Imagine older folks performing hip hop music, ruminating about their rheumatism, for instance, with lyrics like… ‘I’m feelin’ like dreck, but what the heck?’
This could take hip hop to whole new levels. Talk about market potential! I think there’s some 50 million senior citizens in the United States, alone.
Older folks could be in the spotlight, their voices amplified, exponentially, giving them, so to speak, a whole new lease on life.
But hold on, you’re probably thinking! Look at some of the folks in politics. A good number of them aren’t exactly spring chickens. And their voices — some voices, in particular — are amplified an awful, awful lot, with obfuscation, and sometimes even more than that.
So, maybe straightforwardness would be refreshing, with hip hopping seniors, tellin’ it like it is, with lyrics, perhaps, more direct, evocative and more real than some of the politically rhetorical dreck we’re often hearing?
Which takes us, perhaps, to some of your local county officials’ rhetoric about Ballot Issue 1A, the sales tax increase, soon to be voted on. An increase that could impact seniors — and folks of all ages, for that matter — residing out your way, in Pagosa and Archuleta County.
Enough so, to maybe inspire some mighty evocative senior hip hop lyrics.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.