As we reported back in April, Public Enemy were having trouble raising the cash to fund recording and production of their next album. However, after lowering their expectations, the seminal rap outfit have announced that they’ve got the cash in the bag to record a follow up to 2007’s How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???. The band raised the money through fan investment site Sellaband, and this model of fans investing in the recording of a new album hasn’t been without its troubles. “We just received word that our fundraising campaign has completed,” says the band’s statement. “This is truly a great moment for us and we owe it all to our fans on Sellaband – our true ‘Believers’.”
“It has been a long and winding road,” it continues. “We’ve had explosive starts, media attention, corporate troubles, media criticism, recalculations and finally resurgence. When its all said and done, the bottom line is that we never lost faith in ourselves, our fans and the future of fan funding as a model.” The band raised around $80,000 from fans to make the next album. Depending on the level of investment, fans could receive anything from a copy of the CD to a personal visit to the studio during the recording process.
