Diplo, with the help of 22 year old Aussies Andrew Levin aka DJ Sleater Brockman and Nina Agzarian, will spearhead a non profit effort to promote and encourage hip hop artists in underprivileged communities in indigenous Australia with an initiative dubbed Heaps Decent.
The Myspace track, the result of Diplo's time spent in a community in the north called Maningrida and a juvenile justice center in New South Wales, was produced with Houston's screwed syrupy codeine drip pace and pitched-down feel, featuring amateur MCs free flowing old school metrics about kangaroos and the bush. It's an exciting project, for more than just humanitarian ends. As the page proclaims giddily, in a year “Heaps Decent will have created a new scene, a powerful new movement with dedicated fans all over the world.”
Press quote:
“Heaps Decent aims to connect current popular recording artists with students from underprivileged communities around the world and reinforce the positive influence of music education through technical skill development and public performance.”
Diplo quote:
“This project is way to give back in larger ways and to be proactive and the new faster forms of multimedia and communication are working in our favor to even the field. I feel like any artist with any level of success can find it easy to take some time out and give back to an initiative such as Heaps Decent. I hoped to help to build this initiative in Australia as a test and continue to carry this project to other places where creativity and volunteering can work hand in hand with the next studio to begin in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro in January 2008, learning from the successes and setbacks from the project in Australia, and setting a precedent to raise awareness of regional music culture in disadvantaged areas and giving new artists that wouldn't usually have the privilege to create the work they dream about.”
