It’s a known fact, you learn through repetition. Unfortunately, parents repeating the same thing over and over again tend to go in one ear and out the next. I call this current generation the ear bud generation. They always have ear buds in their ears and listening to God knows what. Music shapes our lives whether or not we want to admit it. The messages in songs influence decisions in many people’s lives. Some good… A lot of them bad. I’m an Usher fan, but I am very disappointed in him (not that he cares) with his song, I don’t mind. To me, it encourages our young women to be strippers. Whether or not it is a proper career is another topic for discussion, but not today. What happened to the songs that inspire us to achieve or fight for what we believe?
When I was growing up we had The Greatest Love of All (George Benson); Greatest Love of All (Whitney Houston); Free (Prince); One Moment in Time (Whitney Houston); Tomorrow (Tevin Campbell); and Believe I can Fly(R. Kelly). Songs that when things were tough, one of these songs would give you that second wind to focus on the task at hand. What do we have to motivate today’s youth? This generation faces more challenges than I could imagine. Well, Thursday night while watching “Empire”, I think I have found the motivator for this generation.
I don't know if I never heard of Estelle or just didn’t pay attention to her. After watching her and Jussie Smollet perform Conqueror, I had to find out who this lady was. Nevertheless, Conqueror personifies all of the messages that I’ve tried to instill in my children. The songs addresses the nay sayers or haters that try to hold you down as well as not giving up if you stumble on your path to success. The message is one that needs to be hammered into the minds of the youth. Especially our inner city youth, who are taught at a young age that their future is limited.
Join me in pushing our radio stations to play Conqueror over and over. Email the program director, post on your favorite stations Facebook page, tweet #Conqueror. Whatever it takes. I think our youth will understand that message and hopefully it will have a positive impact. I still don’t understand Take me to Church and I'm rather tired of hearing it.
If you missed hearing their performance on "Empire" you can purchase it on Amazon.
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