Written July 12th, 2009

I am in Brazil with filmmaker Rob Adetuyi (creator of Stomp the Yard) scouting for our next film together and putting together pieces of the first international collaborative Hip Hop soundtrack featuring socially conscious artists.

The film, Beat the World, is the story of young people from around the world coming to the US to compete in the International Hip Hop Dance Competition. The film will shoot in 5 countries (Rio, Tokyo, Berlin, Toronto & Detroit) and gives me an opportunity to highlight and unite the top talent from those regions who are working to make a difference with their music.

Brazil is a great place to start this journey, because for the major artists I met in Brazil, giving back to their communities is more of a pre-requisite than an option. As I meet these artists, I can’t help but share my admiration for their work with you.

I mentioned MV Bill earlier when I met him in LA. Yesterday I reconnected with his people in Rio. Some of you may know part of MV Bill’s incredible story from the film City of God (where he still lives) or his documentary Falcão – Meninos do Tráfico. MV Bill is one of the most important activists in Brazil; bringing hope and opportunity to children of the favelas. Here is a bit more info on MV Bill, and a video clip our friend Sol Guy directed for his show 4REAL featuring Mos Def and MV Bill on a journey through MV Bill’s work inside City of God.

MV Bill is a Brazilian rap singer and co-author of the best-selling book Falcão – Meninos do Tráfico. MV Bill, whose real name is Alexandre Barreto, is an advocate for getting the Brazilian youth out of the drug trade and into some other forms of self uplift. He began a network of NGOs located in Rio, which strive to teach hip-hop skills, graffiti, and break dancing to children, alongside educational classes, such as computer training. MV Bill has also funneled his passion towards social injustice into a book, “Cabeca de Porco”, that he co-authored with Celso Athayde and Luis Eduardo Soares, one of Brazil’s foremost social anthropologists. The book, published in 2005, revolves around the issue of social injustice and violence in Brazil and discusses what must be done to solve the problem. His Teen Center is somewhat like the Brazilian version of ‘THE VIADUCT’ located in Tacoma Washington.