Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
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.
How are you feeling? I feel real good. Thanks for God. Man.
Tell people what what Afro Future is from.
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 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.
So now I was at the last Afro.
Yes you was. You was at the last one.
That's when y'all announced it was gonna be a the next year.
That's correct.
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.
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.
Why why did y'all change the name from Afro a Future.
I mean I think that obviously there was there was a lot of there was a lot of issues that we had.
They sued like they sue everybody, they just sue me.
But I mean, I mean, beyond that, it was just an opportunity for us to like kind of grow beyond where we were.
Uh.
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.
Well, people don't come for the name, they come for the event.
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 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.
That's why Detroit for the first stop in the US.
Why not New York I.
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
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.
That's crazy to think that y'all don't have no sponsorships.
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
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 business like that since.
But those aren't considered corporate sponsors.
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.
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.
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 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.
And then I think the rise of afrobeats because the year I was there, you had burn a Boy headline.
Yeah that was that was two years in the making.
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. 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.
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.
Yeah. We actually shut it down, yeah the first year. Yeah, we were afraid.
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.
Did you have any problems that?
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.
That first year was as what's the hardest thing you faced do any shows? Was it sponsorships?
Is it people? Is it?
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 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 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.
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.
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.
The restaurants clubs in Silver Fox.
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.
It's really your choice.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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, 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.
We need to eat.
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 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.
Speaking of eating Joel Off rice or jambalaya, so we so we.
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 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, 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 the goal that I'm learning.
Absolutely.
If you show up, you hungry. I want both where to come from?
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.
I'm not West Africa.
Like a lot of the things that we eat and stuff are rooted in West African culture.
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 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 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.
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.
Man, I've made it my business to take my family to somewhere on the continent at least once a year.
Yeah.
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.
About the opportunity.
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, 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.
That's our goal.
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.
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. 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 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 just getting younger and people are getting wiser, and the internet's penetrating at a very high clip.
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.
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. 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.
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 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.
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.
A jersey of African jersey.
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 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 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.
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.
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
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,
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.
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.
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 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
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.
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.
Seven and five. We went seven and four. Something like that they noticed.
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.
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
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.
Over those years.
I think what y'all doing is amazing.
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 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 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 merch for the festival and giving students an opportunity to make some money.
So really excited about that. That's Dope.
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.
You designed theeds for the Bronx.
Yes, yeah, So the Bronx we called the Bronx Little Cross.
Yeah, we have.
We called a Bronx Little our craw And you know, you can see a large Guanian population in the Bronx.
My family is from there.
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. 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.
Regularly.
No, okay, that's why I asked questions. Absolutely, because.
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, 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.
Looking to bring.
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.
That's all.
My ancestry is Senegalgue, Sierra Leone, that whole Mali region.
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.
Right well, there you have it.
The founding CEO of Afro Future Abdullah.
It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, wake that answer up in the morning.
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