Together with
Time warp. Happy Monday, FutureParty people. How’s everyone feeling this morning? We’re not sure about you, but we’re feeling extra spry. It’s amazing what an additional hour of sleep can do for your energy and mood. Speaking of, did you remember to turn back those clocks? If not, your day’s about to get weird.
In other news… Kendrick Lamar moves Africa, Bobbi Althoff hits the hot seat, and strip malls help solve the housing crisis.
Top Trends
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe
MUSIC
Courtesy of Global Citizen
Kendrick Lamar collabs with Global Citizen on Africa tour circuit
The Future. Global Citizen and pgLang, the creative firm founded by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free, are joining forces to make Africa the next music-touring hotspot, starting with a Lamar-fronted festival in Rwanda next month. Considering Africa’s growing entertainment industry and the rising popularity of Afrobeats, live music could break even more records in the coming years by making the underserved continent a regular stop on global tours.
Continent investment
Kendrick Lamar is ready to rock Rwanda with the help of Global Citizen.
pgLang and Global Citizen have entered a five-year partnership to establish a touring circuit across the African continent.
Lamar and Free will curate the festival’s music, design, broadcast, and marketing.
Global Citizen’s hope is the tour circuit will help create sustainable jobs and build touring infrastructure — goals that lift people out of poverty and ensure more artists stop in Africa.
“Move Afrika: Rwanda” on December 6th at the BK Arena in Kigali will kick off the project, which will be headlined by Lamar and feature performances by local artists. The show will be paired with a campaign to highlight issues affecting the country, including food insecurity and healthcare shortages. Unfortunately, this year’s concert won’t be livestreamed globally — only broadcast live across Africa.
Global Citizen struck a deal with Rwanda’s government to have the festival there for the next five years. And by 2025, Move Afrika will expand to four more countries.
     |
ENTERTAINMENT
Bobbi trap // Illustration by Kate Walker
Bobbi Althoff attracts A-list laughs… but for how long?
The Future. Bobbi Althoff, the deadpan interviewer whose The Really Good Podcast went viral over the summer, has provoked some passionate opinions from entertainment professionals, veteran journalists, and the Black community (most of her interviewers are with Black rappers). But for all the serious takes, Althoff’s comedic routine may be nothing more than that for the podcaster — simply taking internet fame to its zero-calorie, engagement-driving, inevitable conclusion. The question is: how long will you keep watching the car crash?
Cringe on the fringe
Bobbi Althoff, the once TikTok momfluencer who remade herself as the most unserious interviewer of A-list celebrities out there, is in the hot seat.
She’s impressed people like Emmy Award-winning reality TV exec Vinnie Potestivo, who thinks she’s found the bridge between podcasting being seen as “bad social media content” and “strong word-of-mouth authorities.”
So, people can’t help but tune in… like they can’t help but look at a car crash. The resulting buzz has gotten big names like Drake, Shaq, and Mark Cuban to sit in the interview chair.
Yet, journalists like Jemele Hill and Naima Cochrane have a bone to pick with Althoff, highlighting her galling lack of prep (especially when it comes to Black culture) and how she erases some interviews without reason.
The allegation is her interviews, for all their popularity (nearly a million followers on YouTube and almost three million on Instagram), delegitimize real hip-hop journalism.
Althoff probably wouldn’t disagree with any of the criticisms leveled against her. Earlier this year, she said the podcast is “a parody of a good interview” and she created her schtick (which feels like an heir to Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns) because she couldn’t get views as herself, so she had to go “where the money was.”
So far, it looks like it’s paying off.
| |
Not that kind of Puck...
What do CEOs, movie moguls, the West Wing, and TFP have in common? We all read Puck. Puck is a platform for smart, engaging (and, yes, occasionally dishy) journalism, covering the inside story at the nexus of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood.
Sounds epically EPIC? Well, it is.
Here are a few stories that got us spinning:
Hollywood’s Post-Writers Strike Reality – Everyone claims victory as the 146-day strike ends, but what will the future bring?
The Goldilocks Fashion Star of ’23 – See how Trish Wescoat Pound created a paradigm for how young brands can scale these days.
Catch-404 – The digitization of our lives is leaving millions of Americans (especially older adults) on the wrong side of the digital divide, so can we age-proof Silicon Valley?
HOUSING
Courtesy of TCA Architects
An old Sears reanimates as an apartment complex
The Future. A new apartment complex made out of an old Sears is part of a push to update defunct retail spaces across the country into housing to alleviate the ongoing housing crisis — one study found changing just 10% of strip malls would create 700,000 apartments. While converting strip malls alone won’t cover the US’ estimated 3.8 million housing units needed, coupling the updated strip malls with retrofitted office buildings (which have hit record-high vacancies) may make a sizable dent.
Retail rental
Soon, strip malls may sell you a place to live.
The Sears in a suburb of Rochester, NY, was retrofitted into an apartment complex by adding windows and courtyards.
The main retail building was converted into 73 units for low-income seniors.
And on a nearby parking lot, another four-story apartment building was erected.
While similar projects are happening all over the country, California is especially booming for this kind of strip mall update, thanks to new state zoning laws that now make it easier to get building permits — laws that other states could copy.
Those California projects are going down in cities like San Jose (two projects that could create north of 1,700 new apartments), Laguna Hills (1,500 new apartments), and Westminster (3,000 new apartments).
More rental units mean potentially cheaper rent across the board… something everyone here at California-based TFP would get really excited about.
| |
Hustle better
Have your own hustle? Make payments your superpower with Hopscotch.
Hopscotch is an all-in-one invoicing and bill pay solution for small businesses like yours. They can help you get paid fast and keep more of the money you earn. And they’ll even help you unlock revenue tied up in outstanding invoices on-demand so you can get back to building your business. (And we know how good that feels!)
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Live Nation reported its best-ever quarter with $8.2 billion in revenue, fueled by 140 million+ tickets sold, showing live music is popping this year. Read more → thr
Speaking of insane concert demand, some Swifties have camped out in front of the Estadio River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires for five months to ensure they get a good spot when Swift comes to town next weekend. Read more → variety
50 years after the death of Pablo Picasso, the Musée Picasso has removed (or shrouded) all of the artist’s works, leaving only descriptions — a stunt to force people to imagine a world without his art and only have words to share it. Read more → forbes
Fashion & E-Commerce
Deft wants to be the Google Search of furniture e-commerce. Read more → techcrunch
The International Trade Commission found Apple violated the patent of medical tech company Masimo — a ruling that could ban some Apple Watches from entering the US. Read more → fastcompany
Amazon’s retail ambitions with its Amazon Style stores are going back to the drawing board. Read more → bof
Tech, Web3, & AI
Elon Musk’s secretive AI firm, xAI, introduced its first product — a chatbot named “Grok” that cracks jokes, has access to X data, and will allegedly solve the secrets of the universe (so much to unpack). Read more → wsj
Washington, D.C., is giving residents AirTags for their cars to make it easier for police to track them down when stolen (the city is dealing with a lot of car thefts right now). Read more → engadget
EV planes are taking to the skies, beginning with an aviation startup called BETA Technologies. Read more → nyt
Creator Economy
People are checking Snap Map to see on-the-ground footage of what’s going on in Gaza — a phenomenon that has Snapchat moderators working overtime. Read more → techcrunch
100 Thieves is laying off staff and spinning out its game studio and energy drink to focus on its core businesses — another sign that the esports industry is preparing for a more sustainable business model. Read more → theverge
ByteDance just couldn’t make Lemon8 go viral in the US — only 2.6 million people have downloaded it. Read more → techcrunch
Like what you see? Subscribe Now or Partner With Us
Keep the editorial team going! Buy the team a coffee! ☕️
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.