Nas raising thousands for displaced family

Rapper Nas has helped to raise over $60,000 for a Washington, D.C. family which lost its home in a fire by launching a special online campaign.

The hip-hop hitmaker first heard about the plight of Stanley Young, an unemployed, single father of eight, on the news and decided to take action via fundraising platform Crowdtilt.com.

On the campaign page, he writes, "Stanley Young is an unemployed construction worker and single father. Two weeks ago, a fire destroyed his home. His family is stuck in a hotel, but time is running out. I could barely watch his tragic story on the news..."

Young and his eight children have been living in a hotel since last month (Jul13), but they only have until 13 August (13) to find a new place to live.

Nas continues, "I am also a single father, and we don't get enough credit in this country. I'm committed to helping Stanley and his eight (yes 8!) kids. Moreover, I believe and hope that we should all, as a community, come together to help our fellow American men and women when they need us in desperate situations like this...

Nas had initially set himself a goal of $20,000 and had vowed to double his original personal donation of $5,000 if the figure was reached. He opened up his cheque book hours later as the target was smashed, and he subsequently increased the goal to $50,000 - which was reached on Saturday (10Aug13).

Taking to his Twitter.com page, he thanked all of the contributors to date, writing, "We'll keep the campaign open till 8/18, every cent & dollar counts! Thank U!"

The campaign, which ends on 18 August (13), had raised over $60,000 as WENN went to press.