Zambian hip-hop, Yelitare, and community engagement

What can I touch? I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. I'm moving all around. southern video his song the fire inside competed against some of the best acts in south africa mr swagger welcome to the coon rap report thanks melvin crisis first yeah first i would like to read something about the history of zamias so our audience will understand how important zamias was to the emerging african liberation movements of the late 50s in the early 60s zambia officially the republic of zambia it is a landlocked country in south africa the neighboring countries are the democratic republic of the congo to the north tanzania's to the northeast malawi to the east mozambique zimbabwe boswana nambia to the south and angolia to the west the capital city is a lusaka it's located in the south central uh part of the country the population is concentrated in capital originally inhabited by the quotian people the region which compromised zamiya was colonized during the ban to expansion of the 13th century after visit by european explorers in the 18th century zamiya became the british colony of northern rhodesia towards the end of the 19th century for most of the colonial period the country was governed by an administrative appointed from london with the advice of the british south african company one of those corporations we always talk about on this show on october on uh the 24th of october 1964 the country declared independence from the united kingdom and then prime minister kenneth konda became the the uh first president of of of zambia so can you talk a little about the importance of zamiya's first president um now known as dr kenneth david kaunda he he just um the day before yesterday was celebrating his uh 88th birthday um and actually it brought me to think how important of a figure he's been in you know not only my country's history but our whole history but also Africa's history, because he's one of the people that actually provided refuge for some of the people that had nowhere to go. You know, people like Jacob Zuma, who was the former president. Exactly, exactly. They actually, at some point, including Nelson Mandela, were once in Zambia because they couldn't go back to South Africa for a certain period of time. And he gave them shelter when they needed it. And he helped countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, help gain independence. And yeah, he also, most importantly, helped not only liberate our country, but help, you know, he put the word out on the importance of the liberation and independence of African countries as a whole, and not just, you know, our country. His intention was not selfish. Most people have visions, and they're self-centered visions. But his intention, which is, you know, a bigger vision than most people would have. It's when you take on a task that big where you have to liberate a whole country, you're risking your life because some of the people that he was in the struggle with, Harry, Mwanga, and Kumbula, they passed away. Some people were killed. You know, so it was, yeah, he is an important figure. Important person, yeah. Now, let's talk a little about you and your music. Tell us a little about your early life and how you got into music. I was born in Lusaka, Zambia, which is the capital city for my country, Zambia. And I was born in Lusaka, Zambia. And I was, I guess I was born almost at the same time as hip-hop music. I can't say the year. But in my early life, as always, and nothing's changed, I always had a big appetite. And I remember sitting in the kitchen with my mother. She was cooking a meal. And the radio was on, and on came Grandmaster Flash and the Furious. And I was like, whoa, that's five. Whoa. It's like a jungle sometimes. It makes me wonder how I keep on going under. And I heard that the first time, and that was on radio. There was an American DJ who came to my country in exile, Mike Tabor. May his soul rest in peace. And he was one of the few DJs playing hip-hop on Zambian radio. So I waited for more hip-hop to come back, and surely later on the next day, about the same time, he played more hip-hop by Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash again. And I started thinking to myself, because I loved nursery rhymes, so it was relative that I fell in love with hip-hop because of the rhyming schemes behind it and everything. That's how I decided to start trying to write raps. And my mother's Dolly Parton tapes disappeared, and they had hip-hop recorded over them. Okay. Now, how about the influence? What influence of, like, South African musicians like Hugh Masekela, Mary McKeever, what kind of influence do they have on your music? I guess those, you know, they, Mary McKeever now passed away, may her soul rest in peace. But Hugh Masekela, I met him once at an awards show. I used to look up to him and still do. I think he's an amazing musician. He came at a time where, you know, again, South Africa was going through the liberation struggle. They had struggles with apartheid. They were fighting against a government that they did not vote for. They were fighting against a system that totally mistreated the black people. And he helped not only liberate the people, but, I guess, get their minds off the struggle. That they were going through. And that taught me what I could do with music is to reach out, even for three minutes, and get people to think about something other than maybe the problems that they have, and possibly get them to zone out and, you know, journey with me through music. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Swagger. Look, we'll be hearing from you in the roundtable and also in the ether portion of the show. We're going to hear some of your music. Music in that section. Now I would like to talk to two students from USC who is with an organization that they come to tell us about, which means empowerment. Shadia, Shadia, Haji, Sufi, and Michelle Kwan. Welcome to the Qumran Report. Thank you for having us. Okay. Can you tell us a little about yourself and the organization? Well, my name is Shadia Haji Sufi. I was born in Somalia, raised in Switzerland, and I came here about 12 years ago. I came to USC eight years ago, majored in international relations. And growing up, I was really interested in women's rights and, you know, the rights of children. And I just got introduced to our founder of Yelatare, Musa Bakum. And... And we had that French connection. You know, we both speak French. And then he talked to me about the organization. And I just was instantly hooked and wanted to be part of it. What language did you pick up first, French or English? I... My native language is Somali. And then I learned French, you know, in school, growing up in Switzerland. And then English. How many languages do you speak? I speak three. Three. Okay. Beautiful. Okay, Michelle. Yes, hi. Hi. Okay. Well, I was born in New York, like you, Randy. Except I, yeah, I was born on Long Island. And I lived there until I was 12 or 13. And then I also moved to Switzerland. So I went to high school there. And then I came to USC. And I'm currently majoring in neuroscience. And I heard about Yelatare, actually, because I took... I took a French class where Musa was the professor. And initially, it was just the normal student-professor relationship. But every time we had an essay assignment or an in-class discussion, I'd always talk about how I really want to help ameliorate the quality of life for oppressed people. And I really have this interest in the African continent. And I really want to visit Africa one day. And so one day he comes up to me after class. And he's like, hey, you'd be perfect for my... for my organization. What do you think? And it really appealed to my, you know, I don't know, my compassionate, empathetic side. And I guess all of these interests that I'd expressed. So... Let me ask you something. OK. What was it that drew you to Switzerland? The two I want to ask you. What was it that drew you to Switzerland? Oh, actually, my dad works for the United Nations. And he got a job placement at the headquarters in Geneva. OK. So my whole family just moved over. OK. So my whole family just moved over there with him. Yes. And what drew you to USC? Good question. I actually... Yeah, because I mean, it's so far. But I had applied to a bunch of different schools all over the world, I guess. And USC ended up being just the most friendly, I guess. When I emailed, I don't know, people at USC asking for more information, they were always very warm. And just the whole process was very accessible. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I think that's what drew you to the United States. Yeah. And I think that's what drew me to the United States. I think that's what drew me to the United States. Yeah. I think that's what drew me to the United States. Yeah. I think that's what drew me to the United States. Okay. Let's talk about the organization for a while. I see that you have some good PowerPoints here. And I would like to get you two to talk about them for a while. Scripts and Songs for Change. What is that about? Do you want to? No, you can. Okay. All right. Well, Scripts and Songs for Change is our, I guess, media-based awareness-raising campaign or aspect of our general campaign. And essentially, I mean... As the name implies, it's based around scripts and songs. And so what we are going to do is have a bunch of international contestants submit ideas for scripts for films or song ideas that are about this human rights issue of child marriage, which is what our current campaign is about. And from all of these international submissions, we will pick the top 20 and then collaborate with professional music artists and directors. And we will have them produce and have them produced into real professional quality products that we will then distribute internationally and play at festivals and on radio stations. And through that means raise awareness about our issue. Mm-hmm. So you're going to connect the film with the music, like the soundtrack, the music throughout the film? Yeah, because we feel that really media is an... I guess with the people here, it's not really untapped. But in general, we're going to be able to do that. In general society, we feel like it's an untapped resource that can really be used to raise awareness about a lot of different issues in the world. Yeah, and this is on the front page now, dealing with women's issues, child soldiers, forced marriage, all that kind of material. Can you talk a little about the tree that you talked a little earlier, the tree? Okay, the palver tree is an old, a really old traditional institution. It's an old institution where people from the community would come and talk about their issues or their concerns. Maybe if someone got into a conflict, they would come under the palver tree and say whatever was wrong. And the village elders would come and basically make a ruling and say, you're wrong and you're right. But what we're going to be doing with the palver tree is making sure that we're not going to be doing anything that's going to be a threat to the community. And that's what we're going to be doing. And that's what we're going to be doing. And that's what we're going to be doing. Many years ago, we used to make electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity electricity you know the ones being affected by you know this issue they can be expressing their concerns and then and have you know the older people listen to them instead of just you know making decisions for them okay okay now how about the issue of the empowerment of women's and income generating activities okay sorry yeah yeah um that's actually a good um a very vital part of our campaign as well because we feel first of all whenever there's any real human rights violation or a global issue that deals with humanitarian problems um these things arise from more infrastructural political economic social sort of issues like um i guess in the in the coney 2000 issue that recently arose this past year um people were under the impression that this entire problem work children were being kidnapped and used as child soldiers centered around this one man joseph coney and for some reason everyone was under the impression that if this one man were to be captured this whole problem would go away but when osama bin laden was stopped did terrorism stop no this one problem is i mean this one person is never the whole sort of of the problem. And so we're trying to tackle, I mean, we're not saying that economics is the only reason why child marriage happens, but we're trying to tackle child marriage as an issue from the more economic side as well. And so we feel that by empowering women and children, and by creating more opportunities for them to create their own income, their families will be less, I guess, pushed into forcing them into marriage in order to create income through their own marriage. I mean, there are a lot of families who aren't even able to feed themselves. And so as a last resort, they, in a sense, sell their own daughters just to get food to feed their other children. If these daughters were to instead be able to use a certain skill set to produce their own income, this would not have to be the, like, I don't know, the life path for that girl. Do you... Do you think it has a lot to do with the type of economic system in which these particular countries is living under? Do you see that have any relationship to that? The child marriage, what we see happening over there? I mean, is this pervasive in both capitalist and socialist countries, et cetera, like that, or? That's a good question. I don't know. I don't think that the problem originated in the economic system or structure of a country. I think it's more based on access to opportunities to educational and career opportunities for these, I don't know, these individuals. Okay. We're going to discuss this a little bit more when we get into the roundtable discussion, because I know both Tyrone and Earlene will have some questions. One more thing. Can you talk a little about the mobile campaign for the voluntary HIV screening? Can you explain that? Oh, sure. Or to us? Yeah, because child marriage is actually a practice that really encourages the spread of HIV and other STIs. Like, if you have a 10-year-old girl who's being forced to marry a 50-year-old man, he's had so much more sexual experience than this child, and he's probably, he's definitely going to give her any STIs that he's caught in the past. And especially in the African continent, where the HIV pandemic is a real issue that's currently being addressed, we feel that it's very, I don't know, this is an issue that really needs to be tackled on headfirst. And so this mobile campaign for HIV screening is essentially where we're going to set up HIV screening units all around West Africa and voluntarily target the communities which are most at risk for HIV transmission. So this includes, like, sex workers and soldiers. And people who are involved with these people and closely related to them. And I can't remember at the moment, but a few other populations as well. And we're going to give them the opportunity to get tested to know their HIV status. And we feel that that will help to prevent transmission of HIV. Okay. Now, can you tell us again the name of your organization and the meaning of it? Because I thought that was very interesting. The name of our organization is Yelitare. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Empowerment. Empowerment. Okay. Okay. Now, we're going to take a short break for our community calendar, and then we'll come back to open up to our roundtable discussion. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Ms. Earlene Anthony for our community calendar. This is the community calendar for the month of May, Sunday, May the 6th, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Veterans Project, the Roby Theater, and the Veterans Project. The theater company, Drama Stage Coombran, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Vortex presents the first annual Veterans Stand Down. The location will be at the Vortex, 2341 East Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. And if you're traveling by the bus, the number 60 Metro bus will take you to Santa Fe and Olympic. And this is a time that we're going to honor and remember our veterans. Some of the service providing will include eligibility screening, medical exam, on-site housing referrals, counseling, clothing and hygiene giveaway, breakfast and lunch will be served, and many more services will be provided. For more information on the Stand Down, you can call 323-850-4436 or 310-478-3711. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 40187. And on Thursday, May the 10th, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Melvin Ishmael Johnson will be directing a Veterans Community Theater Company. It will be a seven-week workshop. And at the conclusion, there will be a performance of a stage play that they will be working on during the course of the workshop. And if you want to be in the workshop, please respond as soon as possible. Seating is limited to 15 veterans. And this is a free workshop. The location will be at the Vortex, 2341 East Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. And for more information, you can call 323-850-4436. Sunday, May the 13th, at 3 p.m., Drama Stage Co-Run, the SANA Play Reading Series will present Our Mother's Daughters, a stage play written by yours truly, Earlene Anthony, and directed by Melvin Ishmael Johnson. And this is a reminder that Sunday, May 13th, is Mother's Day. We will be serving a Mother's Day dinner, and you're invited to just come out and help us honor and remember our mothers on this day. The location will be The Exchange, 114 West 5th Street, Los Angeles, California. And for more information on this event, you can call 323-850-4436. And if you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to DramaStage1 at yahoo.com, attention, Earlene Anthony. And once again, our call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562. Now back to our host. ¶¶ Hey, thank you, Earlene Anthony. We're back with our guests, and I would like to open up our discussion to our roundtable. And first thing I want to talk about is the relationship between gangs, violence, and hip-hop here in America. But first of all, what is hip-hop? Can someone want to throw a definition on what you think hip-hop, what is hip-hop? Sure. Hip-hop is a culture that's derived from rap music, rhythm and poetry, which is what rap is because you would be rapping in a rhythm, you know. You would be basically reciting poetry in a rhythm, and that's why it's called rap, rhythm and poetry. Hip-hop was more the... It's a biopsy, a byproduct of rap music that was basically taken more to the streets, taken more... It was more... Rap was more hardcore and, you know, underground, while hip-hop, when they created hip-hop, hip-hop became more like the fun part of rap music. And then it incorporated b-boying, which would be, you know, breakdancing, graffiti art, which is all part of the hip-hop culture. As you know, my name is Mr. Swagger, and back in the day, not a lot of people used Swagger, but Swagger is kind of like an aura. The way you walk, the way you talk, it's not something you can turn on and turn off. It's just, it's a way of life. It's something that's... It's almost natural. So, yeah. And DJing is also a part of the hip-hop culture. So, yes, hip-hop is a culture. Now, that's interesting. Does it... First time I got a definition for rap, rhythm and poetry. That's right. Okay. That's the first time I heard it. That's very interesting. Now, how about this connection? There's a couple things I want to talk to you about. I want to talk... I want to throw it out here. Is there a connection between hip-hop, gangs, violence, et cetera, like that? Let's talk about here in the United States first, in these inner cities. Anybody want to pick up on that? Well, I've always... I've always had this opinion about gangs after spending eight years in the military and visiting places like the Philippines or Mombasa, Kenya, places where there were militias or places where, under martial law, here in the United States, we call them gangs. But over there, they're called guerrillas. You know, you would find the same resources, legal or illegal, black market or whatever. You go to your local gangs or you go to the local guerrillas. So, even... I think even in terms of a lot of Hispanic music, traditional Hispanic music, like El Grupo de Norte, they're... I wouldn't say gang-related, but their music deals with that. That type of... Environment? Yeah, that type of environment, that localization. What's your feelings? I think that it's... That's, you know, some of the... That's one of the downsides of hip-hop. And I like to think that not so much these days because it's coming back to what it was again. More fun in the music. You know, bringing joy in hard times. Yeah, but it's sad to note that other people have basically taken rap lyrics to a point where they take it personal. Anything that they hear on a record and competition also becomes personal sometimes. You know? And that's what causes, you know, people to side with gangs, hip-hop artists coming from a gang because maybe maybe, this guy was with the Bloods and he's successful now. And, you know, there might be jealousy from the Crips or vice versa. I don't really know how it works in the U.S. But the only thing that I can see is it's cliques, separate people and egos, which is really, I find it really unnecessary. I've had to defuse quite a lot of, you know, rap battles myself being in the position that I've been in back home. A pioneering hip-hop artist, you know, get people that want to discredit you, young guys coming up, they want to discredit you and, you know, blow you out the frame. So, yeah. You're talking about back home? Yeah, back home. So, I mean, over here, it's on a whole nother level. If it gets like that, guns get cocked. People get shot sometimes. And, you know, if anybody's listening, let's stop the violence. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now, what's happening in the communities back in the day? In Zambia, in terms of the, it's a hip-hop community there also, right? I mean, when I released my first album, I had a lot of conflict with people telling me, what are you doing? Plus, I use a lot of English in my music. And a lot of people are telling me this will never work. But once the album was released, it took off. I don't know, you know, if it's still the highest selling hip-hop album because I haven't been home for a minute. But, yeah, I mean, people have now embraced the culture. When we were starting, there was a lot of doubt it wouldn't work. But now people have embraced the culture. And it's also evolved locally. And I'm also trying to bring that internationally and just bring something different to the game. Okay. Now, Randy, let me ask you this. It's, do you see a similarity between when jazz came on the scene to the way rap and hip-hop came on the scene? You know, and also, is this a new musical form that we're talking about here? Well, yes and no. If you remember The Last Poets. So, I mean, you know, that same thing was going on back then. In the 60s. Yeah, exactly. And it was really a message. But, you know, now with the, I guess, you know, with the electronics and more of a band setting, you know, like the brother said, they're taking it to a different level. But it's, you know, as life progresses, so does music. You know, and it's just evolving. That's all, basically. Let me ask you something else about that I'm interested in. You're familiar with Skid Row, right? With Skid Row, you know, the homeless capital. A lot of times, it's the homeless capital of the world, definitely of the United States. Over 80,000 to 100,000 people sleep on the street here in L.A. County every night. And Skid Row, the downtown area, where mainly we work with our theater company, is there an area comparable to that in your country? There's a lot of, it's, there's a lot of areas, you know. The homeless. Yes. There's a lot of, there's a lot of homeless people in my country. And I guess it's, it's the same thing. Sometimes, you know, sometimes I, when I walk the streets of L.A., I see a lot of opportunity. And at the same time, I sometimes wish that I had those opportunities afforded to me back home. Because America is so much more developed than Africa. But you need to remember, well, not Africa, I would say some countries in Africa. Because South Africa is now competing. But I would say, at the same time, you can't really say that it's, you know, some of the causes of people being homeless are not economical. Some could be mental. Some could be, you know, social, you know, stress and different things. So, yes, there's a lot of places like that in my country. Okay. We're going to get into the ether in just one second. One more thing I want to throw out here. And when we come back from the ether, this is one thing I want to talk about in relationship to USC in terms of how to get the student community and the community members to work a little closer together and understanding, especially in relationship to those two students, who just lost their life, who live in the USC community. But at this time, I want to turn it over to Tyrone for our Voices from the Ether section. If it's Monday night, 20 minutes to nine, then you're listening to Voices from the Ether. Our in-studio guest, his music is playing in the background, Price is Mr. Swagger. You learned all about him in the first part of our show. So without further delay, from high downtown L.A., and he is premier hip-hop artist, Mr. Swagger. Okay. This song, as you can hear, was inspired by the 2010 World Cup. Uh, you can catch me in the city Doing a hundred miles an hour I ain't like them other castles Doing a hundred miles and running I'm moving forward And maintaining position Whatever place I want in the game It's my decision Me, I'm a train driver You don't want no collision I'm African and ain't nobody With my sort of vision My boy Max Jimmy told me go hard Now I play the game I'm feeling like a rapping Mozart This ain't a battle of the sexes I hope you had breakfast Now welcome to the battle of the besters Cast talking about swag What you talking about? Copyright owners over here What you talking about? It's like the first earthquake We're in the middle of the night What's felt in Haiti? A lot of broken homes And a few surviving babies You're not alone It can be And it'll never be See me on the stage You better holler, man Remember me Uh-huh Okay, we're gonna go into our second piece now Okay This is a little story, you know what I mean? About where I'm coming from About where I'm coming from Grew up in everything. Now I got into the rap game. Yo. I recall I used to run around in the streets on Cairo Road trying to get some money to eat. I used to sell CDs in Soweto Market just to get a little bit of money in my pocket. My shorty had a baby on the way. She used to tell me, like, crisis, you a loser. I was like, no way. Every day I was hustling hard, talking to God, thinking, damn, yo. Why the hell is life so hard? You never seen my struggle. Where you wake up starving and you know you gotta use every muscle. I've been with the thugs. And they know where I came from. That's why they giving me hugs. I got the world on my back, the future in front of me, and a million plus fans that follow me. Holler back. I got the world on my back and the future in front of me. Come on. When you want it to move, there's no easy way out. Uh-huh. When you want it to move. When you want it to move. Thanks to Universal Music for this. Celine Dion chorus. Listen, verse two. We're live in the studio. Hey, yo, I'm reading from a book where my future's written. It says he came from a humble background to the billboard chart. Damn, I don't even know how I did it, but I knew that if I work with the Lord, then I could get it. Everybody telling me that I should go. I'm gonna go overseas like money just grows on trees. Like I could just decide to pack my bags and say I'm leaving for America. I'm gonna be a big star, but it's never that simple. Big cars, big cribs, and big chips. It'll happen in good time. I know I'm gonna get it. The crisis ambitious with big dreams. Whispers and fake flows, I'm gonna kill them. And I know that you think I can't make it on my own because you never see God on my side when I walk. And if you thought that I was just another dude, think again. This is money. Money in the bank when I rap. Uh-huh. There's no easy way. If you got a vision, you got a dream, don't give up. Know what I mean? The only thing stopping you is you. We're live in the studios. Uh, Skid Row Radio. Yo. I remember coming up in the game like back in the day when I was just a kid watching flashy kids. They used to say I was a Dr. Dre wannabe. Now they all wanna be friends. So who's a wannabe now, huh? Holla at your boy, man. Listen, I've been around, looked around, no competition. This is the passion of the crisis, the hunger for more. Give me a river because my thirst never ends. I came from the bottom up. I'm on top of the world now. I'm even handshaking with God. I know you're feeling yourself. You better off just killing yourself because you ain't moving no units on a shelf. I'm a hot dog. Photographs up in the news. I got a newspaper. I got to do an interview. I'll see you later, man. Photographs up in the newspaper. I got to do an interview. I'll see you later, man. Uh huh. There's no easy way out. You know it ain't. You're ready to go. And your heart is left to you. My name's Crisis Mr. Swagger. You said I could survive. I'm so ready to be there. You're on Skid Row Radio. You're on Skid Row Radio. Uh huh. That's the way it is. Diamondchainmusic.com. Special shout out to Africa. That's the way it is. Connecting with the US. Peace. Thank you, Mr. Swagger. Thank you. This week's shout out goes to Dare to Care, a substance abuse program. They are looking for donations of food, clothing, and employment opportunities for the women they serve. For more information about how you can help or mail donations to Dare to Care, 14325 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, California, 90248. Or you can call 310-515-5039. Let them know you heard about this through the ether. That concludes tonight's visit to the ether. And now back to the show's host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson. Yeah. Thank you, Tyrone. That was great. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Now, I want to get a little bit back into our roundtable discussion. And then I also want to have some comments from each one of our guests. So we have the contact information for those who want to contact you. But I want to talk a little about the student community relationship, especially around USC. I know we just had some mention earlier. We had an incident where two students was robbed, killed, who lived in the community. Now, USC sits in a community that at one time was known for a long, for a lot of gang activities, the Hoover Crips, the Roland, the 20s, the 60s that surrounds the campus. How can the what are your thoughts on ways to get the community and the university life, the student to work more closely together to bridge that gap, especially in a campus like USC that sits in the heart of the community? Well, the relationship between the USC student body and the local community has been a really central issue to the university ever since its start. Like there's always been this whole debate about, oh, USC thinks it's superior to the community, it places itself on a pedestal and isolates itself. But then there are also a lot of advocates for the opposite side who say that, no, USC is making a wholehearted effort to really become more engaged with the community and the residents of the area directly around it. So, I mean, different people will apply differently to this question, but I'm a firm believer of or pretty firm believer of the school of thought that says that USC is I mean, it's not trying as hard as it could be, but it is trying to get more engaged with the community through a lot of different ways. There are a lot of programs that send USC volunteers out to the local community. Um, to act as like tutors or mentors to schools and to students in local schools or a lot in a lot of classes, for example, USC students will be sent out to learn more about issues that are relevant to the area that we reside in. So through different programs like this, I think slowly USC students are becoming more engaged in the community and hopefully eventually will become better integrated. How about you, Shandy? Your thoughts on. Well, I was just going to say about what Michelle said, but I do feel that there is a disconnect between the USC community and the surrounding areas. But I think that out of it is not because of the students fault is I feel like it's part of their background. A lot of, you know, USC is a private school. You know, a lot of people. Are, you know, coming from parents who have high incomes. So coming into, you know, this area where, you know, people are making, I don't know, a third or tenth of their parents income is it can be very intimidating for these students. So I think there's a lot of fear that is going on between the two communities. But I also feel that they are trying. Trying to understand the community a lot better. Now, Tyrone, Earline, questions? You guys said we met at a fundraiser. That's how we all first met. Yes. And is this how the majority of your funding for these projects that you're you're planning on doing is coming from or what? What other funding sources do you have? Well, we're working with a lot of different, um, like. In a lot of different areas, for example, we're trying to get funding from governments, we are trying to get funding from different organizations or maybe even, you know, companies having sponsors, but that event that you came to was a very, very small event compared to what we're actually trying to do. Yeah. OK, Earline. I kind of tossed this around with Michelle. Earlier, but I think I'm going to have to change my question because she answered most of it before, but you have such a heart for people of Africa. Yeah. Can you kind of explain why? Why you have such a heart for Africa or when did it occur? Are you, you know, at an early age or what? Oh, sure. Well, the thing is, I mean, I think my parents raised me to be really compassionate. I think I was really empathetic towards others. And when I was really young, that manifested as being like an animal lover and like animals in plight, I would just my heart would go out to them. And then as I went to school and I got older, I would learn about history and current affairs and learn about human rights violations and all these oppressed individuals. And I would think, wow, I can picture myself being in that situation. And that would just be so awful. Like, at the end of the day, everyone just wants to go to sleep happy. They want to think to themselves, man, I'm happy with the way my day went today. And so many people live in a situation where they don't have days like that. They're starving, they're sick, their family is sick. They can't feed each other. I mean, it's just really sad. And when I learned about, like, the African continent and how many troubles afflicted, I don't know, my heart just really went out to the people. And I know there are struggling people on every continent, but I feel like Africa in particular, really, I mean, they're just it's just very unlucky as like a whole with like an HIV pandemic, so many economic problems, political issues, just so many civil wars in so many of the countries. And I just really want to do whatever I can to help the people there. So, yeah. And it's the cradle of mankind, you know, and it's so plagued by all these things. Right. It's truly unfortunate. Yeah. OK. We still got a little time left. I want to go around with our guests, starting with Randy, you know, for some final comments. And then would you give us the contact information for those who would want to bring the passion band out to play or perform? Yeah. But can I ask you a question? I had the opportunity to go to Africa back in 73 and a couple of times while I was in the military. And I just wanted to ask you a question. Just for the gentleman and the young lady from Somalia. Right. I'm not very political, but I do consider myself a novice historian. It seems like and I'm just looking at it from an outside point of view in front of a few times that I've been here. But it seems like. The countries that are occupied by the dictators who get funds from other countries, quote unquote, the U.S., it would seem like. Somewhere along the way, the people would I guess they're starting to do it now with the uprisings, it seemed like the people would some in some form or another say we've had enough with these dictators because the money that's supposed to come into the country, whether it's resources from the country or money that's come in from another aid source, it would seem like the dictators or the people rather would just say we've had enough and we're going to overthrow these guys and get them out. And I'm not just saying like Gaddafi and a few of the other ones that have been going on, but from some of the other countries like the Congo, I understand is a big problem in Nigeria now and Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, you know, and I'm just again, I'm I've only been Africa a couple of times and I've been there just as a musician and maybe as a soldier on leave. But I'll just try to get a perspective from you guys. What. Can you just enlighten me as much as you can? Well, people have, you know, you know, been in revolutions. I mean, a lot of the leaders right now, you know, came through. They would like military coups or, you know, the people just rising up against the, you know, leader dictator. But with the case of Africa, I think sometimes it's. It's kind of tricky because sometimes dictators I mean, this might sound funny, but it actually kind of helps, you know, if like there's a strong, very strong central leader that, you know, creates stability. Right. So a lot of people don't really care about, you know, what's going on with the government, but rather, you know, how you're you're living, you have enough to eat, you know, you have your health care. You know, are people shooting at you? For example, in my country, Somalia, there is not really a government. Basically, it's a transitional government right now. Right. But you can see by that that it's basically anarchy. People, you know, are doing whatever they want. And the government's role, you know, is supposed to take care of the people. But there is no government right now. Yeah, because Somalia is a failed state. Yeah. OK, we're winding down. Can you give us your contact information real quick? OK. Oh, sure. Yeah. The Yellow Tire website is yellowtire.org and it's kind of a weird word. So yellowtire is Y-E-L-L-I-T-A-R-R-E. Sorry, T-A-A-R-E, my bad, dot org or just email us at info at yellowtire.org. OK, great. For artist booking and for any further information, you can call if you're in the States, 323-244-7997. Or hit me up on Facebook.com forward slash contact crisis on Twitter at hip hop crisis. And to hit the website, just go to www.diamondchainmusic.com. The best diamonds come from Africa. The chain represents unity. Randy. And for a local number for the band Passion is 213-305-4256. Zero. We do all types of music, blues, funk, rock, Latin, hip hop, ska, reggae, whatever you want. If we don't know it, we'll learn it. OK, thank you. Thank I want to thank our guests, our Institute and your guests for tuning in to the CUMRAM Report. And I leave you with a.