Rap & Hip-Hop Artists Invest in Technology

Rap and hip-hop music has become an artistic and economic power. Rap artists have become cultural icons and trendsetters. These black men rose from the hard streets of the inner city to the glass covered corporate towers of American business. Along the way they raked in billions of dollars investing everything from jeans to vodka to water. Black rap artists, with little or no college education, are proving they are top notch businessmen. And now these brothas have set their sites on the technology sector.

Rapper Nas, whose real name is Nasir Bin Olu Daren Jones, has accumulated a $20 million dollar fortune. The rapper invested in technology by becoming a key backer of the technology start up that created the Fixed app. The smartphone app helps the user fight parking tickets.  Nas  invested in another San Francisco technology company called Proven. The company makes an app that helps job seekers apply to online job postings through their smartphones. Nas said in an interview, “Jobs are a concern for the nation and Proven is all about that, so I’m all about Proven.”

Nas and his manager, Aymen Anthony Saleh, are not shy when it comes to the technology game. Since 2013, the two invested their own capital into 40 startup technology companies. These companies stretch across the spectrum of services and ecommerce including fashion, business communications and even healthy eating. Nas strongly believes in diversifying his start up investments.

Rapper TI has invested in a start up known as YOPIMA which stands for “Your Opinion Matters.” TI dropped a healthy $600,000 on this latest app for searching out entertainment. It allows the user to read what the clubs are like in whatever city they may find themselves. Users can decide where to go and what to do based on things like whether you’re hitting a bar or event based on a number of factors, like drink specials and V.I.P. privileges.

Funk artist Bruno Mars jumped aboard the music startup Chromatik which makes digital versions of sheet music for both the web and iPad. Bruno also invested in electronic cigarette company NJOY. A product he personally uses.

Unquestioned rap mogul Jay-Z recently acquired Swedish tech company Aspiro for $56 million. Jay-Z is breaking into the hot music streaming market against such powerhouse services like Spotify. Aspiro operates WiMP  and hi-def service Tidal. These streaming services target committed audiophiles by offering daily track recommendations, curated playlists and interviews with artists. The music and audio streams and download in the FLAC format.

Jay-Z is not limiting his tech investments to music related businesses. He also invested in Duracell’s Powermat that charges batteries for smartphones and other mobile devices. He also partnered with Will Smith to kick-off the popular video-sharing app Viddy.

Dr. Dre, hip-hop’s first billionaire, got that way by selling his Beats headphones business to Apple.  The rap icon and his business partner, Jimmy Iovine, sealed a $3 billion deal with Apple Inc.  Dre and Iovine are getting $2.6 billion in cash, $400 million in Apple stock and jobs with the company. 

The Apple CEO Tim Cook  hasn’t said what exactly Dr. Dre would be doing in his Apple job. But what he did say was the Beats music streaming service is a powerful selling point. Beats expects to put Apple, the world’s biggest seller of music, into the lucrative streaming music business. Beats will compete with YouTube, Pandora, Spotify and Jay-Z’s new music streaming acquisition.  Dre, a product of the hard streets of Compton, CA, helped turn rappers Eminem and 50 Cent into huge stars as a producer.

As always there is the problem of dealing with people who don’t take rappers seriously when it comes to investing. Rapper 50 Cents, who reportedly made $100 million from his VitaminWater investment, waited patiently to put his money into Gunnar Optiks. The company makes various types of glasses designed for today’s digital lifestyle. One pair helps reduce eye strain associated with staring at LCD screens all day long.  Gunnar Optiks originally only wanted a celebrity endorsement deal with 50 Cent. But the rapper said, “Come on, I don’t know what you take me for but let me be a proper investor.”

Now you now