Several days ago, while I was at work, I saw a young African American teen (he appearded to be 15-17yrs old) listening to a pair of headphones, bobbin his head and wearing a t-shirt that read, STATE PRISON. I was trippin because the shirt was designed to look hip. You know, like STATE PRISON is a cool place to be. I looked at the kid thinking to myself, I wonder if his parents know that hes weraing this shirt? Im a parent and Im old enough to be that young mans father, but AINT NO WAY in hell Im letting my son wear a shirt that reads STATE PRISON Which had me pondering a few things, things like, Who told him that STATE PRISON was a hip place to be? Where did he buy the shirt and what music is he bumpin thru his earphones? The prison system is full of folk who just got caught up, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, ya feel me? Im sharing this because we say the youth are our future, but do we really believe that? Do we believe that the youth are going to be our next leaders after we pass the baton off to them? Music is a very powerful tool and we as artist, I feel like we have a responsibilty to the youth and a debt to those who came before us and laid the groundwork. How do we as artist, long-time fans of hip hop, reel the youth back in? ((Rel Jerell))
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 00:51:51 +0000
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