Will Smith's New Album Lost and Found: So Refreshing

I was talking to one of my close friends and co-workers who has a seven-year old son named Josiah. Josiah is at the age where he's discovering music. His favorite album when he was younger was TobyMac and Grits. Gotta hand it to him: the kid has taste. So he loves rap. His dad tried to feed this by giving him other Christian rap music, like KJ-52 and John Reuben. Unfortunately, he didn't know about The Cross Movement or The Ambassador, but oh well.

But a couple of weeks ago, my friend came home to see his 7-year-old son watching and dancing around the living room to BET. He had inadvertently unlocked his Satellite TV Parental Control, and Josiah was flipping through and heard awesome music.

The problem, of course, is that it was BET. Josiah likely didn't understand what he was hearing, but the images don't need much explaining.

My bud had a long talk with his son about while rap is great music, it's not okay for him to watch videos. Now, he's in a pickle: he wants his son to listen to music he likes, but most rap music contains images and ideas that are utterly anti-God. I suppose you could say the same for a lot of other genres, but when it comes to blatant sexuality, materialism, misogyny and pseudo-manhood beat-your-chest kinda machismo, hip-hop is the clear leader.

That's why I love Will Smith. His new album is not just fun, but filled with strangely moral lessons. I'm especially a fan of his tag-team with Snoop Dogg, called Pump Ya Brakes, in which the two rhyme:

If your girl's in ya face & she's outta place
What you need to tell her is... PUMP YA BRAKES
If you're out with your girls & he's pressin' you hard
What you need to tell him is...PUMP YA BRAKES
Now if you're underage & you're actin' all grown
What you need to do is PUMP YA BRAKES
If you're offended by this record, then you know that's you
What you need to do is...PUMP YA BRAKES

Earlier on the album, in the song SwitchSmith also raps about scantily clad women, clowning on them by saying:
Hey vibe to vibe a second/This a club girl, why you arrived naked?

In the song Party Starter, he touts the importance of crafting smart rhymes that say something, instead of the bleak, desolate rhymes that are filled with nothing but curse words and empty themes:

I call for the days of the unadulterated
When the artistry was cultivated
You know, back when rap was smart and multilayered
We could rap without A&Rs and ultimatums

Then he says:
Look, people getting trapped in the track
and they be clappin', even when the rappin' is whack
Yo, what happened, when did we get happy wit that?
He's old-fashioned (yup), but let's be happy he's back

It all reiterates my point: one Will Smith/U2/Mel Gibson has more influence on our culture than 100 US Senators ever could.