Dot Hip Hop is a site identify registry with a seemingly easy tech proposition. However past its deal with .HipHop domains and web site addresses, Dot Hip Hop is honing in on IP possession, empowering artists, and uplifting the group through monetary literacy.
On its floor, Dot Hip Hop has a easy enterprise mannequin. The corporate facilitates the possession of .HipHop domains and web site addresses for artists, labels, or anybody tied into the hip hop group or tradition of hip hop. Dig a bit deeper, nevertheless, and this can be a firm that’s all about advancing hip hop tradition and empowering its creators.
“There’s so much to the story of our dedication to the group and the tradition,” Managing Director Monte Cahn instructed Digital Music Information, who famous that .HipHop domains supply a chance to realize larger possession over musical creativity. “We’re attempting to re-educate folks concerning the significance of getting your personal mental property, your personal id, using it correctly, and having the ability to monetize it.”
Cahn additionally factors out how most individuals wrongly consider that they personal mental property rights just because they’re utilizing Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter to put up their content material. “These platforms personal every little thing that you simply do and say. You may be lower off and deleted and even hacked by others whereas utilizing these platforms,” Cahn explains.
In accordance with firm CMO Scott Pruitt, “Artists with a .HipHop area identify achieve a digital id that aligns with hip hop.”
Talking concerning the historical past of hip hop artists on the whole, Cahn highlighted how artists’ possession was compromised by the unique contracts signed with brokers and file labels. “That’s what we’re about, giving possession rights again to the hip hop group and tradition. For artists, DJs, MCs, a file label, and even someone that loves hip hop,” Cahn added. Only in the near past, Dot Hip Hop joined forces with DMN to speed up their mission.
Ajene Watson, additionally a Managing Director of Dot Hip Hop, relayed that the corporate is aiming to raise hip hop tradition in 3 ways: present possession through fairness, promote financial alternative through monetary literacy, and redistribute wealth by way of a company group funding program.
“We’re creating an atmosphere the place the tradition can personal fairness in Dot Hip Hop, LLC — the registry that holds the license to function the .HipHop extension. Secondly, we’re selling monetary literacy and financial alternative by educating the group about digital actual property — researching, analyzing, shopping for, growing, and promoting these domains,” Watson explains.
Watson additionally highlighted how the third, equally necessary purpose of wealth redistribution ties into what the corporate is doing, including, “A portion of our income really goes to the endeavors of the tradition — whether or not it’s cash going into monetary initiatives just like the Biz Markie’s Simply A Buddy Basis, ‘For The Tradition Fund’ by Beats, Rhymes & Aid, even diabetes associations, retirement funds for hip hop’s founders, and different actions that uplift the group, like schooling, et cetera.”
Watson additional states how Dot Hip Hop is concentrated on regularly growing this mannequin and ‘anticipate that funds will in the end go right into a belief, after which be dispersed appropriately.’
“We’ve constructed this into our enterprise course of to make sure that the group is fed by their very own efforts, and each registration will increase group worth and alternative,” Watson concludes.
Pruitt believes many hip hop artists don’t absolutely grasp the idea of top-level domains, or the extent to which they permit artists to strengthen their manufacturers.
“What’s on the fitting facet of the ‘dot’ can really relate to what’s on the left facet of the ‘dot’ and that makes for a a lot better model,” Pruitt defined.
Evaluating .HipHop with different domains and area extensions, Pruitt factors out a notable distinction, saying, “.HipHop is an open extension so anyone can go and register a .HipHop area identify, however others could include a number of restrictions. You might need to supply articles of incorporation or fill out Nexus varieties to attest that you simply’re a professional music enterprise, or work inside a selected trade.”
Pruitt additionally highlighted that the area .HipHop is able to representing a worldwide group that isn’t restricted to only music, however can even embody dance, graffiti artwork, modern artwork, gaming, sports activities, trend, perspective, basic enterprise, and a lifestyle.
“Hip hop is on a regular basis life, and .HipHop can symbolize a worldwide group of over 1 billion folks, whereas most different web extensions don’t symbolize any particular id or inclination.”
It’s not on a regular basis that branding choices and area identify extensions are talked about in the identical sentence, however Pruitt sees an untapped connection. “This can be a extra significant area. It offers everybody a chance to match what they symbolize — hip hop. The deal with will permit folks to mechanically make the hip hop affiliation.”
Pruitt says Dot Hip Hop additionally goals to sort out the animosity that may exist between totally different rappers, camps, and teams. The corporate can be devoted to supporting hip hop-related charities.
“We need to be the catalyst that brings folks throughout the hip hop group collectively. We need to assist encourage a camaraderie to allow them to begin to lay apart all the meat and disagreements. With a .HipHop area, they’re not saying that they’re East Coast or West Coast. They’re not saying that they’re Bronx or Queens, it’s their hip hop,” Pruitt claims.
As a part of the corporate’s mission, Dot Hip Hop goals to assist charities ‘to assist out folks within the internal metropolis.’ Pruitt says this ideology is constructed into the core philosophy of their enterprise, including, “We’re right here to assist strengthen the hip hop group and its founders and the individuals who actually made hip hop occur.”
On August eleventh, the Mayor of New York hosted a breakfast reception at Gracie Mansion to have a good time the fiftieth Anniversary of hip hop. The occasion was sponsored by Dot Hip Hop.
At Gracie Mansion, Mayor Eric Adams spoke passionately about how the final 50 years have modified the cultural panorama. “Hip hop was extra than simply music. It modified the perspective. From block events to carrying crates of information, to music within the park, to having to attract your personal flyers, to doing the $5 occasion, the $3 cups, to attempting to have the ability to make your music actual and having to cope with among the contracts. Have a look at it 50 years later, and the mayor of essentially the most highly effective metropolis on the globe is a hip hop mayor.”
Company at Gracie Mansion included Sha-Rock, Kool Herc, Kool DJ Pink Alert, Ralph McDaniels, and lots of others. As a part of their tie-in, Dot Hip Hop gave .HipHop domains to main hip hop artists that had been being honored on the occasion.
Alongside a number of different celebratory occasions all through August, Dot Hip Hop additionally sponsored Beats, Rhymes & Aid for a three-day occasion referred to as The Battle Royale at Occasions Sq. on August 13-Fifteenth. Beats, Rhymes & Aid For The Tradition Fund is a charity group that makes use of the humanities to boost consciousness and assist for world humanitarian reduction tasks.
Pruitt explains that the occasion featured a contest amongst varied pillars of hip hop — beatboxing, DJing, MCing, graffiti artists, and breakdancing — including, “It was the primary time ever that town of New York had a hip-hop-related occasion proper in Occasions Sq..”
Watson highlighted Dot Hip Hop’s plans to collaborate with colleges to carry monetary literacy and schooling to teenage college students and their mother and father. “We spoke with an NYC police captain and have dedicated to doing this at the least twice a month for this faculty 12 months, all throughout town,” Watson relayed, additional including that schooling, consciousness, and monetary literacy will assist diminish crime.
“We’re getting numerous alternatives to supply assist. Not simply with cash, however with social assist locally,” acknowledged Watson.
On account of that ambition, Dot Hip Hop sponsored the GOAT Traditional occasion on August nineteenth, that includes a basketball clinic for youths ‘to provide again to the group with basketball video games and music.’ Furthermore, the area registry firm has aligned with the Biz Markie’s Simply A Buddy Basis to sponsor the Pencils and Desires faculty provide drive.
The corporate has additionally joined and provided assist to different organizations such because the Hip Hop Alliance, headed by Kurtis Blow in collaboration with Chuck D, KRS-One, and different hip hop legends. Pruitt says the Hip Hop Alliance assist is a part of broader efforts by Dot Hip Hop to determine social profit applications corresponding to healthcare plans for among the unique hip hop artists that had been misrepresented by file firms — with some nonetheless not proudly owning their mental property.
On the finish of the day, Dot Hip Hop is all about group, associations and partnerships, monetization, and seizing management over IP.
Specializing in that side, Pruitt recalled how Cahn, ‘a near-thirty-year domaining trade vet,’ reshaped the area identify sport within the 90s. Cahn bought and bought domains — in a fashion just like bodily actual property investing.
Cahn participated within the first million-dollar area identify sale by reselling wallstreet.com for $1.03 million. Later that very same 12 months, Cahn bought autos.com for $2.2 million. These historic gross sales positioned Cahn as a key determine within the early multi-billion-dollar trade involving the shopping for, brokering, auctioning, and sale of domains.
Pruitt explains why an analogous alternative could be up for grabs once more, and why this aftermarket for .HipHop domains exists. “Each area identify is a singular piece of property. It’s digital real-estate pushed by shortage and worth.”
To forestall potential squatters from registering artists’ names, Dot Hip Hop has reserved tens of 1000’s of .HipHop domains to guard established hip hop artists, songs, and labels from profit-seeking flippers.
Jeff Neuman, Chief Working and Authorized Officer of Dot Hip Hop, says, “We would like the one who buys the area identify to really be the one utilizing it, and have the fitting to revenue from it.”
Neuman — like Cahn — has additionally been concerned within the area identify trade since its early beginnings. Neuman used the area identify system to safeguard model house owners’ mental property rights. Dot Hip Hop additionally relayed that a lot of the mental property enforcement mechanisms utilized by manufacturers immediately towards area identify house owners ‘had been both created by Neuman immediately, or by way of working teams that he both led or actively participated in.’
Neuman says, “We would like .HipHop to develop responsibly.”
Pruitt added, “When .com got here alongside, there was primarily a land seize and now round 200 million .com names are registered — and shopping for and promoting .com domains is a multi-million greenback enterprise. Proper now, .HipHop has just below 2,000 registrations.”
With an eye fixed on the evolving way forward for domains, artwork, branding, and the reside music efficiency enviornment, Pruitt reveals that the corporate has launched Web2 and Web3 integrations.
“When somebody registers their area identify in .HipHop, in addition they achieve the performance of Web3 with out having to make use of a third-party web site deal with,” Pruitt explains, including, “You’ll have the ability to mint and create NFTs proper from our web site. Put in your .HipHop deal with and declare the blockchain or Web3 model of it.”
Hip hop artists which might be eager to be early adopters of the .HipHop area extension can register at www.Get.HipHop. In addition to securing the area as digital actual property, artists can personalize their web site, create customized electronic mail addresses, and even arrange a cryptocurrency pockets deal with by way of the brand new Web2 to Web3 bridge interface.
Most ICANN-accredited registrars now carry .HipHop domains. Now, the large alternative is to broaden consciousness of an asset which will change into threaded into the longer term world footprint of hip hop tradition.