A Lexus, or Justice?

Hip-hop is a multi-billion dollar industry. But the big money made off of it rarely touches the communities that the music comes from.  

That’s why Ietef Vita, aka DJ CaveM Moetavation, is going on tour with artists like Planet Asia, Murs, Keith Murray, Rebel Diaz, Ill Se7ven, DJ Abilities and Mike Wird to raise awareness about social and economic issues facing their communities, and to raise funds for the Brown Suga Youth Festival – a day-long festival in Denver that engages youth from the hood in environmental action through arts, film, food and dance.

 DJ CaveM’s “Food Justice, No Beef” tour is hitting the road with a strong but simple message – healthy food for all. “Corporations use us, hip-hop artists and the African-American community, to sell their products that are destroying the health and environment in our hoods. We need to counteract those messages. You can’t spin on your head after eating a big mac,” says DJ CaveM, who says adopting a vegan diet has increased his health and maintained his wellness.

If hip-hop can speak truth to power, what truth do we wanna spit? An MC has the power to profess the work that needs to be done in the community on the mic, while thousands listen. “Hip-hop is like grassroots organizing – it talks to people and brings the community together.”

DJ CaveM shows us that hip-hop can be used as a tool not just to make money, but to spit knowledge that can save lives. “As much as I love bling and Lexuses, I can’t eat none of that. We can use hip-hop to talk about transforming our block and teaching skills we need to become more self-sufficient, like growing our own food. Our ancestors have been growing food since the beginning of time, but we lost that. We gotta relearn this because if we can grow our own food on our block and provide for ourselves, we won’t have beef with each other.”

He shows us that together we can redefine the image of wealth in hip-hop culture by dropping knowledge that will Green The Block through music. Check out his new hit "Let It Grow" for some inspiration. 

Are you using hip-hop to transform your community? Wanna write a blog about it? Email us at seema@greenforall.org.

If you’re interested in bringing DJ CaveM out to your city, email him at: bookcavem@gmail.com