Liberty senior Herb Dew showing off skills in sports, music
by Richard Obert - Mar. 25, 2010 08:54 PM
The Arizona Republic
Before every home basketball game this past season, Herb Dew's rapid-fire words pulsated through the Peoria Liberty gym as he and his teammates made their way through the layup line.
Let me show you what Liberty means, where we all pass the ball, and no I in the team. We going to be the No.1 team. We already know it's a state ring . . . . You said you goin' to win. You lyin'. All of us got the eyes of a lion. This is our gym and we came here to win. We never stop 'til the game ends. Now you ready for the season? We the Lions . . .There is a line for every player on the team, even himself
(I'm the doo, and I came here to prove, I'm Herb, and somebody's about to get served.)"Liberty's Anthem" became a big hit at the 3-year-old school, where everybody, it seems, knows the 5-foot-11 senior with the long hair, easy smile and crazy hops.
If Dew isn't scoring baskets (he averaged 14 points this season) or breaking his school high-jump record (he cleared 6 feet, 8 inches last season in only his second year ever competing in track and field), Dew is dancing at assemblies, making school announcements over the PA, or performing rap songs he creates off the top of his head.
"He is as original and unique as it comes," Athletic Director Rick Johnson said. "He makes everyone smile just by being around him."
Dew's "Liberty" song led him to senior Alex Miller, an aspiring director.
Miller, who discovered Dew's rap talents at a basketball game, recruited Dew and junior Destinee Quinn (whom Miller calls "the best singer in the school.") to be part of his music video parody of Jay-Z's and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind."
They wrote their own words and called it, "Facebook State of Mind."
It took them five hours to film around Liberty. It ended up on YouTube and on Liberty basketball coach Mark Wood's Facebook wall.
Wood said Dew's talents go beyond his knowledge.
"He has a charisma that God has blessed him with that makes him a total magnet," Wood said. "People flock to him. His smile lights up a room. His maturation during the past three years is nothing short of amazing."Dew's story is amazing.
His father, he said, was murdered the day before he was born. His mother, he added, subsequently had a nervous breakdown and became disabled.
"I've never seen any pictures of him," Dew said of his father. "I don't even know what he looks like."
Dew was raised in inner city Detroit, near 6 Mile, "where a lot of bad things happened," he said.
"I went from home to home," he said. "I've seen people get shot . . . fights every day.
"I was always like the quiet guy. But my friends would get in trouble and I'd have to be there for them. I was just the cool guy. I never wanted to do anything. But sometimes you get caught in it. But I never did anything really bad."
To get away from potential trouble, Herb moved in with his brother Vern in Peoria the spring of his freshman year. Vern since then moved away and Herb has gone from home to home, including living with star basketball player Jordan Sims and Wood.
It didn't take long for students to gravitate to the kid with the rap songs.
Dew said he started rapping when he was 11. One of his favorite rappers, he said, was Tupac Shakur, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996.
Dew said the rap group D12 occasionally performed in his Detroit basement.
"My friend's brother was a DJ for D12," Dew said. "I was a little rapper, but I didn't take it seriously."
Dew said when he turned 17 this year, "I became a good rapper," meaning he tries to get his message across with positive words. He put out a demo CD under his stage name, Spotlight.
"It's unbelievable," said Wood, a devout Christian.
"I think if he sticks to it, he's got talent to make it," Miller said.
The always upbeat Dew defies the gangster reputation that comes with rap.
"That's not me in the first place," Dew said. "I just want to change people's lives with my music.
"I want people to listen to me and understand what's going on."
for these two young people that Father will use them in a mighty way.
