Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

NFL

Serial founder DIVINE launches creator app with hip hop legend Rakim

Serial entrepreneur and former recording artist Victor D. Lombard, also known as DIVINE, announced this week the launch of a new company, in partnership with RAKIM, one of hip-hop’s most influential emcees.  The company is called Notes, a fintech specifically for independent urban musicians and creators. It provides the knowledge and tools to help artists

Serial founder DIVINE launches creator app with hip hop legend Rakim

Serial entrepreneur and former recording artist Victor D. Lombard, often known as DIVINE, introduced this week the launch of a brand new firm, in partnership with RAKIM, considered one of hip-hop’s most influential emcees. 

The corporate is called Notes, a fintech particularly for impartial city musicians and creators. It supplies the data and instruments to assist artists handle their careers — reminiscent of offering sources to assist them apply for loans or entry credit score scores. It supplies monetary literacy and music enterprise training by providing multimedia programs, step-by-step guides on monetary administration and easy methods to monetize music. It additionally has a function that lets artists write lyrics and join with their friends on the app. 

Notes has a “digital passport” function that lets customers monitor credit score scores, entry loans, and price range instruments. The corporate companions with lenders and collectors and earns a fee on referral charges when customers apply for loans by way of the platform. 

The app, at the moment in beta, has AI instruments, together with an AI voice assistant in RAKIM’s voice. It’s hoping to launch totally on the finish of February. 

Chatting with TechCrunch, DIVINE mentioned he was impressed to launch this firm alongside RAKIM due to his firsthand expertise coping with the indie city music scene and the hardship that comes when attempting to fund a profession. It’s well-documented, by way of films, profiles, and music itself, that breaking into the music trade is hard and expensive. For each big-named artist that hits the charts, there are hundreds merely struggling to get by.  

“The music trade, because it stands, is structured to reap the benefits of artists by way of exploitative contracts and restricted monetary sources, forcing them into predatory offers simply to outlive,” he mentioned. Having spent the previous 10 years building fintech corporations, he additionally mentioned he’s come to view expertise as a terrific equalizer, a technique to redistribute management again to artists and creators. DIVINE beforehand based fintech BLAK, which centered on serving underbanked communities, and constructed Solvent, a neobank additionally for underserved communities.

So he considered Notes, to permit musicians to teach themselves, fund their very own initiatives, and construct careers on their very own phrases. He mentioned now is an efficient time for this product as a result of indie artists and creators have gotten extra highly effective and influential, but nonetheless lack loads of monetary help. 

DIVINE then pitched the corporate to RAKIM’s staff as a technique to associate, and “it grew to become an much more highly effective pressure for change,” DIVINE mentioned. 

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

RAKIM is a part of the hip-hop group Eric B. & RAKIM, which made waves throughout the golden age of hip-hop throughout the 80s. Their album “Paid in Full” was listed as one of many Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone in 2020 because it was one of many first albums to make use of funk samples and influenced the circulate and lyricism of rappers to return. 

DIVINE says he’s recognized RAKIM for 20 years and all the time admired him for “staying true to his artists and ideas.” 

“Once I began ideating Notes, I knew it needed to be greater than only a fintech platform, it needed to be a motion rooted within the values of empowerment and cultural authenticity,” DIVINE continued. “That’s why it made excellent sense to convey RAKIM on board.” 

Hip-Hop legend Rakim.Picture Credit:Felix Manuel Pictures

The partnership sees RAKIM come on as a co-founder and as an advisory board member. RAKIM’s son, Tahmell Griffin, additionally holds an government place on the firm. 

Proper now, the corporate is self-funded, however DIVINE mentioned the corporate is searching for a pre-seed spherical. Notes presents freemium and premium subscription memberships. It seeks to earn money from its subscription fashions and referral charges. He says this firm is the end result of his music and technological journey. 

“I need Notes to shift the narrative from artists being exploited by file labels to artists proudly owning their monetary future and profession success,” DIVINE mentioned. “If an artist can use Notes to get funding for his or her subsequent album, discover ways to run their music profession as a enterprise, and leverage neighborhood collaboration for progress, then we’ve succeeded.” 

Dominic-Madori Davis is a senior enterprise capital and startup reporter at TechCrunch. She is predicated in New York Metropolis. You possibly can contact her on Sign at +1 (646)-831-7565.

View Bio

Read More

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

NFL

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will pay roughly $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump, who accused the platform of unlawfully...

UFC

January 28, 2025 11:59 pm ET MIAMI – GFL’s Miami team features a lot of Cuban power, and Robelis Despaigne is over the moon...

NFL

By Mark Hunter 21 hours agoFri Jan 31 2025 10:33:41 Reading Time: 2 minutes A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the creators of...

Baseball

8 Bargain-Bin MLB Free Agents Every Team Could Use 0 of 8 Luke Hales/Getty Images Obviously, the additions of Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and...

MLB

MLB free agency is here! Similar to how last winter was defined by the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes, this offseason so far has revolved around...

MLB

Joel Reuter December 5, 2024 Projecting the Price Tags For Top MLB Free Agent of 2024-2025 Class 0 of 10 Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images...

Boxing

Paul Kasabian Featured Columnist II January 30, 2025 Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson admitted that he may...

NBA

Joseph Zucker @@JosephZucker Featured Columnist IV January 30, 2025 Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin "is being monitored by nearly every team...

NBA

Victor Wembanyama has another honor to be happy about. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) The 2025 NBA All-Star reserves were announced Thursday, with the San Antonio...

MLB

In April 2024, radio and television personality Craig Carton argued that Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who allegedly stole $16 million from the...

NBA

Andrew Peters January 30, 2025 Sarah Stier/Getty Images De'Aaron Fox's preferred trade destination is reportedly interested in him. On NBA Countdown, ESPN's Shams Charania...

American Football

The Dallas Cowboys recently named Brian Schottenheimer as their new head coach. He will replace Mike McCarthy, who went 1-3 in the postseason during...

Baseball

The Houston Astros have had quite the winter, positioning themselves with some solidifying moves that could, and should, help them retain dominance in the...

Advertisement