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Clarke Peoples had a “formulaic” road map that was disrupted by content creation. Columbia University Student Peoples was a student at Columbia University in New York, NY. It had been the only school she applied to, and she placed all her energy into perfecting her application, she shared with Business Insider. “I put in a lot of work to earn enough scholarships to get into Columbia. I spent months writing my application essay and did whatever I could to make myself a more competitive applicant. It was the only school I applied to, and soon I was in New York living out my dreams,” she said. Putting all her eggs in one basket ultimately paid off as she would be admitted into the school. She proved herself to be ambitious — pursuing an American studies degree — with an overarching goal of becoming a lawyer and launching a startup company. Peoples also had other backup plans including becoming a finance intern for a wealth management asset firm. Early Career Opportunities By her...
By capitalizing on her status as a leading beauty influencer, Jackie Aina has built the foundation for a prosperous business empire. How It Started Aina, a Nigerian-American born in California’s San Gabriel Valley, came from humbling beginnings. BuzzFeed News mentions she has six siblings, with an even split between brothers and sisters. She recalls “growing up with nothing” at times, bouncing around shelters with her mother and siblings. “Growing up, I had no leverage, I had no rich uncle,” she said, per the outlet. “We got kicked out of a shelter, we couldn’t get to another one quick enough. And when you’re a mom of seven, It’s not easy.” To change her outcome, Aina studied medicine at the California State University, Business Insider reported. That route did not pan out for Aina, and she made the decision to serve in the Army in 2008, after being convinced by her then-boyfriend. They would marry — although they later divorce — and she moved to Hawaii to live with him where she...
Being funny pays. Just look to TikToker DeMarcus Shawn as confirmation. Beginnings Growing up on the outskirts of Chicago, IL, he recalls always being funny, often creating skits or playfully imitating his family members. His humor translated well to the camera, and he would toss around various skit ideas with his two older brothers. With the rise of social media, leaning into it was natural for Shawn. Ultimately, he landed on TikTok as his breeding ground for content though initially his Instagram was geared towards his creative interests. @artbydemarcusshawn #fyp ♬ original sound – DemarcusShawn “I grew up doing music and learning how to sing and photography. I’m a guy that’s heavy on drawing and painting,” he told AFROTECH™. “ Those are my hobbies that I like to do. Outside of that, when I came into TikTok, it was more of what I’ve been doing with my siblings, but on a larger front.” Full-Time Content Creation Shawn was working on building his online presence while also employed...
Allyiah Gainer is making a bag from YouTube alone. From An HBCU Student To YouTuber Gainer’s rise as a content creator and beauty guru dates back to 2015. She was briefly a student at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL, and intended to pursue a career in pharmacy. Her motivation for attending school was driven by her father, and after they had a falling out she dropped out of school, as shared during the “Big Boss Energy” podcast with Kayla Burke. However, Gainer remained enrolled to make use of her dorm and meals, which had already been covered under her full-ride scholarship. “I needed somewhere to live, right? I couldn’t just peace out,” Gainer explained on the podcast. Her new plan was to fulfill her dreams of becoming a makeup artist, and she secured a part-time job at a MAC store located at a nearby local mall, which had been her highest-paying job at the time. ESSENCE reported she was also able to land her own clients who were her former classmates. When she realized...
Tyler Perry opened the world’s largest Black-owned studio, not just to build his own legacy but to empower others to create theirs. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, he self-funded Tyler Perry Studios to launch in Atlanta, GA, in 2008. I t’s now reportedly worth $280 million and serves as both a hub for his creative projects and a welcoming space for other filmmakers seeking to rent its stages and spaces. His ambition to succeed and help others is driven by his great-grandfather, who was enslaved, NBC News reports. “I’m on the wave that they set in motion,” he told the outlet. “So I feel like I’m supposed to live well. I feel like I’m supposed to have everything that I want. Not just for me, but for everyone who didn’t get it. …It’s not just about what I’m doing,” Perry told NBC News. “It’s also about all the people that’s affected.” Perry’s vision has manifested in several ways. His workforce is 99% Black and also includes a population of those who were formerly incarcerated and...
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has taken the creative industry by storm, but a new bill has been introduced to protect creators’ rights. U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Delaware), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2024, or the NO FAKES Act, on July 31. According to a press release shared by Coons, the bill was created “to protect the voice and visual likenesses of creators and individuals from the proliferation of digital replicas created without their consent.” “The NO FAKES Act would hold individuals or companies liable for damages for producing, hosting, or sharing a digital replica of an individual performing in an audiovisual work, image, or sound recording that the individual never actually appeared in or otherwise approved – including digital replicas created by generative artificial intelligence (AI),” per the release. “Everyone...
Colin Kaepernick is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to help storytellers. Kaepernick has been pouring into new ventures following his departure from the NFL, which came after he started kneeling in 2016 during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice, TIME reports. Kaepernick last played for the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 1, 2017, and when he became a free agent he was not signed by a new team, per ABC-7. Since then he has focused his attention in areas that include venture capital. As AFROTECH™ mentioned, he joined KINLÒ, tennis star Naomi Osaka’ s skincare company, serving as an investor and board member. He also is a children’s author and released “I Color Myself Different,” in April 2022, which depicts his experience of embracing his Blackness as an individual adopted into a white family. Kaepernick’s latest endeavor focuses on supporting other storytellers, and he is utilizing AI to achieve this goal. TIME mentioned he raised $4 million...
Da’Vinchi, 28, has been on quite a roll in Hollywood. From shows like “Grown-ish” to “All American,” the Haitian-American actor has been stacking roles. However, Da’Vinchi’s starring role and portrayal as Terry “Southwest T” Flenory on 50 Cent’s “BMF” (or “BMF: Black Mafia Family”) on Starz is his biggest gig to date. Although Da’Vinchi, born Abraham D. Juste, has made a name for himself in the acting world, he is transparent about coming from humble beginnings. In an interview on REVOLT’s “The Blackprint,” the Brooklyn, NY, native was open about the way he grew up. “I grew up in poverty,” Da’Vinchi told host and REVOLT CEO Detavio Samuels. “A very normal situation that most of us grow up in, but of course while you’re in it you don’t really know it because everyone else is like that around [you] until you switch environments. And then, you start realizing the depths of the lack that you were in.” He added, “The poverty that I faced was you don’t have all the meals throughout the...
Rene McLean, partner and founding advisor at Influence Media Partners, has a new music venture to share. Influence Media and McLean have announced SLANG, a new independent front line label under the music and entertainment company, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™. One of the label’s first signees is Will Smith. Prior to the announcement, the winner of both Grammy and Academy awards debuted his single “You Can Make It,” featuring Fridayy and Sunday Service Choir, at the 2024 BET Awards, per Variety. Marking Smith’s first time performing at the award show, he was joined by Kirk Franklin, Chandler Moore, and Sunday Service Choir. “Through some of my darkest moments, music has always been there for me – to lift me and help me grow. It’s my humble wish that it can do the same for you and bring you all the joy and light you deserve,” Smith wrote in an Instagram post ahead of dropping the single, according to Variety. Along with Smith, SLANG’s roster includes...
Ice Cube is celebrating wins in different sectors. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Ice Cube has been investing his time in his BIG3, a 3-on-3 basketball league that has been expanding to Los Angeles, CA; Detroit, MI; Houston, TX; and Miami, FL. Its presence in the aforementioned states follows a reported $10 million sale each in an effort to adopt a city-based model. “We need to plant our roots in cities so we can be more than a rolling all-star game coming through,” Ice Cube previously told Bloomberg. “It’s really about growing the sport and the league.” While he is gaining momentum in the sports world, he is also growing in the entertainment space. According to a news release, his production company Cube Vision has landed an expanded partnership with Paramount Global. The partnership builds on an existing relationship between the parties, who have previously collaborated with the taping of the Big3 basketball league games, which aired on CBS, as well as on other projects. The...
Storytelling uses a plethora of mediums, and animation is one of them. During the 2023 AFROTECH ™ Conference, director and animator Chaz Bottoms and singer Dawn Richard led a session called “World Builders: The New Storytelling Frontier” to discuss how the technologies within the animation industry are creating revolutionary ways for people to tell stories. In their respective career journeys, Bottoms founded CBA Studios — one of the few Black-founded animation studios globally — and has worked with companies such as Disney, Hulu, and Adult Swim, per Forbes. Aside from Richard’s music career, she has a passion for animation. She created a comic book series called “Danity Kane” and works with Adult Swim as a creative consultant, as AFROTECH ™ previously reported, to amplify and create opportunities for Black animators in the space. “We are a beautiful people to draw, but we are a difficult people to draw in the sense that for people who aren’t us, they don’t know what they’re doing,”...
Victoria Monét is the latest star to bring her talents to the video game industry. The “Jaguar II” crooner took to X, formerly Twitter, to share the news that her dance moves have made it to “Fortnite.” The popular online video game and platform, developed by Epic Games, was first released in 2017. For one of its games, “Fortnite Battle Royale,” the main objective is to be the last one standing on Battle Royale Island. Playable characters can “loot, build, explore, and fight” against 99 other players in the match to be declared the winner. Now, Monét is bringing the moves and choreography for her hit single “On My Mama” to the video game. “Fornite said lemme show ya’ll why they’re called V bucks,” she said in a post shared via X. “The ‘Lookin Good’ emote inspired by ‘On My Mama’ by Victoria Monét is now available.” The “On My Mama” music video, which now has amassed 62 million views on YouTube, is directed by Los Angeles, CA-based Grammy-nominated creator, child, per BET. It was...
Lucky Daye hit rock bottom before finding fame. According to Vice, the New Orleans, LA, native, who lived through Hurricane Katrina, uprooted his life to live in Tyler, TX. In his earlier years, he attended a church that discouraged secular music and enforced strict rules on singing only church hymns and nursery rhymes. Daye also mentioned that the church was an environment that reportedly used harsh discipline toward children in the congregation. His mother would later leave the church and brought his family into various organizations in search of a new church home. Daye would later choose Christianity through new eyes, which separated him further from his family before the 400-mile trip to Tyler. “I went [to church] and said, ‘I know I’m supposed to sing, but God is telling me that this is not what I’m supposed to be doing,'” he explained. I left and never went back to [that] church. They never talked to me again. My grandma, my mama, my uncle—none of them. Nobody talked to me....
Jay-Z intervened to help Hit-Boy out of a music deal he signed when he was a 19. During an interview on “The Shop” podcast, Hit-Boy, born Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr., reflects on an ongoing deal with Universal Music Group. When he first signed with the record label in 2007 a $50,000 check sounded like a must-have opportunity at the time, he says. He had come from a home where his father had lived in prison for most of his life and his teen mother was not financially stable. It was Hit-Boy’s upbringing that pushed him to set higher goals for himself. “I never really had the sh-t I wanted. I always had what I needed, you know what I mean? Something to eat, place to stay, but I wanted more for myself,” he explained on “The Shop.” “So, you know, just like, I took that opportunity and didn’t know, didn’t have the guidance, didn’t have those figures around me to tell me like, ‘Nah, they got you locked in this for a long time.'” The deal would be “the worst publishing contract” Hit-Boy’s...
A new powerhouse has joined forces with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s tech-infused golf league, TGL. Shonda Rhimes revealed that she has become a part of the ownership group for the California-based Los Angeles Golf Club (LAGC), TGL’s first team. “I’m beyond excited to announce my involvement as the newest owner of Los Angeles Golf Club, the inaugural team in the @tglgolf league,” Rhimes wrote in an Instagram post. “I can’t wait to bring my passion for golf to this incredible venture.” She continued, “Joining this team is an honor and, as someone who believes in the power of storytelling and community, I’m eager to see how we can elevate the game together. Let’s tee off on this new journey. We are LAGC.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shonda Rhimes (@shondarhimes) The renowned TV producer and creator is now standing alongside fellow Los Angeles Golf Club owners Serena and Venus Williams, Alexis Ohanian Sr., and Antetokounmpo brothers Giannis, Thanasis, Kostas, and...