‘It pushed me out of my comfort zone': Boston's youth performs hip-hop inspired by life experiences
Beats Rhymes and Life Boston held its annual showcase Tuesday night at Eliot Church in Roxbury.
Beats Rhymes and Life was brought to Boston in 2018 and is based on a therapy model first started in Oakland, California.
The showcase is part of a 12-week program offered through Roxbury Children's Services.
Michael 'Big Mike' Mendes is a lead artist with Beats Rhymes and Life Boston and said that through the program, students get to learn how to make music and create their own hip-hop track.
'Sometimes it's harder to have conversations, but it's easier to make a song about it,' said Mendes.
Youth ages 12 to 24 performed the songs they created during Friday's showcase.
'I feel like it pushed me out of my comfort zone in a good way, it was real creative,' High School senior Ariana Brown said.
Brown and Zariah King had the chance to perform a song together, inspired by Mendes.
'Mike was like, we should make a diss track, and we were like, why not?' King said. 'We had no one to really diss, so we just made a song about a diss track about somebody random, and that's how the song came about.'
Through music, Mendes said he's made a positive impact on Boston's youngest and wishes he had a community like BRL while growing up in Dorchester.
'My whole life has been murders and funerals and not any of this, and if I had this, we probably would have had less funerals and murders, so that's the goal,' Mendes said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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