Question

• Discuss the importance of Hip Hop in contributing to the growth of Black enterprises today.
• List the five of the major Black capitalists today and describe their major business enterprises.

Answer 1

Hip Hop is not only a genre of music in the African American community but also has been a part of their culture and tradition for a long time. While many of the hip hop music nowadays focus on shallow and extravagant lifestyle, the earlier period saw raps and songs of motivation, challenges, and passion to survive. This was a natural issue since the African Americans were prosecuted heavily several decades ago.

This songs and music of hope and encouragement has played major role in developing the community. This strength transpired many of the people in the community to struggle and come out of their poverty and begin enterprising ventures. In some cases, music artists themselves began enterprises after accumulating the required capital. For example, a rapper named Fabolous launched a line of snacks items and set up his own business 2 years ago. From economic point of view, wealthy rappers and hip hop artists has created trickledown effect on the whole African American community. This in turn gave people access to capital, network, and knowledge and thus contributed to the rise of Black enterprises.

Five major black capitalist today are

Robert L Johnson: He is the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET Network). He is also majority owner of Charlotte Bobcats basketball team.

Shawn Carter: Also known as Jay Z is a popular music artist and record producer. He owned Roc A Fella Records, created Rocawear (apparel company) and founded Tidal with his wife Beyonce.

Andre Young: Also known as Dr. Dre is one of the most prominent record producer in the music industry. He is also part owner of the popular like of acoustic devices known as the Beats by Dre.

George Foreman: A former boxer but now owns several businesses such as gym (Everybody Fights), line of stores (George Foremans’s Butcher shop), and of course the very popular line of kitchen appliance called George Foreman Grill (now has been sold).

Janice Bryant Howroyd: She is the founder and CEO of ACT 1 Group. They are an employment agency and generates revenues upward of $1 billion.