If you watched True Detective, you probably remember a subplot about cultish schools taking advantage of “troubled” kids. It was far from the weirdest thing in the show, but for most of you it likely seemed as fictional as everything else going on around it. But as Austin emcee, producer and label head HADES can tell you, there actually is a vast network of creepy cultish programs taking advantage of adolescents and their parents– he should know, he was forcibly entered into one for 17 months and still suffers PTSD as a result.
HADES and his collaborator Lily Speerbrecker spoke up about their experiences in one of these programs way back on HADES’ debut album I Hate It Here with the track “The Long Con,” but last week one of the largest of these programs, the Midwest Academy, was investigated for large scale sexual abuse of minors and a few days ago it began to shut down operations and lay off workers. Despite this, MWA continues to claim innocence and even launched a crowd funding campaign to counter the investigation, which in turn provoked survivors like HADES to launch a counter-petition. This is also why HADES has decided to revisit “The Long Con” in advance of his similarly themed new album You Can’t Spell Confidence Without Con and self-direct a video for the track, detailing the brainwashing methods of the Midwest Academy and encouraging others to get involved in shutting down other such programs around the country. The video includes info on anti-MWA petitions as well as Speerbrecker’s Safe Teen Schools organization, which is dedicated to breaking the code of silence these programs instill. We are premiering this track in the hopes of helping HADES spread the information on these detestable programs.