About World View

Dropping 2013 via The DJBooth!

“AWKWORD is as much an activist as an artist, channeling the idea of conveying a message and a viewpoint through rhyme and attempting to cause a change in the world around him.” — The Village Voice, Sound of the City

“Refreshingly, AWKWORD is trying to blaze his own trail (what other White guy quotes Maya Angelou in any industry?) by releasing music with a message.” — The Urban Daily

“Better get down with AWKWORD’s movement, he’s doing something very positive for the Hip Hop community.” — DonutsAndMilk.com

“Make sure you check out World View, there are a lot of ill cuts on the project.” — Kevin Nottingham

About #WorldView

Rapper/Activist (and Sociologist) AWKWORD is one of the “dope artists” putting New York City Hip Hop back on the map (DOPEMusicBlog) — making “quality music that deserves to be heard” (Chuck D of Public Enemy). AWKWORD is also “the heart and soul” of World View (BuckMarleyXXX), the first-ever 100% For-Charity Global Hip Hop Album. Hosted/presented by The DJ Booth (DJBooth) and also sponsored by The Morgan Stanley Foundation, The Red Tag Society and End of the Weak (EOW), in addition to Dope Music Blog and The Mad Bloggers, AWKWORD’s “highly anticipated LP World View” (The Source) is designed to connect us worldwide through Hip Hop music & culture. World View features contributions from every continent, approximately 20 countries and every U.S. region. The album boasts production from the likes of Harry Fraud, Domingo and Numonics, and guest emcee appearances from Joell Ortiz, Sean Price, KRS-One, Slug (of Atmosphere), ILL BILL and more.

For AWKWORD, this is nothing new. Today he fights for change through music; his activism began in childhood, with the guidance of his mother (RIP). AWKWORD created his high school’s first (now annual) Diversity Day with the Anti-Defamation League. While earning his Bachelor’s in Sociology from Vassar, he founded the school’s Prison Reform Group, lobbied New York State Congress for the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws and worked or volunteered at Green Haven maximum-security prison, an alternative-to-incarceration center, a probation office and an at-risk youth center. From his World View project, all proceeds are donated to Guns 4 Cameras (Aim to Live), a 501c3-registered nonprofit that goes beyond the gun-exchange program, working to eradicate street violence through the Hip Hop-inspired education and empowerment of our at-risk youth. The organization’s founder, Hezues R’ was shot at 22 times at age 22 and survived to re-dedicate his life to saving the streets. He and the organization’s Spokesperson, Hip Hop icon Pharoahe Monch, have traveled the country speaking to the youth about Hip Hop, making the right choices, and putting down their guns and picking up their cameras (or their pens or their microphones) to be productive instead of destructive. Future plans for the organization include local gun-for-camera exchanges nationwide — and not for cash either, for cameras and inspiration.

With World View, AWKWORD continues the storied tradition of making use of Hip Hop music to connect people for positive change — while furthering his own legacy as a rap artist unafraid to speak on issues and as an activist fighting for freedom, justice and equality.

AWKWORD stands behind a decade-plus in the music business. His first — pre-blogosphere — release, “the Sub-Way mixtape,” featured such hip hop icons as Raekwon, Killah Priest and Remedy of Wu-Tang, ILL BILL and Necro, Tragedy Khadafi, GURU of Gang Starr, Scram Jones and others, and received rave reviews industry-wide. According to Elemental Magazine, AWKWORD showed the most heart on the album, while Juicy Magazine said standing out from Eminem would be easy.

The AWKWORD solo debut, See the Light (an Exit 97.7 Top Album of 2008), was the inspiration for World View — and the response AWKWORD received from fellow artists, and specifically producers worldwide.

As AWKWORD puts it:

When my solo debut dropped in August 2008, I started getting mad requests for acappellas for remixes. So, I decided to hold the World View Remix Mixtape Contest for producers around the world. The response was crazy. Cats from Malawi, Malaysia, Namibia, Brazil and Moldova hit me with some heat. The plan was for the best remixes to comprise an AWKWORD remix album, but I received about 100 submissions before I cut off the contest. So, after a few listening parties, and with the help of some friends, I cut the track list down to the top 20, representing every continent on earth. Together, these tracks provided a survey of the world of Hip Hop, through the eyes of AWKWORD and some of our greatest (mostly unknown) Hip Hop composers… But that wasn’t enough — so I asked some of the dopest emcees in the game to join me, and some of my producer friends to lend their talents as well. And, with that, World View — the concept and the foundation for an album — was born.

Since December 2009, AWKWORD has recorded and released 17 of the songs off World View, each of which has garnered critical acclaim and high download rates from the fans.

When World View drops before the end of 2012, it will feature contributions from every continent, approximately 20 nations and every U.S. region — with incredible production and emcee cameos.

World View will be distributed digitally worldwide, with special bonus offerings through DJBooth.net; and 100 limited-edition, autographed physical copies (CDs) will be pressed and made available exclusively through AWKWORDrap.com.

For more info, or to get involved, email AWKWORD or @ him on twitter now.