Dear Internet,
Remember that one time when a bunch of you gave money to foot the bill for the weed carrier in Animal Collective to travel to Mali to play a concert and buy all sorts of exotic sandals. Well, this time I have an even better and less culturally noxious offer for you. Mike Eagle and Ras G are two of the best musicians that Los Angeles has yielded in the last decade. The former popularized the phrase “art-rap” to make Animal Collective fans feel guilty for ignoring experimental rap in favor of exclusively Dipset (I know, you’ve all changed.) The latter helped found the Beat Scene that brought you such artists as Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, and Allen Ginsberg.
Now they’ve collaborated to help promote a trip to Africa to school the Ugandan youth on both the boom and the bap. A full-length project will come out of it and Mike and Ras have already raised half of the necessary funds thanks to a grant from the LA Department of Cultural Affairs. Now they need another $5,000 in matching donations. Mike’s spiel is below the jump. So is the song they’ve recorded, which I highly endorse. You can donate here and you should. But don’t take my word for it, listen to the advice of the famous Hollywood celebrity.
Via Mike:
I’ve been offered an opportunity that I never could have imagined.
I’ve been selected along with Brainfeeder artist Ras G to travel to the african nation of Uganda to teach a youth program about hip-hop and record a project with Ugandan rap artists.
The project was conceived and developed by LA hip-hop non-profit organization J.U.I.C.E. and has been partially funded by a grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
The grant, however, calls for matching funds. This means that they fund half of the overall budget for the project with the responsibility of the other half being on us.
We began with a fundraising goal of $7,000. At the moment we’ve generated $1,200. We still have quite a bit of ground to cover.
We need any help that you could provide. 1 dollar, 5 dollars, 1,000 dollars. Each and every bit of assistance we get will help this once in a lifetime opportunity come to pass.
The song we’ve presented here is just an exercise in Ras and I putting something down. Its raps I wrote to a beat of his that I liked. We did this very quickly and I think it came out great. Whats in front of us tho, is the opportunity to visit another culture and and have experiences that could change our lives and help us make a project that could be a landmark in both of our careers.
Please help us and donate here:
http://www.stayclassy.org/events/juice-intl-hip-hop-artist-exchange-agya-uganda/e8079
Download:
MP3: Open Mike Eagle & Ras G – “Warhorn”
