The company that calls itself hip-hop's first publicly-traded firm is handing over control to lifelong activist / former political prisoner / fired former NAACP head / one-time Nation of Islam minister / Hip-Hop Action Summit Network leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis. H3 Enterprises Inc. is a New York company with plans to create a worldwide chain of HipHopSodaShops, basically chill spots where you can get snacks and enjoy digital entertainment, broadband connections, video games and flat-screen TV goodness. It wants to take advantage of hip-hop's popularity worldwide to make money and lure investors. The strategy will have to be a potent one: because H3's shares are traded on the open market, anyone with enough cash can own a piece of the company and it has to also open its books to the government and the public.
Chavis, who just formed a management company with two other prominent black New Yorkers, will have the weight of all those shareholders to go along with his new job. I interviewed him today and he said he took the job because "the single most important remaining question for African Americans is economic empowerment. One of the things that I intend to do for the rest of my career is put a laser focus on that."
The rest of the interview is too long to post here, but you can read it in full on my other blog at www.blackpeoplesmoney.com as of Saturday.
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