Port-au-Prince , Haiti ( CNN ) -- When the earth started to shake on January 12 , Rocher Joseph-Michelet was in his tiny , one-room apartment , composing lyrics for the upcoming Carnivale in Port-au-Prince . He ran out the door to find an entire two-story building , crumbling and falling in his direction . `` They break down . I fell down , I was on my back , '' he said . In heavily-accented English , peppered with American slang , Joseph-Michelet described how he was all-but buried under the rubble ... and then rescued by members of his hip-hop group . `` Thanks to God , thanks to my friends , '' he said . `` I 'm so proud it 's them come to save me . '' Joseph-Michelet is better known by his stage name `` MRJ . '' He is a member of a neighborhood hip-hop group called Sekte Atis Lib , or S.A.L . They are six childhood friends from the same poor neighborhood who rap in Creole . MRJ escaped the earthquake with minor injuries . Many other residents of his neighborhood were n't so fortunate . `` Two days after the disaster , we [ carried ] 39 dead bodies ... from here to the central cemetery , '' said Gaby Guerrier , the manager of the band . He spoke while standing on a rooftop which offered a view of a devastated urban landscape of collapsed and dangerously sagging cinderblock apartment buildings . The members of S.A.L . have been forced to abandon their homes in this tightly-packed community of concrete houses and narrow alleyways . `` It 's too dangerous , nobody wants to live in the houses again , '' said Guerrier 's younger brother Panarothy , also known as the rapper named `` Next . '' He led CNN on a tour , past a large wall mural showing S.A.L . 's name in jagged graffiti , to the sprawling , fetid camp where the band , their families , and some 4,500 other displaced Haitians now live . The artists have helped each other build crude shacks out of plywood and rusting metal sheeting , along a winding dirt alleyway they have playfully nick-named `` Big Man Street . '' Twenty-one year old Geffrard Jonel , a.k.a . Fame , has already decorated the walls of his hut with posters of soccer teams and music groups . He said he and three others slept in the tiny room , along with some unwanted visitors . `` Rats ! '' he yelled , to peals of laughter from the rest of the group . Despite the unbearable conditions , spirits among the band 's members appeared remarkably high . `` If you get angry with it , you get angry at God , '' said the manager , Gaby Guerrier . `` We are not more important than those people who are dead . God just leave us alive . We thank him for that . '' Perhaps because of this infectious optimism , 25-year-old `` Next '' has been appointed the leader of a camp association , representing all 4,500 residents . `` If I have a problem , I 'll come to him , '' said one resident named Levi Lazard . `` Because he is the one that can make the people listen to him . '' On the day CNN visited , Next and about ten other colleagues had just completed construction of a sandbag platform to house a large water bladder and distribution system donated by Irish aid organization Concern . Residents with buckets and jugs were already lining up for a taste of fresh water . `` We want to make the people , the survivors live better , '' Next explained . He then issued an appeal for other aid organizations to come and help the community . `` We need something else specially for the children , '' he said . `` We need to make a place for the children for education . There 's no school . It 's destroyed . '' Three weeks after the earthquake , residents of this camp were stripping away vegetation and small trees from the surrounding area , and the air was thick with the sound of hammers and saws as people worked to construct new ramshackle homes . Before the earthquake , only one member of S.A.L . had a full-time job , working at a juice factory . The others were unemployed artists , filming music videos on shoe-string budgets , all victims of Haiti 's impoverished economy . Since the disaster , these young men have carried corpses , cared for wounded friends and relatives , and become leaders of their displaced and desperate community . They are also trying write new lyrics , to explain this life-changing ordeal . `` This is a revolution of nature , '' said MRJ , who survived the two-story building collapse . MRJ and his colleagues then delivered a memorable a cappella performance amid shelters made of bed sheets and sticks where hungry children wailed . `` All the parks have become home to most , '' he chanted in Creole , as the sun set over smoking campfires . `` We have to mobilize to overcome this crisis . Hopefully now the system will reboot . The time for the people has come . Solving the problems will take time . But we 're not going anywhere . We need to deal with this crisis at the grass roots . ''
Members of rap group S.A.L . tell of life amid the rubble of Haiti . Rocher Joseph-Michelet 's friends rescued him after the earthquake . Since the quake , they have been using music to lift survivors ' spirits . Group raps amid shelters made of bed sheets and sticks .