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The first time Christopher McBride picked up a saxophone was when he was 5, though it was little more than a family lark.

McBrides father had come back from a pawnshop with a tenor saxophone, a rather hefty instrument for a small child, and thought it would be funny to have him pose with it for a photo. Little did he know his son would go on to become a professional musician, and the sax skills of the Homewood-Flossmoor High School graduate would help the Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra score a Grammy Award this year for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.

I was in shock, McBride said of the win. It was a pretty incredible night.

McBride got a free ticket to the show and decided to take his mom, who has been part of his musical journey since the beginning. She was the one who enrolled him at just 4 years old in Suzuki classes. In return, she got an earful at the Grammys.

They said our name, the Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra, and I just kind of froze, McBride said. I was not expecting to win. I was definitely taken aback. I was screaming obscenities at my mom my poor mom. I couldnt believe it.

Before McBride even spoke words, he was singing music. By 7, he started singing in his church choir on the South Side of Chicago, where he spent his early years. He was living in Homewood and attending Flossmoor School District 161 when he had to picked instrument for the school band at age 10. The sax was not his first choice.

I wanted to play drums but they gave me a practice pad, McBride said. I was like, I dont want a practice pad. Then I saw the saxophone and I said, I want to play that!

He made the top jazz band at H-F as a freshman. He went to both Ireland and London that year, and in Piccadilly Circus he saw some musicians who were playing with Madonnas band. At 14, he was surprised to learn that professional opportunities existed in the world of music.

Thats when I got serious in high school, McBride said.

He started playing at a coffee shop with bandmates from school. He rehearsed almost every after school let out.

Bill Jastrow, the H-F director of bands at the time, recalled McBrides passion for jazz. While it can be hard to predict how ones skills will develop beyond high school or how they will handle hurdles on the road to professional music, Jastrow said McBride has the characteristics of an award winner.

I am not surprised that Chris has reached the artistic levels he has and that he has been awarded a Grammy for his music, Jastrow said. Chris is a magnificent example of how the combination of passion with unrelenting hard work and determination will maximize and enhance anyones talents regardless of their field of interest.

After high school, McBride played in jam sessions. He continued to study music. He found mentors and performed at the now-defunct Velvet Lounge, which he called integral to his development.

I dont know where Id be without it, he said. Just being able to get up there and play, make mistakes and correct mistakes and develop a band sound it was so monumental to who I am.

Christopher McBride, who grew up in Homewood, said he has been getting more attention since winning a Grammy Award this year and releasing his album Ramon. (Alexa Dumont)

While McBride holds a bachelors degree in music education from Northern Illinois University and a masters degree from Queens College in New York, he likes to say he got his education from the Velvet Lounge.

When youre getting cursed out by some grown men when youre 18-19, you learn how to play music real fast, McBride said with a laugh.

He has performed professionally since 2007, though he calls himself forever a student, and tries to find the sweet spot between success and continuing to learn. So he took interest when a mentor offered him an opportunity to study in New York.

Growing up in Homewood, McBride had pictures of rappers all over his wall. And he particularly loved New Yorks culture and history of jazz and hip hop, and how that coincided with Chicagos history. But New York was a place he had up until that point seen as so far away in my head not an option.

He made the move in 2013, taking a year to join jam sessions and practices before starting music school there in 2014. By the time he graduated in 2017, he was getting work all over the city and stayed in Harlem rather than moving back to Chicago.

Since the Grammy win, McBride has been on the road performing in addition to teaching. In mid-February, he also released his second independent album, Ramon, a follow-up to his 2012 debut, Quatuor de Force.

Its just been a really incredible response with the record, McBride said. Im just riding the wave.

The album takes McBrides middle name, which has been in the family for generations and pays tribute to the Honduran side of his heritage. And while McBride takes the most pride in the hustle it took to get an album recorded and released as an independent artist, the musical highlight of Ramon for him is Your Eyes Cant Lie, featuring vocalist J. Hoard. McBride said it offers a short but strong mission statement of his sound.

Everything really came together well, McBride said.

Ramon also includes a three-part movement called Stand Your Ground, inspired by the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. A jury ultimately acquitted George Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the case.

It was really art imitating life, McBride said. After the verdict was read, I heard a melody for the first movement in my head. I just wrote it down.

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Inspired by the composition style of saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, McBride explored the conflict musically, with Part 1 tackling the Suspicion, Part 2 the Confrontation and finally a solemn In Memoriam: The Ballad of Trayvon Martin.

I wanted the emotions to be grief in the third movement a grief of somebody who was taken from us too quickly, unnecessarily, McBride said.

McBrides favorite track to record was the Bronx Unchained. It goes from what he describes as a menacing hip-hop beat to jazz. It was inspired by a week McBride spent living in the borough, which gave him plenty of stories both beautiful and not appropriate for the Southtown.

Living in the South Bronx for a week, I was like, this place needs a song, McBride said. Its just one of those places. This will always be imprinted in my mind.

McBride is not done showcasing what he can do with music. He is hoping to record his third album by the beginning of 2024. He also wants to work with more big bands, as well as continue his Singer Meets Saxophonist project in New York. After all, collaboration continues to foster his lifelong quest to learn.

I always feel like Ive made my most growth musically when Im being pushed and challenged, McBride said.

Bill Jones is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

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According to Variety, famous rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was hospitalized March 21 after he was beaten by a group of assailants in the bathroom of a South Florida gym. Some social media users have expressed sympathy for the STOOPID rapper.

On Tuesday, the New York hip-hop star, who has gained notoriety for his violent lyrics and demeanor, sustained multiple facial injuries, to his face, including cuts and bruises, during the attack.

Lance Lazzaro, an attorney for the GOOBA rapper, said three or four men assaulted the star inside an LA Fitness gym sauna. Eventually, the altercation trickled outside the spa and into the bathroom, where he struggled to fight back. Video footage obtained by TMZcaptured the attackers kicking 6ix9ine in the ribs and his face. At one point in the video, one of the aggressors shouted, Take a picture. Im gonna be famous now! right before he dragged the rapper by his hair.

According to the rappers attorney, all three suspects fled the scene shortly after LA Fitness employees heard the scuffle.

Tekashi, born Daniel Hernandez, was transported to a local hospital for treatment. But the status of his well-being remained unclear.

When news of 6ix9ines attack hit the internet, several users expressed sympathy for the hip-hop star, which is a bit odd given his troll track record and his affinity for beefing with big celebs like Cardi B and Gervonta Davis.

RELATED CONTENT: White Man Viciously Attacks Black Woman At A Florida Gas Station

A few Twitter users called the assailants out for beating up the loudmouth emcee instead of real problematic snitches like George Zimmerman.

In 2012, the former neighborhood watch coordinatorwas acquitted of second-degree murder after he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

FL so fucking lame. Niggas jumped 6ix9nine like he snitched on them personally, wrote one user on Twitter. But George Zimmerman never been touched.

A second concerned fan tweeted that they would like to see Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who was found innocent after he fatally shot two men during the Kenosha protests, get slammed in a fight.

Im not mad that they kicked Six9 ass, but personally I rather see a world star clip of George Zimmerman or Rittenhouse, the user wrote.

A third person chimed in, My thing is 6ix9ine (69) hasnt done anything to us while George Zimmerman walking around free in Florida. Go jump Zimmerman. Aint no clout jumping on 6ix9ine. Yall corny beating up that skinny bony boy.

Its ironic that people were rooting for 6ix9ine when a few years ago he was one of the rap games most-hated emcees. But George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse should both be held accountable for the crimes they committed.

Lazzaro told TMZ that he is working diligently to ensure that 6ix9ine receives protection following the beatdown.

In April 2020, the infamous snitch was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in the Nine Trey Bloods Gang. The Mala hitmaker was convicted on several charges, includingracketeering, drug trafficking and firearm offenses. He was released from prison early due to his cooperation with authorities.

Hopefully, this doesnt stir up more trouble for the MC.

Are you supporting Tekashi after his beatdown? Tell us in the comments section.

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Social Media Sympathizes With Tekashi 6ix9ine After Brutal Gym Beatdown - MadameNoire

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According to Variety, famous rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine was hospitalized March 21 after he was beaten by a group of assailants in the bathroom of a South Florida gym. Some social media users have expressed sympathy for the STOOPID rapper.

On Tuesday, the New York hip-hop star, who has gained notoriety for his violent lyrics and demeanor, sustained multiple facial injuries, to his face, including cuts and bruises, during the attack.

Lance Lazzaro, an attorney for the GOOBA rapper, said three or four men assaulted the star inside an LA Fitness gym sauna. Eventually, the altercation trickled outside the spa and into the bathroom, where he struggled to fight back. Video footage obtained by TMZcaptured the attackers kicking 6ix9ine in the ribs and his face. At one point in the video, one of the aggressors shouted, Take a picture. Im gonna be famous now! right before he dragged the rapper by his hair.

According to the rappers attorney, all three suspects fled the scene shortly after LA Fitness employees heard the scuffle.

Tekashi, born Daniel Hernandez, was transported to a local hospital for treatment. But the status of his well-being remained unclear.

When news of 6ix9ines attack hit the internet, several users expressed sympathy for the hip-hop star, which is a bit odd given his troll track record and his affinity for beefing with big celebs like Cardi B and Gervonta Davis.

RELATED CONTENT: White Man Viciously Attacks Black Woman At A Florida Gas Station

A few Twitter users called the assailants out for beating up the loudmouth emcee instead of real problematic snitches like George Zimmerman.

In 2012, the former neighborhood watch coordinatorwas acquitted of second-degree murder after he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

FL so fucking lame. Niggas jumped 6ix9nine like he snitched on them personally, wrote one user on Twitter. But George Zimmerman never been touched.

A second concerned fan tweeted that they would like to see Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who was found innocent after he fatally shot two men during the Kenosha protests, get slammed in a fight.

Im not mad that they kicked Six9 ass, but personally I rather see a world star clip of George Zimmerman or Rittenhouse, the user wrote.

A third person chimed in, My thing is 6ix9ine (69) hasnt done anything to us while George Zimmerman walking around free in Florida. Go jump Zimmerman. Aint no clout jumping on 6ix9ine. Yall corny beating up that skinny bony boy.

Its ironic that people were rooting for 6ix9ine when a few years ago he was one of the rap games most-hated emcees. But George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse should both be held accountable for the crimes they committed.

Lazzaro told TMZ that he is working diligently to ensure that 6ix9ine receives protection following the beatdown.

In April 2020, the infamous snitch was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in the Nine Trey Bloods Gang. The Mala hitmaker was convicted on several charges, includingracketeering, drug trafficking and firearm offenses. He was released from prison early due to his cooperation with authorities.

Hopefully, this doesnt stir up more trouble for the MC.

Are you supporting Tekashi after his beatdown? Tell us in the comments section.

More:
Tekashi 6ix9ine Receives Support Online After Gym Beatdown - MadameNoire

Its looking like Tekashi69 was beaten up and pummeled by his security force. As previously reported, the people that beat him up were clearly past acquaintances. They knew him.

And then the Internet went and did its thing, and that result is his security team. Now, one of the guys has actually been identified in the vicious assault. And he is also the guy in the video that commands them to record him as he does the stomping on his alleged former client. He really gives it to him. I will say this, he got up. So, this was not a BROOKLYN mash out or anything like that. But they gave him enough of a message.

Now, the question is why? Why would they beat him up so viciously, personally, and publicly? There are a couple of theories out there, but the main one is Money. MOOLAH! It has been theorized over and over that he did not pay them and they got revenge. If youre going to have security, it is important to pay them. They know who you are, where you live, and all the little particulars like where you go to work out. They probably know your schedule. So, its probably a good idea to pay these people because theyve been inside your house and around you intimately.

Anyway, it is interesting that we are dealing with someone who has already worked with authorities. The word on the street is that the guy doing the stamping in the video did eight years in prison. I think it is likely that he could go back to prison, because we are dealing with someone who clearly works with the authorities in Tekashi 69. Also, how does this work with future security clients? I dont think anybody is going to hire him/them, knowing in the back of their mind, he might beat the sh#t out of them!

I wish George Zimmerman owed them money.

What do you think?

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Was Tekashi Beat Up By His Own Security Force? - AllHipHop

Editors note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the authors own.Read moreopinionson theGrio.

Some Republicans are demonizing and redefining a word popularized in the Black community: woke. Theyve turned the word into a slur, using it to attack diversity, equity and inclusion, along with additional policies that benefit Black Americans and other oppressed and marginalized people.

The reaction by many Republicans chief among them Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to wokeness resembles the hysterical response of Chicken Little in an old childrens story. When an acorn falls on her head, Chicken Little panics, yelling The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

DeSantis and other Republicans now screaming about wokeness make as much sense as a frightened chicken. But the governor, who is expected to announce his Republican presidential candidacy in the spring, clearly hopes his anti-wokeness obsession will get him the nomination in pursuit of moving into the White House.

Meanwhile, DeSantis is not alone. Some Congressional Republicans have even laughably said the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank in California was caused by the bank devoting too much attention to pursuing woke policies. In fact, Republican-backed banking deregulation legislation signed into law by then-President Donald Trump may have played a far greater role in the banks collapse.

The word woke used to just mean awake, as when we say: I woke up at 7 this morning.

But beginning in 1923 with Black nationalist and civil rights pioneer Marcus Garvey, Black people began urging each other to stay awake or stay woke to the dangers posed by Jim Crow-styled racism and social injustice and to work against these evils. The expression gained circulation over the decades and was picked up in music popular with Black audiences.

Indeed, two years after the historic 1963 March on Washington, in a commencement address at Oberlin College, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also challenged the students to prepare for the great revolution of their time by essentially being awake:

There are all too many people who, in some great period of social change, fail to achieve the new mental outlooks that the new situation demands. There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in our world today. It is a social revolution, sweeping away the old order. The wind of change is blowing, and we see in our day and our age a significant development. The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake through this social revolution.

The hashtag #StayWoke spread on social media after neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black 17-year-old, in 2012 and was later acquitted of second-degree murder. The phrase and hashtag were picked up by the Black Lives Matter movement and gained traction following police killings of unarmed Black people.

DeSantis and other Republicans have turned the meaning of woke on its head, changing it from a warning and a sign of awareness of injustice into an insult. They use the terms woke and wokeness to ridicule people and attitudes they consider to be absurdly far left, hypersensitive and obsessed with political correctness.

Advocates for people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, womens rights, accurate public school education on race and gender issues, and social justice have been denounced as woke by Republicans including DeSantis, Trump (again seeking the Republican presidential nomination), and longshot GOP presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The Republican war on wokeness illustrates the sad decline of the party, which once took a principled moral stand against slavery. Sadly, Republicans today are obsessed with stoking the fires of hatred and grievance and dividing Americans. Not quite a winning strategy to make it into the White House, but we will have to prepare ourselves for this battle ahead.

Rather than accepting responsibility for their own shortcomings that have worsened Americas problems, particularly under Trumps incompetent administration, many Republicans now choose to scapegoat Black people and others opposed to GOP policies with the label woke, blaming them for our nations ills.

DeSantis boasts about signing the Stop WOKE (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act, which bars public school instruction that could cause students to feel guilt, anguish, or any form of psychological distress due to their race, color, sex or national origin. That absurdly broad prohibition now being challenged in lawsuits is being used to block lessons on slavery, racism, sexism, religious bigotry, prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community and more.

Think about it: how can an accurate lesson about the way enslaved Black people were horribly mistreated as subhuman property with no more rights than farm animals not cause psychological distress? Its not as if once unburdened with the chains and shackles could Black folks gain their rights as citizens. Our ancestors had to fight for their own freedom and this struggle persists today as other grave injustices cause psychological distress among some other students.

But schools arent supposed to be free of negative information about America. Theyre supposed to teach students about the real world the good, the bad and the ugly. Schools are supposed to open up our curiosities about the world we live in and how to navigate our place in it.

To ensure Florida students are not exposed to the truth about slavery and racism, the Florida Education Department even banned a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in the states high schools. The department said in a January letter that the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value. I am so glad my relatives in Florida were able to get a good education before this nonsense started.

As the anti-wokeness nuttiness spreads across the country, growing numbers of states and school districts controlled by Republicans are imposing censorship on teachers and ordering books removed from school libraries for being woke. A RAND Corporation study published in January that surveyed a nationally representative sample of 8,000 teachers found that a quarter have changed their courses to limit or remove any discussions of race and gender topics.

Incredibly, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in Iowa recorded a Zoom meeting with his school superintendent in which she told him she wasnt sure if he was allowed to teach that slavery was wrong. The uncertainty was generated by a new Iowa law barring teachers from telling students that the United States of America and the state of Iowa are fundamentally or systemically racist or sexist. In response, the teacher quit and left the teaching profession.

What has our country come to when teachers are silenced from telling students basic and indisputable truths, like denouncing the immorality of slavery? When book banning is so prevalent in our schools? When elected officials refuse to deal with the real problems facing our nation and fixate on silly culture war issues and disputes over wokeness?

Weve heard enough wokeness nonsense from Republican Chicken Littles. Americans need to reject this alarmism and believe that we can work together to share our stories, embrace our family history and start working together to solve the real problems facing our nation.

As Dr. King would remind us, the wind of change is still stirring in our midst. Lets make sure this phony war of wokeness doesnt take us off our mark towards a more perfect union for all.

Donna Brazile is an ABC News Contributor, veteran political strategist, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and the King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University. She previously served as interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and of the DNCs Voting Rights Institute. She managed the Gore campaign in 2000 and has lectured at more than 225 colleges and universities on race, diversity, women, leadership and restoring civility in politics. Brazile is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House. @DonnaBrazile.

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The Republicans war on woke has turned the party into a group of hysterical Chicken Littles - TheGrio