Maddie Conley
Online Editor
On Sunday, Sho Baraka kicked off the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration week with a packed house in the Union. This Hip-Hop/Rap artist performed favorite songs like Here, 2016, and Fathers, 2004.
Here are 2 minutes with Sho Baraka.
Image retrieved from Facebook.com
What is the goal for your music career?
“It’s simple. I just want to make music that I love. I don’t believe that I’m going to change the world, but that there will be certain people that will listen to my music and will be impacted by it. What does that mean? Maybe it will mean they will love their wife better. Maybe they’ll realize the way they’ve been raising their children hasn’t been proper or the way they’ve been treating their neighbor needs to change. Even the way they’ve been viewing God may be different. If I can get people to reshape these deficient views of the world and to focus in on a more healthy view, then I feel like my music is successful.”
Have you seen your music impacting people?
“Absolutely. I have this song from a long time ago called I See the Lord. I remember this girl who was basically on the brink of suicide, and she told me that my song saved her life. I also have two children who are on the autism spectrum and I wrote a song about them. I’ve probably gotten more encouraging messages about that song than any other song I’ve written. People don’t talk about this kind of thing in the world. They especially don’t talk about it in a way that’s encouraging men. Usually, women talk about these issues, but for some reason, it’s a very taboo subject for men, especially men of color. For me to openly talk about my struggle, but also about the joy of raising these kids and how I’m learning from them, that’s helped a lot of people and it’s helping me too. If I don’t ever make another song, I think these songs have done enough.”