Hip-hop speaks a universal language, unifying even polar opposites. Ask anyone who considers themselves a hip-hop head, listening to the rhythmic beats, chanted speech or seamless delivery, it will bring together the most unsuspecting pair, and fuse together those that have always loved the music genre and lifestyle.

It’s a way of life that instantly resonated with Newark, New Jersey native Anthony Frasier and Bronx, New York bred James Lopez. The Phat Startup founders first encountered each other on social media, specifically Twitter, and connected during Social Media Week, later working on Startup Weekend in 2012. The duo clicked, chatting about business and hip-hop and others began to gravitate toward their conversation.

“Hip-hop was born by hackers,” says Frasier. “DJ Kool Herc basically putting together samples of different songs, hacking them to make music. Same thing with DJ Grandmaster Flash going to the junk yard, putting together light switches to make the first crossfader ever…there’s no DJ set without a crossfader almost and that was started by a light switch. That culture of hacking together is something that’s been part of hip-hop since the beginning.”

“Hip-hop was born by hackers,” says Frasier. "...that culture of hacking together is something that’s been part of hip-hop since the beginning.”

Inspired by Eric Reis’ Lean Startup methodology and hip-hop, the duo has created a movement of hip-hop enthusiasts and applied its principals to present entrepreneurship in an easy-to-understand package.

Sitting down with both Frasier and Lopez at the start of South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, a five-day gathering of techies, early-to-seasoned entrepreneurs, and thought leaders, it was clear as day they were extremely passionate about what they do.

A portion of Frasier’s road to entrepreneurship was played out on the small screen when he appeared in CNN’s Black in America: The New Promised Land—Silicon Valley. He was apart of the inaugural NewME Accelerator class in 2011 and there was a lot the hour-long special didn’t show. The segment showed that he didn’t finish college, but the now 28-year-old has accomplished a lot in his young career, founding The Koalition, a gaming site for urban youth; a meetup group called BrickCity Tech and, as seen on the cable network’s fourth installment, co-founding the gamers’ app Playd.

Lopez, a stay-at-home father with two kids, left his engineering job at Random House to start his own company, Change for Kids. When that didn’t pan out, he delved into books to further educate himself on business and entrepreneurship. It led the 34-year-old to co-found The Phat Startup. When the duo’s not putting on a program or running the business, hip-hop still remains.

When asked which hip-hop track best defines them at this time in their lives, Lopez responds with Wale’s “Black Grammys” featuring J. Cole, Meek Mill and Rockie Fresh. The song delves into how the artists had to create their own space, the Black Grammys, to acknowledge their accomplishments, which the computer science grad resonates with. Frasier identifies with Jay Z and the track “Hard Knock Life” seeing as though he’s used his not-so-rosy life as fuel to affect change.

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