Hip-Hop Meets Climate Science
Rap Guide to Climate Chaos is now playing off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse in New York! Check out the awesome reviews from Theater Pizzazz, Theater Scene, and Front Row Center.
We Did It! Now that we've reached the funding target of this campaign, the goalposts shift (don't they always?) to the first of our stretch goals. The main target covers only the cost of recording and producing the album, not the costs associated with promoting it. The following stretch goals will make sure the project reaches as many ears and changes as many minds as possible.
STRETCH GOAL 1: $15,000 – Hire a PR firm to promote the album
STRETCH GOAL 2: $20,000 – Make an awesome music video
STRETCH GOAL 3: $25,000 – Get vinyl versions of the album pressed
What's This About?
The science is clear: continued "business as usual" greenhouse gas emissions will be catastrophic for human wellbeing, and yet the smokestacks keep on smoking. What's going on? There are good solutions on the table, but scale-level action is perpetually stalled. In other words, people need a wake up call – a mix of hard facts and perspective shifting to point us towards real solutions. That's what I'm doing with my new off-Broadway show, "Rap Guide to Climate Chaos", and this IndieGogo campaign will support the making of a high-quality studio album to share the music and the message with a global audience.
“Climate change is the challenge of our time, and few voices capture its urgency and its scientific
intricacies with as much rigour and panache as Baba Brinkman. Baba is the science rapper supremo!”
– Tim Flannery, author of ‘The Weather Makers’ and Chief Commissioner, Australian Climate Council
How To Make A Record
Most of the funding will go to pay producers to work on beat production, audio engineering, mixing, and mastering, plus hiring session musicians and a graphic designer to make the album cover. I record and edit all the vocals myself so that costs me nothing but time (although believe me it takes time).
Here's how the money from the campaign will be spent:
What You Get And What You Make Happen
Your contribution will support a project designed to raise awareness and galvanize action around climate change. I honestly don't know how much of an impact my album will have so I won't make grand claims, but I do think the political climate will change only when the climate crisis ceases to be a niche "environmental" issue and becomes a central theme in mainstream culture. And mainstream culture is largely driven by the songs, memes, images and ideas that we consume as entertainment. So that's what you're contributing to.
What you get in return for your contribution is much more certain than the project's overall cultural impact. For one you get a lovingly-crafted concept album with more than an hour of quintessentially conscious hip-hop music.
You also get one or several of these awesome perks:
- Digital Downloads
- Physical CDs
- Cool T-Shirts
- Tickets to the Live Show
- Drinks with Baba (that's me!)
- Consultation Time Picking My Brain
- Original Raps Written Special for You
- Entire Live Performances
I'm also supposed to tell you what might go wrong that would derail this project, but honestly I've been making records for over a decade and I have a crack musical team in place signed up and ready to go on this one and I'm passionate about the subject, so if we have the budget I know we'll make an excellent product. If you doubt the skills, check out
my back catalogue.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you want to see this project succeed but you don't have the cash (really? not even a dollar? seriously, every bit helps) I totally understand.
Please share the link on Twitter or Facebook, or even better write a blog about it. Thanks for helping me turn this idea into a reality!
