dedication--to the Dawson family.
Keith, Kevin (I love y'aal),
Carnell, Lawanda (Never forget y'all),
My man Juan( I'm with y'all, I'm a see y'all again), Angel
(God rest your souls)Angela Dawson.
-- from "Dedication,"by Ogun
Kevin Beasley knew the Dawsons, had met them through his work as a job counselor, matching people with positions and helping families pull themselves together. And that made hearing what had happened Oct. 16 even more painful.
That was the day 36-year-old Angela Dawson and her five children - 9-year-old twins Keith and Kevin Dawson; 10-year-old Carnell Dawson Jr.; 12-year-old Juan Ortiz and 14-year-old LaWanda Ortiz - died in a Preston Street house fire that almost certainly had been set in retaliation for the family's objections to the neighborhood's rampant drug trade. Her 43-year-old husband, Carnell Dawson Sr., leaped from a second-story window and survived but only for a few days.
"When I first recognized it was them, it just crushed me. I just couldn't believe it, " says Beasley, whose office is only blocks from the Dawson home. "I just had to drive down there. When I got there and saw it, I just broke down and wept."
The next day, Beasley, who is known in Baltimore's rap and hip-hop community as Ogun (the name of a mythic African warrior) began pouring his emotions onto paper. Within a few hours, the 25-year-old artist had written "Dedication," a plea for compassion and sanity. His song has become the centerpiece of Strength in Numbers, a 17-song CD featuring local and regional artists, that's being sold to benefit victims of senseless violence.
Like the Dawsons.
What kind of man would firebomb
a crib with kids inside?
What kind of man wouldn't care
whether they lived or died?
Man, I pray for their family, hope
their souls can rest;
Five kids with five futures, man how sick is that?
Ogun and many of the other rappers who contributed to Strength in Numbers will be at the corner of Preston and Eden streets today, selling copies of their CD for $5. They'll be joined by other civic activists and representatives from area churches and faith-based organizations. Their aim is to raise money, generate positive vibes and dilute the climate of fear and intimidation that makes tragedies like the Dawsons' possible.
"My wife told me about what had happened on Preston Street, and I was like, 'I don't believe it,'" says 26-year-old Al Herriott, a local rapper and producer who heads R-Tifact Entertainment and is spearheading the Strength in Numbers effort.
"I knew we had to do something to try and stop the violence."
For some time, Herriott, a board member of the Maryland Hip Hop Alliance (a group of singers, DJs, producers, breakers and anyone else with a love of the form), had been looking for ways to promote a positive image for the music. Coming out against this sort of senseless violence, he says, was one obvious answer.
"The alliance is basically in its baby stages, and I knew we needed a project. What better way is there to focus on the community than to speak out about the violence?" says Herriott, who goes by the rap name Ritual.
He immediately decided to put together "a positive hip-hop CD that has no parental advisory on it, that kids can listen to, that parents can listen to, that grandparents can listen to."
The call went out for help. The response, he says, was instant and overwhelming. Musicians donated songs, studios donated recording time, producers donated their skills at the mixing boards, graphic artists donated their designs, a New Jersey company pressed the first 1,000 copies of the CD at no charge.
"I was just counting on 10 tracks, and we were going to burn the CDs ourselves," says Ritual. "But everybody was like, 'Whatever we need to do, we'll do it.' Everybody just stepped up. The idea popped out of my head on the 21st [of October], and we had the CDs ready to be pressed by the 6th."
The final lineup includes not only local artists (Tislam, Hard Heads, Abrock, DJ Face, Bas), but also rappers from the Washington area (Storm the Unpredictable), Philadelphia (Splitt), and even Chicago (Soulstice).
And, of course, Ogun. Who knew the Dawsons.
It took this for us to show a lit- tle unity - man. Clean up the block in the name of the Dawsons. Six lives of potential, all killed in the arson. I guess the only thing good, is that y'all still together. And while y'all rest in Heaven, I'm a try to make it better.
"I wrote the song that day after it happened, the very next day," says Ogun. "I never wrote a song that fast before. And we [cut] it that same night, the night after the fire."
Ogun has no grand illusions about what effect his song will have, no delusions that things will change overnight. But after seeing the outpouring of compassion here, the singer says, he can't help but feel hope.
After all, the artist notes, he had no idea his song would ever be played, had not heard anything about a CD coming together. Already "Dedication" may be accomplishing more than he'd expected.
"This is so much bigger than me," he says. 'I love this CD, I love what's going on: That there are other people out there who had the same thing in mind."
The Maryland Hip Hop Alliance's Mental Food Drive is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the corner of Preston and Eden streets. Copies of Strength in Numbers will be available for $5, with all profits going to the Angel Family Fund, established in memory of the Dawsons and other victims of violence. For information, or to find out more about the alliance, contact Ritual at 410-977-2320.