James Lindsay, founder of Rap Snacks PHOTO BY DAVID CABRERA
Tonight’s virtual event, No More Talk: Our People, Our Businesses, Our Responsibility, is loaded with heavy hitters. At 8 pm eastern tonight, the event will feature James Lindsay, CEO of Rap Snacks and internationally renonwned artist, Wise Intelligent. These two gentlemen aren’t businessmen: they’re both quite literally a business and they will be giving out clear strategies tonight for Black entrepreneurs to implement now. If you’ve not yet registered for tonight, click here to do so now.
Wise Intelligent is an internationally known artist, activist, songwriter/producer and social entrepreneur. He journey began as the lead emcee of legendary hip hop trio Poor Righteous Teachers, pioneers of “conscious” rap music. Wise Intelligent has released a total of twelve studio albums and has collaborated and performed with world renowned artist such as: Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, The Fugees, Mos Def, Public Enemy, KRS ONE, Ice Cube, Too Short, X Clan, Junior Reed, Ms. Jones, and many others. Throughout all of Wise’s work, he has espoused the virtues of community service and activism, as embodied in the struggle of poor people around the world.
For nearly 25 years, Wise Intelligent has leveraged his recognition as a conscious hip hop pioneer into activism, youth advocacy and program development. In 2007 Wise established IntelligentMINDZ – an inner-city tutoring initiative focused on youth academic performance and achievement. In 2009 Wise partnered with award winning film director Stacey Muhammad of WildSeed Films to launch IntelligentSEEDZ – a not-for-profit youth media organization teaching middle and high-school children documentary film production, investigative journalism and how film can be used to promote social awareness and transformative change. IntelligentSEEDZ were winners in the CDC/EPA national Lead Awareness PSA contest. Today Wise Intelligent is President of The Rap Snacks Foundation and Director of the Foundation’s BossUp entrepreneurship, financial literacy and community economic development initiatives – using entrepreneurship as a creative way to solve problems negatively impacting our communities.
Over the past 12 years, James Lindsay has been featured on “CBS Morning Show”, ABC’s “The Jimmy Kimmel Show”, BET, Fox News, People Magazine, The “Tavis Smiley” Show, Black Enterprise, Forbes, and Entrepreneur Magazine. He was also recognized by Business Philadelphia Magazine as “Top 100 People to Watch.” A Philadelphia native, Lindsay, graduated from Cheney University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing. He initially developed his marketing skills while serving as a manager in the consumer products industry for Johnson Products, an ethnic hair care company, and Warner-Lambert. These experiences, and his desire to own a business, empowered him to start Rap Snacks, Inc. in 1994. The initial success of Rap Snacks helped solidify a co-marketing agreement with Universal Records. The deal consisted of advertising Universal’s Artists on all Rap Snacks bags. Eventually the company grew into a $5 million dollar business, selling mostly twenty-five cent bags of chips.
In 2001 Mr. Lindsay decided to expand his product line by purchasing a snack foods line called “Mr. G” snack foods. Mr. G was a locally owned Philly brand that was best known for its hot and barbecue cheddar flavored chips. In 2007, Mr. Lindsay launched Soulful Foods, Inc. The first product launched under Soulful Foods, Inc was a venture between Mr. Lindsay and Sylvia Woods, the “Queen of Soul Food”. Mr. Lindsay has been in the consumer marketing industry over 17 years. In 2010, Mr. Lindsay continued to be an big influence in the music marketing industry; guiding platinum selling recording artist, Meek Mill by connecting his brand with corporate America and securing brand deals with companies such as, PUMA, Monster Energy Drink, and Ciroc. As well as partnering with Monster Headphones to help create the Monster’s 24k Headphones. Mr. Lindsay also assisted Meek Mill in growing PUMA’s business an additional 200 million over a five-year period. He’s also worked with Master P and his family.
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