Back in the day, musicians had to rely on their parents or coked-out record executives to fund their albums. Now they can just turn to Kickstarter.
Speaking of, rap group Geto Boys have announced that they will be recording a new album, Habeas Corpus. The trio of Willie D, Scarface (named after Howard Hawks’ 1932 gangster classic, presumably), and Bushwick Bill have turned to Kickstarter to finance Habeas Corpus; in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Willie D says, “I’d like to take credit, but the fans really made it happen.” Now the fans really have the opportunity to make it happen by backing the new record.
So why a Geto Boys reunion in 2015? Their last album was 2005’s The Foundation, and threesome is currently riding the nostalgia train on their Office Space Tour, named for the Mike Judge cult classic that featured “Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta.” Why now? Is it really for the fans? Is it for the money? It certainly isn’t to get together with old friends: “We fuckin’ hate each other, man, “ Willie D says. “It’s like, ‘Motherfucker, I don’t even wanna be onstage with you. Can we put up three stages, man? I’ll sing my verse, you sing your verse. The Geto Boys, man, we’re that family that can’t stand each other but love each other.’”
Fans will be able to back the album at several different levels; $25 will get backers a limited edition CD copy of Habeas Corpus along with a booklet of vintage Geto Boys photographs, while $3,000 will get you on the fairway for a round of golf with Scarface himself. However, for the walking bank, $10,000 will get you the most ridiculous prize in crowdsourcing history: The Geto Boys will buy you a casket. That’s right, a casket. The trio will also design an image for your final resting place and commission a “dope artist” to pimp your final ride. You’ll also get a 12-inch colored vinyl of Habeas Corpus that can presumably be buried in the casket with you.
According to Rolling Stone, Willie D states that one of the reasons Houston based rappers decided to go the crowdfunding route for the new record was so that they wouldn’t be judged by label execs for the new album’s content. (The group’s cheery lyrics generally revolved around murder, misogyny, gore, and necrophilia and featured copious amounts of colorful language.) “We’re gonna go the fuck off on the new album. If it scared David Geffen back in 1990, it’s gonna ruffle a few feathers in 2015, ” Wille D says. Scaring old white guys apparently never goes out of style.
You can click here to look into getting that casket.