@AdamRaps:
Peace to everyone,
I made this song about the death of Trayvon Martin because I wanted to share a perspective that I felt wasn’t being addressed at the time I wrote it.
If you are out of high school, look back and try to remember what it was like to be there. Many of us did crazy stuff at that age, some of which may have been frowned upon by society, some of which we may regret. A great many of us, however, have since moved on from being experimental, sometimes reckless teenagers to being productive and influential members of society.
One of the things that disappoints me most in watching these high profile cases is the way the youngest victims are often portrayed so poorly by the media after they’re dead and can’t publicly defend themselves. Unflattering pictures, old police records and text messages are used to demonize young people, making it easier to justify their often unjust deaths.
I don’t think I had a cell phone when I was 17, but if I did you probably could’ve found enough material in it to make me look like whatever kind of horrible person you wanted to. The problem is that people don’t stop growing at 17. They get older, wiser, and can go on to do amazing things.
Since high school I’ve grown a lot, helped some people along the way, taught some people, made some cool stuff, and tried to spread some positivity that I wouldn’t have been able to spread if my life had been cut short back then. Who’s to say a Trayvon Martin or an Oscar Grant wouldn’t have done the same or better?
Every life is as important as the next, but the younger a person is when they die, the more unrealized potential for greatness they leave behind.. and that to me is a great tragedy.
Let’s respect the dead by realizing our potential for greatness.
One love,
-Adam / A-1
