After deliberating among the pitch competition’s four finalists, the significance and timeliness of Healthy Hip Hop’s mission ultimately led it to receive this year’s crown.
“There were a lot of things the group liked about Healthy Hip Hop. First of all, some of the VC participants have kids and so a culture-driven product for kids that is both entertaining and educational was something we’d want to use as consumers,” Michael Palank, General Partner at MaC Venture Capital shared exclusively with AfroTech. “2023 will also mark the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop so we felt this was a good time for a company called Healthy Hip Hop to start to scale. At the end of the day, building any kind of product for kids [and by association, their parents] is hard. You have to create a safe environment with kid-friendly content. There are all kinds of necessary barriers to selling advertising on products that are made for kids, and most kids aged 5-10 do not have their own phones so you first have to sell to their parents. Growth can be hard.”
“But Healthy Hip Hop is already being used by schools and parents alike,” he continued. “Roy Scott, the Founder and CEO, is a Hip-Hop artist who wanted to positively influence his kids. When he realized that his own rap lyrics that his own kids were quoting were about violence, drugs, and disrespecting other people, he knew he needed to find another path. We love his story and think his DNA as a Hip-Hop artist will serve the company well.”
