The biggest rap stars of this generation might be known for their bravado and unattainable wealth, but the creators of Hip Hop Network Television want to remind fans of all ages of the genre’s humble beginnings. From its birth in New York City in the 1970s to eventually serving as a muse for empowering Black and Latinx youth across all the boroughs. It spurred a generation of new artists including emcees, disc jockeys, breakdancers and graffiti artists. But of course Hip-Hop would eventually become a global movement, and today it has made an imprint on almost every facet of society, from priceless art to high-fashion.

For Antwan Banks, Founder & CEO of TheHHN.TV , the multi-digital venture aims to not only create a safe space for lovers of Hip-Hop, but also hopes to unite all its fans under one, inclusive platform. Here he shares what it was like to go from the military to Hip-Hop entrepreneur.

What was your career before building TheHHN.TV?

I’m an Army veteran. I joined the military in 1990 to earn money, finish school and the goal was to become an architectural engineer. But I also loved to draw so a friend and I started a graphics company in the early 1990s, when Hip-Hop was in its Golden Era. There were stars like Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J and Big Daddy Kane. Graffiti art also ruled the era, so our style of graphics really stood out and I was making more money from the business than being a soldier. This really opened my eyes to entrepreneurship. I ended up starting a recording label while I was in the Army, and I had a few deals.

How was it like making the leap from graphic design to running a record label?

They’re not completely siloed. Hip-Hop is made of four elements: DJing, emceeing, breakdancing and graffiti. When I was stationed overseas my business partner and I had to part ways, but I still had that hunger to do something. When I saw the rise of Def Jam Records, So So Def, La Face, Death Row, Bad Boy and Tommy Boy it really inspired me to create my own label. I even ended up moving to Las Vegas where I began working as a disc jockey after I left the music business. I then moved down south to open up my own club, which I ran for 12 years.

What state was this in?

It was called VIP Club in South Carolina, I ran it, up until 2012. Over time I got burnt out on the nightlife and the change in the local economy. I was making six figures a year but then the market crashed in 2008 or 2009 and we had to eventually close it down because we were losing so much money. Years later, I ended up moving to Atlanta in December of 2012. I returned to the club scene where I knew a DJ at club Strokers and I started working there as floor manager during the day and I did some security at night. I ended up having a lot of time on my hands while I was sitting at the club during the day so I started writing my first book, which was a memoir of my life as a club owner along with some compelling fiction & non-fiction. It eventuall turned into a trilogy, it’s available online and you can of course find it on Amazon. I ended up writing a total of 19 books. During my writing days, other aspiring authors that I knew, also wanted to write their own books for the genre and asked me if I could help publish their books and before I knew it, I had started a publishing company. The first website I was ever a part of bringing to life was for my publishing company; Printhouse Books Printhouse Books, which is still in existence.

How did this lead to the creation of TheHHN.TV?

One day I was watching a panel of record label owners and executives, and they were discussing the future of Hip-Hop in the digital age. This was already years after the entire industry went to war with Napster, which distributed digital music files and affected the record industry. So, I started thinking and dreaming big. I was also inspired by multi-hyphenate Hip- Hop stars like Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, DMX, Ice Cube, The Fresh Prince & Ice-T, who went on to become television and movie stars, and to produce their own projects.

So, I started coming up with crazy ideas to create a platform to give more stars this opportunity. Every day for a month, I wrote notes on it. I contacted a designer I had worked with and it probably took us a year to get it operational. Once we got the website together, I had to populate it with content.

By October 2019, I had it registered with a domain.

What was your vision for this hip-hop media company?

My vision was to create a platform where hip-hop creators feel at one with the fans and vice versa. And this includes global audiences, far from its birthplace in New York City.

I’m born in 1970 so I grew up with hip hop. Hip hop is meant to empower each other in a culture. And I want TheHNN.TV to encompass that. But in order to pull off my vision I knew I needed a team of individuals that truly ate, slept and breathed Hip-Hop. While I was working at Strokers I befriended a DJ, Frank, who had moved to Atlanta back in 1994 when he and his brother were pushing their group; “Flesh & Blud.” He and his brother had transitioned from their rap group to being professional DJ’s on the Atlanta Strip Club scene and during 2012 to maybe late 2013 he was running his own record label while DJing at Strokers. Once I knew that I was going to move forward with this crazy idea, I knew he probably would be just as crazy about it as I was, if I could explain it to him.

You see, when you’re around real Hip-Hop heads you can feel the energy shoot though your body from across the room. The energy is undeniable, it’s that high we felt when we first heard “Rapper’s Delight”, it’s the goose bumps we get every time we hear “The Message”. It’s the warm southern hospitality feeling you get when you hear OutKast or Goodie Mob when music was made for the soul. That feeling I just described is missing in Hip-Hop today. Hip-Hop needs a balance to exist so it can empower its culture to continue to be great.

Something in my gut told me that Frank would feel the same way. I asked Mr. Frank Chappelle III to look at what I created and told him that it was going to be a streaming platform. After navigating through the platform for a few days he called me up and told me that he wanted to be in on this venture. I offered him a position as COO and here we are today, several years later with me as CEO and Frank as COO.

What kind of content do you share on the website?

We stream licensed content such as movies, tv series, documentaries, and original content. We knew it wasn't going to be hard to find the content creators, I just had to make sure that the platform was presentable and looked clean. I went with GoDaddy because everything is already built in; the templates, the hosting, etc.

We offer different tiers of membership. There’s a Citizenship Level where you sign up for free and view the content. A Content Creator Level where you can produce movies and documentaries for the platform; and we give creators the opportunity to monetize that content.

Last, we have a Corporate Citizenship, which is built for corporate entities who have the marketing budget to partner with us and sponsor artists. The only other membership is the HBCU Citizenship, which is for students of Black colleges and universities.

Why did you end up choosing .TV as its domain name? What does it do for branding?

I knew the direction that we wanted to take the platform. I needed to be identified as television network out the gate, I knew we could build the brand off of that. Just like the Hip Hop Network’s letters are theHHN TV, it looks & sounds similar to other 3 letter networks. And when I came across the .TV domain, I thought that it was perfect and it made sense for the logo, too.

What is the future of TheHNN.TV?

We just added two new members to our team, Jasmyn Howard is from the Generation X version of Hip-Hop and she’s a professional dancer, choreographer, artist and now V.P of Content Creations here at The HHN TV. She brings her pure Hip-Hop experience as an artist & dancer who also performed in arenas full of thousands of people and knows what it is to feel Hip-Hop flowing through your blood.

Next is Chara ‘ChaCha’ Reeves, she comes from the Millennial version of Hip-Hop, we met her on the set of one of our original podcast productions as the A&R of the show’s guest that day. That caught my attention because it takes a certain type of individual to be an A&R, especially in Hip-Hop. She’s now the Talent Scout for TheHHN TV. She has a few projects on deck to be released and she brings her eye for talent along with the artist development factor.

The growth has been steady, and we began gaining steam in the summer 2021 as the culture continued to elevate in Atlanta, most notably with the newly revived FreakNik Festival here. One of our ambassadors knew the promoter and he was looking for media coverage, so she asked us if we could do it. I had already purchased a tent, camera equipment, step & repeat and lights. We only had one host at the time, so we called her and she agreed to do it. We were booked toset up the red carpet and interview Hip-Hop Artist for two nights and we had never done it before. At the time I was only focused on movies, tv shows & documentaries to stream on the platform. We never thought about doing this type of media, so our plan was to record everything that went on for those two days. In addition to the artist interviews, we filmed stage performances, fan interactions and more.

When we were done, it took us two days to look at all the footage. During the 2021 FreakNik Weekend we filmed and interviewed, Bun B, Lil Scrappy, Young Dro, Twista, Trina, Juvenile, Young Dro, Crime mob and more. We just hit record and captured it all to share with our viewers on TheHNN.TV. It’s a part of Hip-Hop and its history.

Currently we have several reality TV shows, podcasts and more original content in production that will be streaming exclusively on TheHHN TV. We also added TheHHN.TV to all the major App stores, so now you can also download it at no cost. We’re also turning several titles from the PrintHouse Books catalog into film and TV series.