Peace! My name is J-Live. I’m an emcee, producer, DJ, and an educator. Born and raised in New York City. Currently residing here in Atlanta Georgia.
9000 Miles is my very first crowdfunding project. The purpose of this campaign is to enable and empower me to serve not just an artist, but as an educator.
My vision is to not only teach through my lyrical content and performances, but also through lectures, classes and hands on workshops for aspiring artists of all ages. The title "9000 Miles" and the concept, is actually an old song of mine.
It actually refers to the lessons of the 5% Nation and the N.O.I. The lesson is a poetic conversation about the [Trans] Atlantic Slave Trade. This notion of a captured people that want to return to their home but can't swim 9000 miles across the ocean. This question of; Why didn’t their people come and get them? And this answer that, their people just didn’t know where they were. Metaphorically for me, it represents struggle, not just artistically but financially as well.
A lot of us, artists and otherwise, are treading water and surviving in sink or swim situations. So this 9000 Miles gofundme is my way of saying, "I'm here, and I'm asking for help."
I’ve actually developed a curriculum to teach everything that I’ve learned through my experiences and travels as a hip hop artist; Writing, recording performing, cutting and scratching, blending, mixing, producing, beat making and then some.
The goal of this campaign is raise money to take this knowledge from my little home studio here, to the hip hop ed community around the world. Upgrading this studio will empower me to not only better produce and perform my own music, but help me to enable others to get the best of themselves creatively through hip hop.
The money will go towards repairing gear, updating and improving software, hardware, learning new technologies, so that I can apply them to my own music and have more to teach others, and of course some day to day living expenses. It will also allow me to outsource things I've been doing myself out of necessity and pay other creatives for their time energy and skill. Things like art direction, photography, videography, engineering, marketing, promotion, publicity, you name it.
And for fans of my music, a lot of whom affectionately refer to me as underrated, I can't begin to express how much this help will enable me with the head space, the time, the resources, to not just make more music but to expose more people to my music.
For advocates and allies, these funds will help me to become not just a more successful independent hip hop artist, but to actually serve the community as a social entrepreneur.
I am thankful for any all support you’re willing to give. Be it monetary or social by sharing this with other people. I’ve set up rewards and incentives for various levels of support. From music in my digital catalogue, to signed CDs, to T shirts, to posters to online experiences and even some in person experiences for people here in Atlanta. But to show and prove the value of this project, I’ve actually begun producing a series of videos speaking on different points in the curriculum. I’ll be rolling them out as things progress.
One of the things I liked about gofunme is that projects don’t have expirations or time limits. Having said that, I’m actually setting a goal of 2 weeks for the 9000 Miles Project to reach the benchmark of $9000. As an added incentive to reach this goal in time, I’m pledging from the onset that monies exceeding $9000 will be split between this project and other like minded crowd funding campaigns from other people. Consider this my way of paying it forward. I’ll be back here frequently keeping you posted as things progress. I want to thank you in advance for your support. PEACE!
