Hip-Hop for troubled teens

It's been a rough few months for Hip-Hop.

Between all the misogyny and racial slurs, Cam'ron claiming he wouldn't "snitch" on a serial killer on Anderson Cooper Live, Akon in bad raps for simulating sex with at 14-year-old girl on stage in Trinidad, and the Jay-Z death rumors, the world of Hip-Hop is sinking.

Rap record sales are taking a plunge and its reputation is becoming more and more despised by the media each day. According to Foxnews.com, "A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images".

Enter The Hip Hop Project, an original new program set in New York City to help troubled teens turn their lives around with the use of hip-hop.

A documentary with the same name opened in selected theaters on May 11, depicting the life of a group of teens struggling to improve their turbulent lives with the help of their love of hip-hop.

The program was created by Chris "Kazi" Rolle, a former homeless rapper who bounced back with the help of a caring teacher he once had. Rolle used those same elements to help kids in the same situation he was once in.

"The whole curriculum was based on the arts," Rolle says in a recent article in The Houston Chronicle. "So if you were studying American history, you did it through playwriting. ... We created a play, but to create the play we had to get the information. So we didn't even realize we were learning American history because we were focused on doing this thing that we actually liked."

The film mostly centers on Rolle's life and his reunion with his mother who abandoned him as a child in their homeland of the Bahamas.

The film also features Russell Simmons, who is a benefactor of the project as well as Queen Latifah and Bruce Willis, among those involved.

The project has released a soundtrack featuring songs from the film and Rolle is putting together a concert tour this summer featuring kids from the project.

With the recent negative media that the hip-hop world is receiving, The Hip-Hop Project is not only an opportunity to bring back a positive view to a popular culture but teach younger generations about the power of education and the true passion of this musical poetry.