A member of a multiplatinum hip-hop group has teamed up with an area nonprofit to help inspire children and bring out the best in them.
Vito “Banga” Tisdale, who was a longstanding member of Grammy-nominated Nappy Roots, is bringing his musical expertise to Madisonville’s Breathe Youth Arts Program to teach children through rhythm and song.
Breathe was conceptualized by Light of Chance Executive Director Eric Logan. The free program services children in grades five-12, and provides them with an opportunity to engage in creative and performing arts.
Tisdale and Logan first met on Western Kentucky University’s campus, where Logan attended college.
Tisdale said in he parted ways with Nappy Roots in 2011 to spend more time with his children and pursue a solo career.
Logan had approached him years earlier with an opportunity to work with youths, but Tisdale said, at that time, most of his hours were spent on tour.
“When I left Nappy Roots, I was busy being a single dad,” Tisdale said. “I have custody of my kids, so I was going to PTA meetings and such. I looked at what Eric had going on and I was like, ‘Man, is the offer still there?’ “
Tisdale said Logan was elated to partner with him.
“So, we started teaching kids mathematics with rhythm and putting a ‘hook’ on it,” he said. “Because, you know a ‘project kid’ – he can’t wait to show you. I made the beat ‘gangster,’ like he likes to listen to, and made an ambitious hook.”
Tisdale demonstrated some of the techniques he uses to help children remember mathematics, and seemed to always be speaking in lyric. He said he draws musical inspiration from most anything.
“It’s my gift, my curse and my love,” he said.
“Rap had went so gangster – they never had a good guy to represent the face of it,” Tisdale continued. “You do some things wrong, bump into Jesus and talk to him the right way, do the right things, and he’ll give it all back. So now, these are positive people doing positive things.”
Logan said the idea to start Breathe came to life after working with a similar program in Bowling Green known as Kaleidoscope.
“Everybody’s not an athlete,” Logan said. “I played sports growing and Vito did, too. Sometimes schools put the arts on the back burner. There’s a void. This helps the kids inside and outside of the classroom.”
He said it took him seven years to develop and launch the Breathe program, which, above all else, lets kids express themselves.
Some kids told him Breathe lifted them from the clutches of suicidal thoughts.
“Hopkins County has the highest teen suicide rate in the state,” Logan said. “So that’s a big deal around here knowing that our program helps those kids work through what they are going through.
“When the kids come here, we celebrate what they are doing,” he added. “We have showcases.”
Logan said the program often provides opportunities for teachers and parents to see a side of children they wouldn’t otherwise.
“It helps with relationships, because you have kids whose parents or teachers see them as troublemakers,” he said. “Then, through a particular project, teachers are seeing kids through a totally different lens.”
Tisdale said the most rewarding part of Breathe is seeing the shift in children’s attitudes from “I can’t” to “I can.”
“I let them be comfortable first,” Tisdale added. “Find your ‘you.’ That’s my message.”
He said touring the world inspired him to help others be comfortable in their own skin.
“I lost a lot of my childhood because I was cliquish,” Tisdale said. “I had this guilt for writing music. I was playing football because I wanted the stripes and the girls. It was an identity crisis.
“To have people recognize your work when there is something you want to be – to me, that’s finding your ‘you,'” he continued. “Whether you’re rich or poor, as long as you know who you are, I think you’re going to be comfortable.”
Tisdale is also in the process of writing a movie entitled “The Clinic.”
But his main focus right now, he said, is his children.
Jenny Lee Menser
The-Messenger