Two years ago, Sol Guy and Joshua Sage (known collectively as Direct Current Media) set of on a multi-continent journey in search of truth, beauty, strength, hope, and hip-hop: 4REAL. Their journeys have taken them from North America to South America, Africa, and Europe, and the remarkable people and stories they were fortunate to encounter along the way has come together in the form of a series of 30 minute documentary films. Currently in the midst of production, these films bring internationally renowned hip-hop artists in touch with ; simultaneously forging a oneness with the communities portrayed, and putting our own taken-for-granted Western privileges in check. The first of the series, "4REAL: Kenya", featuring Somali-born emcee K'naan, is being screened this weekend as part of The Harbourfront Center's Kuumba celebrations. All proceeds from the screening and live performance will go towards supporting Carolina for Kibera, a non-profit organization based in Kenya. HHC recently caught up with Sol to discuss his travels and his experiences with the 4REAL project.

HHC: So how did this project first come together?
It's a two-part thing, because I have a partner in this project named Joshua Sage. Without him, this wouldn't be manifesting. For me, it really started with my first trip to Africa, to Sierra Leone. That was at the end of 2001 with Rascalz and MuchMusic and War Child. We went out there and were looking at the war that had been going on for ten, fifteen years over diamonds and so forth. Child soldiers and amputees and all these things that I was struck with on my first trip to Africa, alongside the beauty and the unbelievable, overall character of people and the integrity… it was more than I had ever seen in my life. When I got back from that, I was living in New York at the time, and I was working with Bad Boy. Bling was the thing, and diamonds, and it didn't work with me. That kind of kick-started a process for me of trying to find a new way to do my work and to balance it out.

Fast forward, Josh and I grew up together, and as much as I had been in the music industry, Josh had found himself as a documentary filmmaker, working on media, working with young people on how to organize and how to raise awareness for issues. He traveled the world, was known in those circles, and was very successful. Long story short, we thought: what can we do, how can we build a bridge between our worlds that can create something that raises awareness and challenges people and reflects amazing people around the world doing inspiring work? We thought it would be really cool to make it accessible, and usually when those two things try to meet it's pretty corny. The best bet is a 'We Are The World' or something like that-a hit that people feel maybe for a moment, but it seems to be kind of fleeting, and kind of formulaic. So we said, 'How can we create something that touches on the things that matter to us, but at the same time is so cool and so entertaining?' So, that's what sparked us off…

We had the concept: bridging entertainment, celebrities and artists check in with young leaders around the world who under extreme circumstances are doing the most important, revolutionary change on the planet, but their stories are, outside of their immediate surroundings, untold, yet they're tangibly making a difference every day for hundreds to hundreds of thousands of people, depending on the people we focused on and we've met.

HHC: When did you first set off?
February 2003, two years ago. And it was of our own volition. Josh sold his van, and I took some money I had made working down in Miami working on this Lauren Hill project, and we just kept finding different projects that would allow us to be on the road and tour and be in all these places, but at the same time allowing us to develop our concept.

HHC: What are some of the things that happened when you first started traveling?
Well, our first stop was Brazil. First we went to Brazil, to Rio, and just connected. We went down to Salvador de Bahia, Carnival, we did all that stuff, and then we came back. That was really just a reflective mission, and Josh and I were just getting a feel for the place. Later on that year, in June, Josh was going back to finish up work on a documentary he was working on, on the rainforest, called "Yawa." It's about the Yawanawa people who live in the North-West corner of the Amazon rainforest, and that was one of our first trips. And then we just kept going…

We went to Peru. We spent time with a young medicine man, a healer, by the name of Puma Singona, a Quechua native of Peru. He's a medicine man and a guide on the Inca trail, and he took us on two journeys. One, to 15,000 feet above sea level, to the Andes mountains, for a festival where 80,000 Peruvians climb a glacier for four days of traditional ceremony and dance and prayer. We went on this crazy mission and just shot all that. Then he took us to Machu Picchu, and because he is so tuned into what's going on there, I mean this kid was struck by lightening when he was five years old and the elders were like, "yeah we know who you are" and they trained him in the ancient traditions. He's just a beautiful, beautiful man that gave us so much. He's another one of those young leaders we'll focus on in the show.

We split from there, came back for a bit, and went to Kenya with K'naan, and along the way shot the video [for 'Soobax'] and shot his first return to East Africa. He couldn't go back to Somalia because it was too dangerous. It was his first return in 13 years, and that's the piece we're going to show on Saturday. Along the way we met another young hero, Salim Mohammed, who's just awesome and doing this unbelievable work in this area called Kibera. There are a million people in the slum, there are a lot of slums in East Africa, and he runs a sports programme and a medical center. The sports programme has over 5000 kids in it. He's the shining light in a place that most people reserve for pity and feel bad, and he's not feeling bad. He's just moving along.

After that we went to India, to the World Youth Leadership Jam, and Joshua was one of the original founders of this thing. 30 young people all under 30 years old, there were people from 25 different countries there. There was a ten day jam with all of these young leaders, who are some of the most dynamic people on the planet, and every story is phenomenal. A lot of these people are really alone in their work, and being there, they find a lot of peers. So, we checked that out, then we came back, and we went out to Barcelona.

This guy had done this research, and tried to find out the number one thing young people were using to motivate and affect social change in their communities around the world, and what he found was hip-hop culture-no surprise to us. And so they brought hip-hop artists-slash-activists from all over the world to Barcelona to their annual UN summit, and to try to raise awareness internally to fund a lot of these people's projects. You had my man MV Bill, who's from Brazil, the City of God, who is just this ridiculous cat doing amazing work in his community center, in the favelas, with childcare and you can make beats there and stuff. He's a huge artist in Brazil, and he sells half a million records every time he comes out, but he puts all his money back into the hood. Women like Godessa from South Africa, whose hit songs have been credited with lowering the AIDS rate in Cape Town. Just, on and on. So, that was a research process, and along the way we got involved with the NFB, who is helping us produce the first three segments of 4Real.

The whole thing is to take the artists to these places and have the show focused on them in these places. So, we're going back. That was all research. The only piece we really produced, within this concept of 4Real, is what we're going to show on Saturday. We got all this amazing footage and we just wanted to start sharing some of it, because we promised Salim, when we took our cameras into his world, that we would create something that would help raise some funds. All the money that is generated at the door on Saturday night is going directly to Salim's organization, Carolina for Kibera.

HHC: What was the focus of your experience in Kenya?
We had a couple things that we were really going for. One, to reflect the beauty of Africa, the beauty of Kenya, the beauty of Nairobi, and the beauty of the people. The poverty is always what you see. When you think Africa, you think dying kids with flies in their eyes. Of course, there's hardcore situations there, but the beauty of the people is rarely reflected. Through Salim, we were able to get really on-the-ground access to some of the roughest, toughest neighbourhoods. Through K'naan's music-Soobax, which is a protest song to the Somali warlords and gunmen-when the Somali refugees who were in Kenya heard the music, they couldn't help but connect to it. We had the warmest most beautiful reception from people, and we captured people laughing and dancing and loving and enjoying life, as you do, even though you're poor. So, that was one of our main goals, was to show that beauty, and I'm really proud that we captured that. The other goal was to connect to the hip-hop community, and to show people that there's a THRIVING hip-hop scene in Nairobi. I mean, huge. Three, four radio stations, video stations, tonnes of artists, huge concerts, hip-hop booming out of every little dollar cabs with paintings of Pac and Busta Rhymes. It's just ridiculous how they love hip-hop. It is THE shit over there. They love classic, North American hip-hop, but they love Kenyan hip-hop more.

HHC: Among the many lessons you've learned on your travels, which would you say was the most surprising?
I think the most surprising thing would be the level of love and light that exists, no matter what your circumstance is. People live proudly and with dignity, whether you're poor doesn't matter. You have relationships, people are born, people are buried, you sing, dance; just because you're poor doesn't mean you're waiting to die.