Jillionaire And Collision
Collision 2023, one of the globe’s most significant tech summits, is rapidly approaching. And judging last year’s growing rich roster of speakers, global tech influencers, and new tech debuts, this Toronto event promises a tsunami of new, unexpected experiences. We anticipate abundant opportunities to create unique and lasting memories at the world’s fastest-growing technical summit, Collision 2023, Toronto, ON.
As part of Collision, I met celebrity DJ Christopher Leacock, better known as Jillionaire. And in 2018, I wanted to hear his thoughts on the transitioning of politics in Trinidad. Now that his new home is in Miami. Our conversation transitioned to his vision of a new political landscape of total inclusion.
My thoughts
I spent a half-day reading Christopher Leacock’s bios and watching his YouTube videos while preparing for the session.
I arrived at the chat booth early, giving me the unexpected opportunity to watch Chris’s entrance into the Collision Media Village. His apparent celebrity added to the cacophony of the designated space crowded with media members and open mics. Yet his calm demeanor and intense expression would be remarkable in any crowd. I pushed aside the initial plan to write about what influencers shaped Chris’s craft. That suddenly seemed too ordinary. I still wanted to know what fueled his music, but I also wanted to know what energized his political opinions. Five minutes into the conversation, the agent of cultural change awakened. And our Q and A became the unexpected in a Collision tech summit. The artistry of the Trinidadian celebrity DJ and music producer merely eclipses the depth that completes him.
Perhaps his views are shaped more because Chris was born on April 3, 1978, in Trinidad, during its continuing social evolution. A government struggling toward cultural reform was the environment molding Chris’s social-economic beliefs. My opening salvo of questions about Trinidad’s current government and their newly elected leader Paula-Mae Weekes the first woman to hold the office of President of Trinidad-Tobago, was met with surprising pushback. Chris rejects the idea that gender and race should inform our election choices. And though I questioned the efficacy of creating a more balanced governing body. The artist spoke strongly that actual qualifications in any election should be as blind and just as justice.
Jillionaire of Major Lazar heeds the call. The timeless tradition of music and art being the clarions of needful social change is a new driving force among cultural architects.
Now you may wonder how music fits within the culture of a technical summit filled with all things in technology. Technology summits are all about new and progressive ideas, reshaping and reengineering our lives. And with that must come new socialization.
A stream of awakening has become a commonality energizing global musical sounds, regardless of genre or language. Christopher Leacock spoke of how our thoughts shape our worlds and spaces. Choosing our leaders based on useless dogmas that define a leader’s suitability based on skin color, religion, and gender keeps us stuck. The same doctrines merely mire us in the societal inequities we struggle to overcome.
Although Christopher Leacock preached the need to dispel the “isms” of race, religion, and gender, the reality of our surroundings still mimicked the old. Most well-funded startup tech companies are white male-centric. And our busy media pool, where we sat chatting, lacked diversity.
The moment we win in the war against the overworked political upheaval of marginalization and its consequential exploitation, inequity, and political tribalism will be the moment of a new norm.
We can enjoy Christopher Leacock’s music and projects on YouTube and SoundCloud.
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