Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon have just a humble mission statement attached to their pairing as
N.A.S.A (North America South America)."The righteous goal of bringing people together through music and art." Amen.
They aren't the first to project that ethos and won't be the last, but they sure have accumulated enough famous dudes to make people want to hear it. Tom Waits and Kool Keith? Chuck D and Seu Jorge? Karen O, M.I.A, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Lykke Li and David Byrne? Seriously interesting stuff. The resulting album
The Spirit of Apollo was five years in the making and features all these artists and more, tied to a Brazilian funk backbone. Of course it's good.
N.A.S.A - 'Making of
The Spirit Of Apollo'
Not to be outdone on the "art" section of their manifesto, the duo somehow corralled the likes of Sage Vaughn, Barry McGee, Marcel Dzama and Barrack Obama's own unofficial portrait artist Shepard Fairey to contribute with videos, animations and posters. In particular Fairey's artwork was been used extensively in the first clip from the record for 'Money', featuring David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip.
N.A.S.A - 'Money'
And one more, this time featuring KRS-One, Fatlip, & Slim Kid Tre.
N.A.S.A - 'Hip Hop'