Fleetwood

Hip-Hop “destroyed the person I was and gave birth to the man I am today. For that reason, I’ll always love Hip-Hop,” says Fleetwood. His passion for Hip-Hop began during the days of the Sugar Hill Gang, one of the first groups to use rapping in their songs. He wrote his first rhyme across the street from the cemetery where his mother was buried down South.

Fleetwood has the humble persona of a down home country boy. But he has roots in both California and in North Carolina. As he states with an infectious smile, “I was bred in San Francisco’s Fillmore district.”

His desire to perfect his craft led him to the frigid climate of Minnesota. He was accepted to Music Tech in Minneapolis, where he received an associate degree in music. He produced a young talented singer known as R.L. before he became popular with the R&B group called Next. But after college came a major setback in his musical career. He became a victim in the war on drugs.

“I owned my own record labels, I sold dope for my record labels but I kept getting caught,” said Fleetwood with amazing candor. What straightened his path was a change in his spiritual outlook or, as Fleetwood proclaims, “Finally, I put my faith in God!”

Fleetwood returned to San Francisco and produced several groups. One group named Probable Cause opened up for acts like E-40, Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs N Harmony. During his budding producing career, Fleetwood got involved in community work helping young people, especially with the Proposition 21 movement that focused on justice and freedom for youth in California.

“I was part of the problem,” said Fleetwood “My father was a major heroin trafficker. I wanted to be part of the solution,” revealed Fleetwood about his becoming a community activist.

Fleetwood has indeed become a one-man solution to the problem. “I didn’t have any special hookup. You just have to use the resources you have available to you,” he said.

Besides writing his upcoming book “Hip-Hop Tried 2 Kill Me” for less than $150, he has also established his own non-profit, The Homeboy Hotline, which helps ex-offenders with their re-entry into the community through job resources.

“I do the footwork,” said Fleetwood about his non-profit. “I don’t get you the job, but I can show you where to go to get one. I help you find clothing, housing and medical care. I also show you how to get grants and avoid the poverty pimps,” he said.

He also conducts an annual toy giveaway for children whose parents are in jail. “I plant a seed of hope and care around the time of Christmas to reverse the cycle of hopelessness. We go to family shelters with new toys. We’d like to see entertainers and athletes from the Raiders, 49ers, A’s, Giants and Warriors help donate new unused toys.”

Fleetwood’s mixtape “Blessing” is on the streets now and can be ordered online. On the drawing board for the future is the launching of a new inspirational God fearing movement called DOPE Boyz, which stands for Doing Our Part Equally. The inspiration for the group’s name stems from Fleetwood’s early music career. “Dope Boyz was the name of my first group in Minnesota. I flipped the script from gangster to Hip-Hop.”

“In life what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Adversity – it can destroy you or it can build you. In my case it built me to the man I am today,” claims Fleetwood about his life. But being truthful and helping others in need helps spread your good name around the world. Fleetwood knows he can go anywhere, be it East, West, North or South, and know he will get love from the streets.

Many record companies manufacture street credibility with hired teams of expensive public relations experts who pump out lurid gangster tales to create a street buzz to sell records. Fleetwood’s street cred comes from years of pounding the pavement, assisting troubled youths and defending the community from predatory attacks.

“The corporate media controls Hip-Hop,” Fleetwood bluntly tells me. But he has a remedy for conscious artists to the watered down corporate Hip-Hop forced on us by the media giants: “Keep it underground and put it on the Internet. Put more truth in your music. Make music to inspire people.”

Join Fleetwood for his book release party on Friday, May 23, at Marcus Bookstore, 1712 Fillmore St., in San Francisco. For more details and to order his book and mixtapes, go to his website, www.myspace.com/Fleetwood189. To buy his book, go to Marcus Books or Barnes and Nobles.

Sam Drew is a staff writer at Poor News Network. Read more about issues of poverty and race written by the people who face them daily at www.poormagazine.org.

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