Blood Orange wants to donate fire fundraiser money to charity

British rapper Blood Orange wants to donate proceeds from a fan fundraiser, designed to help him back on his feet after an apartment fire, to charity because he feels “extremely uncomfortable” accepting the money. The artist, who produces music under his real name, Devonte ‘Dev’ Hynes, suffered a pre-Christmas tragedy on Tuesday (17Dec13) when a blaze at his New York home killed his puppy and destroyed all of his belongings.
His girlfriend’s mother, Robin Urbani, subsequently created a page on fundraising website GoFundMe.com asking fans to make donations to aid the musician. The initial goal of $5,000 (£3,330) was reached within two hours and the figure continued to rise, thanks to celebrity support from the likes of British singer Lily Allen and TV presenter Alexa Chung.
The charity drive has since topped $24,000 (£16,000), but Hynes reveals he is reluctant to take the cash for himself.
Taking to his Tumblr.com page on Thursday (19Dec13), he writes, “If I am honest, the fundraiser makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. This isn’t me saying I don’t need the money, to reiterate, I have lost everything.
“This isn’t me being unappreciative… It’s overwhelming in the most extremely nicest way that people would care about this but as I stated before, so many people have nothing they can do to rebuild their life from scratch.”
Instead, Hynes wants to hand over a chunk of the money to goodwill causes: “I want to give all the money to charity, 3 charities to be precise which I will explain further at a future point, that’s how I feel. I’m being spoken to by people who are close and understand my situation and are trying to advise me. As I probably am still in shock, and may not have a choice but to accept some of the money, and then think about charities, I don’t know… I don’t know where my head is at right now…”