By james art AH Parker High School students had the opportunity to meet legendary rapper Doug E. Fresh during an anti-violence panel discussion led by Representative Juandalynn Givan and joined by Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr and other law enforcement officials.
The panel discussion began with Fresh mentioning how beautiful Birmingham is every time he comes and being surprised every time he hears about the city’s crime problem.
“Sometimes things look a certain way and they’re not as good as you think they are. So what we want to do today is remove the brand or create the impression that we’re doing well and you’re not doing well,” Fresh said.
He then challenged the audience to a real conversation.
“What you’re going to see is that you don’t know as much as you think you do. You’ll learn that no matter how smart you think you are, you’ll be shocked at how much you don’t know,” Fresh said.
The rapper told the students about growing up in Harlem, New York in the 1980s, at the height of the footy era.
“How many of you know someone who uses drugs and then they’re not the same,” Fresh asked. “So guess what?! So no matter how much you believe the drug makes you feel good, it’s actually destroying you.
Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr told the students that if they commit a crime, it could mean life in prison or even the death penalty.
“You can choose to participate in a crime, but you can’t choose the consequences,” Carr said.
After the panel discussion, Fresh met with several students, one of whom was 17-year-old senior student and school chaplain Kamarion Morris. Despite Fresh’s status as an old-school rapper, she was familiar with the rapper.
“My mom is old school, so I grew up listening to Doug E. Fresh, so I was excited to see him!” she later said.
Morris said she was glad to hear from Fresh and felt the other students benefited from the panel discussion.
“He told us to be humble because there’s always room to grow,” she said.
Morris said growing up in public housing in the city, she witnessed shootings, physical violence, fist fights and bullying.
Sharaia Canady, 18, a senior at Parker, said she had never heard of Doug E. Fresh before.
“A lot of my classmates had never heard of him either,” Kennedy said with a smile. Still, she thinks the panel discussion is worthwhile.
“He had a lot to say and it was very important and relevant stuff. I think that him talking about the prominence of drugs, alcohol and violence today, even in our school, speaks to why people are violent,” Candy said.
She mentioned that sometimes fights happen at Parker, but she thinks the number of fights at the school has decreased since her freshman year.
Fresh ended his talk with the students with advice in rhyme: “The main thing is to make sure that your main thing stays the main thing.”
There have been 164 homicides in Jefferson County this year. So far, there have been 130 murders within Birmingham city limits, including nine deaths that have been ruled justifiable. Eight of those killed were children.