Riverhorse and Silicon Valley start-up, Crowdtilt, are working together on a new crowd funding platform, Crowdhoster, to raise funds for the film company’s latest project, Hustlers Convention.
In 1973, a fast-talking hustler by the name of Sport played a huge part in the birth of Hip Hop. Brought to life by Lightnin’ Rod aka Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets, and backed by music from Kool & The Gang and many others, this street tale of card sharks, gamblers, dope peddlars and thieves, changed the face of music.
Melle Mel, Fab 5 Freddie and many others can still recite it word for word. Chuck D has described it as a ‘verbal bible to understand the streets’. Wu Tang, the Beastie Boys and Jungle Brothers have all paid homage to it.
Yet still, despite this recognition, the album is largely missing from its rightful place in history. The film makers behind the new film have just launched a crowd funding campaign to help change that.
For the last two years Riverhorse has been following Jalal’s story, piecing together this cultural missing link. When Jalal’s street rhyming style, based on the African American jail toast tradition, met the Black Power politics of the post-Malcolm X era, the art of rap as we know it today, was born. As a key member of New York’s The Last Poets, Jalal and his fellow members became the voice of a generation. They provided an expression of the anger of the streets like had never been heard before.
However, it was Jalal’s solo album, Hustlers Convention, which painted a colorful world of larger than life characters, doing what they needed to do to survive, that really set the bar for what rap as an art form could become.
Riverhorse director Mike Todd, whose last feature documentary was “Joe Frazier: When the Smoke Clears”, said “It’s a great opportunity to be working with Crowdhoster. We are excited to be working with the company that is taking crowd funding to the next level.”
The campaign can be found at www.hustlersconventionfilm.com. Contribution rewards include a unique limited edition vinyl of the legendary album, signed by its creator, plus other must-have items.
Ajay Mehta from Crowdtilt said, “We think this is an incredible project. It’s our first partnership in the UK and we’re pleased to be involved with Riverhorse to help make this happen.”
Currently, Crowdhoster is available by invite only and Riverhorse are the first UK company to use the platform. Crowdhoster is a full-featured, open-source, customizable crowdfunding tool that will allow anyone to launch their own campaign without having to touch a line of code. Built using Crowdtilt’s API, Crowdhoster gives both individuals or businesses the ability to set up and own their own crowdfunding pages. Unlike Kickstarter and Indiegogo, this means that your start-up, project, club, etc can now launch its very own campaign to fund a project without having to cede control of branding, hosting and customisation to someone else.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HustlersConventionFilm
Twitter: @HamhocksHall
The crowdfunding campaign is live and runs until the 28th of December.
An extended taster for the new film can be viewed at YouTube/RiverhorseTV
