Music Video On North Side Urban Farming Harvesting Clicks
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Remember "Hot Cheetos & Takis" – the viral snack anthem that turned people's fingers red during the summer of 2012 and amassed more than 14 million YouTube views?
Well, there's another music video from Minneapolis' north side that's gaining internet traction, and this one switches out the junk food for a positive message on the benefits of community farming and eating healthy.
"Grow Food," which was published on YouTube last month by Appetite for Change, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing healthier food options to the north side and getting youth involved in culinary arts and urban farming, has garnered more than 50,000 views. This week, the rap song also got a shoutout from entertainer Nick Cannon.
"That's why I love the young folks!!" the rapper and comedian wrote Tuesday on Instagram. "This is Life!!"
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The "Grow Food" video, which was made in collaboration with Beats & Rhymes, the afterschool group behind "Hot Cheetos & Takis," features several Appetite for Change youth rapping about the lack of healthy food options on the north side and how the organization is "choppin'" things up.
While the song is mostly light-hearted and fun, the rappers do equate the lack of healthy food options with the historically black neighborhood's problems of drugs and violence.
"All this talk about guns and drugs, pretty serious," the first verse goes. "But look at what they feeding y'all, that's what's really killing us."
The music video also features references to Michelle Obama -- and her efforts to make school lunches healthier for American kids – the activist group Black Lives Matter and the "Hot Cheetos & Takis" crew.
