GINGER: Ginger Coyle is a creator.  I'm a musician, a singer/songwriter...an artist.  I like to make music for your earholes...and send out positive vibes and messages with my music.

GINGER: Ok ummmmm.....let's see...I have to put a John Lennon song on there.  Number one is John Lennon - "Imagine" (of course).  Number two would be "She's Gone" - Hall & Oats.  Then we'll put Phil in there...Phil Collins - "Against All Odds".  Billie Holliday - "The Very Thought of You"...and number five would be...ooooh I dunno I love Zero 7 - "Destiny"...that's a good one.  But, you know, this top five is interchangeable throughout my day to day life.  I love so much music.  Tori Amos - "Crucify", "Purple Rain" - Prince...The Police - "Everything That She Does Is Magic"...I dunno LOL.

Alloyius: What is your favorite song from your own catalog?

GINGER: Hmmm...my favorite song from my own catalog.  I'll narrow it down to my record...because at least you'll be able to buy it if you feel so inclined.  I would say "To The Moon And Back" on "Homeward Bound"...my newly released record.   "To The Moon And Back" is my favorite, because when I was coming out of my last project, which was like a Hip-Hop/Dance thing...that was the first song that was like me coming back into myself as an artist. "What do I want to say this time around?", and I was just looking at the world around me and I wanted to share a message.  And that's basically it.

GINGER: If I was going to give any advice to any young artist coming out I would say to absolutely follow your path.  Don't let anybody tell you what to sing, what to do, who to be.  Do you...because there's only one you.  I know that sounds really cliche and stuff, but just going through all of the experiences that I've been through, I finally back to where I started.  You can try to do what somebody else wants, but at the end of the day, you're not going to be happy.  So just do you and be true to yourself.     

GINGER: In the future you can expect to see more music for sure.  I just released an EP called "Homeward Bound", but there's a full-length album on the way.  Give me like a year to pump that out.  But I'll be on tour playing around Philly and NJ...so stay tuned!  There's more where that came from...positive messages and positive vibes.

Cultures Clothing Co.

The rapper Saigon has been receiving a lot of heat recently, because he openly criticized the messages that many rappers (including Rick Ross) are giving to the community. Here is the first quote that got the Hip-Hop community riled up:

"[Rick Ross] is rapping about selling kilos of cocaine and selling drugs. This is what he’s about, this whole lifestyle saying he’s so rich and he eats shrimp every night, and y'all support this shit? Y'all broke and poor and your family’s about to get kicked out."  

Saigon also spoke about how the state of Hip-Hop is affecting the youth.  He went on to say this:

Rappers like Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj have very large fan bases, so when the general public heard Saigon's comments, they bashed him for it.  While reading through some of the comments that were posted on sites like HipHopDX.com, I saw that most of the people were attacking Saigon's music career instead of actually addressing the points that he was making (about the state of the industry).   Now I don't listen to Rick Ross or Saigon, so I'm 100% unbiased about the situation, but what Saigon is saying here is 100% truth.  In this situation, Rick Ross was just an example that Saigon was using to express his point.  Yes, if you look through Rick Ross' catalog, you may find a couple of tracks that actually have some positive content to them.  However, the vast majority of the music that Rick Ross puts out is actually promoting a very negative lifestyle.  And let's face it...the music about sex, drugs, and money is pushed harder than the up-lifting, socially conscious music.  Anyone who says otherwise is either clueless or completely brainwashed.  There are plenty of dope songs that are radio-ready that never see the light of day because they're too positive.  People Under the Stairs have a large underground following, and an entire catalog of songs in the same vein as "Summertime" by Will Smith...but the industry would rather push songs like "Every Girl" by Young Money (which objectifies women).  

Canibus had this line in a song "Poet Laureate II" (that came out in 2003) that is perfect commentary on the state of Hip-Hop today in 2012.  Canibus said "Hip-Hop has never been the same since '88.  Since it became a lucrative profession there's a misconception that a movement in any direction is progression".  Instead of moving forward, and finding better ways to reach the masses with positive, uplifting, socially conscious messages, we're moving backwards.  Just look at the state of Hip-Hop before Hip-Hop became big business.  You had groups like Public Enemy that were HUGE...and they actually had a message that uplifted the urban community.  Now look at the state of Hip-Hop today.  Who are the biggest artists?  Common? Mos Def (Yasiin Bey)? Talib Kweli? The Roots? Zion I? Blue Scholars? Common Market? CYNE?  No...most people have never even heard of CYNE (which is sad in itself).  The biggest "Hip-Hop" artists are Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Drake, & Nicki Minaj.  Jeezy and Rick Ross are all about the drug game and hustling.  Outside of a few songs (like the one he did with Robin Thicke about Katrina), Lil Wayne RARELY has any positive content.  The only positive African-American Hip-Hop role model that gets any MAJOR radio play nowadays (outside of Common, occasionally) is Lupe Fiasco...and Lupe has to fight with Atlantic Records to try to make the music that he wants to make.  

Let's face it, the majority of the Hip-Hop music circulating nowadays IS damaging to the urban community in general.  What's worse is that a lot of artists don't want to take responsibility for the things coming out of their mouths.  They equate being a rapper to being an actor.  I once heard Jadakiss compare what he was doing to a movie like "Terminator 2".  This seemed completely ridiculous to me, because I'm sure most kids above a second grade level can tell you that a movie about a robot from the future is fiction-based.  There's a vast difference between obvious science-fiction, and a guy from the hood talking about selling drugs and killing people.  The latter actually happens somewhere in the country DAILY.  And the difference is, with movies, people can SEE that they are actors.  They can visually see the credits rolling and know for a fact that these people are being paid to act out a story.  With rappers, it's becoming increasingly harder to tell whether or not someone is speaking the truth.  Honest expression is really becoming a lost art in Hip-Hop. 

I have a newsflash for the folks that place the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the parents: it takes a village to raise a child.  Of course, the main responsibility should fall on the parents to make sure that their kids have their heads on straight...but these kids DO look up to successful rappers as role models (despite the fact that most rappers don't want to be). 

Some of these kids see these guys with all of their money, and say "maybe if I do what he's doing or talk about what he's talking about then I can be rich too".  The MCs with the biggest spotlights nowadays are artists like 50 Cent, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross...which is why most verses from up-and-coming hip-hop artists consist of them talking about how many people they've shot (or will shoot), how many kilos they've moved (or will move). Or they're objectifying women.  Please...I DEFY someone to tell me that I'm wrong.  If you don't believe me, ask the average kid walking down the street in the urban communities to freestyle for you, and listen to what comes out.

The environment that the kids are growing up in has as much to do with the kids growth as what the parents are teaching them...and many artists are flooding the urban environment with negative ideas and imagery.  Either people can accept that their words have power, or they can continue to do what they're doing, blame shift, and wonder why the state of the urban community isn't getting any better.  To the MC's out there, if you're promoting something negative in your music, then you ARE playing a part in the degradation of the community.  Some people may be ok with that as long as they're making money, but for those of you who aren't, you need to take a long look in the mirror and think about the legacy that you're leaving behind.

1. In ancient Tahiti, archery was a sacred sport, practiced only by people of high rank. And while they were expert marksmen, bows and arrows were never used as weapons of war. 

3. Missionaries still abound Christian missions to the “cannibalistic savages” of the Pacific Islands are not a thing of the past: they still happen today, albeit on a smaller scale. Whenever some anthropologist or explorer finds remote villages with a hint of a cannibalistic past (it’s not really practiced anymore), missionaries come in droves to “convert” the “savages” to Christianity. The colonialist impulse of Westerners has not cooled one bit, even in this day of cultural relativism. 

4. You can read outside at night And we don’t mean with a lamp here—actual starlight reading. No kidding. There is so little light pollution in certain spots, and the air is so clear, that it’s possible to read only by the light of the stars. Amazing, no? 

5. They eat a lot of canned food Tinned food is a staple of the Pacific Island diet—they won’t serve it to tourists usually, but they will eat it themselves. From South American versions of Spam to tinned fish imported from Japan, the groceries are filled with them. Canned foods are also helpful because of the long lasting nature of the product. These are only five of the less known cultural habits of the Pacific Islanders. Of course, it changes from island to island since none of them have the same cultural and ethnic makeup. But no matter whether you’re planning to stay in luxury hotels or somewhere a bit simpler, it’s always good to research the culture a little bit.

6. In Tahiti, the Chinese population (about 10 percent) monopolizes the retail trade, so when Tahitians talk about going shopping, they say they are going to "la Chine" or to the Chinese. 

7. The letter "B" does not exist in the Tahitian language. Bora Bora is actually Pora Pora, meaning first born, but early visitors heard it as Bora Bora.

8. The word tattoo originated in Tahiti. The legend of Tohu, the god of tattoo, describes painting all the oceans' fish in beautiful colors and patterns. In Polynesian culture, tattoos have long been considered signs of beauty, and in earlier times were ceremoniously applied when reaching adolescence.

9. Those things that look like mail boxes outside the homes of Tahitian residents are not for mail, but for French bread delivery. Residents get a fresh loaf dropped off twice a day. But alas, they must go to the post office to retrieve their mail!

10. The Pearl Museum on Tahiti is the only museum in the world devoted entirely to pearls. The unique presentations about Tahitian Cultured Pearls describe and demonstrate the history and practice of cultivating pearls as well as their place in art, history, mythology, and religion.

Sources:

http://www.etravelminder.com/interesting-pacific-island-cultural-facts/

http://gohawaii.about.com/cs/frenchpolynesia/a/tahiti_facts.htm

Saukrates – “Tomorrow” (Video)