‘Marcel’ to Debut his New App on Chuck D’s RapStation

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

On Friday, May 1, legendary Public Enemy front man Chuck D will host a “Hip-Hop Earthizen Town Hall,” with Dr. Khan, one of today’s most relevant rappers.

The Town Hall will take place via livestream at Chuck D’s Rapstation.com and on the station’s new app, built by the 30-year radio personality, Marcel.

“This app is bigger than just a way for people to have freedom of speech, or monetize their content,” Marcel told NNPA Newswire of his Nu Media Tech app.

“Those are truly important things, but bigger than that, we need to look at this app as a country. Our own country, in digital form,” he stated.

Expected to rival Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook the Nu Media Tech app is in the final stages of readiness, and those interested will be able to get it soon from the Apple Store or Google.

“It’s an app that will rival the majors that we deal with,” Marcel stated. “I told Chuck that I’m on Mars, and everybody else is on planet Earth because I keep hearing that we need this. I wanted to have an app where I can control it. You saw Teddy Riley and Babyface do their thing, but they’re not getting paid, Facebook got paid. My app is about freedom of speech, and it does what these others do and more. And, we won’t curb anyone’s free speech, and you should be paid when you use it.”

The app will provide a personal social media platform for users who can determine themselves what content they’d like to monetize and get paid instantly, Marcel said.

He added that he’d invested much to make the app a reality.

“It’s about putting forth an effort to be a part of the solution to our problem as a people. People always say, ‘we need to come together and support one another,’” Marcel explained.

One of the benefits of the app is that it provides a place where everyone in the black community can all come together, Marcel said.

“Never before in the history of the world have we been able to come together in real-time, instantly. Information is knowledge, and knowledge is power. We need to share information in real-time,” he stated.

If an African American is unlawfully and wrongfully “shot in the back by the police or a Zimmerman type, we need to know this when it happens, and for those who organize, we can organize immediately,” Marcel noted.

His app will then allow African Americans to “use our collective voice and say ‘This is wrong and we aren’t allowing it.’”

“And then take it out to social media and blow it up with this kind of atrocity,” he said.

Like other social media platforms, the message can reach communities quickly.

“This, as I see it, is truly going to be a powerful platform for us, and yes, we have to support it. Yes, it’s hard to do, yes it is very expensive and nearly impossible but so what. It has to exist. We can do it. It’s already here,” Marcel offered.

Chuck D told NNPA Newswire that he’s excited about Marcel’s invention.

“I’ve been having Rapstation.com, a 10-station channel portal that gets into the curation and total eloquence and narration of hip hop, and I met Marcel through the general manager,” Chuck stated.

“He’s one of those geniuses, and when people look around and say how come we don’t have these portals to get our content around, he ends up partnering with a super mega-company (Apple), and he keeps making inventions and innovations. What’s great is that he’s got one name, Marcel, like Prince.”

Marcel recently received a notice from his Apple submission team that there were still a few bugs that need working through that could delay the app for another week, but that won’t affect Chuck D’s scheduled Town Hall on Rapstation.

“Every time I fix a bug, I have to test with my team as well, and it usually takes a week for just the beta testers to have it,” Marcel stated.

“I am glad to be getting the word out about the app coming, but at the end of the day, I care about the app being done right more than a timetable of completion. It has to be right. As an African American, I don’t get to get it wrong. It has to be perfect or better. Especially in this space.”