Now Playing 
Over the summer, Nas raised just under $65,000 for Stanley Young, an unemployed, homeless construction worker and father of seven children. Now, the rapper is hoping to help even more people by investing in a company, called Proven, which launched an app for smartphone users to simplify the job seeking process.
The rapper made a six-figure investment in the San Francisco start-up, according to the Los Angeles Times. He explains, “Jobs are a concern for the nation. Proven is all about that, so I’m all about Proven. Hip-hop artists, especially the older ones, are the ones who knew hip-hop was a worldwide phenomenon before the mainstream caught on, so hip-hop artists are forward thinkers. We want to stay with the new.”
The rapper will serve as an advisor to the company and will promote its services, which comes as a relief to Pablo Fuentes, who founded the company in 2009 when he was a graduate student. At its peak, Proven employed 15 people before Fuentes had to lay off everyone except himself and one other worker. The company’s office is now based in San Francisco with four employees.
“What he chose to do with his time and his life was noble,” Nas said of Fuentes. “He struck me as a smart person with a good heart.”
To date, the Proven app has been downloaded 500,000 times and has 150,000 monthly active users.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
