Spend any time listening to the radio and you
are guaranteed to hear these words about opulence, grand parties and expensive liquors being spit by *insert your favorite
rapper here* or harmonized by *insert your favorite singer here*.
Change is here. Now, Fabolous and Trey Songz have partnered with DreamSharee Edu-tainment and a host
of other celebrities (Persia White, Dale Bell, Apple Levy, Rev. Lennox
, Jr.) to present the “Being Seen Being Green College Music Tour”
– which kicks off on April 15th in Miami with an educational
seminar, concert, and star-studded after-party at Mansion Nightclub
AllHipHip.com talked to Fabolous concerning
Green Awareness, and his involvement in the BSBG College Music Tour.
AllHipHop.com: Why is it important to
you to be a part of this movement for Green Awareness?
Fabolous: Really it’s because of the word you
just said: awareness. I feel like celebrities – and regular
people as well – but definitely celebrities should use their
public figure to bring awareness to something like this cause.
That’s one of the reasons I really wanted to be involved and help
spread the word.
AllHipHop.com: Do you think your and
Trey Songz’ participation will influence people to be a part of this
movement?
Fabolous: Definitely. Recording artists
do a lot as far as influencing people to do many things so this is a
time we can influence people to be part of a great cause. I definitely
think both of us will encourage the people who may have not done it
or may have done it before and sometimes need a reminder.
AllHipHop.com: Hip Hop
music talks a lot about having cars, jewelry and clothes in excess.
Is this contradictory to the overall message of this campaign?
Fabolous: Not really. Some of those things
don’t clash with the type of campaign we got going. Some of
the things I’m not personally into, and we’re not telling people
to really change their lives – just the little things that everyone
does as a whole to better the earth to help better everybody’s community.
So were just trying to bring some awareness to that and let people know
it’s doing little things– even if its unplugging electrical things
that you’re not using – little things like that help make a difference.
AllHipHop.com: What is one thing that
you have learned so far that may encourage you to stick with this commitment
to be greener.
Fabolous: Different strategies. I
always knew cars were polluting the ozone. It’s one of
those things you pay attention to but you’re not really sure.
People have a lot of cars and drive a lot places. People drive
different places – but there’s certain things you could do without
driving – sometimes take a morning walk to go get the coffee instead
of driving to Starbucks.
AllHipHop.com: Is this Green Awareness
movement something you plan to be a part of after the BSBG concert is
over?
Fabolous: Yeah I want to take what I’ve learned
from it and continue it throughout my lifestyle. I think that’s
the only way it’ll work for me or for the people we’re trying to
make aware of it. So, I definitely want to keep it fresh on my mind
as well as other people’s [minds].
AllHipHop.com: How can your convince
your loyal fans be a part of this movement in their communities when
they know their influence is not as far reaching as yours?
Fabolous: Regular everyday people have influence
as well. People do things because sometimes if it seems like the
right thing to do or because everybody else is doing it. A lot
of people follow suit as well – not just because a celebrity said it
or somebody more popular said it. When you train parents to start
educating their kids to it growing up, it’s not like something you’re
changing yourself to do. It’s something you’ve been brought already
into doing. Celebrities help on a bigger scale because of their
impression – but everyday mom and dad can do it too – they can be
more influential in their lives too.
AllHipHop.com: People can’t seem to
get enough of your tweets – is that a tool you plan to use to influence
others?
Fabolous: You don’t want to seem phony.
You don’t want it to be seen as something you’re just doing as a
promo event. At the same time you gotta tease it in there and give
it to people gradually so they can know the importance of it – not just
because we got the show coming. I definitely want to use Twitter as
an influence. It’s a way to communicate with people without
even touching them, without really directly touching anybody.
To even go further than that they put out this thing called Retweet
and they can retweet me to their timelines and people that may not even
be following me can see the information we are giving about it.
AllHipHop.com: What else can you do
to influence people?
Practice what you preach. People
see you doing it and see you recycling and people see you cleaning and
doing all kinds of things to support it.
AllHipHop.com: Why do you think it is
such a challenge for people to live a greener life?
Fabolous: Couple of reasons. A big part
of the community is lazy. Another part are new to it or they’re
not used to it. They weren’t raised living that way. It’s
not common to them. It’s harder to get into it and practice
it if you’ve never practiced it and never done it before. The
more and more you practice living green – it becomes habitual and
you’re doing it because you want to do it – and that’s the lifestyle
you want to live and also make the earth and community better.
The only way that can happen is if you feel like you’re doing your
part as well.
Some people run away from and some
people stand up to challenges. They want to challenge themselves
to be a better person – and going green is a challenge to yourself. AllHipHop.com: Any final comments on
going green?!!?
Fabolous: It’s a very good campaign and everybody
should at least do what they can. I’m not telling people to
change their whole life behind it and what they stand for and believe
in but at the end of the day they should support the bettering of the
planet we live in – planet Earth. You’re doing something humanitarian
and you’re doing something for your own well-being as well.
