Ikhane Akhigbe

Creative Producer | Showrunner | IP Lawyer & Strategist
AbOriginal Productions • Okhai Akhigbe & Co
Story. Structure. Ownership.

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

Creators build culture.
Ownership builds legacy.
Structure protects value.
My work sits at the intersection of all three.

[Patrick Chinazaekpere Dorgu @PatrickDorgu13]

All Glory to God.

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

@Uduakisong Part 2.
Good evening.
😏

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

Good evening, madame @Uduakisong

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

Life happens

[Justin Tinsley @JustinTinsley]

Speaking of all-time great NYC teams…

There was a time when Jay-Z and Dame Dash were as inseparable as any championship duo, helping lead Rocafella Records. Thirty years later, the music remains. The memories remain. The friendship, however, is but a relic.

New video essay.

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

🔥🔥🔥

[The Times and Sunday Times @thetimes]

Families who put their homes into trusts to avoid care fees and inheritance tax are now facing huge bills

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

A company built an actress who only exists as software. They gave her a name, Tilly Norwood, set up her Instagram, and walked her around Hollywood looking for a talent agent, the same as any rising star. The actors' union answered with one line: she is not an actor.

Flesh-and-blood movie stars get paid, get tired, take time off, and want a slice of the money a film makes. Software wants none of that. Emily Blunt saw a clip of the fake actress and said, "we're screwed." The same logic is already spreading through the rest of the movie business.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, just helped make a full-length animated movie for under 30 million dollars. The usual version costs around 200 million and takes three years. This one took nine months, with a crew of about thirty people. It is called Critterz, and it showed its first clips to buyers at the Cannes film festival a few weeks ago.

A big Wall Street bank, Morgan Stanley, figures AI could cut the cost of making film and TV by as much as 30 percent. Studios are chasing that number. Audiences never asked for any of it.

You can already see the cost in people's paychecks. The amount of filming in Los Angeles has nearly halved since 2022, and about 41,000 people left the film and TV business in just two years. Some of that is everyone watching shows on their phones now. A growing slice is software doing jobs that used to need a whole room of people.

Audiences still line up for big special-effects movies, though. The biggest film on the planet last year was Ne Zha 2, a Chinese cartoon with no human actors in it, now one of the five highest earning movies ever made. More than 300 million tickets were sold for it in China, almost one for every person in the United States. The new Avatar movie cost a reported 350 million dollars, one of the priciest films ever, and it still sailed past a billion. What flopped was special effects with no story behind them. For the first time in 14 years, not one Marvel movie made the year's ten biggest.

So the split came down to story. People pay for huge effects when there is a story worth sitting through, and they stay home when there isn't. The quieter fight is about money: who, or what, gets paid to make the thing. A 30 million dollar movie built mostly by AI and a 350 million dollar one built by hand are now going after the same ticket, the one you might buy this year.

[FPL Frasier @FPLfrasier]

Someone should write a book on @AndyMitten. I think he will be remembered as part of United history. Starting to cover as a young boy when nobody knew what fan journalism was to being the most prominent United journalist in the world. That’s some journey. That’s some story.

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

😂😂😂

[Lord @lord3aaa]

Not only is this my favorite song from this album… This is my favorite song fro the Wu… EVER…

[Lawyered Up @Lawyeredup1]

#JayZ Non-Legal Stuff: Roots Picnic Performance: Mixed Feelings

When it comes to Jay-Z's appearance and performance at the Roots Picnic in Philly, in one sense, I liked the performance. In another sense, I hated it.

What I Hated: I hated it because current rap artists and media personalities have kept dragging Jay-Z into their mess, and have kept dragging him - without justification. They have done it to the point that Jay-Z felt the need to step back into the fray. Over the years, Jay-Z has earned his stripes as a rapper, musician, lyricist, businessman, public figure, cultural icon, billionaire, etc. He is dealing important figures: NFL leaders, business leaders, and world leaders. He has contributed so much to the culture in terms social justice. He married and is still married to a black woman and they are raising their children. He came from humble beginnings and had to do it the hard way. From the projects and project “business” to financing business projects. He made it and is still making it.

So, instead of learning from him to achieve the same heights or higher, these new age individuals felt the need to drag him into their mess. Why? The current artists should battle and compete with their contemporaries rather than attempting to compete with Jay-Z. Make your own mark against your peers. There is no Drake vs Jay-Z comparison/competition. There should be no Drake vs 50 Cent/competition or comparison. The same applies to other legends. The rap legends rapped about the life they lived – hunger, poverty, crimes, oppression, beefs, fights, kill or be killed, women, etc.

Many young rappers rap about the life they heard about. I am not mad at them. I like good music, regardless of the “street cred” of the artist. My problem, however, is when young rappers think that rapping about thug life, puts them in the same zip code as rap legends like Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Ice Cube, Snoop, Dr. Dre, etc who lived that life. It doesn't.

Prior Street Life: I have read some criticisms of Jay-Z about him selling drugs, stabbing people, being violent, being with many women, calling women b's and h's, etc. Those criticisms are valid – for today's Jay-Z. They are not valid for the Jay-Z of prior years. People felt they had to do those things to survive and advance in that environment in those days. The same applies to many rap legends. If Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, etc are doing those same things today, they should be harshly criticized – and rightly so.

Duality: There is a certain duality in rap, at least, in my opinion. When you are young and you listen to rap music, you can enjoy it for the art. You can vibe with it. The words can be empowering (or degrading), but you can still enjoy it as music. When you get older, you may need to adopt a certain level of duality to enjoy some rap songs. Here's what I mean: You can enjoy the songs for the entertainment value, but also abhor the real-life message and implications of the songs. For example, it is enjoyable to listen to and vibe with Bobby Shmurda's “Hot N****”. However, when you get older and you really think about the lyrics, you'll understand that he was rapping about the possible killing of a black man. I am not singling him out because a similar thing is involved if the songs are about “smacking” women, degrading women, etc. I apply this duality to some of Jay-Z's old songs. When rap legends and old-head rappers rap about catching bodies, it is most likely the bodies of other black men. In that sense, I am not mad at the current rappers rapping about catching bodies without actually killing anyone. The music itself should convince me to enjoy it.

So, for young rappers, you don't need to have caught bodies to rap about it. Just don't equate yourself to, or challenge the rap legends who have caught bodies.

Punching Down: Another reason I didn't like the fact of the performance (not the actual performance) is that, given his stature, Jay-Z will necessarily be punching downwards in a battle with most, if not all the personalities who are dissing him. He is in the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame. There are only a few artists alive who can even be in the same room with him in terms of talent, influence, status, work ethic and accomplishments. Battling some of these personalities wouldn't raise Jay-Z's profile: it will only raise the profiles of those personalities. Even though I didn't like the fact of the performance, I understand why he did it and I liked the actual performance.

What I liked about the Performance: Jay-Z's silence over the years, while understandable, created a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum, as the saying goes. As such, unscrupulous actors have filled this vacuum with conspiracies and all kinds of nonsense: child sacrifice, illuminati, Epstein Files, paying off judges, putting Torey Lanez in prison, he is broke, NFL is about to fire him, etc. Thus, even without saying a word, his appearance on stage spoke volumes. Remember when people alleged that he was fleeing the country because of the Epstein files?

His lyrics and performance answered a lot of questions for those who had any doubts. He still got it. He can still spit bars. He can still diss and he can still throw overt and subliminal shots.

His unstated message to the current artists and personalities is this: “Leave me alone. I am still HIM. You don't want it with Hov.” I think they should heed that message, but what do I know? I don't anticipate that he will be going tit-for-tat with some of those personalities he dissed.

[DJ Critical Hype @criticalhype]

KENDRICK flowing over a classic NAS beat 💿💿

I mixed the "R.O.T.C.” vocals over the "You're Da Man" instrumental

[Amara Nwankpa @Nwankpa_A]

The idea that Arsenal became a cultural phenomenon because it signed Black players is too simplistic.

Like much of London, Arsenal positioned itself as a club that extended belonging towards the margins. Not racial margins alone, but the margins of football's imagination.

Kanu arrived after heart surgery that could have ended his career. Bergkamp arrived carrying the weight of a disappointing spell at Inter. Henry arrived as a talented but unsettled player still searching for his place. Kolo Touré was potential before proof. Arteta arrived as a midfielder many thought was entering decline, only to be entrusted with the captaincy. Wenger himself was a foreign manager challenging the assumptions of English football.

The pattern was not diversity for its own sake. It was recognition before validation.

Arsenal repeatedly seemed willing to see people not simply as they were, but as they could become. It trusted before consensus arrived. It built a reputation for offering a second chance, a fresh start, or a path to fulfilment where others saw limitation, uncertainty, or decline.

That is why former players, injured players, and out-of-contract players so often found their way back to Arsenal. The club developed a reputation for treating people as more than their immediate utility.

Representation matters. But recognition creates loyalty.

People did not just see players who looked like them. They saw an institution that appeared willing to enlarge its definition of who belonged.

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[Osaretin Victor Asemota @asemota]

DO NOT EVER LET HIM COME NEAR @ManUtd AGAIN!

[TonyDaDome @TonyDaDome]

Jay-Z: The Greatest MC of All Time … In 1000 Words (Throwback Article that was challenge from a friend)
https://t.co/j3y846SFDV

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

My Captain

[DEE OF LAGOS @DRealDee2]

Top Top man

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

🔥🔥🔥

[United Pride @UtdPride]

Ice Man Bruno🥶

This Bruno Fernandes edit is sick 🔥🇵�

[United Pride @UtdPride]

Ice Man Bruno🥶

This Bruno Fernandes edit is sick 🔥🇵�

[Rob Pursey @robpursey]

never forget how dope Treach was 🔥

[Ikhane Akhigbe @ikhane]

🔥🔥

[Drew-Jit-Su @HipHopSince76_]

Just Hangin' Out
#MainSource