Letter: Where can teens go for hip-hop in Asheville?

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

[In response to “Bridging the Gap: Asheville’s Black Hip-hop Artists and Venue Bookers Seek Common Ground,” Jan. 17, Xpress]: Love the Mountain Xpress. Thank you for being here. I am a single mom raising a 16-year-old neurodiverse, nonverbal, awesome man. Times too many to count, I have wanted to write a letter expressing my views regarding different issues. I just never can find the time. Even this letter is being done in segments.

It’s a scary world out there in the artificial “reality” that dictates and controls most of the planet. Trying to raise and empower our children to be true is challenging to say the least.

My son loves hip-hop. Radical hip-hop at that. There is nowhere I have found for him to see a show in Asheville. Where do the teenagers go in the evening around here?

Deven enjoys most music unless I play it. It’s hard to find any youth centers or music venues for our youth. Especially in the winter, there is a greater need for things to do at night. What is there for all of them to do? Music dance is a perfect socially constructive outlet for our youth. Where is this in Asheville? And particularly, where is hip-hop?

Let’s name it. Discrimination based on race, based on social class, based on capitalism. That’s what’s going on with hip-hop in this “socially progressive” town.

— Cheryl Williams
Asheville

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8 thoughts on “Letter: Where can teens go for hip-hop in Asheville?”

  1. Enlightened Enigma

    maybe a teen church group would be favorable …

    some hip hop is great…some is nothing but thug lyrics that no 16 year old awesome man should be listening to…you’re the parent, make a better decision for him…has he ever discovered classical music ?

  3. John

    You claim Asheville doesn’t have a big hip-hop scene so you label the city as “Discrimination based on race, based on social class, based on capitalism.”. I recommend you look into how the city and county spend tax revenues (City Council commits $4.2 million to redevelopment of Lee Walker Heights? ). I have to agree with Tourist.

  4. Enlightened Enigma

    John, that’s $8.4 MILLION …the county commissioners matched the heinous city donation to give for more ghetto creation…WHY?

    We need LESS public housing NOT MORE! Public housing is the biggest problem in Asheville, but no one does anything
    to phase it out and mainstream the poor into mainstream communities, instead of SEGREGATION – the democrackkk dream.

  5. WilliamFromCLT

    No rap venues means race based discrimination ? How so? Please enlighten me.
    Maybe there’s no market for a venue. If you feel so strongly about it, open one or financially invest in one.

    Also, what is neurodiverse? I’ve never heard that term.

  6. john burgin

    So start a hip hop scene. Never cared for it myself, but if you like it, go for it!

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