Hey Grads! Free Gift For You! Josh Shipp’s 2010 Graduation Rap

June 5, 2010 As high schools pour out cap-flipping whoops and hollers from an elated senior class, the hidden layer beneath reveals a wee bit of queasiness about entering a lousy economy fraught with adult foul-ups, oilspill disasters and uncertainty…

So grads? Josh Shipp’s inspiring rap is a free gift for YOU. (video after the jump—my favorite line is captured above, reflective of every single job experience I’ve ever had in 25+ years, including this one!)

I’ve written about Josh Shipp, the youth advice slinger before, so it’s no secret I’m a big fan of  ‘Hey Josh.com’ for teens, as he not only taps into the youth zeitgeist brilliantly to create worthy media, motivational speeches and “teen advice on demand” with his online video shows…He even has a division called ‘Hey Josh for Grownups’ so those of us who graduated oh so long ago can hopscotch into teens world to visit some of those “you don’t even know” moments and try to get a clue about what 21st century kids are facing in their worlds.

Josh Shipp has earned accolades like Top 10 Youth Marketing Minds in 2010 recently awarded by Mobile Youth, Inc. magazine’s 30 under 30, and landed on CNN’s Young People Who Rock segment about a year ago, opening his personal foster care stories as living life lessons to engage and inspire ALL ages who have ‘been through the fires’ and come out warmer and wiser instead of burned and bitter. So without further ado…“Greetings, class of 2010…”“… MySpace, Twitter followers and Facebook friends–I’ve prepared something that makes sense to use in your journey, know who you are, but own it, cuz you’re worthy.”

Hey, Josh! Your graduation rap is a grad gift for us all…

Got lyrics? More of my faves:

“…You gotta find your own love in life clearly stated. So be who you are, yourself, and no one else, and that’s a favor…Be true now, come on yall thank yourself later, don’t worry ’bout the haters, I never fit in all the time, imagine being in front of the sun and taking all the shine.”

“…Don’t let anyone tell you who you are…’na mean?”

Ahem. Hard for me to even attempt to transcribe rap, without conjuring a ‘white girl slang/overbite dancing’ visual from a parody video of Funny or Die. So I’ll “just stop” as my teen commands me every so often.

Congrats, class of 2010.

p.s. Question to CNN: Why are you no longer updating the Young People Who Rock blog? Now more than ever, we need to hear their voices.

I know you have iReport, which is more of a citizen journalism approach, but hey, that’s not vetted, or fact-checked and in this digital deluge, CNN could do well by pouring some reporting focus into the future…our youth.

p.p.s. CNN Student News complete with the “media literacy question of the day” might be a nice teaching tool, but as far as consumers go, I don’t know many parents OR kids who have ever heard of it. Media like YPWR (and Josh Shipp’s ‘you can either get bitter or better’ life choices) inspire with life lessons far beyond the ‘shoulders and above’ brain-fuel being crammed into youth minds. Just sayin’…

Related Resources

• Hey Josh
• Follow Josh on Twitter
• Hey Josh on Facebook
• Operation 55 Zebra
• Young People Who Rock Blog (irony: ends w/Justin Bieber,  ’09)
• YouTube Tweet Meme: Class of 2010 Graduation Rap (231+ tweets, woohoo!)
• Under30CEO.com Interview: Josh Shipp Used to get kicked out of class for talking, now he gets paid for talking
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• Derek Baird of Barking Robot adds more JS gems:
• Josh Shipp & Brooks Gibbs Want to Learn How to End Bullying Now

• The Differents blog asks: I’m a different, are you a different?
• DreamerEnt.com: Class of 2010 Graduation Song from Josh Shipp (some lyrics)
• The University Blog, U.K. (similar favorite lines w/my choices)
• Chris Brogan: We rap our graduation speeches