Case Study - Baba Brinkman
Project : The Rap Guide to Evolution – Educational DVD
Award winning rap artist Baba Brinkman successfully raised £12,588 in just 45 days to turn his rap album “The Rap Guide to Evolution” into an educational DVD about the Darwinian ecosystem. The DVD consists of 12 music videos, one for each song on the album, as well as bonus material and teaching resources.
Baba Brinkman has a Masters in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature. His thesis drew parallels between the worlds of hip-hop music and literary poetry. After graduating in 2003, Baba began his career as a rap troubadour.
Since 2004 Baba has toured his award-winning hip-hop theatre shows, “The Rap Canterbury Tales”, “The Rap Guide to Evolution” and “The Rebel Cell” (with MC Dizraeli) to dozens of cities around the world. “The Rap Guide to Evolution” won the Scotsman Fringe First Award in Edinburgh 2009, and is set to transfer to New York in the Spring of 2011. Baba is also the founder and president of the independent music label, Lit Fuse Records.
The Pitch
The pitch was to make an educational DVD consisting of 12 music videos, one for each song on the Rap Guide to Evolution CD, as well as bonus material and teaching resources.
The DVD already had the financial backing of the Wellcome Trust through a grant submission, but the additional funding from Crowdfunder enabled the production of original animation, digital effects and license high-quality nature footage from the BBC. All aspects combining to make the vision of each video really come to life.
Rewards for contributions on Brinkman’s fundraiser ranged from a publication of the contributor’s name in the video credits; a free digital download of the DVD; a pre-order of the DVD to arrive by post upon completion; and inclusion of the funder’s photo within the human family tree part of the video. Anyone who contributed over £1,000 could book a full performance of the Rap Guide to Evolution at their local school or theatre during 2011. The Prince Charles Cinema in London was one of the organisations who secured bookings this way, securing the DVD’s red carpet premier at their Leicester Square venue.
More than 300 people contributed to the total £12,588 with three contributors donating £1,000 to book live events.
By the end of the first week, the pitch had already achieved £1000 in funding. The numbers of funders steadied for a few weeks and by the last month, with a real push from Baba, when the funding was at about £7000, it really gained momentum and in the end over £12000 was raised within the allotted 45 days.
The Rap Guide to Evolution is an Edinburgh Fringe Award winning show and featured in Robin Ince's comedy variety show "9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People" alongside Dara O'Brien and Richard Dawkins last December at London's Hammersmith Apollo Theatre (broadcast on BBC 4 as "Nerdstock"). Because Brinkman is already an established artist, he comes with a wide network of fans and organisation who were willing to work with him to help him achieve his targets.
Baba created a video and used a wide range social networking tools extensively to help him reach his fans, contacts and their contacts. He had an extensive email list as well as over 2500 Facebook fans and 800 Twitter followers. He diligently updated the pitches’ progress to his followers and created a feeling of impulsion and excitement around the pitch.
“Quite a few biology and psychology teachers were already using my CD to introduce evolutionary concepts to their students. These videos will make an even more potent vehicle for communicating science in an entertaining manner.”
He added: “Crowdfunding is cultural evolution at its best, a Darwinian ecosystem where original ideas can flourish and multiply based on the universal currency of human benefaction and the desire to see good things propagate. I'm delighted that we’ve raised our target funds using Crowdfunder.
More information can be found about Baba at http://www.babasword.com/
