Saturday, December 01, 2007
Today is World AIDS Day, and I wanted to post something here to observe the occasion, because HIV and AIDS are a huge issue in the community that I write for and about on this blog. You may or may not be aware of just how prevalent it is in Baltimore and Maryland, but here are some statistics that can tell you just how much of a crisis it is out here:
On June 30, 2005; Maryland had a total of 29,818 people living with HIV and AIDS (Cases reported through June 30, 2006).
While Maryland ranks 19th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in total population, in 2005 Maryland was 9th in cumulative number of AIDS cases (29,116 through 2005) and 3rd in AIDS incidence rate (28.5 cases per 100,000 population during 2005).
Baltimore-Towson had the second highest incident AIDS case report rate of any major metropolitan area, 40.4 cases per 100,000 population during 2005.
Until she started grad school a few months ago, my fiancee was working in an HIV research lab at Johns Hopkins, so I learned a lot from her about the history of the virus and how it works in the last couple years, and it makes me feel good that important work is being done to better understand HIV and AIDS right in one of the cities most effected by it. But there's not gonna be some miracle cure tomorrow or the day after that, or possibly ever, and right now the problem is that people aren't talking about the threat of AIDS like they did in the 90's, so a lot of people just aren't aware of the threat, or are taking stupid risks when they should know better.
I'm not gonna lecture you about it, you know how to be safe and if you want to learn more you can educate yourself. But this is the day to address it. And first and foremost this is a music blog, and a lot of Baltimore hip hop arists have addressed HIV and other STD's in their songs, so I just wanted to spotlight a few of those:
The Unstoppable Nuklehidz - "Pass It On" (mp3)
Barnes - "H.I.V." (mp3)
Ray Lugar - "Sex Games" (mp3)
Bossman - "What Y'all Smokin'" (mp3)
Comp - "Penis And Pussy" (mp3)
These songs aren't all politically correct or polite about the subject, but to me that's a good thing. Baltimore has a lot of serious issues, and it makes me happy that MC's around here often write about this issues whether or not they're categorically the kind of "conscious" artists that you expect to rap about these things. I hope you appreciate this food for thought. Be safe, and get tested.
On June 30, 2005; Maryland had a total of 29,818 people living with HIV and AIDS (Cases reported through June 30, 2006).
While Maryland ranks 19th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in total population, in 2005 Maryland was 9th in cumulative number of AIDS cases (29,116 through 2005) and 3rd in AIDS incidence rate (28.5 cases per 100,000 population during 2005).
Baltimore-Towson had the second highest incident AIDS case report rate of any major metropolitan area, 40.4 cases per 100,000 population during 2005.
Until she started grad school a few months ago, my fiancee was working in an HIV research lab at Johns Hopkins, so I learned a lot from her about the history of the virus and how it works in the last couple years, and it makes me feel good that important work is being done to better understand HIV and AIDS right in one of the cities most effected by it. But there's not gonna be some miracle cure tomorrow or the day after that, or possibly ever, and right now the problem is that people aren't talking about the threat of AIDS like they did in the 90's, so a lot of people just aren't aware of the threat, or are taking stupid risks when they should know better.
I'm not gonna lecture you about it, you know how to be safe and if you want to learn more you can educate yourself. But this is the day to address it. And first and foremost this is a music blog, and a lot of Baltimore hip hop arists have addressed HIV and other STD's in their songs, so I just wanted to spotlight a few of those:
The Unstoppable Nuklehidz - "Pass It On" (mp3)
Barnes - "H.I.V." (mp3)
Ray Lugar - "Sex Games" (mp3)
Bossman - "What Y'all Smokin'" (mp3)
Comp - "Penis And Pussy" (mp3)
These songs aren't all politically correct or polite about the subject, but to me that's a good thing. Baltimore has a lot of serious issues, and it makes me happy that MC's around here often write about this issues whether or not they're categorically the kind of "conscious" artists that you expect to rap about these things. I hope you appreciate this food for thought. Be safe, and get tested.
Labels: Barnes, Bossman, Comp, mp3, Ray Lugar
