L.O.E thats that Love Over Everything!

Love Over Everything was created in my moms basement by my bruv Ikenna C. and myself. It was the summer of 2013 and crew energy was very important at this time. Collectives like ASAP Mob or Odd Future were getting shine - but I didn’t quite feel pulled to that energy. I was more so inspired by older collectives like the “Native Tongue” movement that included artists such as Tribe Called Quest, DeLa Soul, Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, just to name a few. They felt like Black Hippies. With L.O.E. we wanted to embody that same exact energy and send out messages spreading peace and love, and most importantly, inspire ACTION.

It started as just chanting at the shows; I’d say “ L.O.E” and the crowd would respond “THAT’S THAT LOVE OVER EVERYTHING!”. The chants grew louder… It was clear people needed this energy. We started making small handmade batches of merch including caps, tees, hoodies. We even broke out the homemade tie dye kits. We learned so much through this experience and it was great, but it then reached a point when we felt we weren’t doing enough of that ACTION that we had originally tried to inspire.

“LOVE” is itself an action word, it’s not passive, but creative. I had to ask myself what I wanted to create with it.

We hosted our first L.O.E. back2school drive in 2018 in Ikenna’s backyard. It was a giant cookout and for entry we asked folks to bring any school supplies they could. No one could have anticipated what the turn out would be. We were overwhelmed by the amount of love the community showed up with, bringing notepads, pencils, backpacks, Spiderman lunch pales, YOU NAME IT the homies brought it. Not to mention everyone having a great time breaking bread. We donated it all to Barringer High School in Newark, NJ. It was a success in my eyes, especially once I saw the look on the administration’s faces. I’ll never forget that feeling, and immediately started planning for the next one.

We wanted to go even bigger for next year so I got in touch with the mayor of Irvington NJ (which is my hometown) to show him a bit about what we accomplished the year before. Him and the city staff loved it and agreed to support the project. We rented out 40th st. Park in the city of Irvington had 500+ bookbags donated, bouncy house, face painting, free food and haircuts for the kids, 50 pairs of shoes donated, and even a live performance from yours truly :) Once again expectations were wildly surpassed. The Mayor was so impressed he wanted to make it an annual fund raiser - sadly due to covid those plans changed, but we did come back in 2021 with another successful event, highlighting a GoFund-Me initiative, inviting supporters to donate.

FAST FORWARD TO NOW, in classic web3 fashion, We’re aiming higher.

THE PURPOSE of Crowdfund & LoveOverEverything.eth is to be able to allow my Web3 family and the community at large to help support the mission. I always speak on how we should look for ways to bridge this gap between Web3 and the real world. By starting this chapter in L.O.E. we want to be able to raise funds, and transparently & collectively put those funds to work with the goal of improving kids early experience at school. We’ll start by focusing in on our upcoming event this August. Depending on how much we’re able to raise, we have a list of additional schools we’d love to provide for as well.

WE GOTTA START SOMEWHERE but the feeling is present that initiatives like this could be a key player in changing the way our education system feels for kids. As a rap dad I’m thinking about Nova and how I want her to feel going to school. Without too much imagination I can picture all parents feeling like that. This will be a way to make real change outside of the our phones, laptops, and any metaverse. This is bigger than us.

LETS GROW: This article itself is an NFT, so by all means, smash that button and become a contributor. It’s a good look and its for a good cause. More details will come in terms of the roll out, but know that transparency is going to play a major role. We’re still learning about this technology but the intention is there to come up with trackable ways to see how these funds are being directed, all on chain. We’re also in the process of forming our initial committee, so if you want to get involved please don’t hesitate to reach out. Currently our “mob” consists of: MoRuf, Wellz, Chidi, Ikenna, Boog, Regina, Aaron & Jahsh.

IN CELEBRATION of this launch coinciding with our SoundXYZ Drop this Thursday March 10th, 3V3RY1 and I will be donating 15% of our earnings towards this Crowdfund (LoveOverEverything.eth) in support of the 2022 Back2School Drive.

It’s never too late to get started, if you see the vision consider joining us for the ride.

Much love & Big Bless!

-MoRuf