We’re so proud of Marcell, one of our former CAC "kids", and the positive impact he’s making in and around our community through the art of music! Read more in this piece from the Belleville News-Democrat:
When local rap artist Marcell Cannon, 24, recorded his latest single, “Honor Roll,” he knew it would be a hit — but he didn’t anticipate where it would take him.
“The engineer got the hotel room where we recorded it, and once I heard it — I mean, I have a lot of songs, but I feel like this song was the one that spoke out to me; it really touched me,” the East St. Louis native said.
Known by more than 25,000 followers on Instagram as Luh Cell, Cannon recently released the video for “Honor Roll,” featuring hundreds of students from Paul Dunbar Elementary School in East St. Louis. “It feels good to do this type of music,” Cannon said. “The music I was doing before, people were liking it, but with the kids, there’s just so much love and you can feel it around you. It just inspires me to keep going forward.”
While shooting the video, Cannon described being surrounded by students looking up to him as an experience he wished he had when he was young. Cannon said he did not have a positive role model in his life other than Chet Cantrell, executive director of the Christian Activity Center, whom he met when he was 6 years old.
“He got me in so many good directions and put so many people in my life to talk to — there’s just so much about Chet,” Cannon said. “He’s really the dad I never had. Chet is the one who always told me what was right, what to do, what not to do.”
