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This November, two very different musicians in Ghana will unite for a groundbreaking musical collaboration. We need your help to make sure it’s documented in the best way possible.

To many, J.H. Kwabena Nketia is known as “Professor” for his musical compositions and pioneering scholarship in African ethnomusicology and linguistics. To Hip-Hop artist M.anifest, though, he was always better known as “Grandpa.”

On the surface, grandfather and grandson are very different. Nketia speaks softly with a voice that bears the wisdom of 90 years of life, while the charismatic M.anifest can capture a room in a matter of moments when he grabs a mic. Nketia writes scholarly treatises and classical compositions, while M.anifest voices his ideas through Hip-Hop’s beats and rhymes—the music of his generation. Yet of all of Nketia’s grandchildren, only M.anifest has chosen a path as close to that of his grandfather’s, though without any formal musical training. This is just the first of numerous similarities, expressed both in what they say and how they say it.

In June of 2010, M.anifest discovered "Akwansosem Bi" ("Stories from the Journey"), a collection of poems written by Nketia almost 60 years ago while attending college in London. These poems contain a form of language, storytelling, rhyme, and rhythmic energy that sounds unexpectedly—but unmistakably—like M.anifest’s own Hip-Hop.

Inspired by the discovery, M.anifest will leave Minnesota and return to his home in Ghana to create music with his grandfather for the first time. M.anifest will learn more about his world-famous grandfather and push his Hip-Hop in new directions. Nketia sees the project as a chance to try something new at the age of 89, or as he says wryly, “when I’m still in the waiting room and not in the departure lounge.” Neither knows what the collaboration will sound like, but everyone’s eager to find out.

We are traveling to Ghana next month to document this incredible collaboration, as well as capture M.anifest’s first nation-wide tour in Ghana, and we need your help to make it happen.

We’ve been pouring our hearts and our wallets into making this film, we’re working overtime at our ‘day jobs’ and calling in favors from friends and colleagues in order to get our tiny crew to Ghana with the equipment, funds, food, and lodging we need to join M.anifest and his grandfather on this journey. The truth is that we can’t make it there without your help, and we have to be there. M.anifest and Nketia’s collaboration together is the first of its kind, and it might be the only chance they’ll have.

We are deeply honored to be a part of telling this story. Please reach out, back this project, and help all of us share it with the world.

Thank you for supporting our project. We can’t do it without you!
- Justin Schell and Lauren DeSteno, Filmmakers

This project is part of our larger documentary called We Rock Long Distance, which weaves together the stories of three Minnesota artists (M.anifest, Maria Isa, and Tou SaiKo Lee) who use Hip-Hop as a way to create connections between different generations. You can learn more about the film at: http://www.WeRockLongDistance.com

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For updates, photos, videos and special announcements, check out:

Our website: http://www.werocklongdistance.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/werockld
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WeRockLongDistance
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/wrld
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/WeRockLongDistance