People love to tell you the hip hop culture never produces anything positive, but of course that would be a lie. We have to stop listening to media and people who have no interest in our long term future.

Lupe Fiasco is a hip hop star and is constantly trying to bring new and innovative ideas to solve the issues facing our community. This week he did just that by announcing the launch of a new nonprofit organization he co-founded.

Via Twitter, Fiasco announced the Neighborhood Start Fund. The mission of the organization is to create “a neighborhood-specific fund to support entrepreneurs and start-ups from underserved areas and of course so the best new ideas won’t go wasted. We provide access, network, workshops, mentoring and of course funding.”

This is a new and innovative idea to start with specific neighborhoods, which we know has a lot of talent but lacks on resources, and help those people turn ideas into businesses. Businesses we all know will only serve the community by generating additional revenues, tax base, jobs and hope for a new generation of people who have been tossed aside like trash.

The start of the new venture will be next month with a live pitch event for entrepreneurs and startups next month.

“Our first neighborhood is Brownsville Brooklyn,” says Esinor. “We’ve just opened the idea competition and the first live pitch event will be Nov. 13, 2015. We will be housed at the Dream Big Foundation’s new entrepreneurship center and cafe opening in Jan. 2016.”

For more information, visit Neighborhood Start-Up Fund