DEF with the REVOLUTION
- parecon & hip hop -

 Calling all Producers, MCs, Beatboxers, and Remix Artists
Within a generation, hip hop has attracted the masses and given birth to a new worldwide culture. Having become a voice for the people, hip hop has the potential to be a voice for revolution.

With that in mind, I’m asking you to be a part of something truly revolutionary – the first hip hop album, for that matter the first album of any kind, to spell out a truly alternative vision to our current economic system, a system that provides luxury to a few, comfort to a few more, and misery to many many more.

We believe that we can do better than this. But in order to achieve such, it will take more than just tweaking and reforming the current system. It will take replacing it with something different, something better. We believe that something better is a vision called Participatory Economics, or ParEcon for short.

To help spread the word about this alternative economic vision, I’ve put together a 14-song hip hop album offering a basic introduction to the ins and outs of Participatory Economics. There’s only one problem. While the lyrics in this album are solid, I am neither a gifted producer nor MC. I’ve put a lot into this, and I plan to put in a lot more. But with my limited skills, I can only take it so far. That’s where you come in.

I’m asking you to take the challenge to show off your skills and help spread the word about ParEcon. Take the challenge to package these lyrics in tracks and flows so nice, people will have no choice but to bob their heads and listen.

We know that for vision like this to be realized, it’s gonna take a mass movement of folks devoted to changing the structure of society. In other words, it’s gonna take a revolution. And I say, if it’s gonna take a revolution, then what better vehicle to start a revolution than hip hop.

So here’s how it works. To start the project, I’ve put skeleton tracks of each original song with just basic beats and scratch vocals online for folks to download. That way you have a basic blueprint of the structure of the song. Whatever flavor you want to bring after that is up to you. You can add music to the beats or you can redo the beats altogether. You can lay down your own vocals or you can redo songs altogether (music, vocals, and all). The only thing I ask is that you do not change or add to the lyrics and that you respect the basic structure of the original songs. Once you’re done, you’ll be able to upload your contributions for me to put up on the site. Then if other folks dig your version of a song, they can download it, add their own flavor, and then upload new versions for other folks to remix. And so on and so on. Anyone can remix anyone else’s version, as long as you acknowledge the version you remixed.

All contributions to this project will be considered Creative Commons. Contributions will not be for sale and contributors will not be compensated. As it would be impossible to gauge how many people will end up contributing to this project, the only compensation we can offer is exposure. And at the end of the day, you get to show off your skills, and the site gets as many hot versions of these songs as possible to spread the word about Participatory Economics.
 
Personal Disclaimer
Participatory Economics, or ParEcon for short, is an economic model developed by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel as an alternative to capitalism. As I did not come up with this economic model, much was certainly borrowed from Albert and Hahnel for this project (some points and examples come directly from Michael Albert).  If you want to find out more about ParEcon before listening to the songs, you can visit the Z PARECON Page, a resource loaded with just about everything you could possibly want to know about Participatory Economics.
 
It must be noted that the lyrics in these songs are merely my own understanding of Participatory Economics and are meant to serve as a very general introduction. As not all advocates of ParEcon will see everything the same way (nor should they), there may be differences and disagreements with parts of my presentation and/or version of things. For this reason, I would encourage you to dig deeper. Visit the Z PARECON Page and check out all the books, articles, and presentations concerning Participatory Economics, especially those from Albert and Hahnel. The point of this project is not to be the last word on ParEcon, but a good starting point.