The Round Up 010: It be like that sometimes
Following a heart attack, beloved rapper and actor, DMX passed away at the end of last week, sending ripples across the hip-hop world.
In many ways, DMX is one of modern hip-hop's cautionary tales because his’ is the story of a multi-talented black man who was largely unable to escape the system that entrapped him. While speaking on Talib Kweli's People's Party podcast back in 2020, DMX revealed he had been exposed to crack cocaine at the age of 14, after a manager offered him a “laced” joint. Before then, the rapper had been a victim of an abusive childhood that saw him moving around multiple children's homes, leading up to his first arrest at 15. That was the beginning of recurring run-ins with the law, that continued all the way into his adult life.
As an avid storyteller, much of his personal history and life on the streets eventually made it into his music. But rap success didn't rid DMX of the demons of his becoming. He was once infamously quoted to have said; “I'll repent one day, just not right now.” And in the light of his passing, his life and times weighs even more heavily on our hearts, because it's a reminder that not everyone gets a clean break, no matter how determined they are to live full wholesome lives—It really do be like that sometimes.
Anyway, as a tribute to DMX and without further ado, The Round-Up 010;
Last week, spaceman Elon Musk's neurotechnology company, Neuralink, released the video of a macaque monkey controlling a pong videogame with its mind. The company co-founded by Musk in 2016, has been developing brain-implant technology that will fuse human biology with artificial intelligence. The value proposition here is to help cure neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia and spinal cord injuries.
In a tweet to show off Pager, the macaque monkey Neuralink embedded with three brain implants, Musk said: “First @Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs”. Though Professor Andrew Jackson of the University of Newcastle says the concept has been around since the 1960s, Musk thinks Neuralink's future-forward goal is to enable paraplegics to walk again, by transcoding neural signals in the brain to motor-sensory receivers in other parts of the body.
On April 21st, Apple and Google will be the central focus of yet another hearing at the American senate. This time around, both companies are being quizzed on alleged anti-competitive practices on their designated app marketplaces; Appstore and Google Play. According to Reuters “App makers have long complained that mandatory revenue sharing payments and strict inclusion rules set by Apple’s App Store for iPhones and iPads, along with Google’s Play store for Android devices, amount to anticompetitive behaviour.”
It should be said, however, that these types of big tech hearings have been happening nearly every quarter since Mark Zuckerberg first did it in 2018. But the limited control lawmakers have over these corporate entities, makes one wonder why the public should care in the first place. After all, holding multi-billion dollar corporations publicly accountable is great in theory, but the real need is probably initiating legislation that enforces state-backed regulations where applicable.
Nigerian Twitter went into a frenzy yesterday after social media juggernaut, Twitter, announced its first official presence on the African continent, will be stationed in Ghana. Given Ghana and Nigeria's competitive socio-political history, this means a few things; for starters, we now know which country's jollof Jack prefers. But mostly, it signals Twitter's strategic alignment with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfcFTA) agreement.
For context, AfcFTA is the world's largest free trade agreement with a range of objectives including the “creation of a single market, deepening the economic integration of the continent, establishing a liberalised market through multiple rounds of negotiation, aiding the movement of capital and people, facilitating investment”, amongst other economic and fiscal goals. Technically, the AfcFTA took effect back in 2019, but because many African countries (including Nigeria) initially stalled ratification with an attitude of scepticism, trading did not commence until January of this year. In Twitter's statement on why it chose to set up shop in Ghana, the company said “Ghana’s recent appointment to host The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our service across Africa.”
This is huge because social media platforms have been very influential in the growth of Africa's e-Economy and digital marketplace. Twitter's arrival on the continent comes just in time to boost the benefits of AfcFTA. Ghana may have won this round against Nigeria, but the real win is towards securing the future of a digitally-enabled Africa.