One World, One Sound.

When I was 7 years old, rapper/producer Dr. Dre released his album 2001. I remember when that album first came out and how it was one of the biggest records in the world at the time. What I also remember about that album from when it first came out was that this was the first time I had ever seen young white children listening to Hip-Hop. Up to this point in my life I had never seen anyone who was not black listening to Hip-Hop music before and I really learned something from this. What I learned is how music brings together people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

Much like sports, music is a global glue stick that holds together a world separated by race, religion, politics and social class. When I was in the sixth grade, my chorus teacher gave us a song to learned called "Simple Song Of Peace" by Jerry Estes. My favorite part of this song is the lyrics that go "music is a universal language taking all our differences away". As humans we live in a world that is split up by the surfaces of life. Because of our surface level differences, relatability and connectivity can often times be a challenge. One of the many times music has been able to champion its way through these challenges was in the formation of the historical Hip-Hop/Rock crossover classic, "Walk This Way" by Run-DMC ft. Aerosmith.

Both Run-DMC and Aerosmith admitted to skepticism during the earliest stages of the song's conception, believing that fans of the respective genres would potentially not be moved by the culture clash, thankfully this was not the case. "Walk This Way" would become a landmark moment in music history, its music video even depicted a wall that represented not only a barrier between Hip-Hop and Rock being torn down, but also a barrier between Black and White being broken as well, with both sides rapping and rocking out together in harmony. This culture clash would be the first of many collaborations between Hip-Hop and Rock artist, eventually leading to alternative genres of both sides being fused together like Nu-Metal and Rap-Metal.

When thinking about American music, one easily focuses on the impact it has here in the United States, but unconsciously doesn't consider the weight that impact carries across the world. By the time I was a teenager I began to fully understand the impact that American music carried across the entire planet when I started learning how much the biggest artist outside of America related to American music just as much as Americans. One could easily look into the past and read up on how the famous UK band The Rolling Stones got their name from African American Blues pioneer, Muddy Waters. The Rolling Stones met Muddy Waters in the beginning of their career and told him how he was the inspiration for their band coming together due to a song he had called “ Rollin Stone” Another great modern day example of this is contemporary country music artist Keith Urban. When I first heard Keith Urban's music I had no idea that he was from Australia, and not the American south like we typically think of country music artist. When I found out he was actually from Australia this was very intriguing to me that someone who was on the other side of the planet could relate to the southern vibes of America in his heart, though it wasn't where he was from on the outside.

As unfortunate as it is, death in music is also a testament to how unifying music can be. Most people who were born before the 2000's can remember where they were when they heard the news that Michael Jackson had passed away and when it became known world-wide, the entire world grieved and reflected on how much enjoyment he brought to the entire planet. When Michael Jackson died you weren't a Black fan, a White fan, a Christian fan, an atheist fan etc. You were a Michael Jackson fan who grieved.

I have my own personal experience with the power of how unifying music can be with someone in my personal life. I have an adopted mother, she didn't actually adopt me legally, she adopted me in love when she met me as lost and wayward at church. The thing about me and my adopted mother is we are very different on the outside and we come from different backgrounds. She is a tall southern White female from the country and I'm a young Black male from the inner city, this is something I pick on her about a lot. As different as we are on the outside, we always say though we don't look alike or talk alike, but our hearts are alike. Another big commonality that we both share is we love the rapper DMX. I myself have always loved DMX as one of my top 3 favorite Hip-Hop artist of all time since he first came out when I was five years old, my adoptive mother has loved him since she was in high school, which is when he first came out. With all this being said, it should be of no surprise that she was the first person before anyone else or any news outlet that broke the news to me that he was on his deathbed before he passed away. We both took his death hard because though we were very different on the outside, we both loved him the same and to this day she still sends me a lot of positive videos about him that always put a smile on my face.

This is the beauty of music, it builds bridges and creates unity. As Jerry Estes put it best it is "the universal language taking all our differences away and we when we stand together singing, we are all the same". Let us forever be thankful for the art of music, because all it takes is one song to create one world.