Former hip-hop producer leads youth down better path

By Eddie B. Allen Jr.

His was a career that summed up the dreams of many young men in Detroit and throughout urban America.

Jason Wilson was becoming one of the most sought-after producers in hip hop. Having made a local name for himself as half of the popular rap duo Kaos and Mystro, in the 1990s Wilson expanded his resume to include studio work for hit-makers Redman, Kurupt, and an aspiring rapper who went by the stage name of “C-Webb,” ex-NBA star Chris Webber.

Mystro’s future in the music industry appeared to be an easy prediction – but Wilson’s personal convictions would cause him to change course.

Today, he is founder and CEO of the Yuinon (pronounced “union”), a ministry and faith-based co-op of youth programs that promote education and personal development. Through the Cave of Adullam, Keys 2 Life, TEACH (Teens Educating and Advocating for Community Health) 4 Impact, and Students With Awareness and Goals (SWAG), the Yuinon’s reputation for positively impacting students and families is growing; the program was recently chosen as one of three Detroit non-profits to receive proceeds from sales of the special gospel version of rapper Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” famously broadcast in his Chrysler Super Bowl commercial.

“I always saw the negative and positive impact that music could have on a person,” says Wilson. “I produced a lot of music for a lot of big-name rappers and God showed me how I was a hypocrite because I was helping to create a lot of what was harming our kids. I was under the illusion that, because I was only making the music, I wasn’t responsible for what [lyrics] the rapper put on top of it.”

Recognition of his moral obligation to young hip-hop lovers combined with tragedies that visited his life steered Wilson onto his current path. A west-side Detroit native, he’d lost a brother to street violence in the ‘70s and a second brother to the same fate two decades later. He knew the impact that drugs were having on the community, as well as his position of respect even among dealers who helped spread the epidemic, but who often asked Wilson to watch their children while they went to “work.”

“They said, ‘I don’t want [the children] to grow up and be like me,’” Wilson recalls.

He further developed a rapport with local youth while employed as support staff and security for a charter school. After founding the Yuinon as a faith-based non-profit in 2003, Wilson incorporated his life-long passion for martial arts, including experience in Kenpo, Aikido and Judo, with his producing skills. “Mentoring through martial arts” and “mentoring through music” became the slogans and objectives for Cave of Adullam and Keys 2 Life. The Cave of Adullam teaches boys to use martial arts as a means of mastering their own lives, including behavioral and academic discipline, says Wilson, while Keys 2 Life gives boys and girls hands-on experience in learning how music is produced. Songwriting assignments coupled with life-skills training let youth explore their creativity while promoting lyrics that celebrate positive goals.

“Our mission is basically to reach, rescue and redeem youth who have been impacted negatively by the culture,” Wilson says. “That means the culture of violence, drugs and alcohol, the culture of entertainment, every part of the culture that’s been harmful.”

The Yuinon’s combined programs have reached about 700 students throughout Detroit and Highland Park schools, including George Washington Carver where Wilson first implemented Cave of Adullam as an extracurricular program. The fraternal group borrows its name from the hideout where biblical figure David is said to have fled from King Saul, who wanted to kill him. In the cave, David was eventually joined by an army of men who’d come there seeking a leader, according to scriptures.

At the Yuinon’s Cave of Adullam, youth learn exercises that promote confidence in themselves, like performing jumping jacks while blindfolded, and wisdom about life lessons.

“I’ve physically tied more skilled students to less skilled students and given them assignments that let the skilled person see how the unskilled person holds them back,” says Wilson. “The less skilled person improves. I might say, ‘Over here is college and over there is a bank. I want to go rob the bank and you want to go to college. So now we’re tied together and pulling in different directions. See how much easier it would’ve been if we both wanted to go to college?’”

Anthony Hurst says his son Anthony Jr., 10, has made wonderful progress since he began attending Cave of Adullam sessions at John R. King Academic and Performing Arts Academy in January.

“It helps improve their self-esteem as young, black men. It teaches them that they are not only strong, physically, but mentally,” says Hurst.

Anthony Jr. improved his grade point average from a 1.6 to a 3.0 after using techniques he learned in the program: “I meditate before I do my work, because it’s easy for me to get distracted. I used to have anger, but now, when I meditate and breathe, I don’t get as mad. They teach us to breathe from our stomach.”

Similarly, through its technical training and entertainment value, Keys 2 Life, has produced happy parents and students at John R. King. Karlita Young’s daughter Destiny Smith rehearsed original raps around the house so often that even her family members knew the lyrics.

“You get to write songs and hang out with your friends. I like to use the beat machine,” says Destiny.

Adds her mom, “It’s a really, really great program. She was interested in music before, but now she’s interested to the point that she wants to stay after school to be involved. There’ve been days when I had things to do and I had to pick her up early, and she’d say, ‘Aww, I have Keys 2 Life today.’

“I have nephews who are 4 and 5 who know how to spell ‘success’ because they watch the DVD [of a Keys 2 Life rap video] over and over again.”

Apart from the Yuinon’s school-based programs, TEACH 4 Impact recently held its first community seminar. The peer education group promotes physical and emotional wellness for young adults, while SWAG is a sexual abstinence program funded through the state’s health department.

Keys 2 Life is in summer session at the Matrix Human Services Center. With support from his executive director and wife Nicole, facilitator Ronald Lee and dedicated volunteers like Shannon Gaston and Kourtney Neloms, Wilson hopes to eventually open a facility that will serve as Yuinon headquarters.

“We’ve been quiet on the radar as far as faith-based non-profits, but we’ve been faithfully doing a lot of work,” he says.

For more information about the Yuinon’s programs, visit www.yuhelp.com.

-- Eddie B. Allen Jr., is a Detroit-based freelance writer.