MC Lyte discussed the importance of education in an interview with VladTV posted yesterday (January 1).
“I’m putting all of my efforts to raise money to send kids to college,” MC Lyte says in the interview. “With education comes options. When you don’t have options, you look to other ways to make money and sometimes those ways lead to illegal activity.”
MC Lyte founded Hip Hop Sisters Network, “a non-profit foundation that promotes positive images of women of ethnic diversity, bringing leaders together from the world of Hip Hop, the entertainment industry, and the corporate world.”
MC Lyte says that getting an education is as difficult as ever these days.
“It feels like everything is on a downward spiral and education has become one the least important aspects of what needs to be done for the kid,” MC Lyte says. “It’s a bit of a disgrace on the government’s part that we’ve come to this and No Child Left Behind has left us with graduates who still don’t read. “
MC Lyte says that teachers, kids and the government have to work together to educate the populace.
“I think the strive for an education can come from the person themselves, “ MC Lyte says in the interview. “Kids say, ‘You can’t make me go to school!’ Once they get there, what do they do? Back in my day the teachers cared. It’s a working together that has to happen with the school systems and citizens who want to go to school.”
In October MC Lyte released the Common-assisted track “Dear John” to raise further awareness for the education cause.
“’Dear John’ f/ Common & 10Beats, is the anthem for #EducateOURMen, which is the signature scholarship initiative of MC Lyte’s Hip Hop Sisters Foundation, which has presented two $100,000 university scholarships during the Soul Train Music Awards Red Carpet Pre-Show each year since the organization’s founding,” HipHopDX wrote about the song in October. “This year, the foundation will present dozens of scholarships earmarked to send men to HBCU’s. Russell Simmons, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jada Pinkett Smith and Faith Evans are just of the few celebrities who support the foundation’s movement (EducateOURMen.info).”
Mc Lyte should check herself. Barack Obama doubled down on the NCLB policies she criticizes.
Thats whats up!! Shout to MC Lyte and to hiphopdx for posting positive hip hop articles..
More power to her for trying to do positive work, but it’s always disheartening when you see these ‘strong black women’ get nose jobs and wear wigs. No matter what they say after that, they’re showing you that they are ashamed of their negroid features and wish they weren’t black. Black self-hatred runs deep. It’s sad. There was an important period in early hip-hop when it black pride and self-awareness was being promoted, but that’s not cool any more. What did Cormega say? “When Styles made ‘I Get High’, they played it all day/ when Styles made ‘I’m Black’, it didn’t get no play”.
Why just HBCUs? Almost all of them are horrible and is the problem that exist when it comes to Black American education. I went to an HBCU and transferring was the best thing I ever did. HBCUs are not the real world. They should also support black people that want to go to other colleges. I support their movement and I think it’s dope but they have to expand their horizon. First and foremost, we as black people need to learn to think for ourselves. Bad teachers aren’t the only problem, it’s also this mainstream fabrication of the hiphop lifestyle that we get caught up in. That shit isn’t real, it isn’t real life, so we get caught up thinking those things we see in videos defines success. We also need to wake up.
HBCU didn’t work out for you and can be the best thing for another Black person. I didn’t attend a HBCU and had a tougher time at the White universities. At least they’ll have a positive environment to learn and influential Black men to give them game too. But I agree about Black people needing to think for themselves more. Too many followers and not enough logic thinkers and leaders.
Let’s keep it real, HBCUs steal Black kids student loan and grant money and pretend to give them an education and college experience. It’s really sad how so many bright, gifted Black kids who are eager to learn are fucking suckered into throwing away their gifts at HBCUs.
It’s not much of a disgrace it’s the fact we drop out to much and we don’t respect education/Playboy