Cam king, the writer and producer of this album says that he" burns with a desire to touch others with appropriate words and music, to enlarge the horizons of their dynamic through music, to bless, to motivate, to bring better and brighter thoughts in a still too dark world." So in this short seasonal production of six songs, King in This is the Season, ignites rhythms, chorus, brass and other instrumentation to encourage us at this season to feed the hungry, but also to feed their hunger, that is, to move others to a hunger for a better world by our actions. Then the local Caribbean lyrics written by King in his Caribbean Christmas melody bring the true seasonal sense of the production in its Caribbean context, as "sunbeams ripple at our feet and goatskin drums beat" out their stirring traditional folk rhythms, to the dance of eager children hoping to enjoy Christmas treats. King has not forgotten also to mention the millions of children suffering in our world and what we can do by just praying to make their lives better. The song ends with dramatic telephone calls, the sound of helicopters and applause, as a news announcer reveals that over one million children have been touched and helped. Of course, King points out, we too often forget the real meaning of Christmas, until we take off the "mas" and reveal the Christ within Christmas for our consideration. "It's Christmas" invites us to take the mask off Christmas and to bring out the Love. The album contains a New Year Song which invites us to be 'all we are born to be and do what we came into life to do', for a really Happy New Year. And of course, there is a piece of alternative poetic type wrap that talks about the war in Iraq, the war on crack, the war everywhere. Love is the answer to end war everywhere, but the rapper, King, points to the many provocations and difficult situations of our present environment, and the control we have to exert to show love, not "bust then down in front with hate", but to "shoot them in the back with love, with love, with love..." Thus King seeks to fuse form and substance to express matters and concerns vital to our society and daily living, placing us in sympathy with the cause of the album, to bless, motivate to better aspirations and to bring love to one another. Cameron King, President of Fellowship For Development Inc. first surfaced in the music world, back in the days of vinyl records, when a bright rhythmic single called "Care Your Love" hit the top of the Barbados charts in the Caribbean and remained there for several weeks. Its flip side was "Back To The Land", a spouf on the cost of living everywhere, and stressing the need to produce more from the land. Another popular single that King himself wrote was West Indian Christmas,King's own Christmas Song. Its opening lines classify its tropical relevance: "Breadfruits roasting on an open fire, Sunbeams rippling at your feet." King was at that time working in the Caribbean with dispossessed cultural groups that needed encouragement and assistance. Track 2 is a bright choral in regaae, inviting the listener to "Brighten up Your World Now." "In Dreams You Never Lived", the couple is heard at the end in a quarrel of mis-communication and mis-connection that spells out the lack of sharing. And it is hard not to want to dance or move to the rhythm of "Count Your Blessings." On another slant, Cam K notes that recently, on a number of occasions, there have been meetings, even at Congressional level, on the corruptive effect of anti-social and filthy lyrics in hip hop and other songs, devaluing the female sex and taking radical or challenging stances even to law and order! The complaint is that whether people buy the music for its rhythms or not, its lyrics adversely affect their behavior, and leads them eventually into serious trouble. Cam K asks: 'Does music really have the power adversely to affect the minds of impressionable people who listen to it?' A general American point of view, if there is such a thing, would say, ‘Nonsense, one can listen to whatever one wants to; it is entirely up to the listener to determine what is acceptable for him or her, and to reject what is not! And surely if our constructive social values have been well learned, why shouldn't we listen to rhythms that we like and ignore even the filthiest words that come with them? The supporters of the opposite point of view argue that one would only accept a song with dirty lyrics if one had a willing acceptance of the filthy standard itself! Which is but one step from one using the filth in one's own conversation with effortless ease. Then there are some people who would also say, ‘So what is wrong with cuss words, everybody uses them! If that is true, is there any significance to ‘cuss' words? Can they translate into vicious and anti-social attitudes in our lives? Is there a relationship between words and their effect on the physiology and psychology of our systems? When we laugh, is there a system reaction different from that we have when we are angry,sad, or violently disturbed? And do music and pleasant lyrics bless our minds and put us in a success-winning mood? And are there people in our society, the bulk of it, that avoid corruptive language aimed at the devaluation of people in society for that very reason? Doctors have apparently proved the effect of negative emotions on blood pressure, tendency to stroke and other unhealthy manifestations. Cam K tells an interesting anecdote about lyrics: Recently, a female interviewee said that she had been asked to babysit a ten year old youngster in the temporary absence of his mother. She discovered that his mother had bought him one of a famous rappers seasonal cd album; the youngster was interested primarily in the rhythm and the bounce of the music, so he paid no real attention to the absolute filthy words that were fitted to the music. When the "baby-sitter" monitored what he was listening to, however, she was appalled at the raw, unmitigated filth from the very first introductory lines of the song! The mother later complained to her that in verbally disciplining her child, he became angry and let out some of the choicest filth, none of which she had ever heard from him, and most of which was on the CD! So what do the psychology experts generally think? ‘Why can't we simply focus on the good part and close our ears to the bad part?'. They say that is because of the make-up of the dual physiology of the human system, where you have both an objective cerebo-spinal system concerned with conscious motion produced by your own volition or will; and also an autonomous nervous system concerned with making automatic to your thinking and action what is repeatedly fed into your consciousness, The subconsciousness of the individual then makes the information past reasoning and accepted will that is a part of automatic function and automatically directed action. So the ingested words become natural and spontaneous to the person's usage. Logically, then, if we can find enjoyable music with lyrics that tell us to be successful winners, these socially accepted directions get into our subconscious, and our actions eventually match those successful directions. So, upbeat dynamic, uplifting, encouraging music is good. A word about Fellowship For Development Inc. A Florida registered non-profit, its aim is to encourage fellowship and brotherly, sisterly love, and to help members, friends and others to express their talents in song, music Cd, poetry, prose, whatever.. Its next album of ten tracks following on the dynamically wrapped "Gift-Wrapped", is a wonderful set of upbeat songs on LOVE AND POLITICS, driving,dynamic, popular and designed to pick the listener up into thoughts of new success in love and life! All queries concerning online membership are welcome.