6 min read · Feb 15, 2016
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Note that I am writing this blog post as a multi-part article that explores the idea of what I describe as the Ghetto Genius Paradigm. The Ghetto Genius Paradigm is the convergence of wit and grit coupled with the spirit of perseverance to overcome situation and circ*mstance. The article examines the relationship of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, two music industry moguls that are working as a collective to use the success of their tech start up, BEATS to discover and develop the next big thing in music innovation and branding it. The authenticated cultural genius of a Hip Hop icon, Dr. Dre provides the muscle.
Part I
In 2011, Peter Chou, founder of HTC cell phone company, said that HTC invested $300,000,000 in BEATS because BEATS “found a unique way to harness popular culture in a manner that is unlike any other brand today” (goo.gl/mb7jZW). When I read that, I knew he was talking about Hip Hop. BEATS has, as a cofounder, an authentic player in the Hip Hop game, Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre is a reflection of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) in the ghetto realized through two turntables and a microphone.
Andre Young, aka “Dr. Dre,” was born in 1965, a very turbulent time in South Central, LA. It was a moment when the escalated arrest of an African American motorist for drunk driving sparked days of rioting in Watts. The arrest was a tipping point of years of dissatisfaction and protest against social conditions such as poor schools, dilapidated housing, and high unemployment. The aftermath of the riots stained our brain with the ghettoed conditions of what being rejected, dismissed, overlooked, redlined, cancelled out, black balled, black listed, and left behind causes. For the next 20+ years those conditions would be cemented due to deindustrialization and the importation of crack cocaine and the outcomes of its sales, use, and abuse. Andre Young was a by-product of those spaces and places.
As an adolescent, Andre, like many young black kids born in the 60’s and 70’s was groomed by the tailored sound products of Motown, Philly International, and Stax Records. Their collective captured and marketed the sound and visuals of African American soul with algorithms that changed the way people listened to and purchased music around the globe.
Without knowing, Andre was learning the algorithms of what I describe as soul code by playing records at home, watching Soul Train, neighborhood bands, and DJ’s in the park. The syncopation of culture and technology hooked and spoke to him in a manner that resonated with his spirit so much that he became a DJ. Andre has discussed how DJing provided him with the ability to create algorithms that could move the crowd i.e., he now knows Soul Code.
Before you read Part II of this multi-part article, please note that there may be some grammatical errors along the way. I am not attempting to be a perfect writer (however, that is important for certain communities). My goal is to stimulate conversation and instigate form and structure for the distribution of new knowledge in real time. By consistently sharing content and vetting out ideas we will begin to see the needle move forward in the realm of cultural inclusion in computer science, engineering, and entrepreneurship.
Now…here it is.
Part II
Jimmy Iovine, Andre Young’s co-founding partner in BEATS, discovered the same thing in music production and distribution. Jimmy Iovine is important in this conversation because he too represents Genius. Jimmy, at his core, is a rocker. Not in the sense of being on the stage, but as the ear that organizes and delivers the spirit of the sound the artists produce. He is a sound engineer and arranger that cut his teeth learning how to deliver the content of legends like John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Meatloaf, and Tom Petty. Jimmy Iovine mentioned in an article that he really didn’t have a lot of knowledge about Hip Hop, but he appreciated what he heard Andre could do in 1991. Andre had become Dr. Dre and was the sound architect of one of the most important and dangerous groups in history, NWA.
Dr. Dre met Jimmy Iovine in 1992, the year that Dr. Dre finished his solo album, “The Chronic.” Jimmy was building a new record label called Interscope and was on the hunt for new talent. An article from the Wall Street Journal talks about the two of them meeting. “I wasn’t a fan of hip-hop,” Iovine recalls. “They were playing me hip-hop because Interscope was going to be in the hip-hop business, but it all sounded muddy to me. I’m a recording engineer — it just offended me sonically. Then Dre brought in his record, and it sounded as cool as Pink Floyd or Sgt. Pepper’s. I said, ‘Who mixed this?’ and he said, ‘Me.’ And I said, ‘No, no, but who engineered it?’ And he said, ‘Me!’ And I said, ‘OK, I’m getting into business with you’” (http://goo.gl/ZxeuCM). It is apparent in this context that genius respects genius and the two of them went on to record and sell great music, but also began nurturing the idea of repurposing old technology and making it cool again. Their first product, speakers.
At the time other Hip Hop personalities were extending their marketability through cross promotional ventures primarily in the fashion industry. But the engineering chemistry Dre and Jimmy had wouldn’t allow them to venture into fashion. “f*ck sneakers, let’s make speakers” is the phrase I’ve consistently read about in articles that talk about how they got into the speaker business. Being the sound geeks that they were, Jimmy and Dre had growing concern about the music listening experience of millennials being damaged by the subpar sound quality that file sharing and bud type headphones produced.
The white bud headphones had become symbolic in the music revolution forged by the products and services Steve Jobs envisioned his company, another tech start-up, Apple produced. Apple’s new music products and service, the IPOD, ITunes, and IPhone became the must have gadgets for establishing or maintaining your cool swagger. Much like Dr. Seuss’s Sneeches on the Beaches. Remember, you were cool if you had a star on your belly and those that didn’t have it paid to get one with the hope that they would become and look cool. Apple products were the stars many people wanted.
Jimmy discussed how he felt that Steve Jobs understood the importance of the cool factor and its impact on technology. “I met Steve Jobs and the team at Apple, and I thought, ‘this is where cool lives right now. The party is at Steve’s house.’ This was a man who understood the lyrics, who understood the music, who understood The Beatles and Bob Dylan, but who also, in a visionary way, truly understood lifestyle and technology” (http://goo.gl/dXWwjt).
The world became enamored with the “next factor” that Jobs represented. The growth of Apple was a direct result of the mysticism Jobs created through the awesome marketing of gadgets that enriched lives and by putting stars on consumers bellies. When Steve Jobs, the initiator of cool in tech, passed away there was plenty of conversation about Apple’s ability to remain relevant, and could Tim Cook, Apple’s COO, maintain the cultural mysticism that Jobs created.
As CEO, Cook stabilized Apple’s image as a tech leader, doubled the value of it’s stock, and cemented it’s cool factor again by purchasing new or re-purposed technologies from tech startups like BEATS. Dre and Jimmy had established an authentic cool factor company from years in the music business making hits, developing artists, and moving products. BEATS has become Apple’s Hip Hop conduit to the streets by placing Dre and Jimmy in a position to cultivate the cool factor needed for emerging and new technologies. So now the question is can more companies learn from business models like Apple; the model that intersects creativity and cultural genius with technology? And can Dr. Dre utilize his influence to cultivate the disruptive change needed in education to break down the barriers that locked him out of opportunity when he was a ghetto child growing up in the ghetto streets of South Central, LA? The answer is yes and Part III will begin discussing how.
