Grind 4 the Green: Sustainable Hip-Hop or Bust

"Broken glass everywhere, people pissin on the stairs you know they just don't care."

Any true lover of Hip-Hop can immediately identify the quote above, and if they're old enough reminisce what they were doing when they first heard it. For that matter a die hard 16 year-old hip-hop enthusiast today can probably recant the entire song with a deeply heartfelt inner serenity when they get to the famous hook "Don't push me cuz I'm close to the edge, I'm trying not to lose my head". Lyrics like these Melle Mel penned keepsakes represent an era in Hip-Hop when inner city residents went head to head against local and national government policies that brought drugs, crime, disparity, poverty and pollution into our neighborhoods. A time that made the creation of hip-hop a stark necessity. Fast forward 20 years later hip-hop is the world leader in music and a multi billion dollar industry and the blocks where it came from still have broken glass everywhere? Wait, a minute something is wrong here, how can this still be the case? Where are all the mainstream giants? The Jay Z's, The 50's, The Diddy's and Weezy's ? Who's gonna clean up the block? Who's gonna teach the kids? How come no one's doing anything to pick up the broken glass? Do they just not care? 

Oh wait, there is someone, it's the folks from Grind for the Green or G4G. It's us, no to toot our own horns but really it's us. Grind for the Green G4G is annual 4 part summer eco music festival produced for and by youth that has been initiated in the San Francisco Bay Area. With this program of ours, we've decided to address the issue of environmental racism in our neighborhoods which is part of the planet's holistic environmental problem that has been growing at an alarmingly toxic rate. In rehashing this program known once upon a time as Grind and Glory, we - Zakiya Harris and myself Ambessa Cantave hired and trained 8 Frisco and Oakland youth to throw 4 events: a music business conference, performance workshop, beat battle and solar powered concert. Thus far we've successfully executed 2 of them. Our Music Business conference which was preceded by a party at Club Mighty, had Talib Kweli as it's keynote speaker and the chief rocker at the pre-party. We busted our asses and worked literally off of 2.5 hours of sleep to see it through.  Thank God for panelists like Namane, Goapele's manager from Sky Blaze Records, Kerry Fiero of  Strive Management and Rob Collins of BAVC/BUMP, amongst others.  We also just knocked out event 2 which was a performance workshop, with topics covered by Bay Area art mavericks such as, JAHI, Do-DAT and Elefant of the Attik, Nu-Dakades and Ahsabi Monique. We as FIYAWATA just ran around like mad people. Through both of these events our eyes opened to the possibilities that lie in this kind of work which is one part music business education and ecological solutions building. In all of our events, mind you we pledge to only use recycled and recyclable food ware, stationery and other materials as part of our campaign. After these four events we will be placing about eight youth into SF State's Music Recording Industry program in the Spring and taking them on an eco-awareness raising eco-tour after that. This goes to show that no matter how braggadocios the mainstream maybe, solutions for hip-hop and our people's future, once again stems from the underground.