Today on The Breakfast Club, Abdul Karim Abdullah On The Evolution Of 'AfroFuture' Festival, Black Innovation, Community. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Everybody is DJ Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamage the God We
are the Breakfast Club Lol. The Roses here as well.
We got a special guest in the building. Yes, sir,
the founder and CEO of Afro Future, Abdullah Welcome, brother,
pleasure to be here with y'all.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How are you feeling? I feel real good. Thanks for God. Man.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Tell people what what Afro Future is from.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Yeah, Afrofuture is a cultural Emerson platform that we created
in Ghana to celebrate African culture and also to just
break it down to people in a way that's direct.
We celebrate food, fashion, art, and obviously music as well.
In my opinion and our team opinion, we feel like
equal parts of all of this gives you a clear
understanding of what it's like to visit the continent and
(00:45):
that's what we've been doing for the past eight years,
inviting people back to Ghana and for the first time
ever was showing up in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
So now I was at the last Afro.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yes you was. You was at the last one.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
That's when y'all announced it was gonna be a the
next year.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
It was an opportunity for us to really kind of
grow beyond what we've been. I mean, right now, we
know that one in ten people by twenty fifty is
going to be African. Africa is the youngest continent. There's
just a lot of opportunity, and there's been so much
misinformation about Africa for so long. I grew up here,
I'm like my house, I'm the American kid, but when
I went out to school, I was the African kid.
(01:22):
So the best way I could do is just kind
of bring the world together, and that's what we've been
trying to do with this festival.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Why why did y'all change the name from Afro a Future.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I mean I think that obviously there was there was
a lot of there was a lot of issues that
we had.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
They sued like they sue everybody, they just sue me.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
But I mean, I mean, beyond that, it was just
an opportunity for us to like kind of grow beyond
where we were.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
This gives us an opportunity to let people know that
there's a lot happening on the continent and you should
be a part of that. Right as far as creativity, entertainment,
as far as business, you know, there's so much happening
on the continent that everyone should be a part of
and that a future kind of speaks to that journey.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, people don't come for the name, they come for
the event.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
That's exactly and the experience that we've been creating. You know,
we've done that without any corporate partners. So that's just
like a team of people who was really invested in
seeing the entertainment business and continent grow. For us to
create opportunities for people on the ground, to change the
economy in our own country, but also just to kind
of showcase some of these talents. Right when we started
(02:19):
in twenty seventeen, they weren't playing any AfroB Beats music
on the radio. Ten years later, you can't go to
a party, you can't go to a spot in New
York without it. And you know, for us, one of
the best accomplishments is like a lot of people were
able to visit the continent because of our experience. They
started in Ghana, but they've grown since to South Africa,
to Nigeria, and Ghana was just that that entry away.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
That's why Detroit for the first stop in the US.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Why not New York I.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Mean New York. I feel like I'm from New York.
Everyone that needs to know about what we're doing on
the continent is aware. This is like a cultural melting pot.
We have a restaurant here, people know what's going on
in the side of the city. But one of the
things that we've learned is that there's an opportunity to
Troit being one of the most creative places also one
of the blackest cities in America, and we could build
that bridge between Detroit and the continent, like there's no
(03:08):
saying where things can go. And that's the opportunity there.
And then also we have an amazing partner in Bedrock
that's that's promoting opportunities and business in the city. So
we're looking at it as an opportunity to kind of
grow our audience and not just kind of speak to
the same people.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
That's crazy to think that y'all don't have no sponsorships.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
No, we have sponsorship. When you were there a few years,
we had some sponsorships. What we don't have is a
corporate sponsors So we never had like a Live Nation
Year or any of those brands behind us. We literally
built this from the mud and as far as sponsorships,
we've had some of the first ever. So when when
Meta wanted to first come to the continent, they showed
up to our to our festival, we're able to work
(03:48):
with them. When you two wanted to announce shorts, we
were able to like build the playground in our field.
Audio Mac, we brought the CEO of Audio Mac to Ghana.
We ran this program called the Rising Star program and
now Audio MA because now the number one download the app
in West Africa, you know. So we were able to
be that conduit for a lot of brands that want
to come to the continent and then we've been doing
(04:08):
business like that since.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
But those aren't considered corporate sponsors.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Even they are corporate sponsors, but they don't. You can't
build an event with corporate sponsors because you're probably not
going to get the money to after the event is over.
But like if you have like a festival partner, we're
still an independent festival in that we eat what we
kill basically.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But you started off with four thousand attendees. Did you
expect it to be this big as a concert series
or was it one of those things where it was
more like a smaller well.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I just wanted a place for us to connect. There
were so many people in the diasport that were doing
amazing things, whether it was in London or it was
in America, but we just could never connect. We just
came to Deddy December and we just partied and went away.
So with the festival, this is an opportunity to really
kind of showcase what the amazing people on the continent
are doing, but also like how we can help and
(04:57):
how we can add the sauce to it as well.
But I did think we were going to be big.
I didn't think we were going to be big as fast.
So we started in twenty seventeen. The year one we
did four thousand people, Year two we did twelve thousand,
and then year three was a year of return. So
it kind of forced us to scale faster than we
were ready to.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
And then I think the rise of afrobeats because the
year I was there, you had burn a Boy headline.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah that was that was two years in the making.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Yeah, we've had almost we've had all of them perform
for ourself. We've had whiz Kid, We've had David Though,
we've had a shot K, We've even had Rama for
like one of our side events that we did, uh
you know, we did a fashion out experience with ig
Instagram and we had Rema they're performing. So we've pretty
much been the launching path for a lot of people.
Uncle Waffles probably one of the biggest DJs right now.
(05:43):
We were one of the first people to fly out
of the Southern Africa to Ghana. Put on the billboard
she performed at our show. We've done that for a
lot of artists, I mean a lot of that on
my piano artists through the pandemic we broke in Ghana.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Four thousand is still a lot for the first festival. So, yes,
that's amazing to go from four thousand and forty one
thousand is I mean four thousand year, four thousand and
forty one thousand is amazing, but for the first time,
four thousand is still a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah. We actually shut it down, yeah the first year. Yeah,
we were afraid.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
That it was like people were not going to be
able to have as much fun or we weren't going
to be able to control it. So we wanted to
be able to still make sure people had a good time,
so we actually shut it down when it got to
a certain limit. We wanted to make sure we had
that good premium experience.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Did you have any problems that?
Speaker 4 (06:26):
No, No, that that first year was just it was
it was a learning experience. It was an accomplishment. I remember, like,
you know, being very happy that we was able to
kind of see our vision through. But we didn't really
have that many experience issues.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
That first year was as what's the hardest thing you
faced do any shows? Was it sponsorships?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Is it people? Is it?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I think there's a combination of all of that. Uh,
you know, our first time was just really just kind
of understanding the business. We had no idea how to
throw a festival. We know how to do parties, but
we didn't know how to do festivals. The second year
was just more of by scale, right, just under standing
like logistics and how to deal with people moving from
like what was polo field to a stadium. The third
(07:07):
year was just kind of scaling where our company wasn't
just ready to kind of get all of those people
coming in for the year return, but also Ghana's tourism
wasn't quite ready for the amount of people that came
into that year of return. So yeah, there's a combination
of money there's a combination of just kind of learning,
opportunity capacity building in the space. Equipment is one of
(07:28):
the things that we don't necessarily have much of the continent,
so the expense is high. And now we're dealing with
cost of talent, right, So like all of those things
are different at different points, there was different hard things.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
I don't even like going outside, but I remember when
I first went to Ghana, everybody was like, yo, Ghana's
nightlife is incredible, and I remember thinking, Ghana's nightlife and
me and my wife and our team was outside every night.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, very important. They do. Like people on the continent
know how to have a good time. And in December,
everybody's off, right, it's like a vacation for everybody. So
the reality is you can go out every night.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
The restaurants clubs in Silver Fox.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, you can have a vibe from morning to morning,
like you know what I mean, and people do it
and I love that for people. And depending on the
type of experience you want to have, you can have
that party track, you can have the tourist track, you
can have the restlue track.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
It's really your choice.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
Now we'll say the only thing I will say about
Ghana is the service Yeah, yeah, restaurants, you will wait
for a long time.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
But that's an opportunity. I mean we see it as
an opportunity because you got to think about a capacity building, right.
Ghana is very young to tourism, Whereas like a lot
of Caribbean countries have been getting tours for hundreds of years,
Ghana's only been free since nineteen fifty seven, so and
then the tourism sector really just started, I would say,
a boom after the year of return. So we're still
(08:47):
learning how to do that. So there's an opportunity. So
if people want to start a service based business, I
mean I'm inviting you to Donna to do that.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
I I was saying to myself, I want to go
to Ghana outside of the simmer, which I'm going to do,
but absolutely because I wanted, like, how was it throughout
the rest of the year.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
No, you can have What you see in December is
not foreign to people. People do this weekly in Ghana
if they want to, Like, you know what we see
in December. I know a lot of people is surprised
to them, but this is some people do this weekly
if they want to. But like, you can have a
great time in the you know during Easter, you can
have a great time in the summertime. It's just not
as packed with foreigners, right, but the experience is still
(09:27):
the same. You can still have fun at the restaurants,
the clubs are still packed. People are still having a
good time. And you know, we just had a change
of government this year in Ghana as well, so that
you know, the economy is coming back to where it's
supposed to be and I think people are getting more
there's more consumer confidence.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Why people reach out to you because we had the
CEO and chairman of Richmond. Yeah, that was like, that
would be dope to do, like a Friday night Afro future.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
You want to people off, I said, I don't understand
the conversation, but people are mad about the whole time Africans.
You know, it's the whole Africans versus Black American argument.
And you know, Black Americans have been complaining that African
culture is different than Black culture and they feel like
Essence was trying to force it on people.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, I mean, I think at the core of it,
it's all about misunderstanding and we just really are not
speaking to each other. We're speaking past each other, and
the reason why our festival exists is really to just
kind of domestify and really make you understand if the
African American and you've been to the continent, you know
that people love you, right because this is all they consume,
your content, the music, the art, everything. And then I'm
(10:32):
also a child that's like, was born here in America,
so part of my life is an African American lifestyle.
Went to high school here, I went to college here.
So I think really it's just kind of making sure
we understand and respect each other at its core. On
the continent, if you grow up there, all you see
is black people versus where you grew up here in America,
you go to college, you go to go to work,
(10:53):
there's these microaggressions and things that you don't that you
have to face. It's a very different understanding for everyone, right.
So on you know, think about hierarchy of needs on
the continent, that the need is just we need.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
We need to eat.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
So it doesn't matter if I'm dealing with a little
bit of racism because at the end of the day,
I got to eat, Whereas here I need to survive,
I need to live. So that racism, that that's oppressive,
that that that that you know, that takes away from
my joy, you know what I mean? And I think
that just really respecting everyone's perspective on their need at
(11:25):
that point is really what I think needs to happen.
But I also think that we just need to learn
about each other a little bit more and we can
find those synergies.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Speaking of eating Joel Off rice or jambalaya, so we
so we.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Actually did that event. My boys and I did that
event right. I don't think that they should be mad
at us. I think that's really just understanding why we
did it right. So Jumbalaya is a version of what
Joelf would be, or like a rendition of it. So
I don't know if anybody here has seen high in
a hog, but talking about food origins, really we were
(11:59):
just trying to connect people. Our goal is not to
make it a competition, and we didn't compete against the rice.
It's really just kind of like, let you know, if
you're African, this is an opportunity for you to learn
about jambalaya. If if you're an American, this is your
opportunity to taste some jew of rice and and that
was just a way of us trying to connect the
culture and connect people through basketball, sport that people love,
(12:21):
and then also through food and just kind of build
that connection. I think we could probably could have did
a better story telling opportunity of just kind of the
connectivity between Jumbalayan and jewel Off. And I think that's
great feedback. But I don't think of it as a
way for us to erase anybody's culture or like you know,
africanize anybody's culture. Our goal is to be respectful. We
should be respectful, and I think that that's the that's
(12:43):
the goal that I'm learning.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
If you show up, you hungry. I want both where
to come from?
Speaker 6 (12:49):
I want to Yeah, my guy chef bj Benjamin Dennessee,
he was on High on the Hull and from Charleston,
South Carolina, exactly back Carolina where I'm from.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I'm not West Africa.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Like a lot of the things that we eat and
stuff are rooted in West African culture.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, that's some of the things that we want to do.
We want to tell more stories about food and the
origins because if you look at a lot of food
that people are eating here in America, across the Caribbean
and across the continent. There's so many similarities, but there's
barely any places that you can go and find if
you were born here in America. Like, for instance, we
know about I know about jay Z's history from getting
to the end, and like I follow all of his
(13:26):
albums and I know the next story is going to
come on the next one. We don't necessarily have that
about our afrobeats artists. I think there's an opportunity there
for us to tell those stories, and that happens for
all categories. The same thing in our same thing and fashion,
same thing in food. We need to tell those stories,
and that's why our platform exists to be able to
tell those stories and buy into that. Like we all
(13:46):
loved Black Panther when it came out, although it's not real.
We all love The Women King when it came out.
But we need more shows, more movies like that, because
if somebody is sitting here in America and all they've
been taught is that Africa is full of poverty, and
as an African, I know a lot of young Africans
that didn't want to associate with that either, So it
kind of makes sense. But now if we can tell you.
(14:06):
With the Internet penetrating at forty and fifty percent in
Africa right now, Africans are able to tell you in
real life who they are and what they do and
the type of lifestyles that they live and vice versa.
Speaker 6 (14:16):
Man, I've made it my business to take my family
to somewhere on the continent at least once a year.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
So I've been to Johannesburg, I've been to Zanzibar and Tanzania.
I've been to Ghana. I'm going to Cape Town. Is
amazing when you see these places, you like wow. Yeah,
I say it all the time. They lied to us.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
About the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, and just beyond that, like I was on Kamala's
the group that went to the continent when she went
to Africa, And for me, it's very important for everybody
to if the whole world is fighting for a piece
of Africa, why aren't you looking at that as an
opportunity for yourself? And our festival is a way to
introduce it, right, you know, something that you're familiar with,
(14:57):
come to the continent that experience the food, experience experience fashion,
experience the music in real time with the people on
the ground, smell and feel the place, and then you know,
use that as an opportunity the next time you come
to see how you can help, how you can work
with somebody to make something really dope happen.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
That's our goal.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
You said that tourism is new for you guys. So
when people experience all of that, what is the one
thing at the end of the day that you feel
like people still miss that? You're like, man I wish
y'all would have gotten this though.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I mean one of the things that I mentioned earlier
is that you know, we're a small business still. Although
we've gotten all of this pressing these bylines and a
lot of people from America have come to our festival
forty percent, there are still growing pains that we're going through.
To build infrastructure. We need to build infrastructure around touring.
We see most African arts they're not touring around the continent.
(15:45):
The cost is too high. We need to build infrastructure
just around education. You know, you have return taught me
that We booked Ori Lennox and she came to Ghana
and she was so happy about her experience, but she
received comments that didn't really make her happy. And that's
because there's so much learning that we have to do
and unlearning that we have to do as well. So
it's just kind of those kind of things that we
(16:07):
need to be better. We have to be better at service.
Like you mentioned, I think that all of those things
have changed. So if you've been the gun in twenty nineteen,
if you go today, those things have drastically improved, you
probably won't recognize it from the last time you went.
And those are the learnings that are happening on the continent,
and I think in the next couple of years you're
going to see a lot more happening. The continent is
(16:28):
just getting younger and people are getting wiser, and the
internet's penetrating at a very high clip.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
You know, Bill Gates said that he wanted to give
ninety nine percent of his two hundred billion dollar fortune
and healthcare and education in Africa. Where would you tell
him specifically you need to put them in.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
I mean, I would say, like, you know, healthcare is
a great opportunity. You know, research is one of the
major platforms that we did that we that we do
right here in America. I think there's an opportunity on
the continent for us to kind of invest in research.
I would say agriculture is a very big component. A
lot of people outside of South Africa are really importing
their food, so it makes the cost of food higher.
(17:06):
If we can invest in that infrastructure of agriculture and ARGROATEEC,
I think there's an opportunity. Entertainment has been one consistent
way that people are making money on the continent right now.
A lot of the skip makers, a lot of the artists,
a lot of the content creators. You know, we all
saw the rise of els in Majimbo. We all see
the rise of Kabi Lame. I think there's an opportunity there.
(17:27):
You know, this year, for the past two years, our
Business Culture Management Group has been running entertainment for the
Basketball Africa League and we do have time shows, We
do all of their influencer management and booking their DJs
and things that nature. There's an opportunity for entertainment on
a grand scale. In twenty twenty eight, we hear F
one is coming to the continent. Like there's so much
(17:49):
happening that I just think people need to tap in. So,
you know, I encourage people to get in groups. You know,
let's let's buy property let's build infrastructure, Let's start a
and farm less start or you know, uh, you know,
a manufacturing company. There's so many things you can do
on the content and to create jobs, but also to
to give back and to be self sustaining.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
I definitely invest in some property out did I want.
I want to invest in some more. I feel like
the Basketball African League is dropping the ball with the merchandise.
So I mean, I feel like you I would want
to wear a gone.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
A jersey of African jersey.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
They're getting there. I mean I would say that this
is a a growing league. There's just opportunity for them
to to be able to do more. They've only been around.
This is the fifth season that we just came out of,
so I think that they are going to do a
lot more. You're gonna see a lot more dope merch
you know, dope games. If you come to the games
like you know, it's a it's you won't miss anything
(18:43):
from the NBA because we have all of the entertainment
pieces in that experience. So the continent is growing and
people can be a part of this growth. So think
about you know, if you had an opportunity to be
a part of the Harlem Renaissance, like, like what would
that mean for you today? And that renaissance is happening
right now on the continent. You know, our art is
(19:03):
selling at a higher clip. The artists are selling out stadiums,
you know the fashion. You know, everyone on the met
gala was in African for the most part, positive Blatcheaing
and all of these people. I think it's time for
for more black people to get involved and be a
part of this growth.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
How do you think what Donald Trump is doing with
like the visas, like how that will affect tourism and
people just being able to come in and out and yeah,
you for what you do with your festival.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, I mean we don't. We tend not to do
well when he's in office. But I would say that,
you know, one of the things that I would say
is that he's been helpful in people just kind of
discovering themselves and who they are and what they can do.
And I would say for the continent, I do see
that as a value for that pride to be reinstilled
(19:50):
in it. You see governments speaking back, you see people
pushing back and really wanting to build their own and
I just love I don't love the divisiveness that comes
with it, but I do love the opportunity that people
are seeing and just kind of looking into themselves in
the opportunity there. It is definitely affecting us as far
as tourism. People are not able to fly as easily,
(20:12):
and people are afraid and things that nature. But you know,
the goal is for us to continue to send those
positive messages that continue to build our community, and the
hope is that people find that comfort within the community
that we're building.
Speaker 7 (20:24):
That's why what happened with Aria Lennox was so sad
because I felt like it was like a moment of
self discovery for her and people thought she was like
I don't know if they thought she was trolling or what,
but it was like they they bashed like they bashed
her for feeling like I belong.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Yeah, but that's you know, that's Internet, right, people were say,
that's Internet culture. I don't necessarily know that that's the
experience of everyone that was in there in real time felt,
but I do see that there's an opportunity for us
to do a lot of learning and unlearning. And what
I mean by what I met by saying that everyone
on the continent that grows up seeing all black people.
They don't see themselves as an other. Whereas here we
(20:56):
you know, I grew up here, I went to school here,
I worked here. I can understand and what you mean
when you feel like another right. And so to somebody
who is like starving or they're getting maybe less than
one thousand dollars a month for their salary for them
to take care of their families, they see you as
a wealthy person. They don't see that you have a
lot of troubles. And that's still a level of ignorance
(21:20):
that we need to overcome. Right, So that's all about learning,
all about having empathy, all about just really just kind
of un learning a lot of things that have been
taught to us that keeps us divided.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
If you black, and you've been to any place in
Africa for the most part, especially Ghana, you know exactly
what our linux man Like My daughters were probably three
and five, they were young.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Seven and five. We went seven and four. Something like
that they noticed.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Was like where a white people are literally like they
was like, damn it, there's so many black like they
It's on the billboard, it's on the TV.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
See everywhere you see. Yeah, And I think that's the
beauty for me. For the first four years, I didn't
really get a chance to see the festival. So the
only way I could live it is through how people
told me it made them feel, and how I saw
their life had changed when they came back to the US.
So it was beautiful to see people who had no
ties to the continent, had no family there, come back
(22:18):
and feel home, feel welcomed, feel comfortable. I saw people
walk in the street, I see people in restaurants just
literally having a home, good time, safe and sound, and
wanted to go back. You know, we started with four thousand,
but like we've had that, people have always come back
with two or three more people. So that's how we
were able to grow from four thousand to forty one thousand.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Over those years.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
I think what y'all doing is amazing.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
When the show in Detroit, Detroit is August sixteenth and seventeenth,
we have a lot of cool things planned in Detroit,
a little bit yeah, yeah, yeah, we gotta have we
gotta have all yeah. We gotta have a little bit
of culture all over there. Right, So there's a little
hip hop, there's a little dance music, there's little on
my piano, and then afrobeats. Our goal is to really
introduce afrobeats to people who have not really had an
(23:07):
immersive experience, and also just to kind of give people
some things that they're familiar with. But for us, our
approach is really community. So we're partnering with groups like
Black Tech Saturdays, we're Venture three and three. We're doing
a pitch competition to give back to the community. We're
talking to some of the business leaders you know, and
and bringing them into our community. We're running like a
bar business crawl just to kind of make sure when
(23:29):
people come to Detroit they know what businesses to support
and how to support them. So we're doing a lot
of things that we partner with Pencil Lewis College. One
of the ones I'm very excited about. Pencey Lewis College
is a historical Black college in Detroit that is focused
on design. So they do design and footwear and apparel
and also furniture, and we collabor with them to design
(23:51):
merch for the festival and giving students an opportunity to
make some money.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So really excited about that. That's Dope.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Merchants on the Jersey you got, I got David a
shot k headliner we have. Yeah, we got Miller, Little Miller,
Miller from Brazil. So there's a little bit of you know,
there's a little bit of you know, vibes for everyone.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
You designed theeds for the Bronx.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yes, yeah, So the Bronx we called the Bronx Little Cross.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, we have.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
We called a Bronx Little our craw And you know,
you can see a large Guanian population in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
My family is from there.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
We own a restaurant there called a Craws Restaurant, been
there for thirty eight years. And you know, the shoe
is really just kind of an ode to that culture.
Talking about the color patterns that you know, the embroidery.
We wanted to have something where you can dress up
and dress down at the same time. There's some of
dincer symbols on there that just kind of speaks to community.
(24:58):
And you know, one of the things that we like
to say about the shoes just kind of we're separated
about thousands of miles, united about culture. And although you
know there's all this divisiveness, we know that when you
see somebody doing something, you know that's culture. You can
give it the head now and pretty much that's what
we're trying to do with.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Regularly.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
No, okay, that's why I asked questions. Absolutely, because.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Yes, please go to Detroit that afrofuture dot com. You
will find all the information you need. We got hotels
up there, We got a discount with Delta up there
for you, and you know, we got the hotels. People
can come out and have a great time and definitely, uh,
look look to your flights for Gana in December. We're
going to have a very dirty one. So is Detroit
gonna be the city whole city every year right now? Yes,
(25:51):
yes we are. We're doing Detroit. We have a great
partnership there. We love the community there. They're very you know,
their creativity and they're welcoming attitude reminds me of what
what we were building when we started and guarding us
and we're very excited about that. But we do have
smaller other activations around the U S that that we're.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Looking to bring.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
I want to South Carolina, Yeah, invite us, would definitely
love to do it then out there. Love to do
some experiences out there. We're working with arts artists, people
who you know painters. We're working with fashion designers. Got
some cool one. This is a young designer called Bing.
We just brought them the synagogue. So we want to
we want to continue to you know, celebrate, you know,
the culture and bring people together.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
That's all.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
My ancestry is Senegalgue, Sierra Leone, that whole Mali region.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, that's a beautiful senagogue is very beautiful. Like the
beach is the beach town. I encourage everyone to just visit, like,
just go and experience it and I'm sure that you
will love it and you see the vibe that we're
talking about.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right well, there you have it.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
The founding CEO of Afro Future Abdullah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that answer up
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
The Breakfast Club
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Everybody is DJ Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamage the God We
are the Breakfast Club Lol. The Roses here as well.
We got a special guest in the building. Yes, sir,
the founder and CEO of Afro Future, Abdullah Welcome, brother,
pleasure to be here with y'all.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
How are you feeling? I feel real good. Thanks for God. Man.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Tell people what what Afro Future is from.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Yeah, Afrofuture is a cultural Emerson platform that we created
in Ghana to celebrate African culture and also to just
break it down to people in a way that's direct.
We celebrate food, fashion, art, and obviously music as well.
In my opinion and our team opinion, we feel like
equal parts of all of this gives you a clear
understanding of what it's like to visit the continent and
(00:45):
that's what we've been doing for the past eight years,
inviting people back to Ghana and for the first time
ever was showing up in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
So now I was at the last Afro.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yes you was. You was at the last one.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
That's when y'all announced it was gonna be a the
next year.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
It was an opportunity for us to really kind of
grow beyond what we've been. I mean, right now, we
know that one in ten people by twenty fifty is
going to be African. Africa is the youngest continent. There's
just a lot of opportunity, and there's been so much
misinformation about Africa for so long. I grew up here,
I'm like my house, I'm the American kid, but when
I went out to school, I was the African kid.
(01:22):
So the best way I could do is just kind
of bring the world together, and that's what we've been
trying to do with this festival.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Why why did y'all change the name from Afro a Future.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
I mean I think that obviously there was there was
a lot of there was a lot of issues that
we had.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
They sued like they sue everybody, they just sue me.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
But I mean, I mean, beyond that, it was just
an opportunity for us to like kind of grow beyond
where we were.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
This gives us an opportunity to let people know that
there's a lot happening on the continent and you should
be a part of that. Right as far as creativity, entertainment,
as far as business, you know, there's so much happening
on the continent that everyone should be a part of
and that a future kind of speaks to that journey.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, people don't come for the name, they come for
the event.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
That's exactly and the experience that we've been creating. You know,
we've done that without any corporate partners. So that's just
like a team of people who was really invested in
seeing the entertainment business and continent grow. For us to
create opportunities for people on the ground, to change the
economy in our own country, but also just to kind
of showcase some of these talents. Right when we started
(02:19):
in twenty seventeen, they weren't playing any AfroB Beats music
on the radio. Ten years later, you can't go to
a party, you can't go to a spot in New
York without it. And you know, for us, one of
the best accomplishments is like a lot of people were
able to visit the continent because of our experience. They
started in Ghana, but they've grown since to South Africa,
to Nigeria, and Ghana was just that that entry away.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
That's why Detroit for the first stop in the US.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Why not New York I.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Mean New York. I feel like I'm from New York.
Everyone that needs to know about what we're doing on
the continent is aware. This is like a cultural melting pot.
We have a restaurant here, people know what's going on
in the side of the city. But one of the
things that we've learned is that there's an opportunity to
Troit being one of the most creative places also one
of the blackest cities in America, and we could build
that bridge between Detroit and the continent, like there's no
(03:08):
saying where things can go. And that's the opportunity there.
And then also we have an amazing partner in Bedrock
that's that's promoting opportunities and business in the city. So
we're looking at it as an opportunity to kind of
grow our audience and not just kind of speak to
the same people.
Speaker 6 (03:22):
That's crazy to think that y'all don't have no sponsorships.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
No, we have sponsorship. When you were there a few years,
we had some sponsorships. What we don't have is a
corporate sponsors So we never had like a Live Nation
Year or any of those brands behind us. We literally
built this from the mud and as far as sponsorships,
we've had some of the first ever. So when when
Meta wanted to first come to the continent, they showed
up to our to our festival, we're able to work
(03:48):
with them. When you two wanted to announce shorts, we
were able to like build the playground in our field.
Audio Mac, we brought the CEO of Audio Mac to Ghana.
We ran this program called the Rising Star program and
now Audio MA because now the number one download the app
in West Africa, you know. So we were able to
be that conduit for a lot of brands that want
to come to the continent and then we've been doing
(04:08):
business like that since.
Speaker 7 (04:10):
But those aren't considered corporate sponsors.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Even they are corporate sponsors, but they don't. You can't
build an event with corporate sponsors because you're probably not
going to get the money to after the event is over.
But like if you have like a festival partner, we're
still an independent festival in that we eat what we
kill basically.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But you started off with four thousand attendees. Did you
expect it to be this big as a concert series
or was it one of those things where it was
more like a smaller well.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I just wanted a place for us to connect. There
were so many people in the diasport that were doing
amazing things, whether it was in London or it was
in America, but we just could never connect. We just
came to Deddy December and we just partied and went away.
So with the festival, this is an opportunity to really
kind of showcase what the amazing people on the continent
are doing, but also like how we can help and
(04:57):
how we can add the sauce to it as well.
But I did think we were going to be big.
I didn't think we were going to be big as fast.
So we started in twenty seventeen. The year one we
did four thousand people, Year two we did twelve thousand,
and then year three was a year of return. So
it kind of forced us to scale faster than we
were ready to.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
And then I think the rise of afrobeats because the
year I was there, you had burn a Boy headline.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah that was that was two years in the making.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Yeah, we've had almost we've had all of them perform
for ourself. We've had whiz Kid, We've had David Though,
we've had a shot K, We've even had Rama for
like one of our side events that we did, uh
you know, we did a fashion out experience with ig
Instagram and we had Rema they're performing. So we've pretty
much been the launching path for a lot of people.
Uncle Waffles probably one of the biggest DJs right now.
(05:43):
We were one of the first people to fly out
of the Southern Africa to Ghana. Put on the billboard
she performed at our show. We've done that for a
lot of artists, I mean a lot of that on
my piano artists through the pandemic we broke in Ghana.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Four thousand is still a lot for the first festival. So, yes,
that's amazing to go from four thousand and forty one
thousand is I mean four thousand year, four thousand and
forty one thousand is amazing, but for the first time,
four thousand is still a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah. We actually shut it down, yeah the first year. Yeah,
we were afraid.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
That it was like people were not going to be
able to have as much fun or we weren't going
to be able to control it. So we wanted to
be able to still make sure people had a good time,
so we actually shut it down when it got to
a certain limit. We wanted to make sure we had
that good premium experience.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Did you have any problems that?
Speaker 4 (06:26):
No, No, that that first year was just it was
it was a learning experience. It was an accomplishment. I remember, like,
you know, being very happy that we was able to
kind of see our vision through. But we didn't really
have that many experience issues.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
That first year was as what's the hardest thing you
faced do any shows? Was it sponsorships?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Is it people? Is it?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I think there's a combination of all of that. Uh,
you know, our first time was just really just kind
of understanding the business. We had no idea how to
throw a festival. We know how to do parties, but
we didn't know how to do festivals. The second year
was just more of by scale, right, just under standing
like logistics and how to deal with people moving from
like what was polo field to a stadium. The third
(07:07):
year was just kind of scaling where our company wasn't
just ready to kind of get all of those people
coming in for the year return, but also Ghana's tourism
wasn't quite ready for the amount of people that came
into that year of return. So yeah, there's a combination
of money there's a combination of just kind of learning,
opportunity capacity building in the space. Equipment is one of
(07:28):
the things that we don't necessarily have much of the continent,
so the expense is high. And now we're dealing with
cost of talent, right, So like all of those things
are different at different points, there was different hard things.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
I don't even like going outside, but I remember when
I first went to Ghana, everybody was like, yo, Ghana's
nightlife is incredible, and I remember thinking, Ghana's nightlife and
me and my wife and our team was outside every night.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Yeah, very important. They do. Like people on the continent
know how to have a good time. And in December,
everybody's off, right, it's like a vacation for everybody. So
the reality is you can go out every night.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
The restaurants clubs in Silver Fox.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Yeah, you can have a vibe from morning to morning,
like you know what I mean, and people do it
and I love that for people. And depending on the
type of experience you want to have, you can have
that party track, you can have the tourist track, you
can have the restlue track.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
It's really your choice.
Speaker 6 (08:20):
Now we'll say the only thing I will say about
Ghana is the service Yeah, yeah, restaurants, you will wait
for a long time.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
But that's an opportunity. I mean we see it as
an opportunity because you got to think about a capacity building, right.
Ghana is very young to tourism, Whereas like a lot
of Caribbean countries have been getting tours for hundreds of years,
Ghana's only been free since nineteen fifty seven, so and
then the tourism sector really just started, I would say,
a boom after the year of return. So we're still
(08:47):
learning how to do that. So there's an opportunity. So
if people want to start a service based business, I
mean I'm inviting you to Donna to do that.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
I I was saying to myself, I want to go
to Ghana outside of the simmer, which I'm going to do,
but absolutely because I wanted, like, how was it throughout
the rest of the year.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
No, you can have What you see in December is
not foreign to people. People do this weekly in Ghana
if they want to, Like, you know what we see
in December. I know a lot of people is surprised
to them, but this is some people do this weekly
if they want to. But like, you can have a
great time in the you know during Easter, you can
have a great time in the summertime. It's just not
as packed with foreigners, right, but the experience is still
(09:27):
the same. You can still have fun at the restaurants,
the clubs are still packed. People are still having a
good time. And you know, we just had a change
of government this year in Ghana as well, so that
you know, the economy is coming back to where it's
supposed to be and I think people are getting more
there's more consumer confidence.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Why people reach out to you because we had the
CEO and chairman of Richmond. Yeah, that was like, that
would be dope to do, like a Friday night Afro future.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
You want to people off, I said, I don't understand
the conversation, but people are mad about the whole time Africans.
You know, it's the whole Africans versus Black American argument.
And you know, Black Americans have been complaining that African
culture is different than Black culture and they feel like
Essence was trying to force it on people.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, I mean, I think at the core of it,
it's all about misunderstanding and we just really are not
speaking to each other. We're speaking past each other, and
the reason why our festival exists is really to just
kind of domestify and really make you understand if the
African American and you've been to the continent, you know
that people love you, right because this is all they consume,
your content, the music, the art, everything. And then I'm
(10:32):
also a child that's like, was born here in America,
so part of my life is an African American lifestyle.
Went to high school here, I went to college here.
So I think really it's just kind of making sure
we understand and respect each other at its core. On
the continent, if you grow up there, all you see
is black people versus where you grew up here in America,
you go to college, you go to go to work,
(10:53):
there's these microaggressions and things that you don't that you
have to face. It's a very different understanding for everyone, right.
So on you know, think about hierarchy of needs on
the continent, that the need is just we need.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
We need to eat.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
So it doesn't matter if I'm dealing with a little
bit of racism because at the end of the day,
I got to eat, Whereas here I need to survive,
I need to live. So that racism, that that's oppressive,
that that that that you know, that takes away from
my joy, you know what I mean? And I think
that just really respecting everyone's perspective on their need at
(11:25):
that point is really what I think needs to happen.
But I also think that we just need to learn
about each other a little bit more and we can
find those synergies.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Speaking of eating Joel Off rice or jambalaya, so we
so we.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Actually did that event. My boys and I did that
event right. I don't think that they should be mad
at us. I think that's really just understanding why we
did it right. So Jumbalaya is a version of what
Joelf would be, or like a rendition of it. So
I don't know if anybody here has seen high in
a hog, but talking about food origins, really we were
(11:59):
just trying to connect people. Our goal is not to
make it a competition, and we didn't compete against the rice.
It's really just kind of like, let you know, if
you're African, this is an opportunity for you to learn
about jambalaya. If if you're an American, this is your
opportunity to taste some jew of rice and and that
was just a way of us trying to connect the
culture and connect people through basketball, sport that people love,
(12:21):
and then also through food and just kind of build
that connection. I think we could probably could have did
a better story telling opportunity of just kind of the
connectivity between Jumbalayan and jewel Off. And I think that's
great feedback. But I don't think of it as a
way for us to erase anybody's culture or like you know,
africanize anybody's culture. Our goal is to be respectful. We
should be respectful, and I think that that's the that's
(12:43):
the goal that I'm learning.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
If you show up, you hungry. I want both where
to come from?
Speaker 6 (12:49):
I want to Yeah, my guy chef bj Benjamin Dennessee,
he was on High on the Hull and from Charleston,
South Carolina, exactly back Carolina where I'm from.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I'm not West Africa.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Like a lot of the things that we eat and
stuff are rooted in West African culture.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, that's some of the things that we want to do.
We want to tell more stories about food and the
origins because if you look at a lot of food
that people are eating here in America, across the Caribbean
and across the continent. There's so many similarities, but there's
barely any places that you can go and find if
you were born here in America. Like, for instance, we
know about I know about jay Z's history from getting
to the end, and like I follow all of his
(13:26):
albums and I know the next story is going to
come on the next one. We don't necessarily have that
about our afrobeats artists. I think there's an opportunity there
for us to tell those stories, and that happens for
all categories. The same thing in our same thing and fashion,
same thing in food. We need to tell those stories,
and that's why our platform exists to be able to
tell those stories and buy into that. Like we all
(13:46):
loved Black Panther when it came out, although it's not real.
We all love The Women King when it came out.
But we need more shows, more movies like that, because
if somebody is sitting here in America and all they've
been taught is that Africa is full of poverty, and
as an African, I know a lot of young Africans
that didn't want to associate with that either, So it
kind of makes sense. But now if we can tell you.
(14:06):
With the Internet penetrating at forty and fifty percent in
Africa right now, Africans are able to tell you in
real life who they are and what they do and
the type of lifestyles that they live and vice versa.
Speaker 6 (14:16):
Man, I've made it my business to take my family
to somewhere on the continent at least once a year.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
So I've been to Johannesburg, I've been to Zanzibar and Tanzania.
I've been to Ghana. I'm going to Cape Town. Is
amazing when you see these places, you like wow. Yeah,
I say it all the time. They lied to us.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
About the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Yeah, and just beyond that, like I was on Kamala's
the group that went to the continent when she went
to Africa, And for me, it's very important for everybody
to if the whole world is fighting for a piece
of Africa, why aren't you looking at that as an
opportunity for yourself? And our festival is a way to
introduce it, right, you know, something that you're familiar with,
(14:57):
come to the continent that experience the food, experience experience fashion,
experience the music in real time with the people on
the ground, smell and feel the place, and then you know,
use that as an opportunity the next time you come
to see how you can help, how you can work
with somebody to make something really dope happen.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
That's our goal.
Speaker 7 (15:14):
You said that tourism is new for you guys. So
when people experience all of that, what is the one
thing at the end of the day that you feel
like people still miss that? You're like, man I wish
y'all would have gotten this though.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I mean one of the things that I mentioned earlier
is that you know, we're a small business still. Although
we've gotten all of this pressing these bylines and a
lot of people from America have come to our festival
forty percent, there are still growing pains that we're going through.
To build infrastructure. We need to build infrastructure around touring.
We see most African arts they're not touring around the continent.
(15:45):
The cost is too high. We need to build infrastructure
just around education. You know, you have return taught me
that We booked Ori Lennox and she came to Ghana
and she was so happy about her experience, but she
received comments that didn't really make her happy. And that's
because there's so much learning that we have to do
and unlearning that we have to do as well. So
it's just kind of those kind of things that we
(16:07):
need to be better. We have to be better at service.
Like you mentioned, I think that all of those things
have changed. So if you've been the gun in twenty nineteen,
if you go today, those things have drastically improved, you
probably won't recognize it from the last time you went.
And those are the learnings that are happening on the continent,
and I think in the next couple of years you're
going to see a lot more happening. The continent is
(16:28):
just getting younger and people are getting wiser, and the
internet's penetrating at a very high clip.
Speaker 6 (16:32):
You know, Bill Gates said that he wanted to give
ninety nine percent of his two hundred billion dollar fortune
and healthcare and education in Africa. Where would you tell
him specifically you need to put them in.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
I mean, I would say, like, you know, healthcare is
a great opportunity. You know, research is one of the
major platforms that we did that we that we do
right here in America. I think there's an opportunity on
the continent for us to kind of invest in research.
I would say agriculture is a very big component. A
lot of people outside of South Africa are really importing
their food, so it makes the cost of food higher.
(17:06):
If we can invest in that infrastructure of agriculture and ARGROATEEC,
I think there's an opportunity. Entertainment has been one consistent
way that people are making money on the continent right now.
A lot of the skip makers, a lot of the artists,
a lot of the content creators. You know, we all
saw the rise of els in Majimbo. We all see
the rise of Kabi Lame. I think there's an opportunity there.
(17:27):
You know, this year, for the past two years, our
Business Culture Management Group has been running entertainment for the
Basketball Africa League and we do have time shows, We
do all of their influencer management and booking their DJs
and things that nature. There's an opportunity for entertainment on
a grand scale. In twenty twenty eight, we hear F
one is coming to the continent. Like there's so much
(17:49):
happening that I just think people need to tap in. So,
you know, I encourage people to get in groups. You know,
let's let's buy property let's build infrastructure, Let's start a
and farm less start or you know, uh, you know,
a manufacturing company. There's so many things you can do
on the content and to create jobs, but also to
to give back and to be self sustaining.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
I definitely invest in some property out did I want.
I want to invest in some more. I feel like
the Basketball African League is dropping the ball with the merchandise.
So I mean, I feel like you I would want
to wear a gone.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
A jersey of African jersey.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
They're getting there. I mean I would say that this
is a a growing league. There's just opportunity for them
to to be able to do more. They've only been around.
This is the fifth season that we just came out of,
so I think that they are going to do a
lot more. You're gonna see a lot more dope merch
you know, dope games. If you come to the games
like you know, it's a it's you won't miss anything
(18:43):
from the NBA because we have all of the entertainment
pieces in that experience. So the continent is growing and
people can be a part of this growth. So think
about you know, if you had an opportunity to be
a part of the Harlem Renaissance, like, like what would
that mean for you today? And that renaissance is happening
right now on the continent. You know, our art is
(19:03):
selling at a higher clip. The artists are selling out stadiums,
you know the fashion. You know, everyone on the met
gala was in African for the most part, positive Blatcheaing
and all of these people. I think it's time for
for more black people to get involved and be a
part of this growth.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
How do you think what Donald Trump is doing with
like the visas, like how that will affect tourism and
people just being able to come in and out and yeah,
you for what you do with your festival.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, I mean we don't. We tend not to do
well when he's in office. But I would say that,
you know, one of the things that I would say
is that he's been helpful in people just kind of
discovering themselves and who they are and what they can do.
And I would say for the continent, I do see
that as a value for that pride to be reinstilled
(19:50):
in it. You see governments speaking back, you see people
pushing back and really wanting to build their own and
I just love I don't love the divisiveness that comes
with it, but I do love the opportunity that people
are seeing and just kind of looking into themselves in
the opportunity there. It is definitely affecting us as far
as tourism. People are not able to fly as easily,
(20:12):
and people are afraid and things that nature. But you know,
the goal is for us to continue to send those
positive messages that continue to build our community, and the
hope is that people find that comfort within the community
that we're building.
Speaker 7 (20:24):
That's why what happened with Aria Lennox was so sad
because I felt like it was like a moment of
self discovery for her and people thought she was like
I don't know if they thought she was trolling or what,
but it was like they they bashed like they bashed
her for feeling like I belong.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Yeah, but that's you know, that's Internet, right, people were say,
that's Internet culture. I don't necessarily know that that's the
experience of everyone that was in there in real time felt,
but I do see that there's an opportunity for us
to do a lot of learning and unlearning. And what
I mean by what I met by saying that everyone
on the continent that grows up seeing all black people.
They don't see themselves as an other. Whereas here we
(20:56):
you know, I grew up here, I went to school here,
I worked here. I can understand and what you mean
when you feel like another right. And so to somebody
who is like starving or they're getting maybe less than
one thousand dollars a month for their salary for them
to take care of their families, they see you as
a wealthy person. They don't see that you have a
lot of troubles. And that's still a level of ignorance
(21:20):
that we need to overcome. Right, So that's all about learning,
all about having empathy, all about just really just kind
of un learning a lot of things that have been
taught to us that keeps us divided.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
If you black, and you've been to any place in
Africa for the most part, especially Ghana, you know exactly
what our linux man Like My daughters were probably three
and five, they were young.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Seven and five. We went seven and four. Something like
that they noticed.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
Was like where a white people are literally like they
was like, damn it, there's so many black like they
It's on the billboard, it's on the TV.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
See everywhere you see. Yeah, And I think that's the
beauty for me. For the first four years, I didn't
really get a chance to see the festival. So the
only way I could live it is through how people
told me it made them feel, and how I saw
their life had changed when they came back to the US.
So it was beautiful to see people who had no
ties to the continent, had no family there, come back
(22:18):
and feel home, feel welcomed, feel comfortable. I saw people
walk in the street, I see people in restaurants just
literally having a home, good time, safe and sound, and
wanted to go back. You know, we started with four thousand,
but like we've had that, people have always come back
with two or three more people. So that's how we
were able to grow from four thousand to forty one thousand.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Over those years.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
I think what y'all doing is amazing.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
When the show in Detroit, Detroit is August sixteenth and seventeenth,
we have a lot of cool things planned in Detroit,
a little bit yeah, yeah, yeah, we gotta have we
gotta have all yeah. We gotta have a little bit
of culture all over there. Right, So there's a little
hip hop, there's a little dance music, there's little on
my piano, and then afrobeats. Our goal is to really
introduce afrobeats to people who have not really had an
(23:07):
immersive experience, and also just to kind of give people
some things that they're familiar with. But for us, our
approach is really community. So we're partnering with groups like
Black Tech Saturdays, we're Venture three and three. We're doing
a pitch competition to give back to the community. We're
talking to some of the business leaders you know, and
and bringing them into our community. We're running like a
bar business crawl just to kind of make sure when
(23:29):
people come to Detroit they know what businesses to support
and how to support them. So we're doing a lot
of things that we partner with Pencil Lewis College. One
of the ones I'm very excited about. Pencey Lewis College
is a historical Black college in Detroit that is focused
on design. So they do design and footwear and apparel
and also furniture, and we collabor with them to design
(23:51):
merch for the festival and giving students an opportunity to
make some money.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So really excited about that. That's Dope.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Merchants on the Jersey you got, I got David a
shot k headliner we have. Yeah, we got Miller, Little Miller,
Miller from Brazil. So there's a little bit of you know,
there's a little bit of you know, vibes for everyone.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
You designed theeds for the Bronx.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yes, yeah, So the Bronx we called the Bronx Little Cross.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, we have.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
We called a Bronx Little our craw And you know,
you can see a large Guanian population in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
My family is from there.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
We own a restaurant there called a Craws Restaurant, been
there for thirty eight years. And you know, the shoe
is really just kind of an ode to that culture.
Talking about the color patterns that you know, the embroidery.
We wanted to have something where you can dress up
and dress down at the same time. There's some of
dincer symbols on there that just kind of speaks to community.
(24:58):
And you know, one of the things that we like
to say about the shoes just kind of we're separated
about thousands of miles, united about culture. And although you
know there's all this divisiveness, we know that when you
see somebody doing something, you know that's culture. You can
give it the head now and pretty much that's what
we're trying to do with.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Regularly.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
No, okay, that's why I asked questions. Absolutely, because.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Yes, please go to Detroit that afrofuture dot com. You
will find all the information you need. We got hotels
up there, We got a discount with Delta up there
for you, and you know, we got the hotels. People
can come out and have a great time and definitely, uh,
look look to your flights for Gana in December. We're
going to have a very dirty one. So is Detroit
gonna be the city whole city every year right now? Yes,
(25:51):
yes we are. We're doing Detroit. We have a great
partnership there. We love the community there. They're very you know,
their creativity and they're welcoming attitude reminds me of what
what we were building when we started and guarding us
and we're very excited about that. But we do have
smaller other activations around the U S that that we're.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Looking to bring.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
I want to South Carolina, Yeah, invite us, would definitely
love to do it then out there. Love to do
some experiences out there. We're working with arts artists, people
who you know painters. We're working with fashion designers. Got
some cool one. This is a young designer called Bing.
We just brought them the synagogue. So we want to
we want to continue to you know, celebrate, you know,
the culture and bring people together.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
That's all.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
My ancestry is Senegalgue, Sierra Leone, that whole Mali region.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, that's a beautiful senagogue is very beautiful. Like the
beach is the beach town. I encourage everyone to just visit, like,
just go and experience it and I'm sure that you
will love it and you see the vibe that we're
talking about.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right well, there you have it.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
The founding CEO of Afro Future Abdullah.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that answer up
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
The Breakfast Club
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DJ Envy
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