“Blind Eye”, by the Portsmouth, Ohio-based rap-group Raw Word Revival (“RWR”), is the first song through which Corite is launching the Ohio Against Opioids fundraising project, which will provide a dynamic platform for songwriters and artists who are sons and daughters of Ohio, who have up-close and personal experience of the ravages which opioid addiction has wrought in the communities where they live, and who seek through their music to raise money for Scioto CASA, this charitable organization which makes available Court Appointed Special Advocates to support and assist the children who are frequently the innocent victims of parental opioid addiction in the United States.
The funds raised by fans’ investment in the song will go not to the artists RWR, as would normally would be the case in a Corite campaign, but rather, via Scioto CASA, to support children being served through the program. Which aims to provide advocacy in the court setting to improve the recommendation of placement of children in foster care. The program has the goal of advocating for the best interest of the child. Both for kids and for their families in their struggle against the curse of opioid substance-abuse. Per Corite business model, a fan’s investments in the “Blind Eye” song has the possibility of being recouped, in whole or in part, depending on the streaming revenues generated by the song.
About the music
RWR ever since 2012 has been well-known in its area as a strong musical voice raised in alarm and anguish against the harsh realities of life in this degraded, impoverished, drug-ridden and increasingly bypassed part of America. RWR speaks directly and honestly about the tragedy of kids in the Portsmouth area who have lost parents and grandparents to opioid addiction, and who are now left caring on their own for younger siblings, or simply trying to endure being separated from those siblings and uprooted from one foster care to the next.
The song “Blind Eye” is about the kids who are the collateral damage of the opioid curse, and for whom the loss of loved ones to addiction has become heartbreakingly routine. In the end the opioid pandemic becomes to people in the community an accepted reality of everyday life; some go down this same road to helpless and hopeless addiction, from which there is rarely any return, while others, numbed to their surroundings, simply turn away a blind eye.
“Blind Eye” was written and recorded by Raw Word Revival, and produced by the Swedish Grammy Award-winning Nils Svennem Lundberg, a/k/a “Nisj”, who has taken RWR’s talented verve and spirit to the next level of professional polish and class. The Corite campaign for the song, which will be released on November 12, 2021, is to be supported by an audiovisual mini-documentary series, the first episode of which has been directed by Clint Askew, the leader of RWR; Caroline Taucher, the Finnish-American initiator of Ohio Against Opioids; and Kaapo Kamu, the well-known Finnish cinematographer and director.
About Raw Word Revival
Raw Word Revival was formed in 2012, and has throughout the years had a revolving door of members. The five current members of the group, as heard on “Blind Eye”, are Clint, Nick, BJ, Jlew and Ricko, all of whom have been with the group from the very beginning. In 2013 RWR released a music video for its song “What The Hell You Know About That 740”, directed by Clint Askew, which right away went viral in Area Code 740, of which Portsmouth, Ohio is the principal city, and which still today remains something of an anthem for the region.
In 2014 the group had a strong win at the Coast 2 Coast LIVE musical showcase in Cincinnati, followed by appearances in Florida and elsewhere at the national level. This promise of stardom faded, however, as often happens, by reason of tensions within the group and unfortunate life choices by some of its members. Clint Askew nonetheless kept RWR going, and the reconstituted group has episodically performed, recorded and released music over the years.
In October 2020 Clint Askew received a message from Caroline Taucher, a Senior Project Manager at Corite and the originator of the charitable initiative Ohio Against Opioids, who in the course of research about Portsmouth had come across a video newscast featuring RWR. Caroline and Clint quickly agreed that RWR could become a strong and authentic voice in harnessing the power of music to build support for the victims of opioid addiction in Ohio. The song ”Blind Eye” thus came into being through the hard work and collaboration of Caroline with Clint and the other members of RWR, and thanks also to the support and encouragement of Corite’s CEO and COO, Mattias Tengblad and Emil Angervall, and of Corite shareholder Charles Adams, the former U.S. Ambassador to Finland. Corite’s U.S. partner Hitco Entertainment, founded by L.A. Reid and Charles Goldstuck, is also participating in the campaign. All of the above are very hopeful that the Corite campaign for RWR’s song “Blind Eye” will mobilize hundreds of thousands of fans in the United States and around the world in the support of Scioto CASA and of the cause of Ohio Against Opioids, through a generous (and potentially rewarding) investment in the song.
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