About the Artists
Paul Wall
Paul Wall's first music industry exposure came as a street team member on the Northwest side of Houston, promoting southern artists such as T.I. and labels like Cash Money and The New No Limit.
He is also an accomplished and proficient mixtape and party DJ, known for producing mixtapes in the now-well-known screwed & chopped style, which was invented by the late DJ Screw. Paul's first dose of commercial exposure was due to his appearance on fellow Houston rapper Mike Jones' hit single, Still Tippin' which was the first screwed & chopped record to receive major airtime outside of the Houston area, both on mainstream radio and video outlets such as MTV and Clear Channel affiliates.
His major label debut, The People's Champ, produced the lead single, Sittin' Sidewayz. Paul was also featured on the song Drive Slow from Kanye West's second solo album, Late Registration.
Paul Wall is also the owner of TV Jewelry in Houston. The store specializes in the production of grills, silver, gold, and platinum caps, and diamond inlays. Grills have become a growing trend in rap culture. He is currently filming a pilot with VH1 about his booming grill business.
Raekwon
Raekwon is a member of the Wu-Tang Clan and has done some of the most inventive, critically acclaimed work outside the confines of the group. His 1995 album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx is widely considered to be one of the best Wu-Tang solo albums, and one of the most influential hip hop albums of the 1990s.
Raekwon joined the Wu-Tang Clan in time to colaborate on Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers, the group's massively successful debut. Raekwon's most recent album, The Lex Diamond Story, was released in 2003.
Raekwon's success has given him the chance to branch into business side of music, becoming a Creative Officer of a major label and creating his own hip-hop team, Ice Water Inc. He plans to release the long-delayed sequel, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II in the Summer of 2007, to be executive produced by Busta Rhymes and RZA.
Tego Calberon
Known as El Abayarde, the Puerto Rican entertainer is the noted star of reggaeton, a hybrid genre that blends hip-hop, salsa, merengue, and Puerto Rican bomba. His success has made him a household name in over 35 Spanish-speaking countries.
Though Tego rhymes completely in Spanish, his music is not only popular in Latin America and the Caribbean but has also taken the United States by storm. He recently lent his reggaeton flow to remixes for hip-hop heavy weights Fat Joe and Lil' Jon, garnering respect from the hip-hop and world music communities alike.
Calderon, known for confronting issues of racism, sex and drugs in his music insists that he will retain autonomy despite his linking with Atlantic. His debut album in 2003, Abayarde, was nominated for a Grammy and his second album The Underdog has been on the shelves since last August.
About Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone was a British colony to which freed slaves returned in the late 1700's. They formed a social class which hardly integrated with the indigenous people.
After Independence in 1961 successive governments were dominated by a small political elite who exclusively profited from the lucrative trade in diamonds. Little of this national income trickled down to benefit the rest of the population.
Reacting to this system of exclusive patronage, a political outsider, Foday Sankoh, formed the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and started an armed insurrection to overthrough the governmnet. The RUF was funded primarily by the trade of rough diamonds in exchange for weapons.
Dissatisfied with the government, the RUF started a civil war against president Momoh. Over the next decade, the civil war would resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (well over one-third of the population), many of whom became refugees in neighbouring countries.
By 1996, foreign and domestic pressure forced the provisional governing council to hold general elections despite the bush war. A civilian, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, became the first freely elected President in 34 years.
However, within a year a group of renegade officers forced the Kabbah government to flee the country dissatisfied with his action toward the rebels. President Kabbah regained power in March 1998 with the assistance of foreign mercenaries and ECOMOG, an armed intervention force sponsored by Economic Organization of West African States.
The military junta retreated to the bush and became a second rebel faction. In uneasy co-operation with the RUF, the rebel armies financed their participation in the war by mining and selling of rough diamonds through Liberia.
In July 1999 all parties agreed to a regionally brokered cease-fire. It included an amnesty for all the crimes and human rights abuses committed during the war and a framework for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of all participants in the conflict.
In January 2002 the civil war officially ended when the UN declared that the disarmment of 45,000 troops had been completed.
Today
Today the problems of poverty, tribal rivalry and official corruption that caused the war are far from over.
According to the human development index, Sierra Leone is the world's second least developed country. Three-quarters of the population lives on less than $2 per day, half the population lacks access to clean water, and 25 percent of children do not survive to their 5th birthday.
A lasting feature of the war, which left some 50,000 dead, was the atrocities committed by the rebels, whose trademark was to hack off the hands of their victims. A United Nations supported war crimes court has been set up to try those, from both sides, who bear the greatest responsibility for the brutalities.
Tomorrow
Sierra Leoneans have decided on a long-term perspective to manage development. Informed by past mistakes and present challenges, inspired by possibilities of a better future, they have taken a collective pledge to forge a new way forward.
The end of a decade-long civil strife, which started in 1991, provides impetus for a new beginning, where everyone has a role to play in rebuilding the nation.
Click here to learn more about Sierra Leone's plans for a better future.