Is Hip-Hop Going Green?

Mainstream hip-hop artists rhyme about jewelry, clothes, relationships, sex, money, thugging, poverty and shooting, but when is the last (or first) time you heard a hip-hop artist rhyming about going green?

Arrested Development, famous for Billboard top songs like "Tennessee," "Mr. Wendal" and "People Everyday," is still making conscious music. The two-time Grammy-award winning group, who became a hit in 1992, has a recent song "Greener" from their 2010 album "Strong."

In classic, soulful Arrested Development style, it's a clap happy song that'll get your shoulders swaying back and forth, but the lyrics to the song are something we should all be listening to.

African-American environmentalists (in addition to environmentalists of other races) everywhere can cheer to lyrics like "Blacks want to be green, We want to recycle" and "Living green actually is all good, I recycle cans and paper goods in my hood, son, no trash mouth 'cause trash is better in the dump."

"Greener" even confronts folks who leave cigarette litter on the street and called one guy a "thug and a litterbug." In the coolest way possible, they talk about how to recycle glass, plastic and aluminum. Then in comes the soothing singing and soul clap again.

As much as I appreciate people who care about the environment and hip-hop separately, it's nice to see the two come together. With hip-hop artists like Masta Killa, RZA, GZA and Raekwon being vegetarians and Common posing for PETA ads, this certainly helps fight environmental pollution from excessive animal wastes. Erykah Badu and Russell Simmons, also influential in the hip-hop industry, are vegans. In the African-American community, we need to see more of that.

On Sept. 18, @ArrestedDevlpmt tweeted, "Our present #STRONG CD will be the LAST one we'll do addressing black issues. #nuffsaid#WHATMORECANISAY Future CD will be more general."

I'm not mad at that. I understand it. But truth be told it's not what more they can say. It's a matter of more of us listening. It's still rare to hear this kind of concern for Planet Earth in hip-hop. I'd love to see your favorite rapper take note of what Arrested Development and other environmentally conscious artists are doing. Instead of beefing on Twitter, imagine if your favorite rappers and singers tweeted, "Off Twitter for Earth Hour" and disappeared for sixty minutes. Think that would make others participate, too?

Other hot songs on the "Stronger" album include "Bio," "Bloody" and the amusing "I'm Kanye East" reference on "Any Tree But That." Want to know what else the group is up to these days? Follow @ArrestedDevlpmt.

Sources:
Arrested Development on Billboard.com
Arrested Development website