Lupe Fiasco Starts a Fund to Help Local Businesses in Poor Neighborhoods

Lupe Fiasco has partnered with the members of the Dream Big Foundation and the Head of Global Partnerships at the navigation app Waze to start a fund that aims to help local entrepreneurs in underserved neighborhoods develop new businesses. Called the Neighborhood Start Fund, the first area they will work with is Brownsville, Brooklyn. The foundation will host a live pitch event on Nov. 13 and the goal is to turn funds acquired into successful businesses that will be able to reinvest into other Brownsville start-up businesses. The foundation says they will "support entreprenuers and start-ups from underserved areas, so the best new ideas won't get wasted." If a business is selected by Lupe Fiasco and the other board members, they will be granted $5,000 to turn ideas into prototypes and will have the chance to get mentors, workshops and free technology development for their prototype.

Fiasco dropped his last project, the album, Tetsuo & Youth in January and the LP peaked at No. 2 on Billboards U.S. rap albums chart. The Chicago rapper has been in the mix, commenting on social issues like the Charleston Church Massacre and on the biggest hip-hop stories like Drake’s ghost writing allegations. He has also used social media to spar with other rappers, most notably  Kid Cud and Azealia Banks.