President Barack Obama was a community organizer and look at what he accomplished.
Traveling down the same road of “Hope and Change,” Brother Enoch “N.O.C.,” the director and co-creator of Hip-Hop Detoxx, is paving his own way and instilling hope in young people while using Hip-Hop as a tool of empowerment.
A speaker, change agent and artist in his own right, Enoch uses Hip-Hop, Spoken Word, Pop Culture, Edu-tainment and Change as elements to promote healthy lifestyles while solving the problems of teens and young adults in a therapeutic way.
Brother Enoch is taking up the task of making a positive impact in the city of Chicago and nationwide as a servant leader who promotes positive behaviors, which is why he spoke to us about Hip-Hop Detoxx and where he hopes to see his organization in the coming years.
GlobalGrind: What’s the origin behind Hip-Hop Detoxx, what was the genesis?
Brother Enoch: I started off as an artist myself, as an MC dancing as part of a group.
One thing about the knowledge or science of hip-hop is that it brings all the elements into play where it can become something that people can participate in.
The ability to transform your life from criminal activity and negative behavior to becoming someone that’s living a productive and positive life is what Hip-Hop Detoxx is all about.
That’s why we define hip-hop as being truth without boundaries and not just the cultural elements of break dancing, emceeing, and DJing. So the whole idea of detoxing is to remove the poison.
The poison existed before the quote-un-quote “Era of hip hop” came to be; it was poison with R&B, poison with blues, and poison with jazz. The purest thing we got to that didn’t have poison was the gospels and the spirituals that we sung during slavery, because we wanted to relieve ourselves of a lifestyle of poison.
So all of that is what in essence helped to trigger the idea of doing Hip-Hop Detoxx.
Is there one student or one person that you feel Hip-Hip Detoxx seriously changed his/her life for the better?
That’s hard to answer because there’s been a lot. But one success story that comes to mind was an artist by the name of McFree. He was 19 year-old kid living in the south-side of Chicago and was going through troubles with family members.
So when we hooked up he started coming to our studio program at the Chicago Urban League on 45th and Michigan here in Chicago.
We started teaching him music and video production programs and he learned a lot.
So to guide his transformation we brought in Wild Style from Crucial Conflict who was part of Hip Hop Detoxx to participate in a project called “Be The Change.” So with our help and the artist that would come through to show support, McFree really got focused and his life changed forever. He could have been one of these kids that were drugged out or even worse, in jail.
Using Hip-Hop as a vehicle, who are some of the artists that have come through and have led their voices to the movement?
Well No ID, I met in 1993 while he was working on Common’s album. He’s helped us out in the past lending his voice and expertise to the movement.
He’s been a great counselor in terms of letting us know what we can do and where we can go. We’ve worked with Wyclef, X-Clan and Crucial Conflict we actually did a nice jam session with him a while ago.
We’ve performed with a lot of artists over the years so I don’t want to try to name everybody. But as far as those who have helped us out or encouraged us, we’ve received an endorsement from Steve Harvey, who brought me to his youth mentoring camp, over the last 3 years. Russell Simmons let me know that he really liked what the Hip-Hip Detoxx is doing as he donated his book “Super Rich” to the program.
We’ve gotten a lot of encouragement from “Freeway” Rick Ross, the real Rick Ross; he’s supported us since he got out of the pen. We brought him out to Chicago and he talked with some of our staff and students about his life.
Sometimes I have to scroll through Google or YouTube just to remember all the stuff we did, but there’s quite a few people who’ve showed us love and did shows with us.
With the 2012 election coming up, what role will Hip-Hop Detoxx play in advocating young people to get involved in the political process?
Most definitely we advocate them going out there and becoming a part of the political process, but we school them first.
You know how old folks would say you need to get some common sense along with the book sense, we say, you have to get some “poli-sense” before you just decide to go do anything.
Some people call it civic engagement, education, but we’re looking at voter education and the activity of what politics is as a process.
So we advocate “poli-sense” heavily. We’ll have some activities coming up soon where we will engage our communities in poli-sense.
I find that lot of times with these young people don’t want to vote because they don’t have poli-sense. They don’t feel the need to because they have false expectations.
Our thing is gaining some poli-sense if you want to make a difference. So we want to do more if possible.
Speaking of doing more, what are Hip-Hop Detoxx’s goals and hopes of the future? How far do you think Hip-Hop Detoxx can go?
Our goal is to take the model of Hip-Hop Detoxx like the Boy Scouts of America or Boys and Girls club and transform the lives of young people nationally.
We want Hip-Hop Detoxx in churches, mosques, any organization that is willing to teach and transform lives.
To take that Boy Scouts of America model and make it our own, so you can take it and build your own. Go as far as it can go making it available to foundations, schools, hospitals, community groups, organizations, etc.
We also created thet Ark of St. Sabina / DetoxX Talent Development Summer Program which was a 7-week hip-hop arts & public health & safety education program where students were participated in a series of interactive exercises designed to produce self-examination, self-analysis, self-correction & increased healthy life-style awareness.
So with the work that we’ve done in this realm, we want to get it to more people, develop and train more people, be hip-hop empowerment specialists.
I understand however that this will take a collective effort, after all there’s only so much that any of us can do, but if we can empower one another and come together, we can make change real.
That’s what Hip-Hop Detoxx is doing here in Chicago and other places around the country.
If you would like to know more about Hip-Hop Detoxx and their efforts email them hiphopdetoxx@yahoo.com and visit their website hiphopdetoxxonline.com
