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From the very beginning in 1973, Hip-Hop has always been a movement. Now, 50 years later, the impact of what the genre has burgeoned into speaks for itself. The groundbreaking genre went from being birthed out of economic hard times to today being worth an estimated $7.7 billion, according to Gitnux.
Anita Lynch was far from your typical tween during her upbringing. At just the age of 10, she fell in love with technology because at the time her father worked at Hewlett-Packard (HP). Although he was in the sales department, he was encouraged by sales engineers to buy her a computer to learn how to code. Lynch was given a Radio Shack TRS-80, which resembles an electric typewriter, along with a book of programs to build her own creations. “That was my first real introduction to having independent thought and creativity,” Lynch shared with AfroTech. “‘Because I could change the color, the position, and make them walk out a certain way. It was just fascinating to me that I had the ability to do this on my own.” And the rest is history.
Following her being a temporary Airbnb host through Valentine’s Day weekend, according to our sister site Travel Noire, Issa Rae has joined the company for a new initiative to support South LA. According to a press release, the Inglewood native has partnered with Airbnb, along with Nasdaq, to announce a $100,000 donation to LeadersUp, a nonprofit organization that works to help create an inclusive, antiracist economy — per its website. The press release shares that the new donation will go toward creating an impact fund for South LA residents to be provided access to educational, mental health and wellness, and technological resources. The collaborative effort to support underrepresented communities is also financially assisting LA-based organizations Central Neighborhood Health Foundation and Brotherhood Crusade.
Verzuz has held it down for the culture since its debut in 2020. Created by legendary record producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland , Verzuz has continued to soar in popularity, and at one point, it even amassed over 136.5 million views for the music showdown battle between Brandy and Monica. Now Verzuz is leveling up on the financial side. Verzuz via Triller has plans to become a publicly-traded company on the stock market. Deadline reports, the deal will be made possible due to a reverse merger with SeaChange. Once the deal is finalized, “TrillerVerz” will become the new face and will be valued at an impressive $5 billion. TrillerVerz will trade under the ticker symbol ILLR on the Nasdaq. The merge will accomplish a shared goal to become “a leading AI-powered social media platform for content, creators & commerce,” and to “create a leading voice on the Web3.0 movement and embrace the power of decentralized systems to enable greater participation in the multi-hundred billion dollar...
This is history in the making! Minority Equality Opportunities Acquisition Inc.(MEOA) is now the first minority-led special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market (NASDAQ). The company is currently trading under the “MEOAU” ticker symbol. As of Aug. 30, MEOA closed a $126.5 million upsized IPO of units including one share of Class A common stock and one redeemable warrant. The warrant allows the holder to purchase one share of Class A common stock at $11.50 per share. “In the last five years, we’ve seen exponential growth among minority women business owners. Black and Hispanic women business owners, alone, account for more than 50% of the growth,” Robin D. Watkins, CFO, MEOA exclusively shared with AfroTech. “What we have not witnessed, however, is an increase in the investment capital needed for minority businesses to scale. The IPO process gives MEOA the financial leverage to identify minority companies with stellar products and services and...
Offset made a very special appearance today — on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This morning, Reservoir rang the @Nasdaq Opening Bell in celebration of our recent IPO. It is both exciting and humbling to take this next step in Reservoir's journey. We look forward to all the opportunities this creates, as we deepen our commitment to #investinginentertainment . pic.twitter.com/Gmu0ZGSoQf — Reservoir (@ReservoirMedia) August 30, 2021 TMZ was on hand as the Migos rapper rang the NASDAQ opening bell to kick off the trading day on Monday. Cardi B, ever the supportive wife and in full pregnancy regalia, was right by her husband’s side in Times Square today to celebrate Reservoir Media’s July IPO. Reservoir Media, which bills itself as an independent music company based in New York City (with satellite offices in Los Angeles), licenses songs from all types of musicians. In addition to owning music from Offset and the Migos, Billboard reports that the company even owns the...
There has been increased attention on how business leaders address diversity , equity, and inclusion in the workplace. After nearly a year since the nation experienced civil unrest, a group of large corporations are banning together to keep the conversation going. Intel , Dell Technologies, Nasdaq, NTT DATA And Snap Inc. have teamed up to formulate a new coalition called the Alliance for Global Inclusion, Intel shared in a recent press release . Dawn Jones, Intel’s chief diversity and inclusion officer (CDIO) and vice president of social impact, told AfroTech that the companies formed this coalition to further commit to developing and aligning on shared metrics that track progress in diversity and inclusion. “This isn’t new for Intel – we’ve been growing and expanding our efforts to create more inclusiveness and close critical representation gaps for many years, and as we’ve done so, we realized that our efforts alone are not enough,” Jones told AfroTech. “We connected with...
Nasdaq Inc. — also known as the Nasdaq Stock Market — is sending a powerful message to Corporate America to push for more diversity. This past Tuesday, Nasdaq filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt new listing rules that would otherwise require listed companies on the U.S. stock exchange to show and prove some measure of diversity on its boards of directors, CNN reports. According to the company’s announcement, the new rules would also make it mandatory for listed companies to “have, or explain why they do not have, at least two diverse directors, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority1 or LGBTQ+.” With this new proposal, Nasdaq is aiming to make the boardrooms at its 3,000-plus list of companies less white and male-skewed requiring them to hire directors that better reflect America’s diverse population. “This proposal and partnership gives companies an opportunity to...