December 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Isaac Hayes III, is a music producer, actor and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Fanbase, the first in app purchase subscription social media app ever. Hayes is also the president of Isaac Hayes Enterprises, a company that manages his father's music and legacy
https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase
https://www.fanbase.app/@isaachayes3
https://www.instagram.com/diprimaradio/
https://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase
https://www.fanbase.app/@isaachayes3
https://www.instagram.com/diprimaradio/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
La fifteen eighty. Those are your Christmas carols. Miles, Daddy
paid the price.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ain't say to come down the chimneys.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Santa not coming down. He's not even grinding.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
He worked one day, one night a week. I worked
six nights a week.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
He works one night out of the year. He works.
When when is Santa ware? I don't know anyway, That's
That's a Miles favorite.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That is big business.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Sama's very big business. Uh Santa's. Santa's Christmas Carols by
Miles Low includes uh Nipsey hustle. Looking forward to talking
with my next guest. He is a pioneer for sure,
a groundbreaker, path maker for sure. He has a vision
(00:49):
to change social media forever through vision through fan Base.
That's his app. Fan Base is the first in app purchase,
in app subscription social media app ever, and He's says
he's committed to creating an equitable landscape for the next
generation of social media users. That landscape starts with fan
(01:14):
Base now at an eighty five million valuation. First black
man in history to May to raise it's nine point
two million dollars in seed funding. I think it's up
from that now on Start Engine. Isaac Hay's the third.
Good morning, good morning, welcome back. It's great to hear
(01:35):
your voice.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thank you very much. How are you.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm blessed, I'm blessed, and I'm you know, I'm glad
you're out there doing what you're doing, though, because it
seems like everything is accelerating. And why when I say everything,
I'm talking about this cyber AI social media landscape that
we're all navigating right now.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's definitely changing. I think maybe this year's probably been
the drastic change that we've seen in media in a while,
with consolidations of networks being acquired, social media platforms being acquired,
AI getting to the forefront. It's really kind of the
path that I've been talking about for like a few
(02:19):
years now, which is really social media is the new television.
It's just a new it's a new TV.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, but it doesn't have the kind of regulation and
controls that TV has.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
No, it doesn't, and there are pros and cons to that.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay, let's talk about some of the pros.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, the well, the pros are, it gives you know,
people the opportunity to reach audiences without gatekeeping. Now, what
they do when they reach those audiences can be the con,
but we're definitely living in a world where we've seen
a lot of media journalists get fired from platforms because
(02:59):
of an agenda based on that, and we've seen those
individuals take to social media, the people that have been
let go or pushed out and actually being able to
build independent platforms that are allowed to get the truth out.
So that's really really important, right. We need social media
platforms that are unbiased, that are not owned by oligarchs
or people that have a particular agenda that want to
make an algorithm only show people certain types of content,
(03:23):
which is really what some of these acquisitions are about
on the TV side and on the social media side.
So the pro is that now people can use social
media platforms like fan base to have a free and
clear voice, to directly connect the people that want to
hear the truth and want to engage in that discourse.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean, obviously the con is that there is
so much miss and disinformation out there, but also what
you reference the algorithm, So we think that the Internet
is a free wild West, but in fact it still
has gatekeeping going on, corporate gatekeeping.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Absolutely, Like so I think, you know, I don't know
what that you know, the Ellisons are doing as far
as you know, Paramount sky Dance and now they're involvement
in TikTok, and that's very, very dangerous because it does
create the potential for propaganda and state run television, which is,
(04:20):
you know, one step, you know, a step forward towards authoritarianism,
and we don't want that. So we can't have that.
So we have to have free and independent media. I think,
I think extra Twitter has been totally compromised, and so
there has to be a new generation of apps that
are available for the public to trust and even own
(04:43):
at the same time if they want to to participate.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I'm smiling because you're so non alarmist. Like to me,
we're already all the way over in authoritarianism trying to
make our way back. But yeah, you know this idea
that our president can stick up uh CBS or YouTube
or whatever and yet several million dollars and then they
(05:07):
change out their whole staff. That that is state run
media as far as I'm concerned. But what you're talking
about with with with TikTok, we haven't even really started
experiencing yet, right because the if that deal goes through,
it goes through. It would be January, and then Larry Ellison,
(05:27):
who is behind Oracle, who's one of the billionaires that's
backing Trump at the moment. And also, as you know,
Team net and Yahoo is meant to be taking over
a part of the group that's taking over TikTok.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, I mean in TikTok, I think it'll I mean again,
it present it predus. It presents a great opportunity for
a platform like family. We have short form media, we
have short form video like TikTok. Right, we have short
form video capability so to create and watch that type
of video. And so I I welcome it only because
if they're going to ruin the party, then the party
(06:04):
is going to move right. They're the fun and they're
going to you know, they're going to ruin the fund
that everybody's having, just so they can turn it into
a right wing social media platform. Then go right ahead.
I will more than welcome anybody that doesn't want that,
that just wants to make fun videos, you know, hear,
real true free speech, non censorship, I welcome all that.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, how do you overcome I mean, I'm looking at
this this Hollywood Reporter article where they say, Hillary Clinton
is blaming TikTok for influencing young people's views on Israel
on Palestine, which to me, it's a she's not even
you know, she's considered a liberal. That is like a
(06:49):
clear indication of what is about to happen with TikTok
right now. But how do you address the complaint that, well,
you know, we like fan base, but you just don't
have the reach of a TikTok.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well that I mean that comes with time. I mean,
we just built a brand new algorithm that we were
working on since July, and users continue to migrate. One
thing that I will say is nothing. I think we're
understanding now more than ever that nothing lasts forever. Like nothing,
I think we have to get comfortable with We have
to get comfortable with change sooner than later. Like we
(07:25):
have to get comfortable like the people like Warner Brothers
is a legacy studio and it's going to either be
owned by Netflix or Paramount, and so there's a drastic
change coming in in the media landscape. And so this
is just opening the door for new players to come
into the space and become popular and become the staples
that the tiktoks were, you know, especially when especially when
(07:48):
people are accelerating the transition of what the platform is
actually meant to do. Right, and that's what's going to happen,
is that people are going to want to migrate to
newer spaces. Now again, I'm not working about that because
I think there's just going to be such a drastic
you know, I guess fallout from whatever happens with TikTok.
People are going to leave that place like a sinking ship,
(08:09):
and they're going to go other places. Some will go
to some will go to probably back to Instagram or reels,
and some will come to fan base, and we welcome that.
It just gives us the opportunity to live out our
mission of being creator first and for free speech and
censorship and diversity.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, whether you were
talking about the changing demographic of Facebook or the sort
of rise and fall of MySpace and other platforms, you're right,
nothing lasts forever, and you're right we're seeing a big shift.
Want to talk more about that when we come forward.
Isaac Cay's the third is my guest, and you're listening
(08:46):
to KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. Appreciate you. Isaacay's the third
is my guest. He's the founder of fan Base, And
you know, you talk about things changing. These microdrama a
little short, little movieettes. I don't know if you can
call a movie moments. They're more like a scene from
(09:06):
a movie or a couple of scenes whatever. They're now
really really popular everywhere, and you've just launched an initiative
to bring more micro dramas to fan Base.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Right absolutely. I launched a partnership with a production company
called Wild Peach Studios, which is run by Ty Walker
and his wife Keisha Perry Walker, who's an attorney right
here out of Atlanta, Georgia. Because the micro drama space
is evolving faster than ever before, and it's a very
(09:38):
very lucrative space. I think it's a game changing area.
And I wanted to do that because when I look
at these current microdrama apps, they don't have any multicultural
microdramas yet, right, and so but when they get there,
they're going to make them for these platforms, and then
who's going to own the infrastructure And it's got to
(09:58):
be us. And so that's why I really wanted to
into this space so that black people and people of
color and multi cultural races have an opportunity to produce
and distribute microdramas on a platform that can be owned
by them and accepts diversity, equity, inclusion. Remember, you know
a good bit of these platforms. We spent the last
year telling telling all people that they don't want diversity,
(10:18):
they don't want equity, they don't want inclusion. But watch
what happens when these micro dramas hit. They're gonna come
running back like, hey, we want you. And that's the
choice where we say no, no, thank you. We're already
on fan base and we're find there.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Right because they need the content. Is that why you
assume they'll come running back.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, absolutely, that's what they always do. I mean, that's
that's the point. It's like, you know it to fulfill
the wishes of an administration is one thing. But we
can't go on and just keep disrespecting black culture and
black media. And we know what we bring to the system,
what we bring to like, what we bring to the economy. Right,
So who owns, like who makes all the money off
(10:59):
this kind of stuff? That stuff is super important. Who's
getting paid when we're doing this kind of stuff? And
so that's why I wanted to get into micro dromas.
For people that don't know what Michael dramas are, they
are these highly addictive movies that are chopped into two
minute segments that end on the cliffhangers. So they are movies,
but they're shopped vertically and they're enormously engaging, and they're very,
(11:22):
very popular. And in China, the micro drama industry is
larger than the television and film industry over there, so
it's a huge industry and people are flooding the space
to try to create microdrama apps, which I don't want
to create a microdrama app. Fan base already possesses the
ability to support micro dramas through vertical video, through unlocking,
(11:46):
through subscriptions, and an algorithm. So it was the perfect
time for us to be able to get into the space.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
When you talk about black ownership, you know, what does
that even really look like in this digital in the
digital economy, because we're most of us are operating on
these huge platforms that are we don't own.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, so black ownership is fan based. So for those
that don't know, like, I founded a company with my
own money and then I've gone on to raise over
twenty four million dollars through something called equity crowdfunding, which
allows anybody that's listening to actually have ownership in the
company by investing and sitting on the cap table. So
you're not donating to fan base, you're actually as an
(12:30):
investor as if you would have invested in Instagram in
the beginning, and that type of investment a seed level
investment pre IPO with a lot of upside potential but
limited risk. There is risk, but the minim to invest
in equity crowdfunding are low, like on this campaign, it's
only three hundred and ninety nine dollars to get sixty
shares of stock at fan base. And so that's what
(12:50):
black ownership looks like. And we've never been here. That's
the thing that's kind of like, I think it's it's inspiring,
but it's also a little bit frustrating because we consistently
use the platforms that disrespect us over and over again.
I see so many musicians, so many artists, so many
creators use platforms like Twitter or x when Elon Musk
(13:12):
repeatedly disrespects the culture, or Mirk Zuckerberg ends all DEI
initiatives and they you know, people stay there or TikTok
has a consistently racist agenda against black people algorithmically, culturally,
content wise, and so we have no options, and so
we're forced to just take what's given to us like
(13:33):
all the time right until now. And so that's why,
you know, the mission for fan base is clear, like
we're not going anywhere. We are extremely competitive platform. It's
gonna create a shift where the wealth distribution doesn't go
through the same twenty five thirty five people that are
multimillionaires and billionaires. We're gonna build something new. We're letting
(13:55):
the users have an opportunity to own it. Those that
want to get in early can have equity in the company,
and we're going to continue to innovate and be creative.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, I mean it reminds me a little bit of
the of the TV networks because if you think about
you know, the Foxes and such, were they the WB
where they found with content that is targeting black audiences
and many times partnering with black creatives, and then once
they get it on its feet, they cut us out
(14:28):
of the picture a lot of times. Is that what
you mean when you talk about cultural labor?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Absolutely let's take you know what, let's take it back.
Let's take it back twenty years earlier than that, Black
exploitation films saved Hollywood. Films like Chaff the Mac, you
know what I'm saying, like super Fly, they saved Hollywood.
Hollywood was about to go bankrupt, nobody's watching movies, and
black cinema came in and brought so many dollars to
(14:58):
the film industry because black people, we're finally seeing themselves
in positions of power, not necessarily butlers and slaves, right
and so, and then what in Hollywood do? It went
right back on the scene, went right back to creating
movies and content and forgot about black people primarily. And
then it happened with the TV networks, and it just
most recently happened with two B and so I'm like,
(15:19):
you know, enough is enough. No one stops and says, yo,
let's build the infrastructure first before we take our talents
to any of these platforms. Let's build the infrastructure, because
we're in an error right now where we're gonna have
to read the fine print, like the nutrition facts per
se on what a platform is. So, when you're watching
a piece of content, who who owns this platform, who's
(15:42):
behind this? Because a lot of times when you think
of two B, two B is owned by Fox Corp.
Fox Corporation takes that money and puts it in the
hands of people that lobby against the progress of black people.
But we still use to be oh, that's going to
be happening with TikTok, and so there is a bit
of responsibility about where we leave our footprint. There's no
(16:02):
excuse now because we can we know those that information.
It's not going to be hidden. A lot of times
people didn't ask that before, like who owns this? Like
we didn't really think about who owned it because it
wasn't biased. There was you know, journalistic integrity or media
integrity back in the day. Now we see a clear agenda,
So we've got to know who's behind it, because that
person could be you know, creating an opportunity that actually
(16:24):
hurts black people on the back end, but looking like
it's an ally to black black people on the front end.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, I think the confusion is real, even though you
say we should know. I'm really surprised how many high
profile artists and so called influencers don't get it at all.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, I can tell you, I can tell you why.
And number one, it has also a lot to do
with representation. A lot of this talent is represented by
people that fall into the agenda that don't look like us.
So a lot of the talent that you're that you're
you're talking about, especially black talent, they don't don't have
black managers, they don't have black agents, right, they don't
you know what I'm saying. They don't have those types
(17:06):
of people directing them out of those spaces. They're directing
them back into those spaces. I've run into many roadblocks
of trying to partner with amazing talent, and you get
to the agency level, you get to the you know,
those big three agencies out there, and you get stonewalled
or rollblock because they're like, wait a minute. You're trying
to come in here and give this person part of
the equity in your company. You're trying to let them
(17:27):
make money that bypasses what our fees are. You're trying
to give them, you know, freedom to be able to
connect directly with their fans and consumers through in that
purchases and not have to do these deals that we
get commissions off of. Oh no, keep you as far
away as you possibly can. And so that's part of
the point too, is that these artists have to realize
are their best interests being met or are they just
(17:48):
being served as a cash machine for these people that yes,
you're making money, but please realize there's an agenda to
keep you in a specific place to make sure that
the people around you benefit actually probably more than you do,
and you may not even recognize or know that.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, the the it's the attention economy kind of. I mean,
everyone cares about clicks, views, They want to be the conversation,
the topic of conversation. Does is that going against our
best interests on a business level, It.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Can be, but it's but that's gonna change very soon anyway,
because again people, I mean, if you candids being in
this space, people would much rather be famous than rich,
because if not hard to make money on social media,
you just won't have a larger audience. You can become
a millionaire of you know, five thousand, twenty thousand, ten
thousand people being consistent fans or consistent supporters of what
(18:47):
you do, but you might not have millions and millions
of followers. And that's the dopamine hit that social media.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I'll take the money. I need to learn about that.
What you just said, how to make fillions with a
few followers. I'll take money over fame. But I mean
we probably have a different perspective. Your your dad being
super super duper famous, my parents being semi famous, you know,
of growing up around that, and you see what what
it doesn't come with? Yeah, what's not including.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Get you the money? Let's get it, you know. But
but here's the thing. There's quietly an army, a large
cohort of individuals that are making millions and millions of
dollars as contentrators, that are monetizing directly with their audiences.
You just that they're just not famous. They're just not
as large as you think that they are. And that's
(19:37):
the part about it. They're not super they're not plastered
all over Hollywood and all that. You'll see even in
the micro drama space. You'll see that micro drama actors
will probably coome just as big as TD and film
stars because it's the ability to reach large amounts of
people in a short amount of time. But then there's
the opportunity to monetize directly with that audience. And that's
(19:59):
the part that that people are leaving out like once,
Like before fan Base, there was no app that allows
you to put to subscribe to a person like you
would subscribe to a streaming service, right, So the same
way that we subscribed to Netflix, there was no button
on social media and allow you to do that. Using
Apple pay and Google Pay, I came up with that.
So when you think about how fast the point of
(20:20):
sale is, there's nothing in between any you and anybody
else that has access to a web browser or the
app itself to subscribe to you directly, and that cuts
out so many people and there's a lot of again
there's a lot of uncertainty in that that people are
afraid of losing that type of capital.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Have people copied you since.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, I found a patent for it, But Instagram doesn't, now,
TikTok doesn't, now Twitter doesn't. Now all these platforms allow
you to subscribe to people using in that purchase capability,
which is really really convenient and very very fast. And
so that's the thing that they shifted and did. But
the difference between us and all those other platforms is
they let your following see all of your content, so
(21:02):
you could have you know, twenty million followers, and only
six hundred thousand people will see your posts because they
can't let you reach all those people. I'm not putting
barriers up on how many people can reach you or
how many people you can reach on fan base, because
that defeats the point, because it's a repshare platform where
we get a percentage of the revenue and the user
takes fifty percent of the revenue as profit for themselves.
(21:25):
And so if you hoose us for me to put
the platform, put anybody on the platform in front of
as many people as possible, because from those from those
subscriptions or from those tips that you can love, you
can love somebody's content for like half a penny at
a time. That's where our revenue model comes from. And
so we don't want to hide people. We want to
put you front and center. We want the algorithm to
(21:47):
make sure that you're able to be discovered and your
content's able to be seen. That's the whole point behind
you know, even the name of the company is that
we all have a fan We're all a fan of something,
and all of us have a fan base. We all
have somebody out here loves every one of us. And
is willing to pay for our content.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
We just don't know it ISACA's third is my guest.
We've got news, traffic and sports then more on KBLA
Talk fifteen eighty. Isaacays a third is my guest. He
is the creator of fan Base. And if folks are
not on it yet, I mean we've been talking about,
you know, a lot of the innovations that you're bringing
(22:22):
into play, how do you get on How do you
get started with fan Base if people aren't there yet.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Simple'll just go to your Apple App Store or Google
play Store and type in the word fan base. You
will see a purple con pop up with a F,
a white F that looks like a lightning boat, and
you download the app, creating an account, and then you're
on fan Base. And something that we just launched on
last Friday was we rebuilt our content migration tool. We
(22:53):
have them before, but basically, as soon as you sign up,
they'll ask you if you want to import your content
over from Instagram or TikTok, so you're not starting with
a blank profile. It'll take all that content and move
it over. It won't leave Instagram or TikTok, but it
definitely gives you a fresh start, so you don't have
to postuff all over again from scratch and feel like
you're starting all the way from the bottom.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Yeah, for sure. I actually I was even able to
figure it out. I don't claim to be a technical wizard,
but the I was able to migrate my content over
to fan base and it was really easy. Actually, it
took hardly any time at all, and.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And it moves very, very quickly. So I'm excited about
that because I mean that's going to help. Again, like
when TikTok went down before, we had a lot of
people come to the platform, and again it's just easy
to migrate, like, you know what, let me just move,
you know, let me just let me just ship my
stuff over because I don't like what's going on, you know,
over here, and I can start from scratch, and you're
(23:51):
actually putting your content in a position to be tipped,
which is love. You can post to be liked, right,
It's like, but then we have loves as well, and
so and loves your content. You get half a penny.
So imagine all that content that was sitting over on
Instagram or TikTok for years now with the press of
a button. So you can actually make money from people
showing appreciation for what you do. And it happens quite
(24:12):
a bit. It happens more than people think. People are
surprised that someone will give them a few cents offul
piece of content that they make, but it happens all
the time.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
I know, I was actually surprised. But then if that's
more of an old school mentality, because for somebody like
my kid, you know, I have a child in college. Yes,
he's not a child anymore. I have a person in college,
and for them, you know, subscribing to someone's Patreon is normal.
Oh I'll just kick in three five bucks a month
(24:42):
because I like this person, not because I'm required to
get you know, to pay that to get the content.
It's much more. I think it's much more of a
mindset for the younger generation.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Oh yeah, the younger generation is far more transactional. Their
money it's digital. They don't really know paper money, you
know what I mean. I think they're used to cash, app, Venmo, PayPal,
you know, uh, you know, being able to tap to pay,
and so that action alone makes it really really easy
for someone to actually give you money. And I always
(25:18):
reiterate that fan base does it. It doesn't cost anything to
use the app or be on the app or anything
like that. It costs nothing. But I love the fact
that people can be transactional and support users if they
want to do stuff.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, it's dope. I mean I even have we have
people watching the stream right now on YouTube and people
will just voluntarily kick in money to say, hey, we
want to support you know, black OneD media. That's that's
amazing and it's appreciated. But your app is built to
do that. It's not something they have to randomly come
up with. It's built to do that, and it's on
(25:51):
a as you can basis. You know, your bio talks
about how you grew up with your dad off the
Isaac Cayes as internationally renowned musician and artists, and how
that might have impacted the way you look at things
in terms of how you see the ratio of you know,
(26:16):
creativity and culture to corporate ownership, and how who benefits
from the work that we do.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah. Absolutely so. For those who don't know, my father
was Isaac Hay's a global icon, soul icon, but I
think he was also really one of the founding foundational
blueprints for hip hop, and in that process, people sampled
my father's records throughout the eighties and nineties and two thousands.
(26:47):
But there was one thing that people did not know
is that my father did not own the rights to
this writer shares and the publishing to his music. He
lost that in a bankruptcy a year before I was born.
So Isaac Hays's catalog was acquired at auction. And so
in that process, there are now people that don't look
like me that have been going through the mailbox for
(27:08):
the past, you know, forty years collecting you know, my
father's you know wealth in the in the tune of
excess of sixty plus million dollars. And so that's how
you build generational wealth. And I have you know, ten
other brothers and sisters, and so they didn't get opportunities
(27:29):
to go to college. They didn't get you know, that's
what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to have that
money for your kids to go to college and educate
your children and help them through life. And my father
didn't have that. And so in building fan base, ownership
has always been at the core of what I'm building.
It's it's the first thing that I thought of it's
like even you know, ironically, it's like when I first
built and came up with the idea, I trademarked the name,
(27:51):
and then when I founded the company, I created two
classes of stock, non voting and voting shares to make
sure that I was the only one that could ever
have voting power and the companies so no one could
steal this company away from me. And so foundationally, fan
based is set up with ownership and equity in mind
because of the lessons that I learned from my father's
(28:12):
unfortunate business.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
And we've seen that time and time again with creators,
musicians and others that you end up getting cheated or
squeezed out of their content. And I mean right now
there's a battle raging on the internet between dazz ands noop.
That's all about who owns what in terms of the
(28:34):
intellectual property.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, it's I mean IP, I mean listen, publishing and
masters in the music business is really that's the business.
It's who owns the masters, who owns the publishing. One
of the things that I have been educating people on
is the termination right for artists and the termination right
for songwriters to go to these record companies and to
go to these publishing companies and in that agreement with
those companies and then reclaim ownership of that publishing. And
(28:59):
we've done that with my father successfully for his songwriting catalog.
We're just now in the phase of terminating his artist catalog,
and then right after that we're terminating all those samples,
so that all that publishing and all those rights will
still eventually come back to us. But I tell and
talk about all the time, telling artists that they need
to terminate the masters and publishing to get that content
(29:22):
back in that wealth back because a lot of companies
are acquiring those rights. Like after you get them back,
a lot of companies are coming back and trying to
acquire those rights, which isn't necessarily such.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
What happened we lost.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
More music and be able to tour.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, that's crazy. And now you've got a big Wall
Street folks buying up entire catalogs, and I, you know,
I wonder what that means about the future of music,
just in terms of, you know, they're going to invest
in the stuff they own one hundred percent out right,
Why would they invest in new artists when they have
AI and catalog that they own out right, That to
(30:02):
me seems problematic.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, but again, it's opening the door for an artist
to make all of the money. That's the thing I
don't think people understanding to be It's like, Okay, I
don't have it. I'm not signed to a major label.
Everybody's subscribing to my fan base page and then they're
streaming my music because I'm not signed to a record company.
And so yeah, I'm making you know, one hundred times
more money than I am being independent than I ever
(30:26):
would being a label. And the Internet provides the ability
to have the same reach that TD did. Remember in
the beginning of this conversation, I said that social media
is the new television. So before, if you weren't, if
you weren't on you know, be ET, MTV or whatever,
nobody saw you. Now you can be c twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week. So trumply there
are pros to that scenario as well.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, And the fact of the matter is those networks,
those networks do not have the kind of numbers that
they used to have in terms of eyeballs either. So
the whole absolutely, the whole model has shifted. How are
you handling AI on fan base that's a game changer,
and whether or not people monetize the content in the
same way. What restrictions are there is going to be
(31:07):
really important and influencing the way we move forward.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
From a development side, we're all in because it helps
us move faster. We're still going to need developers and engineers,
but AI helps us Q and A the business a
lot faster, solve problems faster, build faster, so I can
be competitive in building something when I have to compete
with Instagram and TikTok. On the content side, I'm not
(31:35):
really a big fan because people want real life. They
want to see real things. You know, if I can
render a game winning hell Mary basketball shot whenever I
want to, then how important does it make the real
life instance that that happens, or the things that Steph
Curry can do, or the things that like Lebron and
Luca can do, Like, what does that do for that?
(31:55):
So real life is going to matter. That's why sports
it's still the most watched medium because nobody knows what's
going to happen, and that makes it important. So real
life is going to matter. So we're taking a very
good look at careful look at how AI generated content
on the platform is handled because I want people to
post real photos and real videos and have real conversations.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah, I think we're in ironically, AI is pushing us
more towards real I think, my personal opinion, celebrity influencers
become less important and people want to see what's actually
going on with real humans.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, that's the thing. Of course, AI generated AI generated
content at becoming and polluting social media, and people are
actually going to there's gonna be a counterculture against that
that people. I don't want to see any AI generated content.
It's fun, it's cool, it's like it's new. It's a
new way to be creative and create memes and be funny.
But it's not what I want to see all day.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Every day, right, not all day every day, not replacing
people helping people. Well, how are you? You know? It
seems it does feel David and goliathy and the fact
that you're creating fan base and you are getting the investment,
you are getting the people on board, but you're going
up against these corporations that are getting bigger, bigger, bigger
(33:17):
and bigger as we see more and more consolidation. How
do how do you even not just you know, give
up and back up and say, you know what, what's
the use. I mean, I feel like you're going up
against such a massive, massive, kind of corporate entities.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And let me tell you that what motivates me and
makes me excited about what I'm doing is to watch
multi billion dollars and trillion dollar corporations take my ideas
and lets you know that what separates me from them,
what separates me from them is just capital, and that's
being able to raise capital. That's why that's why we're
doing equity crowdfunding, because if the VC's had it their way,
(34:00):
they would never give me a dime, so that I
could never become a platform at rivals Instagram or TikTok.
But the fact that I have the people, the fact
that I have black people, the fact that I have
young people that are investing you know, millions and millions
of dollars. Like so far we've raised over twenty four
million that want to own part of this platform and
actually you know, fight the system, but also at the
(34:22):
same time own the system instead of just watching it
from a distance. That's the part that I like, I
love it, I don't. I mean, I have a million ideas.
You know, I have tons of ideas. I'm not really
worried about that. You know, they try to take one idea,
they'll take another. We know that black culture innovates and
creates at such a high level, and so the only
(34:43):
thing that they have is money. And if I continue
to get that from my community, we're building it. So
that's the thing that I love about it, is like
we're very competitive, and I feel it every day. It's like,
you know, my friends call me at particular companies and say, yeah,
they're watching you, looking at you and say, hey, man,
your name just came up inside this building. Is now
(35:04):
like really me, I'm like, we only raise this amount
of money. This is a trillion dollar business. Why do
they care about me? They say, Becuz you're You're a
problem because you're the future. You know, you're giving freedom,
you're giving access, you're giving ownership, You're giving things that
none of these platforms ever did. And that's that's the
part that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
As long as we don't see you sitting up there
on the platform with oligarchs pitching it, pitching in millions
for our oppression, we good. How can people invest if
they want to invest as you mentioned, and get those shares.
How do they do it?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
They go to start Engine dot com slash fan Base
and start Engine at the platform they actually use it,
the equity crowdfunding platform, among several others that you can
get equity and ownership in the company are raised. Closes
in two days. So I tell everybody, if you want
to investment fan Base, don't wait, invest right now, like,
(35:56):
do not wait. We're actually very close to our goal.
And so once we reach our goal, the race closes,
and the race closes regardless in two days, and so
the minimum is three hundred and ninety nine dollars. So
go to start Engine dot com slash fan Base to invest.
Don't wait. Tap in. You will own part of a
company that's going to distribute microdramas, so research what those are.
(36:16):
You're going to own part of a platform that understands
that social media is the new television. And if you
want to own the platform that distributes that content globally,
and you're going to want to invest in fan Base,
and you're gonna and want to invest in a platform
that understands that free speech matters, diversity matters. Censorship is
not something that we want to do, and it's a
new era for people to participate and have ownership with
(36:37):
social Media's one more time Start engine dot com slash
fan base to invest. The minimum is three hundred ninety
nine dollars. The race closes on Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Do not wait, man, What a great thing to give
for Kwanza, Christmas, Hanukah, whatever you're celebrating, Solstice. Give someone
some shares in something that can really blow up, that
is blowing up absolutely well. Congratulations to you, Isaac Hayes
the Third, and thank you for tapping in with us.
I always love talking with you.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Oh thanks you for having me. I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Start engine dot Com slash fan base, Chi Ching, Chi Ching,
Chi Ching. Continuing the conversation here on KVLA Talk fifteen
eighty when we come forward, you know where you're at.
Unapologetically progressive KVLA Talk fifteen eighty. Isaac Hayes the Third
is giving us this outlook about ownership, right. I mean,
(37:28):
we've seen it cycle after cycle after cycle. With TikTok.
The controversy was around all the dances black creators were making,
but the black creators making the dances were being pushed
down in the algorithm, while other people who didn't create them,
but who copied them and profited off them were being
pushed up in the algorithm. And we know that those
algorithms containing the racial biases as well as intentional suppression
(37:52):
that were intended by or intended or you know, unconscious
bias just seeping in by the creators. So that's the site.
The business side. The other side of this coin is
listening to these tech CEOs and big bosses how they
handle their own platforms when it comes to their own kids.
(38:16):
So this guy, Neil Mohan, he's the CEO of YouTube
at this point. He took over in twenty twenty three,
and he says he doesn't let his kids on YouTube
very much, severely limits how much they get to use
not just YouTube, but any social media platform. On the weekdays,
they don't get their kids don't get to use it
(38:37):
at all. During the weekends, they can use it somewhat,
but they're going to have controls on it. You know,
there are parental controls on it. He says, everything in moderation.
But we have heard this from now about every major
tech ceo Zuckerberg, they try to limit how much their
(39:03):
children can use the platforms that they're selling to your children.
And of course, famously everyone's pointing out how in China
TikTok does not have the same content as in the
US and China it's all educational and you know, wholesome
and stuff like that, whereas if you go on what
(39:23):
they're putting out there in the algorithm here, it's much
more shall we say, entertainment oriented, unless education oriented. And
so to me, that's the biggest alarm And I'm not
an alarmist. I think that if you know, kids are
gonna get it, they're gonna get on the platforms. I'm
(39:43):
sure mister Mohan's kids watch more YouTube anythinks they do.
Because kids are smart, they get around your control unless
they're like two and three. But kids are smart, They
they get around stuff. They'll find a way in. But
what I'm saying is that we should be at least
informed by the fact that these titans, these railroad barons
(40:09):
of the Internet age, are not letting their children be
exposed to what they want your children to be exposed to.
And as we see more and more connection made by
experts between things like depression, anxiety, poor body image, anorexia,
and other eating disorders and the use of social media platforms,
(40:34):
most notably Instagram, but others as well. There are experts
who are saying that kids shouldn't have any access to
smartphones at all before the age of fourteen, and zero
social media before the age of sixteen. That maybe too
strict for you. In hindsight, I wish I would have
(40:56):
waited longer before I gave my son a smartphone. I
didn't realize how big the impact was going to be.
I just thought, well, he needs to call me, and
you know, it can look stuff up. No, it basically
becomes an attachment to their head. It becomes a whole
(41:19):
social world outside of your influence that you have no
control over, even though you can try to limit it.
And I know schools are limiting now, you know in
La now. I think it's either you know now or
in January, all schools will be limiting the use of
(41:41):
cell phones. But I'm telling you, kids are getting around it.
I'm already hearing, Oh, they've got an Apple Watch or
they have a you know, another phone in their backpack,
and the phone in the Faraday bag is just a decoy.
I just feel And some are giving their kids flip
phones so they can call, but they have no Internet access.
(42:01):
But I think taking back control of this huge piece
of our lives, whether it is as Isaac Hayes, the
third was advocating by getting involved with platforms that we
own or where we have the potential to at least
be renumerated in a meaningful way, not some little, tiny trickle.
(42:22):
But we're small to average size creators can actually make money.
And looking at how we prepare our children and ourselves
to be more media literate so we're less influenced by
that world outside of our control, as well as looking
at real serious curtailment of the amount of time and
(42:47):
access that we allow ourselves and our children to have
to these massive marketing and content influencing machines that are
in our lives. Now, okay, it's time for Tavis Smiley
to kick off your week with an incredible show as usual.
He's got a jam packed agenda for you with lots
(43:09):
of great guests. Don't forget to tap in with me
on all the social media. We'll do the stuff that
doesn't rot your brain. I meant to Premia Radio, d
ip r Ima on all platforms. I even have a
YouTube channel which you can subscribe to Please like, subscribe
and comment. Follow the station at KBLA fifteen eighty. We
are everywhere, even on YouTube where we stream every single day.
(43:33):
Like my father, the late Great Amari Baraka used to say,
a man is either free or he is not free.
There can be no apprenticeship for freedom. Until next time, beloved,
KBLA Delegation, One Love,
La fifteen eighty. Those are your Christmas carols. Miles, Daddy
paid the price.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ain't say to come down the chimneys.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Santa not coming down. He's not even grinding.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
He worked one day, one night a week. I worked
six nights a week.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
He works one night out of the year. He works.
When when is Santa ware? I don't know anyway, That's
That's a Miles favorite.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That is big business.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Sama's very big business. Uh Santa's. Santa's Christmas Carols by
Miles Low includes uh Nipsey hustle. Looking forward to talking
with my next guest. He is a pioneer for sure,
a groundbreaker, path maker for sure. He has a vision
(00:49):
to change social media forever through vision through fan Base.
That's his app. Fan Base is the first in app purchase,
in app subscription social media app ever, and He's says
he's committed to creating an equitable landscape for the next
generation of social media users. That landscape starts with fan
(01:14):
Base now at an eighty five million valuation. First black
man in history to May to raise it's nine point
two million dollars in seed funding. I think it's up
from that now on Start Engine. Isaac Hay's the third.
Good morning, good morning, welcome back. It's great to hear
(01:35):
your voice.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thank you very much. How are you.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm blessed, I'm blessed, and I'm you know, I'm glad
you're out there doing what you're doing, though, because it
seems like everything is accelerating. And why when I say everything,
I'm talking about this cyber AI social media landscape that
we're all navigating right now.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's definitely changing. I think maybe this year's probably been
the drastic change that we've seen in media in a while,
with consolidations of networks being acquired, social media platforms being acquired,
AI getting to the forefront. It's really kind of the
path that I've been talking about for like a few
(02:19):
years now, which is really social media is the new television.
It's just a new it's a new TV.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, but it doesn't have the kind of regulation and
controls that TV has.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
No, it doesn't, and there are pros and cons to that.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Okay, let's talk about some of the pros.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, the well, the pros are, it gives you know,
people the opportunity to reach audiences without gatekeeping. Now, what
they do when they reach those audiences can be the con,
but we're definitely living in a world where we've seen
a lot of media journalists get fired from platforms because
(02:59):
of an agenda based on that, and we've seen those
individuals take to social media, the people that have been
let go or pushed out and actually being able to
build independent platforms that are allowed to get the truth out.
So that's really really important, right. We need social media
platforms that are unbiased, that are not owned by oligarchs
or people that have a particular agenda that want to
make an algorithm only show people certain types of content,
(03:23):
which is really what some of these acquisitions are about
on the TV side and on the social media side.
So the pro is that now people can use social
media platforms like fan base to have a free and
clear voice, to directly connect the people that want to
hear the truth and want to engage in that discourse.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, I mean, obviously the con is that there is
so much miss and disinformation out there, but also what
you reference the algorithm, So we think that the Internet
is a free wild West, but in fact it still
has gatekeeping going on, corporate gatekeeping.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Absolutely, Like so I think, you know, I don't know
what that you know, the Ellisons are doing as far
as you know, Paramount sky Dance and now they're involvement
in TikTok, and that's very, very dangerous because it does
create the potential for propaganda and state run television, which is,
(04:20):
you know, one step, you know, a step forward towards authoritarianism,
and we don't want that. So we can't have that.
So we have to have free and independent media. I think,
I think extra Twitter has been totally compromised, and so
there has to be a new generation of apps that
are available for the public to trust and even own
(04:43):
at the same time if they want to to participate.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, I'm smiling because you're so non alarmist. Like to me,
we're already all the way over in authoritarianism trying to
make our way back. But yeah, you know this idea
that our president can stick up uh CBS or YouTube
or whatever and yet several million dollars and then they
(05:07):
change out their whole staff. That that is state run
media as far as I'm concerned. But what you're talking
about with with with TikTok, we haven't even really started
experiencing yet, right because the if that deal goes through,
it goes through. It would be January, and then Larry Ellison,
(05:27):
who is behind Oracle, who's one of the billionaires that's
backing Trump at the moment. And also, as you know,
Team net and Yahoo is meant to be taking over
a part of the group that's taking over TikTok.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, I mean in TikTok, I think it'll I mean again,
it present it predus. It presents a great opportunity for
a platform like family. We have short form media, we
have short form video like TikTok. Right, we have short
form video capability so to create and watch that type
of video. And so I I welcome it only because
if they're going to ruin the party, then the party
(06:04):
is going to move right. They're the fun and they're
going to you know, they're going to ruin the fund
that everybody's having, just so they can turn it into
a right wing social media platform. Then go right ahead.
I will more than welcome anybody that doesn't want that,
that just wants to make fun videos, you know, hear,
real true free speech, non censorship, I welcome all that.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah, how do you overcome I mean, I'm looking at
this this Hollywood Reporter article where they say, Hillary Clinton
is blaming TikTok for influencing young people's views on Israel
on Palestine, which to me, it's a she's not even
you know, she's considered a liberal. That is like a
(06:49):
clear indication of what is about to happen with TikTok
right now. But how do you address the complaint that, well,
you know, we like fan base, but you just don't
have the reach of a TikTok.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well that I mean that comes with time. I mean,
we just built a brand new algorithm that we were
working on since July, and users continue to migrate. One
thing that I will say is nothing. I think we're
understanding now more than ever that nothing lasts forever. Like nothing,
I think we have to get comfortable with We have
to get comfortable with change sooner than later. Like we
(07:25):
have to get comfortable like the people like Warner Brothers
is a legacy studio and it's going to either be
owned by Netflix or Paramount, and so there's a drastic
change coming in in the media landscape. And so this
is just opening the door for new players to come
into the space and become popular and become the staples
that the tiktoks were, you know, especially when especially when
(07:48):
people are accelerating the transition of what the platform is
actually meant to do. Right, and that's what's going to happen,
is that people are going to want to migrate to
newer spaces. Now again, I'm not working about that because
I think there's just going to be such a drastic
you know, I guess fallout from whatever happens with TikTok.
People are going to leave that place like a sinking ship,
(08:09):
and they're going to go other places. Some will go
to some will go to probably back to Instagram or reels,
and some will come to fan base, and we welcome that.
It just gives us the opportunity to live out our
mission of being creator first and for free speech and
censorship and diversity.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean, whether you were
talking about the changing demographic of Facebook or the sort
of rise and fall of MySpace and other platforms, you're right,
nothing lasts forever, and you're right we're seeing a big shift.
Want to talk more about that when we come forward.
Isaac Cay's the third is my guest, and you're listening
(08:46):
to KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. Appreciate you. Isaacay's the third
is my guest. He's the founder of fan Base, And
you know, you talk about things changing. These microdrama a
little short, little movieettes. I don't know if you can
call a movie moments. They're more like a scene from
(09:06):
a movie or a couple of scenes whatever. They're now
really really popular everywhere, and you've just launched an initiative
to bring more micro dramas to fan Base.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Right absolutely. I launched a partnership with a production company
called Wild Peach Studios, which is run by Ty Walker
and his wife Keisha Perry Walker, who's an attorney right
here out of Atlanta, Georgia. Because the micro drama space
is evolving faster than ever before, and it's a very
(09:38):
very lucrative space. I think it's a game changing area.
And I wanted to do that because when I look
at these current microdrama apps, they don't have any multicultural
microdramas yet, right, and so but when they get there,
they're going to make them for these platforms, and then
who's going to own the infrastructure And it's got to
(09:58):
be us. And so that's why I really wanted to
into this space so that black people and people of
color and multi cultural races have an opportunity to produce
and distribute microdramas on a platform that can be owned
by them and accepts diversity, equity, inclusion. Remember, you know
a good bit of these platforms. We spent the last
year telling telling all people that they don't want diversity,
(10:18):
they don't want equity, they don't want inclusion. But watch
what happens when these micro dramas hit. They're gonna come
running back like, hey, we want you. And that's the
choice where we say no, no, thank you. We're already
on fan base and we're find there.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Right because they need the content. Is that why you
assume they'll come running back.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, absolutely, that's what they always do. I mean, that's
that's the point. It's like, you know it to fulfill
the wishes of an administration is one thing. But we
can't go on and just keep disrespecting black culture and
black media. And we know what we bring to the system,
what we bring to like, what we bring to the economy. Right,
So who owns, like who makes all the money off
(10:59):
this kind of stuff? That stuff is super important. Who's
getting paid when we're doing this kind of stuff? And
so that's why I wanted to get into micro dromas.
For people that don't know what Michael dramas are, they
are these highly addictive movies that are chopped into two
minute segments that end on the cliffhangers. So they are movies,
but they're shopped vertically and they're enormously engaging, and they're very,
(11:22):
very popular. And in China, the micro drama industry is
larger than the television and film industry over there, so
it's a huge industry and people are flooding the space
to try to create microdrama apps, which I don't want
to create a microdrama app. Fan base already possesses the
ability to support micro dramas through vertical video, through unlocking,
(11:46):
through subscriptions, and an algorithm. So it was the perfect
time for us to be able to get into the space.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
When you talk about black ownership, you know, what does
that even really look like in this digital in the
digital economy, because we're most of us are operating on
these huge platforms that are we don't own.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, so black ownership is fan based. So for those
that don't know, like, I founded a company with my
own money and then I've gone on to raise over
twenty four million dollars through something called equity crowdfunding, which
allows anybody that's listening to actually have ownership in the
company by investing and sitting on the cap table. So
you're not donating to fan base, you're actually as an
(12:30):
investor as if you would have invested in Instagram in
the beginning, and that type of investment a seed level
investment pre IPO with a lot of upside potential but
limited risk. There is risk, but the minim to invest
in equity crowdfunding are low, like on this campaign, it's
only three hundred and ninety nine dollars to get sixty
shares of stock at fan base. And so that's what
(12:50):
black ownership looks like. And we've never been here. That's
the thing that's kind of like, I think it's it's inspiring,
but it's also a little bit frustrating because we consistently
use the platforms that disrespect us over and over again.
I see so many musicians, so many artists, so many
creators use platforms like Twitter or x when Elon Musk
(13:12):
repeatedly disrespects the culture, or Mirk Zuckerberg ends all DEI
initiatives and they you know, people stay there or TikTok
has a consistently racist agenda against black people algorithmically, culturally,
content wise, and so we have no options, and so
we're forced to just take what's given to us like
(13:33):
all the time right until now. And so that's why,
you know, the mission for fan base is clear, like
we're not going anywhere. We are extremely competitive platform. It's
gonna create a shift where the wealth distribution doesn't go
through the same twenty five thirty five people that are
multimillionaires and billionaires. We're gonna build something new. We're letting
(13:55):
the users have an opportunity to own it. Those that
want to get in early can have equity in the company,
and we're going to continue to innovate and be creative.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, I mean it reminds me a little bit of
the of the TV networks because if you think about
you know, the Foxes and such, were they the WB
where they found with content that is targeting black audiences
and many times partnering with black creatives, and then once
they get it on its feet, they cut us out
(14:28):
of the picture a lot of times. Is that what
you mean when you talk about cultural labor?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Absolutely let's take you know what, let's take it back.
Let's take it back twenty years earlier than that, Black
exploitation films saved Hollywood. Films like Chaff the Mac, you
know what I'm saying, like super Fly, they saved Hollywood.
Hollywood was about to go bankrupt, nobody's watching movies, and
black cinema came in and brought so many dollars to
(14:58):
the film industry because black people, we're finally seeing themselves
in positions of power, not necessarily butlers and slaves, right
and so, and then what in Hollywood do? It went
right back on the scene, went right back to creating
movies and content and forgot about black people primarily. And
then it happened with the TV networks, and it just
most recently happened with two B and so I'm like,
(15:19):
you know, enough is enough. No one stops and says, yo,
let's build the infrastructure first before we take our talents
to any of these platforms. Let's build the infrastructure, because
we're in an error right now where we're gonna have
to read the fine print, like the nutrition facts per
se on what a platform is. So, when you're watching
a piece of content, who who owns this platform, who's
(15:42):
behind this? Because a lot of times when you think
of two B, two B is owned by Fox Corp.
Fox Corporation takes that money and puts it in the
hands of people that lobby against the progress of black people.
But we still use to be oh, that's going to
be happening with TikTok, and so there is a bit
of responsibility about where we leave our footprint. There's no
(16:02):
excuse now because we can we know those that information.
It's not going to be hidden. A lot of times
people didn't ask that before, like who owns this? Like
we didn't really think about who owned it because it
wasn't biased. There was you know, journalistic integrity or media
integrity back in the day. Now we see a clear agenda,
So we've got to know who's behind it, because that
person could be you know, creating an opportunity that actually
(16:24):
hurts black people on the back end, but looking like
it's an ally to black black people on the front end.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, I think the confusion is real, even though you
say we should know. I'm really surprised how many high
profile artists and so called influencers don't get it at all.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, I can tell you, I can tell you why.
And number one, it has also a lot to do
with representation. A lot of this talent is represented by
people that fall into the agenda that don't look like us.
So a lot of the talent that you're that you're
you're talking about, especially black talent, they don't don't have
black managers, they don't have black agents, right, they don't
you know what I'm saying. They don't have those types
(17:06):
of people directing them out of those spaces. They're directing
them back into those spaces. I've run into many roadblocks
of trying to partner with amazing talent, and you get
to the agency level, you get to the you know,
those big three agencies out there, and you get stonewalled
or rollblock because they're like, wait a minute. You're trying
to come in here and give this person part of
the equity in your company. You're trying to let them
(17:27):
make money that bypasses what our fees are. You're trying
to give them, you know, freedom to be able to
connect directly with their fans and consumers through in that
purchases and not have to do these deals that we
get commissions off of. Oh no, keep you as far
away as you possibly can. And so that's part of
the point too, is that these artists have to realize
are their best interests being met or are they just
(17:48):
being served as a cash machine for these people that yes,
you're making money, but please realize there's an agenda to
keep you in a specific place to make sure that
the people around you benefit actually probably more than you do,
and you may not even recognize or know that.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, the the it's the attention economy kind of. I mean,
everyone cares about clicks, views, They want to be the conversation,
the topic of conversation. Does is that going against our
best interests on a business level, It.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Can be, but it's but that's gonna change very soon anyway,
because again people, I mean, if you candids being in
this space, people would much rather be famous than rich,
because if not hard to make money on social media,
you just won't have a larger audience. You can become
a millionaire of you know, five thousand, twenty thousand, ten
thousand people being consistent fans or consistent supporters of what
(18:47):
you do, but you might not have millions and millions
of followers. And that's the dopamine hit that social media.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I'll take the money. I need to learn about that.
What you just said, how to make fillions with a
few followers. I'll take money over fame. But I mean
we probably have a different perspective. Your your dad being
super super duper famous, my parents being semi famous, you know,
of growing up around that, and you see what what
it doesn't come with? Yeah, what's not including.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Get you the money? Let's get it, you know. But
but here's the thing. There's quietly an army, a large
cohort of individuals that are making millions and millions of
dollars as contentrators, that are monetizing directly with their audiences.
You just that they're just not famous. They're just not
as large as you think that they are. And that's
(19:37):
the part about it. They're not super they're not plastered
all over Hollywood and all that. You'll see even in
the micro drama space. You'll see that micro drama actors
will probably coome just as big as TD and film
stars because it's the ability to reach large amounts of
people in a short amount of time. But then there's
the opportunity to monetize directly with that audience. And that's
(19:59):
the part that that people are leaving out like once,
Like before fan Base, there was no app that allows
you to put to subscribe to a person like you
would subscribe to a streaming service, right, So the same
way that we subscribed to Netflix, there was no button
on social media and allow you to do that. Using
Apple pay and Google Pay, I came up with that.
So when you think about how fast the point of
(20:20):
sale is, there's nothing in between any you and anybody
else that has access to a web browser or the
app itself to subscribe to you directly, and that cuts
out so many people and there's a lot of again
there's a lot of uncertainty in that that people are
afraid of losing that type of capital.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Have people copied you since.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, I found a patent for it, But Instagram doesn't, now,
TikTok doesn't, now Twitter doesn't. Now all these platforms allow
you to subscribe to people using in that purchase capability,
which is really really convenient and very very fast. And
so that's the thing that they shifted and did. But
the difference between us and all those other platforms is
they let your following see all of your content, so
(21:02):
you could have you know, twenty million followers, and only
six hundred thousand people will see your posts because they
can't let you reach all those people. I'm not putting
barriers up on how many people can reach you or
how many people you can reach on fan base, because
that defeats the point, because it's a repshare platform where
we get a percentage of the revenue and the user
takes fifty percent of the revenue as profit for themselves.
(21:25):
And so if you hoose us for me to put
the platform, put anybody on the platform in front of
as many people as possible, because from those from those
subscriptions or from those tips that you can love, you
can love somebody's content for like half a penny at
a time. That's where our revenue model comes from. And
so we don't want to hide people. We want to
put you front and center. We want the algorithm to
(21:47):
make sure that you're able to be discovered and your
content's able to be seen. That's the whole point behind
you know, even the name of the company is that
we all have a fan We're all a fan of something,
and all of us have a fan base. We all
have somebody out here loves every one of us. And
is willing to pay for our content.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
We just don't know it ISACA's third is my guest.
We've got news, traffic and sports then more on KBLA
Talk fifteen eighty. Isaacays a third is my guest. He
is the creator of fan Base. And if folks are
not on it yet, I mean we've been talking about,
you know, a lot of the innovations that you're bringing
(22:22):
into play, how do you get on How do you
get started with fan Base if people aren't there yet.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Simple'll just go to your Apple App Store or Google
play Store and type in the word fan base. You
will see a purple con pop up with a F,
a white F that looks like a lightning boat, and
you download the app, creating an account, and then you're
on fan Base. And something that we just launched on
last Friday was we rebuilt our content migration tool. We
(22:53):
have them before, but basically, as soon as you sign up,
they'll ask you if you want to import your content
over from Instagram or TikTok, so you're not starting with
a blank profile. It'll take all that content and move
it over. It won't leave Instagram or TikTok, but it
definitely gives you a fresh start, so you don't have
to postuff all over again from scratch and feel like
you're starting all the way from the bottom.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Yeah, for sure. I actually I was even able to
figure it out. I don't claim to be a technical wizard,
but the I was able to migrate my content over
to fan base and it was really easy. Actually, it
took hardly any time at all, and.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
And it moves very, very quickly. So I'm excited about
that because I mean that's going to help. Again, like
when TikTok went down before, we had a lot of
people come to the platform, and again it's just easy
to migrate, like, you know what, let me just move,
you know, let me just let me just ship my
stuff over because I don't like what's going on, you know,
over here, and I can start from scratch, and you're
(23:51):
actually putting your content in a position to be tipped,
which is love. You can post to be liked, right,
It's like, but then we have loves as well, and
so and loves your content. You get half a penny.
So imagine all that content that was sitting over on
Instagram or TikTok for years now with the press of
a button. So you can actually make money from people
showing appreciation for what you do. And it happens quite
(24:12):
a bit. It happens more than people think. People are
surprised that someone will give them a few cents offul
piece of content that they make, but it happens all
the time.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
I know, I was actually surprised. But then if that's
more of an old school mentality, because for somebody like
my kid, you know, I have a child in college. Yes,
he's not a child anymore. I have a person in college,
and for them, you know, subscribing to someone's Patreon is normal.
Oh I'll just kick in three five bucks a month
(24:42):
because I like this person, not because I'm required to
get you know, to pay that to get the content.
It's much more. I think it's much more of a
mindset for the younger generation.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Oh yeah, the younger generation is far more transactional. Their
money it's digital. They don't really know paper money, you
know what I mean. I think they're used to cash, app, Venmo, PayPal,
you know, uh, you know, being able to tap to pay,
and so that action alone makes it really really easy
for someone to actually give you money. And I always
(25:18):
reiterate that fan base does it. It doesn't cost anything to
use the app or be on the app or anything
like that. It costs nothing. But I love the fact
that people can be transactional and support users if they
want to do stuff.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah, it's dope. I mean I even have we have
people watching the stream right now on YouTube and people
will just voluntarily kick in money to say, hey, we
want to support you know, black OneD media. That's that's
amazing and it's appreciated. But your app is built to
do that. It's not something they have to randomly come
up with. It's built to do that, and it's on
(25:51):
a as you can basis. You know, your bio talks
about how you grew up with your dad off the
Isaac Cayes as internationally renowned musician and artists, and how
that might have impacted the way you look at things
in terms of how you see the ratio of you know,
(26:16):
creativity and culture to corporate ownership, and how who benefits
from the work that we do.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah. Absolutely so. For those who don't know, my father
was Isaac Hay's a global icon, soul icon, but I
think he was also really one of the founding foundational
blueprints for hip hop, and in that process, people sampled
my father's records throughout the eighties and nineties and two thousands.
(26:47):
But there was one thing that people did not know
is that my father did not own the rights to
this writer shares and the publishing to his music. He
lost that in a bankruptcy a year before I was born.
So Isaac Hays's catalog was acquired at auction. And so
in that process, there are now people that don't look
like me that have been going through the mailbox for
(27:08):
the past, you know, forty years collecting you know, my
father's you know wealth in the in the tune of
excess of sixty plus million dollars. And so that's how
you build generational wealth. And I have you know, ten
other brothers and sisters, and so they didn't get opportunities
(27:29):
to go to college. They didn't get you know, that's
what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to have that
money for your kids to go to college and educate
your children and help them through life. And my father
didn't have that. And so in building fan base, ownership
has always been at the core of what I'm building.
It's it's the first thing that I thought of it's
like even you know, ironically, it's like when I first
built and came up with the idea, I trademarked the name,
(27:51):
and then when I founded the company, I created two
classes of stock, non voting and voting shares to make
sure that I was the only one that could ever
have voting power and the companies so no one could
steal this company away from me. And so foundationally, fan
based is set up with ownership and equity in mind
because of the lessons that I learned from my father's
(28:12):
unfortunate business.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
And we've seen that time and time again with creators,
musicians and others that you end up getting cheated or
squeezed out of their content. And I mean right now
there's a battle raging on the internet between dazz ands noop.
That's all about who owns what in terms of the
(28:34):
intellectual property.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, it's I mean IP, I mean listen, publishing and
masters in the music business is really that's the business.
It's who owns the masters, who owns the publishing. One
of the things that I have been educating people on
is the termination right for artists and the termination right
for songwriters to go to these record companies and to
go to these publishing companies and in that agreement with
those companies and then reclaim ownership of that publishing. And
(28:59):
we've done that with my father successfully for his songwriting catalog.
We're just now in the phase of terminating his artist catalog,
and then right after that we're terminating all those samples,
so that all that publishing and all those rights will
still eventually come back to us. But I tell and
talk about all the time, telling artists that they need
to terminate the masters and publishing to get that content
(29:22):
back in that wealth back because a lot of companies
are acquiring those rights. Like after you get them back,
a lot of companies are coming back and trying to
acquire those rights, which isn't necessarily such.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
What happened we lost.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
More music and be able to tour.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, that's crazy. And now you've got a big Wall
Street folks buying up entire catalogs, and I, you know,
I wonder what that means about the future of music,
just in terms of, you know, they're going to invest
in the stuff they own one hundred percent out right,
Why would they invest in new artists when they have
AI and catalog that they own out right, That to
(30:02):
me seems problematic.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, but again, it's opening the door for an artist
to make all of the money. That's the thing I
don't think people understanding to be It's like, Okay, I
don't have it. I'm not signed to a major label.
Everybody's subscribing to my fan base page and then they're
streaming my music because I'm not signed to a record company.
And so yeah, I'm making you know, one hundred times
more money than I am being independent than I ever
(30:26):
would being a label. And the Internet provides the ability
to have the same reach that TD did. Remember in
the beginning of this conversation, I said that social media
is the new television. So before, if you weren't, if
you weren't on you know, be ET, MTV or whatever,
nobody saw you. Now you can be c twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week. So trumply there
are pros to that scenario as well.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, And the fact of the matter is those networks,
those networks do not have the kind of numbers that
they used to have in terms of eyeballs either. So
the whole absolutely, the whole model has shifted. How are
you handling AI on fan base that's a game changer,
and whether or not people monetize the content in the
same way. What restrictions are there is going to be
(31:07):
really important and influencing the way we move forward.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
From a development side, we're all in because it helps
us move faster. We're still going to need developers and engineers,
but AI helps us Q and A the business a
lot faster, solve problems faster, build faster, so I can
be competitive in building something when I have to compete
with Instagram and TikTok. On the content side, I'm not
(31:35):
really a big fan because people want real life. They
want to see real things. You know, if I can
render a game winning hell Mary basketball shot whenever I
want to, then how important does it make the real
life instance that that happens, or the things that Steph
Curry can do, or the things that like Lebron and
Luca can do, Like, what does that do for that?
(31:55):
So real life is going to matter. That's why sports
it's still the most watched medium because nobody knows what's
going to happen, and that makes it important. So real
life is going to matter. So we're taking a very
good look at careful look at how AI generated content
on the platform is handled because I want people to
post real photos and real videos and have real conversations.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah, I think we're in ironically, AI is pushing us
more towards real I think, my personal opinion, celebrity influencers
become less important and people want to see what's actually
going on with real humans.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, that's the thing. Of course, AI generated AI generated
content at becoming and polluting social media, and people are
actually going to there's gonna be a counterculture against that
that people. I don't want to see any AI generated content.
It's fun, it's cool, it's like it's new. It's a
new way to be creative and create memes and be funny.
But it's not what I want to see all day.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Every day, right, not all day every day, not replacing
people helping people. Well, how are you? You know? It
seems it does feel David and goliathy and the fact
that you're creating fan base and you are getting the investment,
you are getting the people on board, but you're going
up against these corporations that are getting bigger, bigger, bigger
(33:17):
and bigger as we see more and more consolidation. How
do how do you even not just you know, give
up and back up and say, you know what, what's
the use. I mean, I feel like you're going up
against such a massive, massive, kind of corporate entities.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And let me tell you that what motivates me and
makes me excited about what I'm doing is to watch
multi billion dollars and trillion dollar corporations take my ideas
and lets you know that what separates me from them,
what separates me from them is just capital, and that's
being able to raise capital. That's why that's why we're
doing equity crowdfunding, because if the VC's had it their way,
(34:00):
they would never give me a dime, so that I
could never become a platform at rivals Instagram or TikTok.
But the fact that I have the people, the fact
that I have black people, the fact that I have
young people that are investing you know, millions and millions
of dollars. Like so far we've raised over twenty four
million that want to own part of this platform and
actually you know, fight the system, but also at the
(34:22):
same time own the system instead of just watching it
from a distance. That's the part that I like, I
love it, I don't. I mean, I have a million ideas.
You know, I have tons of ideas. I'm not really
worried about that. You know, they try to take one idea,
they'll take another. We know that black culture innovates and
creates at such a high level, and so the only
(34:43):
thing that they have is money. And if I continue
to get that from my community, we're building it. So
that's the thing that I love about it, is like
we're very competitive, and I feel it every day. It's like,
you know, my friends call me at particular companies and say, yeah,
they're watching you, looking at you and say, hey, man,
your name just came up inside this building. Is now
(35:04):
like really me, I'm like, we only raise this amount
of money. This is a trillion dollar business. Why do
they care about me? They say, Becuz you're You're a
problem because you're the future. You know, you're giving freedom,
you're giving access, you're giving ownership, You're giving things that
none of these platforms ever did. And that's that's the
part that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
As long as we don't see you sitting up there
on the platform with oligarchs pitching it, pitching in millions
for our oppression, we good. How can people invest if
they want to invest as you mentioned, and get those shares.
How do they do it?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
They go to start Engine dot com slash fan Base
and start Engine at the platform they actually use it,
the equity crowdfunding platform, among several others that you can
get equity and ownership in the company are raised. Closes
in two days. So I tell everybody, if you want
to investment fan Base, don't wait, invest right now, like,
(35:56):
do not wait. We're actually very close to our goal.
And so once we reach our goal, the race closes,
and the race closes regardless in two days, and so
the minimum is three hundred and ninety nine dollars. So
go to start Engine dot com slash fan Base to invest.
Don't wait. Tap in. You will own part of a
company that's going to distribute microdramas, so research what those are.
(36:16):
You're going to own part of a platform that understands
that social media is the new television. And if you
want to own the platform that distributes that content globally,
and you're going to want to invest in fan Base,
and you're gonna and want to invest in a platform
that understands that free speech matters, diversity matters. Censorship is
not something that we want to do, and it's a
new era for people to participate and have ownership with
(36:37):
social Media's one more time Start engine dot com slash
fan base to invest. The minimum is three hundred ninety
nine dollars. The race closes on Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Do not wait, man, What a great thing to give
for Kwanza, Christmas, Hanukah, whatever you're celebrating, Solstice. Give someone
some shares in something that can really blow up, that
is blowing up absolutely well. Congratulations to you, Isaac Hayes
the Third, and thank you for tapping in with us.
I always love talking with you.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Oh thanks you for having me. I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Start engine dot Com slash fan base, Chi Ching, Chi Ching,
Chi Ching. Continuing the conversation here on KVLA Talk fifteen
eighty when we come forward, you know where you're at.
Unapologetically progressive KVLA Talk fifteen eighty. Isaac Hayes the Third
is giving us this outlook about ownership, right. I mean,
(37:28):
we've seen it cycle after cycle after cycle. With TikTok.
The controversy was around all the dances black creators were making,
but the black creators making the dances were being pushed
down in the algorithm, while other people who didn't create them,
but who copied them and profited off them were being
pushed up in the algorithm. And we know that those
algorithms containing the racial biases as well as intentional suppression
(37:52):
that were intended by or intended or you know, unconscious
bias just seeping in by the creators. So that's the site.
The business side. The other side of this coin is
listening to these tech CEOs and big bosses how they
handle their own platforms when it comes to their own kids.
(38:16):
So this guy, Neil Mohan, he's the CEO of YouTube
at this point. He took over in twenty twenty three,
and he says he doesn't let his kids on YouTube
very much, severely limits how much they get to use
not just YouTube, but any social media platform. On the weekdays,
they don't get their kids don't get to use it
(38:37):
at all. During the weekends, they can use it somewhat,
but they're going to have controls on it. You know,
there are parental controls on it. He says, everything in moderation.
But we have heard this from now about every major
tech ceo Zuckerberg, they try to limit how much their
(39:03):
children can use the platforms that they're selling to your children.
And of course, famously everyone's pointing out how in China
TikTok does not have the same content as in the
US and China it's all educational and you know, wholesome
and stuff like that, whereas if you go on what
(39:23):
they're putting out there in the algorithm here, it's much
more shall we say, entertainment oriented, unless education oriented. And
so to me, that's the biggest alarm And I'm not
an alarmist. I think that if you know, kids are
gonna get it, they're gonna get on the platforms. I'm
(39:43):
sure mister Mohan's kids watch more YouTube anythinks they do.
Because kids are smart, they get around your control unless
they're like two and three. But kids are smart, They
they get around stuff. They'll find a way in. But
what I'm saying is that we should be at least
informed by the fact that these titans, these railroad barons
(40:09):
of the Internet age, are not letting their children be
exposed to what they want your children to be exposed to.
And as we see more and more connection made by
experts between things like depression, anxiety, poor body image, anorexia,
and other eating disorders and the use of social media platforms,
(40:34):
most notably Instagram, but others as well. There are experts
who are saying that kids shouldn't have any access to
smartphones at all before the age of fourteen, and zero
social media before the age of sixteen. That maybe too
strict for you. In hindsight, I wish I would have
(40:56):
waited longer before I gave my son a smartphone. I
didn't realize how big the impact was going to be.
I just thought, well, he needs to call me, and
you know, it can look stuff up. No, it basically
becomes an attachment to their head. It becomes a whole
(41:19):
social world outside of your influence that you have no
control over, even though you can try to limit it.
And I know schools are limiting now, you know in
La now. I think it's either you know now or
in January, all schools will be limiting the use of
(41:41):
cell phones. But I'm telling you, kids are getting around it.
I'm already hearing, Oh, they've got an Apple Watch or
they have a you know, another phone in their backpack,
and the phone in the Faraday bag is just a decoy.
I just feel And some are giving their kids flip
phones so they can call, but they have no Internet access.
(42:01):
But I think taking back control of this huge piece
of our lives, whether it is as Isaac Hayes, the
third was advocating by getting involved with platforms that we
own or where we have the potential to at least
be renumerated in a meaningful way, not some little, tiny trickle.
(42:22):
But we're small to average size creators can actually make money.
And looking at how we prepare our children and ourselves
to be more media literate so we're less influenced by
that world outside of our control, as well as looking
at real serious curtailment of the amount of time and
(42:47):
access that we allow ourselves and our children to have
to these massive marketing and content influencing machines that are
in our lives. Now, okay, it's time for Tavis Smiley
to kick off your week with an incredible show as usual.
He's got a jam packed agenda for you with lots
(43:09):
of great guests. Don't forget to tap in with me
on all the social media. We'll do the stuff that
doesn't rot your brain. I meant to Premia Radio, d
ip r Ima on all platforms. I even have a
YouTube channel which you can subscribe to Please like, subscribe
and comment. Follow the station at KBLA fifteen eighty. We
are everywhere, even on YouTube where we stream every single day.
(43:33):
Like my father, the late Great Amari Baraka used to say,
a man is either free or he is not free.
There can be no apprenticeship for freedom. Until next time, beloved,
KBLA Delegation, One Love,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.