Two aspiring rappers from the rough streets of Washington, D.C. and its outer regions have achieved an amazing feat. After a Kickstarter campaign surpassed their modest goals of $6,000, duo Pacman & Peso aim to shoot a video in North Korea in hopes to create an undeniable buzz for themselves.
The story has exploded all over Washington media, especially after reported tweets by local elected officials, such as D.C. Councilman Marion Barry, promoting the crowdfunding effort to send the hopefuls into an unknown land. And while Pacman and Peso look like a couple of young toughs, they have a goal of making music their first and only option while choosing to leave the street life alone.
The Washington Post did a lengthy profile on the group and their unlikely producer, Ramsey Aburdene, who grew up middle class and has returned home from college to work on producing beats in his spare time. After a chance meeting with 19-year-old Pacman, a Southeast native, Aburdene’s Forest Hills Tenleytown Music Group became the rapper’s new home.
His longtime friend, 20-year-old Peso, who grew up in nearby Landover, Md., began tagging along and met Aburdene’s friend, Michael Basset, a former military man that was based in the safe zone between North and South Korea; Basset currently studies the region in graduate school.
Aburdene, intrigued by his friend’s side work of conducting educational tours to that area, brainstormed the plan to bring Pacman and Peso the zone to shoot a music video. Pacman and Peso’s refreshing fearlessness and seemingly genuine curiosity to do the video in the troubled region shouldn’t make sense but given their living experiences to date, they look at this as a chance to make history.
From The Washington Post:
“No one’s ever been there,” Peso says, explaining why he’s interested in going to North Korea. “No one’s tried to do the things we trying to do out of there. No one ever shot a video.”
“All you got is the hype behind it,” Pacman adds. “You don’t really know what to expect. All you got is what you hear on TV about what North Korea is. That’s why I want to go.”
“We want to explore more,” Peso says. “We want to learn more. Do different things.”
“I feel it can’t be as bad as people say it is,” Pacman says. “I want to see what’s real.”
With their campaign having raised nearly $8,000 with eight more days remaining, the duo have enough to make the trip but they hope to use the extra money to hire professionals in order to enhance the video project.
To check out Pacman and Peso’s music, click here. Hit the following pages to see photos of the guys in action.
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Photos: Washington Post
