The biggest winner at the recent BET Hip-Hop Awards, Kendrick Lamar, has proven time without number that apart from being a music giant, he is a business magnate as well.
Kendrick Lamar’s pgLang has tried and succeeded in various ventures — movie studio, advertising agency, publishing house, record label.
The company which was founded in 2020 alongside filmmaker Dave Free, KDot’s extensive multimedia organization and self-described home of “astronaut ideas” has put out music videos, marketing campaigns, and Grammy-winning rap albums, all of them made under a belief of aspiring to “break formats and make them real for the curious.”
The All My Life rapper has applied his minimalist approach to the mobile phone industry by creating a minimalist phone in collaboration with Light Phone, that lacks social media and internet.
The device known as the pgLang mobile phone is being marketed as a less distracting alternative to modern phones.
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Information about the pgLang phone was released on October 30 when the company dropped a new teaser for the launch online. In a short video, the new design is seen without modern features like a web browser or color interface.
The pgLang mobile which is marked as “just a phone”, is a less distracting and tech-heavy option than other traditional modern designs. The phone will be available this month for purchase on pgLang’s official website, with a limited edition of 250 models.
The mindset behind the phone is to provide opportunities for people to be more present in real life and less dependent on their devices – a vision also shared by the Light brand, which describes itself as “an alternative to the tech monopolies that are fighting more and more aggressively for our time and attention”.
According to Complex, Light Phone came into the spotlight with a Light Phone Kickstarter campaign back in 2015 and has since put out devices that many describe as “dumb phones” – referring to the lack of features seen with traditional smartphones.
The new limited-edition launch will follow on from the brand’s Light Phone II, which Light described as “more reliable and practical” than the original design.
Lamar and Free first collaborated on pgLang to develop the company back in 2020 – describing it as a “multi-lingual, at-service company” at the time.
During a press release by pgLang and Light company, the public was provided an insight into what to expect with the Light Phone II.
“The Light Phone II is a premium, minimal phone designed to be used as little as possible. Built with the essential utility of our modern smartphones without the distractions, the Light Phone II is ‘just a phone.’” According to the FAQ on Light’s Web site, the core model Light Phone II supports phone calls and text messaging (no images allowed) and comes with an alarm. And that’s it—users can add a handful of additional features, but the phone “will never have social media, internet browsing, email, news, or ads.”
Rappers and other entertainers have always struggled with reducing distractions and social media pressure. Jay-Z for example, is said to still favor beepers and flip-phones, harkening back to his rubber band days. Seth Rogen is also said to prefer writing his scripts out on a laptop with no Wi-Fi connection.
With the exclusive edition of pgLang mobile phone and his various collaborative projects, Kendrick Lamar continues to captivate his audience with his creativity and innovative ventures.
pgLang is constantly clouded in an ambitious and intriguing venture that also happens to include some dope sneakers. Lamar recently debuted his collaboration with Converse last May with the pgLang Chuck 70—a very subtle spin on the ubiquitous Chuck Taylor high-top that added a hint of primary-color detailing and some new hardware to set off an already pretty much unimprovable shoe. A tiny pgLang brand logo embossed above the All-Star patch in crisp gold and a set of hiking boot-esque metal hook eyelets were the only real points of differentiation. It didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but the delicate approach still elevated the classic without presuming to alter it drastically.