Posted on 08/07/2017 5:02:13 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
Sade Alvarez-Gibson, 15, raps into a studio microphone in a makeshift booth made of blankets, while Oladele Kiambu, 17, records:
“Keeping my mind focused / I’m controlling my reality / My grind’s an everyday thing / It’s something that I do casually,” she raps.
Just feet away, Kamal Muhammad — wearing headphones and a face full of determination — sits in front of a computer monitor, rhythmically tapping on a keyboard, eliciting sounds of a synth and a drum kick.
“This is my first time making a beat,” the 12-year-old said proudly.
All three are hoping to break into the music business, and the music program Beats Not Bullets is a step in that direction.
Held at the Creative Alliance, the six-week summer internship program hosts around 10 students from the city and Baltimore County, teaching them the fundamentals of beat-making, music production and the ins and outs of the music business.
Damond Blue, the East Baltimore singer-songwriter and rapper who founded the program last year, said Beats Not Bullets gives children the chance to embark on a successful music career and to have a voice in their city.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
I don’t know “how to sell the painting” whether that is a picture or a song.
Even those who were wildly successful at marketing “paintings” at the beginning of the 21st century will tell you that it isn’t easy getting people to pay for music these days.
Even Hollywood is off-shoring movie scores to Eastern European symphonies as they are cheaper to hire.
What used to work doesn’t these days. Bands could make a couple hundred dollars playing a club in the 1960s. Today they will still only make hundreds of dollars at a club.
I do agree that putting an instrument into a person’s hand can have positive impact. I think it helped preserve Louisiana’s music culture (and not just one sound). It used to be compulsory in schools starting in 4th grade, don’t know if it still is.
Here’s some high school students (now grown up) who tell of the impact their school’s teacher and music program had for their lives:
Thunder Soul - Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiodQURIe0M
They believe it kept them on the straight and narrow and they could call him anytime they needed something.
Rappers put the number of times they got shot in their bios, not their songs. And it is bullsh!t.
One aspiring rapper whom “bullets could not harm” was just gunned down.
That is great. What you say is all well and good. I hope that is the case with these kids, because let’s face it, the vast majority are not going to make careers in the music industry. Their best hope would be some of the ancillary benefits you mention.
The people in the Kashmere Stage Band didn’t go into music professionally. They were into engineering and other fields. They had to relearn their instruments when they went back to show their teacher some gratitude (shortly before he died).
Leadbelly did stay with music after he got released from prison (several times even, repeat offender).
Give them a fishing rod, do something. But encouraging rap isn’t going to turn their lives around.
Mobsters ran Roulette, MCA, and other labels. They paid to get songs on the radio. They stole songwriter publishing for a dollar bill and a threat of death or dismemberment. And the hits they bought (and earned off of) continue to pay dividends to this day.
Putting them in the music industry won’t keep them away from criminals.
Jail Guitar Doors is a program in the US and UK that puts instruments in the hands of prisoners with charity work from established rock musicians (of the 70s and 80s).
I haven’t heard of their graduates becoming famous, I think it’s about channeling their thoughts and concentration and finding an outlet.
Merle Haggard saw Johnny Cash in prison and put himself on a different path in life.
That Ctrl-Left position is one of the most racist statements imaginable, when stated sincerely instead of as satire, and I'm always shocked that democrats are able to get away with it. Their entire party would fade without media complicity (which is motivated by the false and racist elitist belief that blacks really cannot compete intellectually).
I really hope someone points out to this budding artist the logical incongruities of her first three lines with her fourth. Nothing is the first three is casual.
Lyrics really ought to make sense. Really.
....Beats Not Bullets program teaches students music production, ins-and-outs of music industry..
This program does not apply to the production of
Hip Hop “Music”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcW2aCpGQm0
Bobby Bacala makes an easy $7K and a rapper earns street cred!
This is child abuse.
I can’t remember when I’ve seen anything more disgusting...and I watch Bones reruns.
“Promoting degenerated culture over high culture, is how it looked at first.”
Isn’t that what they’re doing?
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS NEWS August 7, 2017, 4:00 PM
Rapper who once declared “God made me bulletproof” shot and killed
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rapper-who-once-declared-god-made-me-bulletproof-shot-and-killed/
“ATLANTA — An Atlanta rapper who previously claimed to have been shot on at least 11 different occasions — and who in December, after being wounded, proclaimed ‘God made me bulletproof’ — was shot and killed Sunday, reports CBS affiliate WGCL-TV.”
Bill Clinton almost got away with making “ebonics” an acceptable dialect of English forever hamstringing members of the black community.
12 times is the charm!
How is a beatbox and rap music? what composition is involved? Then again transcribing is easy, press button one for beat, button two for tempo, button three for...........
Cat had 9 lives and should’ve quit while he was ahead.
Or maybe he couldn’t count that high and this was the 13th time.
It has become acceptable via loophole; it is now racist to give blacks poor grades in English - and they are hamstrung forever. Their position is not even improving gradually; it is rapidly deteriorating, and in another couple of decades most educated blacks (in the traditional sense) will be gone. They’re already reaching retirement age now.
Something wrong with teaching a marketable skill? Teach him how to wire a house, do plumbing, etc. He will become successful.
Teach him rap music and they’re ensuring a life of poverty.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.