Serial entrepreneur and former recording artist Victor D. LombardAlso known as Divine, he announced this week to start a new company, in collaboration with RakimOne of the most important emen of hip-hop.
The company is is called notesA FinTech specifically for independent urban musicians and creators. It provides the knowledge and tools that help artists manage their careers – such as providing resources to help them apply for loans or have access to credit results. It provides financial education and music education by offering multimedia lessons, step -by -step guides for financial management and how to create music. It also has a feature that allows artists to write lyrics and connect with their peers to the application.
The notes have a “digital passport” feature that allows users to monitor credit ratings, access loans and budget tools. The company cooperates with lenders and creditors and earns a supply for referral pay when users apply for loans through the platform.
The application, currently located in Beta, features AI tools, including an AI voice assistant in Rakim’s voice. He hopes to start fully in late February.
Talking to TechCrunch, Divine said he was inspired to start this company along with Rakim because of his first -hand experience involved in Indie’s urban music scene and the difficulties coming when trying to fund a career. It is well documented, through films, profiles and the same music that breaks in the music industry It’s hard and expensive. For every artist called the charts, there are thousands just struggling to pass.
“The music industry, as it is, is structured to benefit from artists through exploitative contracts and limited economic resources, forcing them to predators only to survive,” he said. Having passed the past 10 year old Fintech also said that he is coming to see technology as a large equalizer, a way to redistribute control back to artists and creators. The divine previously founded the Fintech Blak, which focused on serving communities underwater, and built the solvent, a neobank and for inadequate communities.
So he thought of the notes, to allow musicians to train themselves, to finance their own projects and to build careers on their own terms. He now said that it is a good time for this product, because indie artists and creators are becoming increasingly powerful and influenced, but they are still lacking a lot of financial support.
Divine then threw the company to Rakim’s team as a way to work together and “became another stronger power to change,” Divine said.
Rakim was part of the Hip-Hop Eric B. & Rakim team, who made waves during the golden age of hip-hop during the 1980s. Their album “Pay in Full” was mentioned as one of the The biggest albums of all time With Rolling Stone in 2020, as it was one of the first albums to use funk samples and influenced the flow and lyricism of the coming rappers.
Divine says he is known Rakim for 20 years and always admired him for “remaining true to the artists and his principles”.
“When I began to be notes. I knew it had to be more than a FinTech platform, it had to be a movement that has rooted in the values of empowerment and cultural authenticity,” Divine continued. “That’s why it made sense to bring Rakim to the ship.”
The partnership sees Rakim coming as a co -founder and as a member of the Council. Rakim’s son, Tahmell Griffin, also holds an executive position in the company.
At the moment, the company is self-funded, but Divine said the company is looking for a pre-seal round. The notes offer Freemium and Premium subscriptions. It seeks to make money from subscription models and referral fees. He says this company is the culmination of his music and technological journey.
“I want the notes to shift the narrative from the artists exploited by the record labels to artists who hold the financial future and the success of their career,” Divine said. “If an artist can use notes to get funding for their next album, learn how to run their music careers as a business and utilize Community cooperation for growth, then we have succeeded.”
