Nas and Steve Stout have joined forces to pay homage to hip-hop greats in the form of financial support.
“Over the past several decades, hip-hop music and culture rose from a local niche New York art form into a global phenomenon,” the Foundation says. “In doing so, it has created countless careers, many fortunes, and, most importantly, gave hope and aspiration to a generation of young people.”
“Unfortunately, many of the most impactful original artists never received recognition proportional with their exceptional contributions to arts and culture,” the Foundation continued.
“The Paid in Full Foundation aims to rectify that through its grantmaking program by both honoring the people who built hip-hop and enabling them to pursue their creative and intellectual pursuits for the benefit of society.”
“What I wanna do is, all of the artists who [came in] early who signed bad deals or were taken advantage of, that the least we could do is give to them,” Stoute said on the “Rap Radar” podcast. “Pay that forward and give to them.”
He continued, “No one’s ever done this before. No one’s given the people who’ve helped move this industry forward reparations of some sort for what they’ve done but didn’t get back.”
The Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards is sold out and will take place on Nov. 17 in Las Vegas.
Source: Black Enterprise
