Standing for Truth

The fourth largest city in America, Houston, TX, has an entire day dedicated to this man in recognition of his constant service to the community and his name is still not household parlance outside of the city— and thats intentional. Also … it is not ok. Trae the Truth has had his music banned by Radio One & affiliates across the country for over a decade. This has impacted not only his spins but his performance and collaboration opportunities and most importantly it inhibits the community work that has become hallmark and his passion. This is a man that has received the Congressional Hero Award and the Key to the City. His #ReliefGang raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for victims of Hurricane Harvey— relocating displaced families, performing search-and-rescues, replacing cars, distributing toiletries and other essentials. When national attention around the chaos caused by Harvey ended, the Relief Gang did not. In the last few weeks Trae was caught by local media providing graduation cap and gowns for underprivileged Houston area students, paying rent for parents in crisis and assisting flash flood victims. I have met Trae on three occasions. The first was connected to disaster relief work and the second and third was related to my practice in civil rights where violence claimed the lives of Houston’s Jazmine Barnes and Pamela Turner. Trae dropped what he was doing to assist those families as well. It is time for the ban to end. It is also time for Radio One to make Trae whole for the significant damage the ban has caused his career. They're not going to do that voluntarily. Trae hired a talented young attorney name Casey Handy-Smith to challenge the actions of the media conglomerate. I think we should get behind her. Lawsuits are long, expensive affairs. Her small firm has been overwhelm by the sheer size and resources of her corporate opponent. I think we should stand up for Trae the way he has stood up for our community. After losing Nipsey Hussle, there was a brief campaign acknowledging that there are Nipsey(s) in every city that we often fail to appreciate until it is too late. Trae is one of those Nipseys and I think we should get his back. There is a link in my bio where we all can make a small contribution to support Casey as she fights for Truth, the way Trae has fought for us.