YGB 123
by Hodari Davis Inspired by KRS ONE
1-2-3 our crew is called YGB
We came to take our people to the top
With poetry and hip hop
Waayoooyyooyyyy
1-2-3 we’re teaching our history
We came to take it all back
Young, Gifted, and Black
*clap* *clap* *clap*
We are YOUNG,
HOW YOUNG??
We in Y-G-B
Are in middle school and elementary,
We are old enough to know the truth
We are young enough to take this message to the youth
We are Young
Remembering where we’re from
We remember our past and the struggles we’ve won
We are worthy of respect for the way we survived
Honor those who died so we could be alive
I’m GIFTED
YO WHAT’S YOUR GIFT??
We were born to bring us back
Raised to uplift
We look to the past, to let us know
How we should behave and the way we should go
We are Gifted,
Embracing the talents we have
We are using the power
We’ve been given to gab
Everything we’ve learned
As our minds are turned
We are proud to be Black
That’s the status we’ve earned
We are BLACK
HOW BLACK??
Black like space
We love who we are
Dedicated to our race
How we were born to sing and celebrate
How we believe LOVE will always conquer hate
We are Black
So Black like a state of mind
Like the birth of light or the dawn of time
Like whoever or whatever we want to be
We are born to be free
I am proud to be…
Young, Gifted, and Black in fact *Remember Proud to be Black
I am Proud to be Black let me say it again comes immediately after!
Song
Authors
KRS ONE teaches Black History and continues to perform around the world. KRS ONE means Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone.
This song was a famous Black History song that helped define what we know as conscious hip hop. This song carries the spirit of YGB in that he is teaching Black History through Hip Hop.
The song 123 YGB is based on this BDP / KRS ONE production Self Destruction that enlisted many of the most well known rappers of that time to sing a song about stopping violence in Black communities. Many of the folks who perform in this video are major pioneers in Hip Hop music.
The first person to coin the phrase “Young Gifted and Black” was the legendary author and playwright Lorraine Hansberry.
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer.[1] She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. The title of the play was taken from the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" At the age of 29, she won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award — making her the first African-American dramatist, the fifth woman, and the youngest playwright to do so. Lorraine was a pan africanist who worked with Paul Robeson and WEB Dubois. She was close to James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and others, and her legacy is lived on through music, poetry, theater and art produced by Black people since 1965. Her words inspired Nina Simone to write the song “To Be Young Gifted and Black”.
Nina Simone defines freedom and Blackness. As she does it, she provides language to help YGB define what we do, what we are for, who we are and whose we are. Nina Simone is an ancestor that inspires our work.
Nina Simone wrote “To Be Young Gifted and Black”, based on a line from a play from the great Black writer Lorraine Hansberry. In the song, Nina defines what it means to be a member of YGB. We get the name of the organization from this song.
Nina Simone was a great classical pianist and singer who traveled the world singing and playing for audiences. She was an internationally known artist who was transformed by the Black Power movement and became a strong advocate and activist for Black people.
Run DMC was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell. Run DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop and one of the most famous hip hop acts of the 1980’s. Run DMC was the first hip hop group to achieve a Gold record. They were also the first to have a platinum album record King of Rock (1985). Proud to be Black appeared as a song on this album. Raising Hell (1986), their second album, became the first multi platinum hip hop record in history. They were the first hip hop group to have a video appear on MTV, the first to be on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and the first to be nominated for a Grammy Award. They were the second hip hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and were named the greatest hip hop group of all time by MTV and BH1. The group has sold over 230 Million records worldwide.
