DETROIT – A Detroit poet and rapper is getting some big time national recognition for his inspirational message and it all started with a phone call from a very influential celebrity.
“Arbery and George Floyd shouldn’t have died and if the system didn’t fail us, they would still be alive. With all the pain and agony, while on his neck and he cried. I know they hear us, they don’t see us, like they’re legally blind,” said Jason “Kid Jay” Obanner.
It’s a strong message, 20-year old rapper and poet “Kid Jay” is delivering and it’s getting national attention, “I feel like all lives don’t matter until Black lives matter.”
He’s know for his inspirational, positive and no profanity messages, “It’s not to make a statement, it’s just the fact that it’s always been a part of my craft and I feel like I don’t have to do it. It doesn’t make me any less talented than any other artist,” said Obanner.
Kid Jay said he started rapping as a kid, but his career really took off about five years ago. He recently got a chance to showcase his talent on the national stage.
“I was apart of Steve Harvey’s show, it was called ‘Mentoring Mondays,’” he said.
Steve Harvey hosted his mentoring sessions via Zoom. Among the panel of guests were Attorney Benjamin Crump, Rapper Jeezy and Anthony Hamilton, just to name a few, the topic of conversation was the Black Lives Matter movement. Young Jay was invited to be apart.
“I came up with a poem about Arbery and George Floyd and police brutality and everything that is going on,” said Young Jay.
“What made me write the poem was the fact that as soon as I seen the George Floyd video, it kind of hurt me to my soul. I couldn’t sleep. Because as African Americans we work for what where we are. We have been through all the beatings, but we also hear the scars, just to go through this again but now it’s just as twice as hard. If they try to put us down, we got to level up, how are they going to protect us, when they’re the ones who hunting us?”
READ: George Floyd video inspires Bloomfield Hills teen to continue working for change