Ice-T & Grasp P Affiliate Huge Courtroom Launch OG Community To Reclaim Possession In Media
AllHipHop steps inside the house of Ice-T to debate his new firm, a three way partnership with Huge Courtroom that goals to place management again into the tradition’s fingers.
Throughout a sit-down with AllHipHop at Ice-T’s secluded New Jersey residence, the rap legend and media entrepreneur Huge Courtroom pulled again the curtain on the launch of the OG Community, a creator-owned streaming platform designed to present storytellers infrastructure as an alternative of algorithms and longevity as an alternative of viral moments.
AllHipHop’s personal Chuck Jigsaw Creekmur pulled as much as Ice-T’s crib to get the news from the 2 long-running Hip-Hop figures.
Huge Courtroom, a longtime member of Grasp P’s No Restrict household, framed the enterprise as a response to years of watching Black creativity gasoline platforms that creators don’t personal.
“We make all the pieces cool, we make all of the traits, we make Instagram pop, we make TikTok [hot], we made Tubi pop… however we don’t personal nothing,” he mentioned. “So I used to be like, man, we acquired to repair that.”
The concept for the OG Community grew out of Huge Courtroom’s evolution from artist administration into media throughout the COVID period, beginning along with his Holdin Courtroom podcast.
His objective, he mentioned, was steadiness.
“We acquired all of the salacious and pejorative s### and I needed to make one thing to humanize the tradition and a protected place for the tradition,” he defined, noting that tough conversations nonetheless belong however with context and accountability.
That method caught Ice-T’s consideration lengthy earlier than enterprise entered the image. The veteran MC mentioned he not often accepts podcast invites anymore as a result of many concentrate on battle as an alternative of craft. He’s all the time famous that AllHipHop has been completely different from the present iteration of media and the OG Community is a mirrored image of that thoughts state.
“I’m from the times you go on to interview and we speak concerning the music,” Ice-T mentioned. “We don’t speak about who you bought beef with.”
After showing on Holdin Courtroom and constructing a private rapport, Huge Courtroom pitched Ice-T on the community.
Ice-T was skeptical at first, realizing how costly conventional tv infrastructure may be. The turning level got here when Huge Courtroom outlined a FAST channel (Free ad-supported streaming tv) mannequin that prevented reliance on platforms that may very well be “pink flagged” or taken down.
“I don’t need to do YouTube, I don’t need to do Twitch,” Ice-T mentioned. “I need to do one thing that we management.”
Equally essential to Ice-T was possession. The OG Community launched with out exterior traders, leaving Ice-T and Huge Courtroom as equal companions. “It’s me and also you, two homeowners, no person else,” Ice-T mentioned. “If I’m going to get behind it, I need to win.”
For Huge Courtroom, the stress of partnering with one in every of his lifelong influences turned gasoline.
He recalled first listening to Ice-T’s “Squeeze the Set off” at age 11 and treating albums like Ice’s 1988 opus Energy as blueprints for fulfillment.
“It was like a roadmap,” he mentioned. “If I believe like him and I observe what he’s saying, s###, I can get to the place he at.”
Now in a smooth launch section, the OG Community continues to be in beta, rising alongside its viewers and refining its choices.
However the mission is already clear: possession, sustainability and storytelling on the tradition’s phrases. As Ice-T put it, this wasn’t simply one other thought crossing his desk.
“I seen one thing that was larger than me,” he concluded.
Click on right here for extra on the OG Community.
Huge Courtroom Picture Credit score. Courtney O. Richardson
Ice-T Picture Credit score: Chuck Jigsaw Creekmur
