You likely know Ur Boy Bangs, a.k.a. Bangs a.k.a. Ur Boi Bangs, as the emcee behind viral hits like ‘Take U to Da Movies‘ and ‘Meet Me on Facebook‘.
It’s also possible you were introduced to the South Sudanese-born Melbourne native after late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon skewered ‘Take U to Da Movies’ in an on-air segment.
He may be a tongue-in-cheek joke to some, but Bangs takes what he does seriously, inspired to make hip-hop after being exposed to Soulja Boy, who had an international hit with a song produced in FL Studio.
But you can now add another influence to Bangs’s list – Mark Zuckerberg. In addition to his ongoing rap career (he’s playing a show at Boney in Melbourne later this month), he’s a budding entrepreneur.
The rapper, whose real name is Ajak Chol, recently took to Instagram to post an image of himself alongside Facebook creator Zuckerberg and Snapchat creator Evan Spiegel, underneath the logos of their respective companies.
Sitting above Bangs is a logo that looks like a mash-up of the iconic blue Facebook logo, Snapchat’s famous ghost mascot, and Reddit’s ubiquitous alien. The logo in question belongs to Sharetimer, Bangs’s new app.
“I can’t answer some questions here because the app is not out yet and I wanna keep it a surprise,” Bangs told Tone Deaf when we asked him about the story behind Sharetimer.
According to Sharetimer’s official website, the app allows you to share photos and videos in the form of “letters” which can be shared with “friends and family around the world before the letter disappears in one to seven days”.
“It reminds us of back in the days, how we used to send letters to our family and friends and our loved ones.” The site doesn’t make it clear, but presumably users are able to include multiple forms of media in one message, like a blog post crossed with Snapchat.
“It’s my first project,” Bangs told Tone Deaf. “I don’t have any background in technology or programming, but I love seeing my team coding the app. It’s interesting.”
He may not have a background in technology, but he’s certainly up to date on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley, recently sharing a video in which he plays out a conversation between Zuckerberg and Spiegel.
Bangs is tight-lipped about the project, but claims “Sharetimer is different from Snapchat and Instagram. You’ll know why it’s different when it’s in the App Store.”
“We are working on the back-end now, but it will be out soon!” In the meantime, you can stay up to date with everything Sharetimer by following Bangs on Facebook or the official Sharetimer Twitter.
