24-Year-Old Is Hip Hop’s Face of Technology

He’s only 24-years-old but Iddris Sandu is hip hop’s face of technology. Sandu worked with the late Nipsey Hussle to build the world’s first “smart store” in 2017. He used augmented reality to build Beyonce’s entire website, worked with Rihanna’s Fenty line and Kanye West’s Yeezy. Jay Z’s Marcy Venture Partners recently made a major investment in Sandu’s company, Spatial Labs (sLABS). sLABS is a tech incubator that focuses on the metaverse and the various ways in which blockchain will shape our reality in the near future. 

Sandu was born in Accra, Ghana, and raised in Compton and Harbor City, California. He’s very aware of his Blackness. According to Forbes, “Sandu's goal in the metaverse's spatial reality…is to ensure that Black creators are at the forefront.” Sandu told Forbes that Black people are “frequently at the end of creation. Someone else is in charge of the hardware, software, business, and strategy. We simply make use of the product." Sandu is working to change the narrative and thanks to a hefty investment from Jay Z, his chances are quite good.