Healthy Hip Hop With Local Rapper Roy Scott
Roy Scott loves music. He was 12 when he first started writing lyrics, 15 when he started to produce his own beats. He became part of the underground “gangster rap” subculture. This is when Scott became “Macc James,” a member of the Chop It Up Clicc. But as Scott got older with kids of his own, he realized the power and influence music can have on young people’s lives.
He turned in the alias and gangster rap messages to have a more positive impact on his kids. Scott is now the president of the Lend a Hand Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that spreads educational messages to youth. He’s also an outreach specialist for Blue Cross Blue Shield.
But Scott is still making music. He’s replaced the gangster rap with “healthy hip hop,” something Scott describes as having positive lyrics with the same, hard-hitting beats. Scott is hoping that his songs can reach kids in a positive light, and make their lives more upbeat.
“As I grew and started my own family and had children, I was just realizing how influential and powerful music is, on me, on people, and our youth especially. So I just wanted to take my talents with the same hard beats, but everything is clean in it, so it’s healthy hip hop.”
“(Music) influences the way you think. If you take a second to realize what music you are putting inside of you, you’ll start to see, you’ll start demonstrating some of those things that you are listening to.”
“I’ve been watching (my kids) and seeing how they react to different things they see on T.V., or that they see or hear people doing. They were really my inspiration, you know, and what issues they are dealing with. Like my son in school is dealing with new age stuff like cyber bullying and stuff on the internet.
“Once the beat sounds good, and you start saying something real catchy, it starts to stick. When you hear that song on the radio, you may not even like it, but if it’s catchy and you hear it a lot, now it starts to stick in your head, and you catch yourself saying and displaying it.”