A couple weeks ago I came across a video put together by three little girls--sisters who formed the group Watoto from the Nile. With the help of their father, they put together a response to Lil Wayne's music. For those of you who have not heard of Lil Wayne or who are not that familiar with the artist, here is some background information.
Lil Wayne is one of the most popular and prolific rappers right now. He is known for his exceptional freestyle/impromptu-style rapping and regularly admits to drug use, particularly while in the recording studio. In fact, in some of his songs you can actually hear him inhaling (I'll let you guess what) while rapping. Furthermore, his songs glorify drugs, sex, and the degradation of women. He has claimed in interviews that he does not pretend nor want to be a role model and that when he raps and performs he is putting on a separate persona--and that is not really him. Here is an interview with the artist illustrating this:
And here is one of his videos: the official music video for the song "Single." Warning: There is profanity and shocking lyrics/visuals.
Now that I've given some background information, it's time to move on to what is truly remarkable--that three sisters used music and video to speak out against this type of music and the way it portrays women. Here is that song, titled "Letter to Lil Wayne":
It is truly remarkable that these girls were able to do this--albeit with some help from their father--but nevertheless, their father helped them gain media literacy skills and helped the girls' voices to reach thousands if not millions of people. They were able to create and disseminate a powerful message through media--and that is no easy feat.
This example shows the importance of media literacy and teaching media literacy skills to young people, and this is just one powerful example of how adults can help children and adolescents be heard through the development of these skills.
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