Word Up! How A Kids Hip Hop Collective Is Helping American Families Become Anti-Racist

(First published in Forbes on November 11, 2020)

For many, 2020 will be remembered as a year of soundbite politics and angry street protests. Others will remember the troubling sound of the “Covid cough.” And all of us will remember the absence of sound — the silence of shuttered music venues, cancelled celebrations, and missing voices of family and friends.

Some however, hear a more hopeful sound rising. For Alphabet Rockers, a Grammy-nominated kids hip hop collective, the real soundtrack of 2020 to remember…

Is the sound of change.

Following in the path of a long list of socially conscious hip hop collectives such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (with their ground-breaking song The Message) and A Tribe Called Quest, the Oakland, California-based Alphabet Rockers bring one big twist to the rap game: its members are children. Yet despite the fact they are young in age, they are already big time — the group has preformed at Lollapalooza, The Kennedy Center, San Francisco Pride Festival, Art & Soul Festival and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as in hundreds of schools across the country.

Founded by Kaitlin McGaw and Tommy Soulati Shepherd, two Bay Area arts activists and educators, the group is composed of a range of creative talents, most of whom aren’t even old enough to drive yet. The group includes several 11-year-olds, Kali de Jesus, Lillian Ellis and Maya Fleming, as well as 12-year old Tommy Shepherd III. 

The group’s most recent album, “The Love,” was released in August 2019 and was recorded at the Zoo Labs arts incubator in Oakland with over 60 musical artists, choreographers and DJs. The album, which is the group’s second to be nominated for a Grammy, focuses on fostering gender inclusivity and positive visibility for children who identify as gender-nonbinary, transgender, and two-spirit. Tracks focused on an optimistic and inclusive future include “Someday” and the stirring anthem, “I Am Enough.”

The success of that album opened their eyes to new possibilities.

“For years we have seen how impactful it is for kids and families to dance, sing and dialogue with Alphabet Rockers,” said McGaw. “But more than just a fun educational experiences and great music, following the release of ‘The Love,’ we noticed that parents in particular were making brave steps in communicating more openly and honestly about issues of inclusion and racism in their own lives and the lives of their family.” 

“Over the past year we understood and trusted that parents around the country were ready to do this kind of work, and looking for new ways to do this work with their family. We felt we had to go deeper if we were going to make a bigger impact,” added McGaw.

Yet when the pandemic hit, Alphabet Rockers, like the rest of the nation, had to change their tactics to succeed in a new, socially-distanced environment.

“Like everyone else in the music world, we  realized that it was going be hard to engage people in person like we had been doing… we were trying to figure out fruitful and meaningful ways to relate to our audience,” said Tommy Soulati Shepherd. “We were starving for engagement and started to pick up on the online mini-course model, and realized that this may be a way to keep the conversation going for some and start the conversation for others.”

Following up on the theme of their first Grammy-nominated album, “Rise Shine #Woke,” that emphasized themes of racial equality, the group’s new online mini-course is appropriately called “We Got Work To Do.” The online curriculum is focused on helping children learn how to stand up, show up and get loud as change makers in the effort to fight racism and discrimination in their communities, and country. The project includes worksheets and reflection questions that parents and children can use to foster conversations for the entire family on topics related to identity, intersectionality, and activism.

Alphabet Rockers new project comes at a vital time for America as the nation grapples with its harmful legacy of social and structural racism.

A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology found that Black adolescents average over five racial discrimination experiences per day, many of which are online. The amount of racist interactions these students experience is also correlative to a short-term increases in symptoms of depression and other mental health challenges.

That’s why Alphabet Rockers are stepping up.

“We want to make anti-racism an even bigger part of kids and families’ daily life. It's a really important topic and it's not talked about enough,” said Lillian Ellis, an 11-year old member of the group. “So for kids to know - they're the next generation - they'll have the conversation going with their families from a young age, which will pass on and keep the conversation going.”

The group is currently promoting the courseware on its website, with the hope that they can help foster an anti-racist movement among not only their listeners, but among their listeners’ parents as well.

“The possibilities of having a shared anti-racist language - where we understand why we share our pronouns, where we understand why we honor the land and the Indigenous communities - when we understand why and how our biases are at work. We have so much to fight for in our daily lives. Everything is connected,” adds McGaw.

“So I know that right now people, white people, want to do more and want to do better, and particularly families and people raising children. Our children have spent much of their lives witnessing bullying culture and the tolerance of it is as the norm - they have seen unapologetic white supremacy at work. Now we have the opportunity, all of us, to disrupt all these patterns and create something new.”

And as for the young members of Alphabet Rockers?

“We may be small, but we have a voice – and now is the time we need to use it," said Ellis.

Word.