photos by Lorianne Melendez
While many children are returning to school, The LOX, Juices for Life, and PCNY gave back to the Yonkers community by holding a bookbag giveaway on August 28. The event, held at Juices for Life on Nepperhan Avenue, quickly became the place to be when word got out that rappers Jadakiss, Sheek Louch and Styles P., were in Yonkers. The Yonkers Police Department closed off the street xx
The book bag drive is a yearly event, and this year 14,2000 book bags filled with supplies and headphones were handed out, and some kids got signed items donated by professional athletes.
The Yonkers Rap Trio The LOX, made up of Jadakiss, Sheek Louch and Styles P, worked their way up through the Bad Boy training camp, writing and rapping on hits by the likes of Puff Daddy, the Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, and Mariah Carey before releasing their 1998 debut album, Money, Power & Respect, which topped Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and soared to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart.
After a switch to the Ruff Ryders label, We Are the Streets followed in early 2000, debuting at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart. In 2007 a set of early recordings was released as Before the L.O.X including the 2013 EP The Trinity, and the 2014 sequel, The Trinity: 2nd Sermon. In late 2016, almost two decades after the release of their sophomore effort, The LOX unveiled their third official LP, Filthy America…It’s Beautiful, on D-Block/Roc Nation.
Last Sunday, this trio gave hundreds of Yonkers kids and students that have been stuck inside from COVID, with no school or camp, a day of happiness.