’re talking about trillions of dollars, and what do you mean less than 2% of that goes to women?…I learned that when I first started investing, I learned that actually was true and that was something that was happening. And so I knew right then and there that one day I wanted to raise a fund or raise money and invest in women.” Under Williams’ mission, the breakdown of Serena Ventures’ investments is 79%...
Serena Williams was playing to win. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Williams was purely satisfied by the game, and money was an afterthought. So much so that she would often forget to pick up her prize money after tournaments. “When I started tennis, first of all, I’m from Compton, CA, and I remember playing on these courts, and my life was great. I never felt like I needed anything. So for me, money was never a motivation,” Williams explained on Bloomberg Originals’ “The Deal” podcast hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. “I remember when I first started, back in the day, they used to write out checks after you won your tournament. And I would always forget to get the checks. And so at the end of the year they would always have to say, ‘Serena, we have all these checks for you.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ And at the time, I had an accountant who would be like, ‘Serena, they sent me all these checks that you would forget to get from the tournaments.’” While she reveals she was...
It was never about the money for tennis legend Serena Williams. During an interview on Bloomberg Originals’ “The Deal” podcast hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, she recalls forgetting to pick up her award checks after winning tournaments, necessitating friendly reminders from her accountant. “When I started tennis, first of all, I’m from Compton, CA, and I remember playing on these courts, and my life was great. I never felt like I needed anything. So for me, money was never a motivation,” Williams told the hosts. “I remember when I first started, back in the day, they used to write out checks after you won your tournament. And I would always forget to get the checks. And so at the end of the year they would always have to say, ‘Serena, we have all these checks for you.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ And at the time, I had an accountant who would be like, ‘Serena. They sent me all these checks that you would forget to get from the tournaments.'” Instead, Williams was more focused...
Chris Rock is arguably a comedic fixture in the entertainment industry. From a cast member role on Saturday Night Live ( SNL ) in the 1990s to shifting fully into acting later on with hits like New Jack City , Lethal Weapon 4 and voice roles on the Madagascar franchise, Bee Movie and Osmosis Jones ; Chris Rock is a busy funny man. He’s made a name for himself by cracking jokes about real life situations in his own life, and of course made headlines in 2022 for a long-standing beef with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith that played out on the international stage . But with a career spanning almost four decades, you might be curious about his net worth. The comedian, turned actor, turned filmmaker, is prolific to say the least. And he’s been just as busy building an empire beyond cracking jokes. Keep reading to learn his current network and how he earned it. From South Carolina to International Stardom Born in 1965 in Andrews, South Carolina, the Gen X celebrity and his family moved...
Have you considered whether or not you would choose between a multi-million dollar payout or a few rounds of your favorite video game? Yeah, neither have we. Compton native rapper The Game admitted during an interview with Complex that he once turned a $7 million tour so that he could level up in NBA 2K.
Ghetto Film School (GFS) — the award-winning nonprofit created to help future storytellers by educating, uplifting, and supporting their development — is backed by some of Hollywood’s best including Issa Rae and Yara Shahidi. Now, it plans to amplify its efforts further as Montea Robinson has become the first Black woman CEO. “Whether you know how to write a script or point a camera, we’re going to put a camera in your hands and get you to shoot something with it,” she said in an exclusive interview with Variety. “You’re writing, shooting, directing all of the work…We see filmmaking as a craft that we want to teach our students, but also as a secondary education that helps them understand the agency they have over their own story.” Robinson will be responsible for increasing GFS’s reach and influence while focusing on developing and creating career opportunities for participants. In addition, Robinson plans to make GFS programs more accessible to students while strengthening...
Anderson .Paak has the smooth, sultry charm of a thousand Barry Whites. But life wasn’t always easy for the Compton by way of North Philadelphia native. A recent first-hand account released by Andscape journalist Dwayne Bray — who was a neighbor of the multi-hyphenate as he was growing up — detailed how he truly came from the proverbial hard-knock life. As a teenager, Ronald Anderson — the father of Anderson .Paak — would switch shifts with his twin brother, Donald, so he’d never miss a day of work (and pay) just to get by. And though this story, in and of itself, would have been inspirational had the elder Anderson done something productive with his life, he would eventually go on to be an addict and a career criminal. Attacking his wife, and the mother of his children — who already overcame adversity when she got adopted out of a Korean orphanage during the Korean War — would prove to be the nadir of his life, one that came to an untimely end in 2011, and one that wouldn’t live to...