Hollywood actor Bruce Willis has executive produced an inspirational documentary about inner city youth and the power of Hip-Hop culture.
TheWord.Life: The Hip Hop Project features Willis, alongside MTV’s Sway and Hip-Hop pioneers Russell Simmons and Doug E. Fresh, and chronicles several years in the life of New York City teenagers who transform their life stories into compelling works of art, led by a formerly homeless teenager, Chris “Kazi” Rolle.
After getting through a difficult childhood and attempting to become a Hip-Hop star, Rolle decided it was time to give back through the Art Start organization that saved him when he himself was a teen on the streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Rolle later founded the award-winning Hip-Hop Project, an organization designed to give young people the opportunity to express themselves in positive ways through rap music.
The film, directed by Matt Ruskin and Art Start founder Scott K. Rosenberg, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, which took place April 25-May 7 in New York.
All net profits from the film will be donated to nonprofit arts organizations and to a scholarship fund benefiting the students of the Hip-Hop Project.
Both Willis and Simmons have donated recording studios to Hip-Hop Project.