Professor talks social change mixed with hip-hop

LYNN – It was a message of social change delivered to a backdrop of hip-hop with a direct line to the civil rights movement that North Shore Community College Professor Troy Smith gave to about 20 students of all ages.”Using a phrase the (hip-hop artist) KRS-One invented, this is ?edu-tainment,'” Smith said. “It has an element of learning as well as being entertainment.”Smith has taught a course he designed, “Martin and Malcolm: Advocates for Human Rights,” based on the lives and teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, at NSCC for over 20 years. He called the social change lecture he gave Wednesday to a mixture of middle schoolers from The Boys & Girls Club, NSCC Human Services students and students in the Upward Bound, a college readiness course, as a way to connect his civil rights message with a younger generation.Like the civil rights leaders he said he admires, Smith told students they have a voice.”Do not silence yourself,” he said. “You don’t have to be quiet and stand in the background. You have a voice, insight and experience. Use it to make a difference.”He also challenged them to remember their roots, their history and what makes them unique.Smith pointed to Jay-Z, rapper, record producer and entrepreneur, as a modern-day role model who isn’t quite getting it done in terms of remembering his history.He said Jay-Z was recently called out by Harry Belafonte, singer and social activist, when Jay-Z said his presence at an event was his charity.”We don’t want your charity,” Smith told the students, loosely quoting Belafonte. “We want your involvement, your action ? charity is pretty light.”Smith also coaxed the students into a little free-form hip-hop of their own. After some prodding, 14-year-old Breed Middle School student Damian Tiburcio pounded out a rhythm with his fist, accented by a well-timed kick to the chair in front of him, while his classmate Jayden Lowe joined in tapping out a beat with his pencil. Wade Ward jingled the change in his pocket in time with the boys. Smith got the rest of the class to alternately chant “Upward Bounds in the house” and “GBCs in the house,” while he filled in with a bit of a beatbox mix of his own.After Smith and his longtime collaborator Shawn Williams sang original songs of their own, a discussion on values disguised as a debate on present-day hip-hop versus old-school broke out.”Why is hip-hop starting to suck? asked Tiburcio bluntly.Tiburcio said he likes rapper Eminem but doesn’t understand why everyone praises Rihanna, Drake and rapper Lil Wayne.Smith blamed it on commercialism and record companies putting profits before art.”But the artists have to be accountable to themselves, too,” he added.Boys & Girls Club Recreation Director Greg Wigfall said he stuck with old-school artists like Run-D.M.C., Grandmaster Flash and DJ Jazzy Jeff.”I think they had a more positive message,” he said.They were storytellers, Tiburcio said. The music back in the day seemed to focus more on not doing drugs and not getting into trouble, added Brooke Coleman, also from Boys & Girls Club.”Now it’s almost the opposite,” she said. “Why is the assumption that we won’t like (music) if it’s positive?”Rhode Alcindor, 13, said it was the foul language and the use of what she called “the N word” that bothered her.”How can we reverse it and go back to the ’90s or ’80s when it was all good,” she asked.Smith told the students it is important to draw a line, to stand up for what they believe is right and wrong, not for what’s popular or trendy and to hold their own racial groups accountable as well.”In the context of civil rights, think about the people who struggled and died ? there used to be consequences for using the N word,” he said.”Tap into your authentic creativity, respect yourself and others,” he added. “Remember your values and don’t bend your values to fit society. Stand for what you believe in and just be cool. It’s a simple message, but it’s real.”