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The Message Behind This ‘Hamilton’-Style Prison Rap? Pride Can Be Dangerous
Listen if you like: Lecrae, Kirk Franklin, “Hamilton: An American Musical”
A little over a decade ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical about Alexander Hamilton became a cultural juggernaut, bridging the worlds of hip-hop and Broadway. And it seems one of the many places where Miranda’s style traveled was literally up the river — to Sing Sing prison, in Ossining, New York.
I immediately thought of Miranda when I heard “Pride,” the lead single on the new album by The Cambia Collective. The band features former Sing Sing prisoners who have worked with Musicambia, a nonprofit that teaches music in prisons. “The Musicambia Songbook,” as the album is called, contains songs written by men and women in New York correctional facilities. It will be released on June 26, and there’s a show in Brooklyn on May 12.
The album’s backstory begins far from New York, in the prisons of Venezuela, where thousands of men and women learn to sing and play instruments in a program called El Sistema. “Pride and self-esteem develop not only in the prisoners but also in their families and communities, and the effects of the work extend to the next generation,” the New York City-based violist Nathan Schram wrote in an essay after a 2013 visit. “I heard a pregnant woman sing a heartfelt lullaby to her unborn child.”
That trip inspired Schram to start Musicambia, which brings professional musicians to teach, build ensembles and put on concerts in prisons in New York, Kansas and other states. They share faculty and students at Sing Sing with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program, and together these programs are at the forefront of prison music education today.
Heavy restrictions across American prisons keep programs like these small, serving hundreds of people rather than thousands. But they are a good example of the many opportunities across the country for people to volunteer in prisons and jails, teaching whatever they know. And there is certainly evidence that educational programs reduce the likelihood that participants will go back to prison.
But Musicambia teachers see their goal as much bigger than that.
In an internal handbook, Sing Sing Program Director Elliot Cole writes that in a democracy, “we are collectively responsible” for the ways that our prisons fail to help people succeed on the outside. (Full disclosure: Elliot is a friend and we have played music together.) Cole writes about music as both a metaphor and a literal means of repair in our broken society, where we notice what is “out of tune” and seek harmony.
“Pride” features admonishing rhymes about the dangers of ego, over intricate horn and string arrangements and drums that alternate between a standard hip-hop backbeat and a militaristic snare pattern. The rap features a Miranda-esque call-and-response centering the word “pride.”
The song was written by a Musicambia student credited only as D.S. in accordance with prison rules. In an emailed statement, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said it restricts full names for incarcerated performers “in an effort to protect the privacy of the incarcerated individual and secondly out of respect for any victims impacted by the individual’s crime.” In the past, the department has tangled with First Amendment advocates over censorship.
D.S. is serving 25 years to life for a murder that he maintained at trial was self-defense, and that he was traumatized having previously been shot himself. “The remorse that I feel for taking a life is immeasurable,” he wrote to me from Sing Sing. “It is not enough for me to BE SORRY, I had to DO SORRY … I can’t change my past but hopefully through my music, certificate in ministry and college education I can change the future.”
D.S. is now learning bass guitar with Musicambia, and he told me he’s taking psychology and sociology classes. “Incarcerated individuals have a certain stigma around us,” he wrote. “But music released by us humanizes us, increases the empathy and decreases the preconceived notions of us.”
In the song’s chorus, “pride” serves as an acronym — the “prime reason individuals die early.” The word “individuals” is a mouthful, and Cole, the teacher, told me the other option was “idiots.” But D.S. was adamant about sounding respectful.
In part due to massive upheavals in New York state prisons caused by an unauthorized officers’ strike, Musicambia chose not to attempt recording in the prison. The album features a combination of teachers, supporters and alumni who have left prison. D.S. agreed to have Kenyatta Emmanuel, with whom he served time, perform the rap, both on the album and at the concert in May.
D.S. cites the Bible’s warnings about pride as inspiration, but also knows that in the right context, pride — for your growth, for your family — can be positive, too. “My song is to encourage the people to be prideful of who you are in Christ, where you came from, and what God has in store for you.”
Cole told me that the biblical influence is even clearer when you hear D.S. deliver the song himself.
“He carries himself like a preacher, or the top student in the class,” he told me. “When he raps, he’s got his own voice. He’s not trying to sound like people on the radio.”
D.S. becomes eligible for parole in 2031, so perhaps someday we’ll get to hear him.
LINER NOTES:
Song: Pride | Artist: The Cambia Collective | Songwriter: D.S. | Vocals: Kenyatta Emmanuel | Bass: Elliot Cole | Drums: Karl Ronneburg | Guitar: Jan Esbra | Violin 1: Katie Hyun | Violin 2: Trina Basu | Viola: Nathan Schram | Cello: Hamilton Berry | Trumpet: John Carlson | Saxophone: Peter Hess | Trombone: Nick Grinder | Mixed, produced and arranged by: Elliot Cole | Additional mixing: Christopher Botta | Mastering: Joseph Branciforte | Location: Figure 8 Recording, Brooklyn, New York
