Victor D. Rombard (also known as Divine), a serial entrepreneur and former recording artist, is a partnership with Rakim, one of the most influential moderators of hip -hop, this week. We announced up.
The company is called Notebook, a fintech for independent city musicians and creators. Provides knowledge and tools to help artists manage their careers. For example, we provide resources that support loans and access to credit score. We provide financial literacy and music business education by providing multimedia courses, fiscal guides on financial management, and how to monetize music. There is also a function that artists can write lyrics and connect with friends in the app.
The notebook has a “digital passport” function that allows users to track credit score, access loans, and budget tools. The company ties a loan and creditors, and users apply for a loan via the platform to get a fee for the referral fee.
The currently beta version of the app has an AI tool that includes RAKIM's Voice AI audio assistant. I want to start up at the end of February.
Technically, Divine is inspired by Rakim to launch this company with RAKIM for the direct experience of dealing with the indie urban music scene and the difficulties of trying to supply money to a career. He said he was done. Through movies, profiles, and music itself, it is difficult and expensive to enter the music industry. For all the famous artists on the charts, it is struggling simply for thousands of artists to pass.
“The music industry is currently configured to use artists through exploit -like contracts and limited financial resources, and will be forced into looting transactions just to survive,” he said. For the past decade, he has built a FinTech company and said that technology has begun to be considered as an excellent equalizer. FinTech Blak, focusing on services for sacred communities, has been established to build a solvent, a neobank for unreasonable communities.
So he thought about notes, so that musicians educated themselves, provided funds to their projects, so that they could build their careers under their own conditions. He said that indie artists and creators are becoming more powerful and influential, but they are still a good time for this product because they lack a lot of financial support.
After that, Divine sold the company to the Rakim team as a partner's way, and God said, “It became even more powerful for the change.”
RAKIM was part of the hip -hop group Eric B. & RAKIM, which caused the hip -hop golden age in the 1980s. Their album “PAID in FULL” is one of the first albums using the funk sample, affecting the flow and lyrics of the rapper in the future, so Rolling Stone in 2020, the best album in history. It was listed as one.
God says he has been known for 20 years and has always praised his artist and the principle.
“When I started my notebook ideas, I knew it had to be more than just a FinTech platform. It had to be a movement rooted in the value of empowerment and cultural reliability.” God continued. “That's why it makes sense to put RAKIM completely.”
Hip -hop Legend Rakim.image Credit: Felix Manual Photography
In the partnership, RAKIM will appear as a co -founder and a member of the Advisory Committee. RAKIM's son, Tahmell Griffin, is also executive at the company.
Currently, the company offers self -funds, but God says that the company is looking for a round before the seed. The memo includes the freeimium and premium subscription membership. We aim to make money from subscription models and referral fees. He says this company is the culmination of his music and technical journey.
“I want to shift the story in a memo to an artist who has been abused by a record label by a record label to an artist who owns economical future and career success,” said Divine. “If artists can use notes for the next album to run a business musician as a business, we have succeeded if we can use the community collaboration for growth.”