Rappers Akon and Busta Rhymes recently put their money where their mouth was to help a record exec raise $20,000 to bury Detroit’s dead.
The sad story unfolded when the city’s budget ran out and bodies began piling up in the city morgue. The financially strapped Detroit city government could not even provide potter’s burials for the unclaimed bodies.
The dead were mostly indigent and homeless people whose families couldn’t afford the burial costs which can vary from $600 to over $6,000. Without the funds to bury the dead, and facing a crisis because space at the morgue was filling up rapidly, Detroit reached out to the local media for help.
Though she was born and raised in the South side of Atlanta — and probably only set foot in Detroit once or twice — former Universal/Motown exec Shanti Das, 38, heeded the call for help after reading about the unclaimed bodies on CNNMoney.com.
With the help of her friends – rappers Akon, Kid Rock and Busta Rhymes, Das, who recently lost family members of her own, was able to raise $20,000 to bring the total of unburied dead down from 69 to just 50. But financial help is still needed to bury the rest.
If you would like to donate to the burial fund, visit www.maywerestinpeace.org.
It’s a shame that rappers and professional athletes can make it rain in strip clubs and drop $20,000 on rims for their whips, but they can’t spare a dime to help a friend bury the dead.
