Although the raw and aggressive lyrics are what fans and spectators come for, the less talked about side of battle rap is philanthropy, and what the emcees we see on stage do to give back to their communities. During a newly published interview with Rap Grid, Detroit emcee Quest MCODY shed some light on the subject and opened up about his efforts to give back to the people that support him most.
“We owe it to our communities to do things that help push not only the culture of battle rap forward but our communities forward,” MCODY says. “I got a foundation called Quest For A Cure and the whole goal of it is just to help other people by influencing them in any way we can … I got a foundation that I’m working on called Building Blocks where we’re gonna go to neighborhoods and help clean up neighborhoods, sweep the curbs, clean up and do things in our neighborhoods.”
Later on, MCODY spoke about why he believes philanthropy will help skyrocket the culture of battle rap, asking other rappers to follow his lead.
“I ain’t nobody in comparison to the cats that do this shit like Loaded Lux, like Arsonal [and] Aye Verb. We owe it to our communities and I’m not saying y’all not doing it, but we owe to our communities to show the benefits of what we doing. When it becomes just the money and not about change, y’all helping the cycle ‘cause now all y’all giving the vision and the picture that y’all give on the stage: the killer or the crazy guy or the guy that fuck a lot of bitches or whatever. We gotta get in the communities and do things to help. And it don’t take nothing, it ain’t nothing to help. You don’t need no money, you don’t need nothing. The one thing that I think battle rap is missing, that I think can help make it skyrocket, is philanthropy. I ain’t ever heard of no money from no battle being given to help no inner city youth and that’s who watches, that’s who get you the views, you know?”
To see the Quest For A Cure foundation in action, check out this blog of the charity packing out the famed St. Andrews Hall in Detroit a few years back. They were raising money for Benjamin Martin (a boy MCODY speaks about in the interview above). Martin was an eight-year-old who was diagnosed with Stage 4 Glioblastoma — a cancerous brain tumor.
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