Wyclef

Since his debut in the music world in the 1980s with the hip-hop group "The Fugees", Wyclef Jean has been an influential force in the hip-hop world. Though he has his fair share of songs that talk about strip-clubs, money-making, and living the good life (but honestly, in terms of hip-hop/rap, there's not an artist out there who DOESNT have songs like that), he chooses to focus mainly on real-life issues in his lyrics, whether its dealing with the war in Iraq, the election, or the struggles of living in poverty. Though our generation embraces MTV over the news (its okay, i do the same thing) and for the most part is ignorant of just about anything outside the little bubble of their neighborhood, Wyclef has found a way to get through: music. Through his songs he advocates peace and helping others, and outside of his music business, he works to help the improvement of his home country of Haiti, with his organization appropriately called "Yele Haiti".
While I feel like the majority of people in my generation are the type of people who see horrible things going on and say " wow, thats awful, I should really do something about it...", and proceed to do nothing, I feel like there's an increasing number of kids working toward the goal of various improvements in the world. For example, our school's fundraisers for Habitat for Humanity just goes to show that people who would normally sit back and do nothing to help others, are getting involved and putting their time and effort into a meaningful project.
Though we are a VERY materialistic generation (but in America, let's be honest, who isn't?), I feel that Wyclef's songs promoting the betterment of society are becoming increasingly more characteristic of teenagers' attitudes.