DAVID BANNER, REMY MARTIN , DEAD PREZ & DAVE CHAPELLE CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MEN TO DIRECTLY SUPPORT KATRINA SURVIVORS WITH NYC HIP HOP BENEFIT CONCERT

Some of the Hottest Hip Hop Recording Artists to Date Have Teamed Up to Ensure That Hurricane

Katrina Survivors in Mississippi Receive Direct Aid from Concert Proceeds

WHO: David Banner, Styles P, Talib Kweli, Remy Martin, Memphis Bleek, Dead Prez, The Last Poets, Q Tip, X-Ecutioners, The Beatnuts, Bazaar Royale, and Dave Chappelle are all confirmed performers.

WHAT: Hurricane Katrina Relief Benefit Concert

WHEN: Monday, September 19, 2005

WHERE: B.B. King's Blues Club, 237 West 42nd Street in NYC

TIME: 10:00 PM

On Monday, September 19, 2005, some of the hottest artists in Hip Hop will descend upon Times Square for a star-studded Hip Hop benefit concert in support of the survivors of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Major recording artists David Banner, Remy Martin, Talib Kweli, Styles P, Memphis Bleek, the Last Poets, Q-Tip, the X-ecutioners, Bazaar Royale, and comedian Dave Chappelle will share their performances, compassion and care as a means to generate proceeds to benefit Hurricane Katrina survivors in Mississippi. "As artists we have a responsibility to organize and ensure that funds we raise for this cause are disseminated in a timely, fair and orderly fashion," says concert organizer and Sony recording artist M1 of Dead Prez. "This event is a direct action by the Hip Hop artistic community where we are cutting out the middle men and taking aid directly to the people who need it right now," he says.



Proceeds from the concert will equally go to David Banner's Heal the Hood Foundation and to the Jackson, Mississippi chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. "It's about helping ourselves and with these two organizations on board, Katrina survivors in Mississippi will receive direct aid and immediate assistance without an ounce of red tape or a shred or bureaucracy," says M1. "There's still people in Mississippi without power right now, says major recording artist and Mississippi native David Banner. "The water is still not drinkable from the faucets. There's no gas from Jackson down to the coast. There are lines for two miles to get gas and the gas prices are out of control. Then you've got places like the Red Cross using preferential treatment with the stuff people have donated. There's people who are coming city to city and can't get water or food from the Red Cross without a little arm band. We're having a national crisis. If people need food and supplies, you should give it to them," he concluded.

The event has garnered in-kind sponsorship support from Hot '97, J Sharpe Agency PR, and the Brooklyn Coalition.