Lean With It, Rock With It, Stop With It...

I'm in the house recently, cooking up something for the kids while my oldest is flipping the channels looking for the next best thing to watch on the tube until her favorite show Degrassi comes on. From a few seconds of MTV Cribs re-runs to VH1 and then she finally decides to leave it on BET.

At first it was all good – I was bobbing my head to one of Beyonce's recent bangers then Busta's "Touch It" jam came on, but it slowly went downhill from there. I thought I had put too many onions in the dish that I was making but then I realized that I was beginning to shed a tear at the garbage that I was hearing.

I won't say any names of the groups and artists that were played but I honestly believe we are not only at a state of emergency when it comes to the politics of this nation - we are also in a state of emergency when it comes to the negative and repulsive music that's aired on TV and radio.

As I continued to listen, I found myself standing completely still, staring at the television in disappointment as I heard more about ass-shaking and drugs in two songs than I have heard in one week of listening to several CDs. What hurt the most was that these songs were categorized as hip-hop!

I really don't think that the average listener of top 40 radio knows what hip-hop is. Hip-hop is not rap, and rap is not hip-hop. People often say, "Hip-Hop is a culture, and rap is what you do within that culture," which is true to some degree, but it's more than that. Hip-hop is not only about beats and lyrics, but it's about unity, love, peace, spirituality. Hip-hop was created to bring people together to speak about various things on a common ground with common goals in mind.

When listening and viewing the so called "hip-hop" today, I don't see much unity nor do I see anything that truly uplifts the community, I see more negative things that brings down our community. From songs that glorify drug selling, to prostitution, to simply killing another person, when is it going to end? How does it affect our young people, our next leaders? Our kids are dancing and singing this crap at home, with their friends, and at school. This is part of the reason why we have kids having sex early, getting killed and going to prison – because the music is raising our kids, not the parents.

When it comes to the next generation of leaders, I feel sorry for this nation, most people my age and older grew up listening to songs like "What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye to Queen Latifah's "Unity," "If I Rule The World" by Curtis Blow - songs that motivated me to question injustice and join to end it. But the songs out now are not motivating, just brainwashing.

In the end, change begins with you, stand out, be yourself. I was told that the people you hang around will be the people who you will end up acting like; and I believe that the music you listen to fits the same mold. Be yourself, listen to music that will motivate you to reach your goals and don't follow suit. The trump card sits within you.

Parents, it's your responsibility to keep you child's mind as pure as possible while they are under your roof. Make it happen to the best of your ability.

Much love and respect.

- Chosun