For those who don't know, I graduated from Steubenville HighSchool in a small industrial steel town of the same name on the banks of the Ohio River across from West Virginia.  Not far from where this video was made. Over the years since I left the Ohio Valley, there has been much pain and suffering due to economic strife resulting from mill closures, drugs and gang violence that continue to this day. Despite these trends being more prevalent in larger cities, these smaller communities across the U.S. are as prone to murder and gangs as any other.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes however, the community is beginning to turn a corner. With recent senseless killings on the streets residents are fighting back trying to protect a city that has raised so many hopeful lives like this one. I don't personally know Young Midas, but I am positive I know his relatives and even graduated with some of them. I wish him the best with his upcoming album release, which only serves as a solid resistance to the call of the streets which has claimed so many lives, and begins to speak truth and positivity that can only serve as a ray of hope to children coming up behind him.

Anyone from Steubenville can rise above, it has happened before (Dean Martin) and it will happen again. Sing on Young Midas.... sing on.