YOUNG GIFTED & BLACK – VARIOUS ARTISTS
(We couldn’t decide which version of this Nina Simone classic we liked the most so we’re giving renditions from both Aretha Franklin & Donny Hathaway)
[youtube id=”Thold1jasfs”]
[youtube id=”6agBPKX02UM”]
LYRICS:
To be young, gifted and black,
Oh what a lovely precious dream
To be young, gifted and black,
Open your heart to what I mean
In the whole world you know
There are billion boys and girls
Who are young, gifted and black,
And that’s a fact!
Young, gifted and black
We must begin to tell our young
There’s a world waiting for you
This is a quest that’s just begun
When you feel really low
Yeah, there’s a great truth you should know
When you’re young, gifted and black
Your soul’s intact
Young, gifted and black
How I long to know the truth
There are times when I look back
And I am haunted by my youth
Oh but my joy of today
Is that we can all be proud to say
To be young, gifted and black
Is where it’s at
This is an interesting idea! A few of the songs, I didn’t know – so it was an enjoyable tour through music appropriate to young people.
For a future compilation, you might consider Doo Be Doo by world music group Freshly Ground: https://www.rdio.com/artist/Freshlyground/album/Nomvula/track/Doo_Be_Doo/
Thanks,
Phoebe
Lift Every Voice and Sing is a song that every child should learn.
Don’t forget Mary Mary’s “Little Girl”. Lyrics excerpt: Little girl/trying to fit in/’cuz you don’t look like/all your other friends” and chorus goes “Little girl, little girl/God made you so beautiful/little girl, little girl/I just thought that you should know”
Cool list. I’d like to suggest two more songs:
1. I love my hair: sesame Street sing along
2. BabyFather: Sade
I loved the list! I would add Yolonda Adams’s “The Battle is the Lord’s”. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I listen to this song and remember.
I was surprised to not see “You Gotta Be…” By Des’ree, Lamar.
Sample lyrics:
*You gotta be
*You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser
*You gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger
*You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together
*All I know, all I know, love will save the day”
What parent doesn’t want their girl to be all these things??
Thanks for sharing Will add yours to my list for my girls
A lot of these so FS need to be heard by little black boys too. They need to learn at an early age how precious the little black girl is, as well as, instill self pride
Our children are growing so fast these days, partially because of our lack of family structure, moreover, rearing the child in the way they should go with values beyond what the t.v., internet, and peers teach them. However, I encourage each parent to evaluate the music they listen to in the car with their children or any young impressionable mind in your prescense. If the child has already reached an exposure level of hearing the degrading music our community most often promotes, and you see that they have already turned that corner, I would suggest these positive yet ‘edgeee’ life changing songs. I render this unto you, GOODIE MOB ‘BEAUTIFUL BLACK SKIN’ circa 1996, COMMON SENSE AND LAURYN HILL ‘RETROSPECT OF LIFE’ , COMMON ‘THE LIGHT’ , J. COLE ‘CROOKED SMILE’
A few of these songs are for little Black Christian girls only. I would make adaptations to allow for alternative spiritual perspectives. But the other choices were rather inspirational.
you could do a whole album i love all those songs… i have my own playlist how did you narrow it down to just 6?
What a wonderful list. Thanks for thinking of our little girls Lamar. Another song which can be added is by an artist who never had her chance to shine. “Can’t Play Me”, by Jamie Knight. It’s about respecting yourself and placing value on who you are.
Any plans on doing a list for little black boys? It seems like the more we focus on girl empowerment, the more boys are being pushed in to the background. Fair is fair.
I thought it was 6 songs – why can’t everyone just relax and embrace the songs for what they are worth…. every song has a message but the flavor of days gone by get right to the point and call a spade a spade. Stop looking for corrections and just enjoy.
Appears browsing on the internet in excess of 3 time these days, even so certainly not found any kind of attention-grabbing post just like yours. It really is beautiful value enough to me. In person, if all world wide web entrepreneurs plus writers designed great written content since you would, online are going to be additional helpful than in the past.
Thanks for posting. I am compiling a list of songs to sing to my little girls. This is a nice start.