Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam thinks the company should have a Black CEO

Tom Lehman, Ilan Zechory and Mahbod Moghadam

Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam has strong opinions about why the company should have a Black CEO. What’s his reasoning?

“I've been ruminating for quite some time, but as I wrote in my Hacker Noon article, the events that have taken place this past month mean now is the time to make the change,” he says.

“I always defended the white leaders of Genius because when the company started, we wanted to use hip-hop lyrics as a springboard to start annotating literature, the Bible, and even the news. It didn't take off. A year after I left we basically abandoned all of those communities and doubled back down on rap lyrics.”

Moghadam says the President and CEO of Genius don't even listen to rap or care about it. “The only founder who cared about rap was me, and even I am not a hip-hop expert, just a fan. I shouldn't be CEO either,” he says. “Now that Genius is established as the biggest, most popular hip-hop website, the CEO must be someone who is a major figure in the hip-hop community.”

Hip-hop is an international art form, and it comes from Black American culture. That's why the new CEO must also be a Black American, says Moghadam.

BTI: What’s wrong with the ceo now?

MM: The CEO, Tom, is a tone deaf weirdo. The only good thing about him was that he codes - he built the original site himself. He built it overnight for me, because he was worried about me. I was going through hard times and he wanted to give me something to do as therapy.

But now his coding skills don't even matter anymore since the site's community is not important - the site is mainly known for making videos interviewing rappers. It is a media site not a tech site. It is a really really cool media site - but the CEO doesn't need to know how to code, it should be someone who is a part of hip-hop culture. Tom doesn't listen to rap at all. Also, he comes from a racist family and is borderline racist.

The President, Ilan, was useless to begin with. We only brought him on because Tom really likes him and wanted to be his friend. He married Audrey Gelman, who got fired from being CEO of The Wing last week because she is racist. Ilan is racist too - racists tend to love each other, that's why they got married. And he is the PRESIDENT OF THE BIGGEST HIP-HOP WEBSITE - WTF??? If his wife got fired for being racist then he has to get fired too. It's not like he ever did anything for the site - Tom coded Genius and I made it grow. Ilan did zero. I was against him joining us as a cofounder since 2009. He is a useless pretty boy and he needs to find a new job pronto. 

BTI: Many people are saying Black people don’t want handouts or positions bred out of pity. Is that what this is?

MM: WTF?!?!?! How is it a "handout"?? I am a major shareholder in Genius - my Genius stock is by far the biggest piece of my net worth. All I want is what's best for my stock. I want the same thing for other Genius shareholders as well, like founding employees and my friends who were angel investors. I want my site - the biggest hip-hop site - to have a leader WHO KNOWS ABOUT HIP-HOP. This is common sense logic. If Tom and Ilan keep leading this company without knowing anything about what the company does, then there needs to be a shareholder derivative lawsuit to get rid of them.

I'm not trying to do this for others - I am being quite selfish. I want what's best for me and my company. If anything it is a handout to me.

BTI: Who would you choose as the CEO?

MM: Rob Markman is the man who replaced me at Genius. He is the one who got all the rappers to get on it. He is already the de facto leader, so my vote is for him to be CEO. I also think Kanye West should get an offer - he designed the app's homepage and didn't even get any equity for it! Maybe he will be down to be our leader. I certainly would be! He is Yeezus Christ. 

BTI: Has anyone else suggested this?

MM: In 2012 a lot of WHITE HIPSTER journalists who write for pitchfork etc. accused Genius of being "cultural carpetbaggers". At that point the criticism was myopic because we still planned to expand to other genres.

Now that this expansion failed and we doubled back down on hip-hop, it is a different argument. The hipster journalists were correct but had bad timing. Also, all of these hipsters are quiet now because our investors are so powerful that they got a gag order. Nobody has the courage to speak up nowadays but me - even for me it's really scary, especially with my seizure disorder, I'm scared causing a big stir like this will make me end up in the hospital, or even dead. I am only doing this because I feel God is compelling me to do it - Genius is my baby and I can't sit quiet any longer, especially with the events of the past month in my mind.

BTI: Why did they change it from Rap Genius to Genius?

MM: We changed it to Genius right when I left because, like I'm saying we wanted to expand to other genres. I didn't want to have it all under one site, I wanted to make seperate sites called "Rap Genius" "Rock Genius" "Poetry Genius" and "News Genius". I still think we made the wrong move, especially when you consider how much we paid for genius.com! 

Look at Gawker - they have all of these separate sites. A lof of people don't even know Gizmodo and Jezebel are connected - that's how I wanted it to be for us too. People would be like "WAIT - poetry genius and rap genius are the same company?? Wow I had no idea!"

Part of the reason we changed it was to make it less awkward that two white guys are in charge. Now that the change turned out to be pretty much useless - a lot of people STILL call the site "Rap Genius" 5 years later - it is time for the CEO and President to leave. I resigned when it was my time, now it is their time. They need to follow my example and do what's best for the company.