The holiday seasons are often an important time for Black-owned businesses. To encourage consumers to support Black-owned businesses during the critical holiday season, Google partnered with the U.S. Black Chambers to reimagine Black Friday as “Black-owned Friday,” a day to search, support and shop at Black-owned businesses.
Google teamed up with Grammy award-winning artist Ludacris to create a music video that transforms Black Friday into an interactive experience. The video, with an original song by Ludacris, featuring Flo Milli and directed by Charles Todd, highlights products from more than 60 Black-owned businesses.
During a recent visit to Google headquarters in Atlanta, Ludacris spoke with Atlanta Daily World/Real Times Media to shed more light on the venture.
“I just want to show young Black kids that anything is possible.”-Ludacris
Why was it important for you to collaborate with Google for “Black-Owned Friday”?
Google approached me on it and gave me the rundown. I involve myself with things that I’m passionate about these days after all these years. I support entrepreneurs, Black entrepreneurs, and the impact that it has on our communities. As a father, I try to be the example and set the example and do things with my celebrity and my power. I just wanted to involve myself in this because I felt like it was very positive for our communities and very positive in terms of pointing people in the right direction, showing them how easy it is to support Black business.
There’s a song associated with the campaign. Can you break down the creation of this project?
What better way to promote it than to put out a song called “Black Friday.” I teamed up with Flo Milli who’s from Alabama. She’s bringing that much-needed balance. Releasing a song is the best way to promote things, especially when it comes to promoting positivity, which you don’t see as much. I just wanted to flip it and do something positive and partner with Google and U.S. Black Chamber. So this is just something that’s double entendre, buy Black, by Black and support Black Friday.
You’ve always been a business owner outside of the music. How is this impactful for you as a businessman and also being able to help other individuals in business?
It’s impactful for me because I’m a father and I love to show my children that you can come with an idea and have a great imagination. And then put that idea into conception of an actual valuable good. It can reinforce the fact that they can do anything that they set their minds to. And that’s why it’s important for me. I just want to show young Black kids that anything is possible. As long as you have the right steps, you can work hard at it and have the right team. You know, that’s another important thing.
The biggest advice for any individuals who are looking to start a business. What’s the biggest hurdles that they should think about?
If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. Everybody’s going to have hurdles, we all are going to have these challenges. But you got to work through those challenges. The best way to do it, Google. Google anything whenever you have an issue and when you got a problem. People don’t understand that your phone is the most powerful device in the world right in the palm of you hand. A lot of times, we use it for senseless things. Sometimes we have all these questions, what better way to find the answers than to use Google.
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