2022_09_New_Jersey_Monthly

DOITALL
FOR CITY HALL
Dupré Kelly grew up
in Newark’s West
Ward before his rap
career took off. Now
he reps his home
ward as a councilman.
POLITICS
What were your experiences growing
up in the West Ward?
I’m a young male who was raised by
a single mom. That breeds a different
maneuvering…that was an experience
for her. Parents...they don’t let you feel
the brunt of what’s going on, or they try
not to. So when you don’t have food in
the house, you don’t really know that
those hot dogs and beans are the only
things that you have…. Back then in the
West Ward, there was a lot of community
with neighbors…. I think that we
lost the feel of community, and it’s time
to rebuild that trust.
PHOTOGRAPH: JASMINE HSU
Change Artist
Dupré Kelly rose to fame as a rapper with Lords of
the Underground. Now he represents Newark’s West Ward.
By Gary Phillips
Music aficionados
know Dupré Kelly
as DoItAll from
his work with the
golden-age rap
group Lords of the Underground.
These days, however, the platinumselling
emcee goes by councilman.
Kelly now represents Newark’s
diverse West Ward, the neighborhood
he grew up in. Backed by Mayor Ras
Baraka, Kelly won a nonpartisan city
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
council runoff election on June 14.
Sworn in on July 1, the Democrat is believed
to be America’s first major rapper
elected to public office.
“I am what hip-hop looks like grown
up,” Kelly says. He adds that he is eager
to “govern where I grew.”
Speaking with New Jersey Monthly,
Kelly, 51, discussed his upbringing,
hopes for the ward he still calls home,
and an eye-opening conversation he
had with the late Tupac Shakur.
How did those experiences influence
your desire to help your community?
Her raising me influenced me to want
to do good so I could make it out of that
community. I wanted to make it out. As
I got older, I realized that it’s not about
making it out. It’s about making where
you come from better.
Your music career helped you do
that…
Making it out means making it out of
poverty. You don’t have to just make it
out of poverty through rap…. It’s just one
of the ways that I made it out. And that
started with school first. Making it out
for me was going away to Shaw University,
which was one of the greatest
HBCUs in my eyes…. Sometimes young,
black males in cities like Newark, we
look for mentors…. We don’t wanna be
in the mess. We want to make it out, but
our options are limited. And when we
look for mentors and can’t find them, we
have to become those mentors.
When did you realize school and music
were effective tools for fostering
change?
Even before getting to Shaw, I had a
brother by the name Hafiz Farid who
was a legislative aide for a councilman
at the time, Ralph Grant Sr…. He took
me under his wing and showed me what
community was and had me engage
with the people. And when I saw ways
to make myself and my family better, I
wanted to educate people who were still
in that mess. So the vehicle that I used,
music, that was just—I don’t wanna say
luck, but it was the right timing. The
universe put it in play.
SEPTEMBER 2022 NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 35