Fundraisers for Katrina Continue, Banner Questions Red Cross

Celebrity participation in Katrina aid efforts continue to push hard. Putting together the latest event includes 3 Vodka, Nuface Entertainment, www.chicagonightlife.com, Dupri, and Fiasco. The Atlantic recording artist's upcoming album, Food and Liquor, is due out this fall. The event will take place, Saturday, September 17, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief.

Invited guests include Chi-town recording artists, Kanye West, Common, R. Kelly, and Twista, along with actor Jamie Foxx, actress Lisa Raye, Russell Simmons, athletes Michael Jordan, Shawn Marion, and Antoine Walker.

Dupri, Fiasco, Russell Simmons, and Foxx are all guest panelists for Chicago's 14th WGCI Music and Entertainment Seminar, Sunday, September 18.

On the East Coast, Sony recording artist M1 of Dead Prez has organized a concert fundraiser for those suffering in Mississippi. Proceeds from the show, which will take place at NYC’s B.B. King's on September 19, will equally go to David Banner’s Heal the Hood Foundation and to the Jackson, MS chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

“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,” said M1. “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.”

Joining Dead Prez and Banner will be major recording artists Remy Ma, Talib Kweli, Styles P, Memphis Bleek, the Last Poets, Q-Tip, the X-ecutioners, Bazaar Royale, and comedian Dave Chappelle.

Banner, a Mississippi native, said there are still people in his home state without power right now. “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, [Red Cross] should give it to them,” he concluded.

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