Hip Hop Lives Now is the movement, and we are here to preserve the majesty of real Hip Hop! Taking from the opening track “Fear Not of Man” off of Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides album, Mos says “Hip-Hop won’t get better until the people get better,” so I am trying to make these youth better people first to hopefully make Hip Hop better in the future. What I always tell the youth in the program is don’t focus on becoming a great M.C., be a great person. Greatness must shine in everything that you do. Once entered into this program the youth have improved in all aspects of their lives! Their grades are better, they are getting along with their parents better, and they are becoming more organized in their lives. I hope that these students are as inspired by me as I am of them; this truly has been an empowering experience to work with them!

This latest post is a snippet of the work that we all have been doing. This snippet is from a song called “Dangerous” and we focused on the danger of being a Black youth in the United States. According to a report by the CDC, homicide is the leading cause of death among Black men aged 15-34 years old. (Three age categories!) [Read article HERE.] One of the youth I work with today said “It’s like many of us are committing suicide.” Along with many negative portrayals of Black males in the media, many Black men are automatically looked at as criminals, even these kids I work with. That’s not fair to them, or any people who are working hard to do better, and are still looked at as if they are criminals. This is why we say in this track: “We take the heat, even when the heat is aimed at us.” Every youth I work with is in danger, and in this song we are asking people to wake up and keep ya guard up!

Again, this is just a snippet, full song coming soon…..
Shout out to my crew… Mr. Dido, Baby Quey, Shiz, Channel Black, Knight, & J Dub

mighty FlipSide ESQ.
Dangerous mix 1 by HipHopLivesNow

Tags: Black, Black on Black crime, Danger, Hip Hop Lives Now, Youth

Comments (1) | November 24th, 2009