Meek Mill, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, and Lil Durk are about to shake up the music industry. The rappers have teamed up to build their very own digital streaming platform.
Taking to Twitter, the Championships rapper announced he was looking for developers for the venture. “Me lil baby Durkio tryna get somebody in Silicon Valley to build us our own music platform we can be majority owner in,” he wrote. “We will pay!! We need top Silicon Valley steppers please!”
In another Tweet, he announced that 21 Savage was on board as well.
A day later, Meek explained the motivation behind his vision, revealing that the project aims to donate a percentage to "the people we make money from," and also seeks to "maximize black wealth."
The rappers' new venture comes as more and more artists seek new ways to claim ownership over their music. Many musicians are taking to new modes of distribution and upsetting dated business models in the process. Notably, Kanye West made a powerful point earlier this year when he dropped a track directly on Twitter.
While streaming platforms like Spotify have pushed listening numbers to an all-time high, criticisms have been leveraged against streamers for not giving enough back to the artists in royalties. Meek Mill, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, and Lil Durk could reroute streaming proceeds back to the culture.
