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 ...
Who needs engineering when there’s BEAT-BOXING..?
Make beeps and whirrs with your mouth..!
All day? YES, all day..!
When the massive amounts of money to be had from dealing drugs is taken away thats when the killing stops
Into the violence free world of rap music.
Otherwise known as Larry, Curly, and Mad Mo. Three names to look for ... on your local post office wall.
No gangsters in the music industry.
No payola either.
And it’s not like rappers are being ENCOURAGED to lie about their past and play up how many times they “got shot”.
Dumb dumb dumb.
Teach them something better than rap.
Why don’t thugs in prison learn doo wop and vocal group singing anymore? Don’t even need instruments:
The Prisonaires - Just Walkin’ In The Rain (SUN 186)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c39nVKNSQUs
http://www.sunrecords.com/artists/the-prisonaires
BIOGRAPHY
As their name suggests, this doo-wop group was formed while each member was in the State Penitentiary, Tennessee, USA. The founding member was lead singer Johnny Bragg (John Henry Bragg, 6 May 1925, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, d. 1 September 2004, Madison, Tennessee, USA), who took on Ed Thurman (b. USA, d. 1973; second tenor), John Drue (b. USA, d. December 1977, Lebanon, Tennessee, USA; first tenor), William Stewart (b. USA, d. 1959; baritone and guitar) and Marcel Sanders (b. USA, d. 1969; bass). The group was paraded around a variety of receptions and civic functions as demonstration of the jail’s enlightened rehabilitation programme, where they played a mix of blues, gospel and pop songs under armed guard. New warden James E. Edwards then arranged for two talent scouts from Sam Phillips’ Sun Records to see the group. They were subsequently driven down to Memphis in June 1953 to record a song written by Bragg and fellow inmate Robert Riley, “Just Walkin’ In The Rain”. The record took hold first on radio and then became a major seller, moving over 250,000 copies, despite a competing version from Johnny Ray that sold eight times that amount. Still, the Prisonaires had arrived, and found themselves in demand for a series of television and concert appearances. They gradually became high-status figures in Tennessee, and never betrayed the trust placed in them by trying to escape their guards on their numerous forays outside the prison. A second single followed in August 1953, the highly spiritual “My God Is Real”, followed by “I Know” and its autobiographical b-side, “A Prisoner’s Prayer”. While recording it they made the acquaintance of Elvis Presley, who later visited them in prison.
By now some of his colleagues had become eligible for parole, so Bragg formed a new version of the band titled the Sunbeams with Thurman, Stewart, Drue, Hal Hebb (d. 1963), Willy Wilson, and pianist Henry “Dishrag” Jones. This line-up lasted only until 1955, when Alfred Brooks replaced a pardoned Stewart and the group was retitled the Marigolds. They had a number 8 R&B chart success with “Rollin’ Stone” before changing their name to the Solotones for another single release, “Pork And Beans”. By 1956 Bragg had been released and he recorded a series of singles under his own name for Decca Records. He was then arrested for “parole violation” in 1960 and his penalty was to return to prison for an incredible six and a half years. Bragg put together another version of the Prisonaires with new inmates, but they never recorded again. On release, he recorded a number of singles for independent labels before finding work in a cemetery. He returned to prison for a third time at the end of the 60s and finally left prison for good in August 1977. Bragg continued to receive royalties for “Just Walkin’ In The Rain’ but was now content to sing only in church.
Looks like a worthy program as most kids can’t afford School of Rock.
I think the most important part is:
““A lot of these programs will teach you how to paint, but not how to sell the painting. We teach you how to sell the painting,” he said.”
If the creative end of music does not destroy a band, the business side will.
Being a musician is a business and the business end is not fun and a nightmare if you have no idea what you are doing.
Yet zero emotional output.
How many aspiring athletes, musicians, actors, models, singers, and other entertainer wannabes will ever make a six figure income in those fields? The odds are not good at all.
How many engineers and entrepreneurs will eventually make a six figure income? Far more, perhaps most. Every single statistician I ever employed eventually made six figures, either working for me or in their immediately subsequent job. No exceptions. If “black leaders” actually cared about these kids instead of about building a permanently disenfranchised power base, the talk would be all about working hard in school (and both parents staying active in their children’s lives and educations), not the aspiring rapper career path.
“And it’s not like rappers are being ENCOURAGED to lie about their past and play up how many times they “got shot”.”
Do you think Eric Clapton played up how many times he shot tge sheriff?
Did Johnny Cash lie about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die?
Did Jim Morrison lie about wanting to kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother?
Are Moslems allowed to be rappers?? That Mohammed kid may have a hard time in that area if his religion forbids it.
Yeah but then doing well in school is acting white and we can’t have that in the ghetto can we???
As long as their rhymes are about beating women and killing infidels it’s probably encouraged.
"In the Ghetooooooooo......"
Students music production??
Just what we need, million of kiddies from high school training for music production...What jibberish...
The reality is, there are only a tiny small fraction of those types of jobs available in that industry and it’s usually a “Who ya know” industry.
Don’t be conned, go with math and science kids.
Students music production??
Just what we need, million of kiddies from high school training for music production...What jibberish...
The reality is, there are only a tiny small fraction of those types of jobs available in that industry and it’s usually a “Who ya know” industry.
Don’t be conned, go with math and science kids.
Maybe they should, oh, I don’t know... learn how to play an instrument?
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