Philly music producer Will Yip’s #StopAsianHate fund-raising raffle has brought in over $100,000

In the days after eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed in shootings at three spas in the metro Atlanta area, Philly music producer Will Yip issued a statement on Twitter accompanied by the hashtag #StopAsianHate.

“The growing racism and violent acts against the Asian community in our country has been horrific,” Yip wrote. “It’s been heartbreaking to see defenseless elderly getting jumped daily, business owners robbed, people getting stabbed, shot, and killed because they’re just Asian walking down the block. ... Minorities of all races should feel safe in their own communities, in their own country. Stop targeting Asians, stop targeting all POC.”

Yip, who’s based out of Studio 4 in Conshohocken and owns the Memory Music label, told his family’s story: “My parents left China, actually swam for their freedom to Hong Kong in the ’70s, made it to America with just the clothes on their backs in hopes of a better life and better opportunities for their children, ... our generation.”

He told his own story, of “getting mocked regularly, getting into altercations defending myself against racial slurs, getting told what I should and should not be doing because of my ethnicity.”

And he promised quick action. “Tomorrow we will be launching a few raffles with incredible grand prizes and many one of a kind prizes” to benefit the AAPI Community Fund, which issues grants to organizations working to rectify racial inequalities against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Will Yip + Friends Mega Raffle continues until 12 a.m. Thursday, at aapifundraffle.com, and has already raised more than $100,000. “I felt like I had to do something,” Yip said on Tuesday.

The prize list is long and impressive, and has continued to grow as more bands, music companies, and record labels have joined in.

Choice prizes, in four separate raffles, include Fender Stratocaster guitars donated by the manufacturer, and rare and signed items from Yip associates like Bouncing Souls, The Menzingers, MeWithoutYou, the Starting Line, the Wonder Years, and Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick.

Also being raffled off are equipment and rare merchandise donated by indie bands such as Nothing, Japanese Breakfast, Bartees Strange, Tigers Jaw, and Circa Survive.

Yip’s Studio 4 home base was once the headquarters of Ruffhouse Records, whose roster included the Fugees, Cypress Hill, and Kris Kross, and a poster signed by Chris “Mac Daddy” Kelly and Chris “Daddy Mac” Smith of Kris Kross is also being given away.

The response has been heartening, Yip said. Until now, working in punk and indie rock, “I’ve always felt alone in my Asian-ness,” he said. “I’m around great people all the time that support me, but I’ve always felt alone in being Asian in this genre, in this field, that from top to bottom is white-male-dominated. But my friends and brothers, they came immediately and said, ‘We want to stand with you.’ And that meant the world to me.”

Raffle tickets are $10, or $25 for three, at aapifundraffle.com. Direct donations to the AAPI Community Fund can be made at gofundme.com/f/support-aapi-community-fund.