Session 3 - Lyric writing - 8/12/11

Today's session was a really important one, the group decided last session that they wanted to change the genre of the music to hip-hop instead of grime.

We started the session by discussing further commitment to the project and how they felt it was going so far.

Ground rules
We set down some ground rules for the project which the group came up with themselves. 

These rules are guidelines for everyone to follow through the project so everyone can feel respected and can have their opinions voiced in the project.

Lyrics and music
The group were introduced to P.R.E (Precious Yoxall) a lyricist who will be helping them to construct their lyrics for the track.

The group was split into two groups: lyric writing and music production (participants had chosen what are they were interested in beforehand).

The music group talked about the beat and how they wanted it to sound but unfortunately we had some technical difficulties so they were unable to actually put anything solid down.

However, they are very enthusiastic about coming back in the new year and getting down to business.

The lyric writing group learnt about constructing 4,8,16 bars, learning about how long each are and how mant beats are to each bar. They learnt about lyric deliverance and then completed constructing their first 16 bars of the song. The group gave great feedback to this workshop saying it helped them improve their lyrics and they learnt how to write bars professionally. 

To end the session we heard what the lyricists had produced so far and discussed the roles for everyone in the group.

We nominated a lead member of the group and discussed the music video further and agreed on having animations of the group in the video and how we would promote it further.

Join us again in January as we continue with the track.

Session 2 - Planning and intro to beats - 1/12/11

For today's session the group was introduced to Skarzz (Mark Richman).

Mark is a rapper/producer who has been producing music from a young age and has agreed to help the group construct a unique beat for the project.

The group have said that the beat they produce has to be one that they themselves would listen to, it has to be catchy and that they can bop their head to.

Why a music track?

Most young people listen to music and the group feel this is the best way to express themselves and get the point across to a large number of young people. People will be able to relate to the song because they're using real life situations.

Message

The campaign will help young people increase their awareness of the negative impact of gang violence through hearing about situations they too might have been in and hearing a positive outcome from the situations which will help them to make better judgements. They want young people of all ages to be inspired to change their life.

Distribution

If the song is a success it will reach a wide range of young people through online sharing who can then share this with their friends giving them an insight to the negative side of gang violence and how to avoid it.

Lyrics

The group then heard a preview of their young rapper's lyrics which he recited to the Chris Brown ft Chipmunk- Champion instrumental.

Session 1- Finding the message - 24/11/11

The group were introduced to Kayla who has taken over running the sessions. They rediscussed the idea of making a music track and agreed that they still wanted to continue with this idea. One young man in the group is a talented rapper and has agreed to write the lyrics for the song.

We discussed that once the music and lyrics are completed we will then go into a professional studio where they will learn how to master and produce the track.

To kick start the session the group were split into two and were each given a song by famous rapper Giggs. 

Group 1 had Giggs ft The Streets- Slow Songs

Group 2 had Giggs- Don't go there

They were asked to read the lyrics and  write down 

• What they thought the song was about
• Could they relate
• How did it make them feel

We then looked at previous Anti Gun Crime song campaigns and discussed;

• Did they think it was a successful campaign?

• What message did they get from it?

• How do you feel when you hear it? 

The group then used this to think about how they wanted to their audience to feel after hearing there song. Here is what they came up with:

• Clock on/ Understand the message
• Not to go that way (choose a different path)
• The life their leading is no good
• Reflect on their life
• ‘yeah, it’s a nice tune’
• Want them to get a good vibe from the song
• Like Giggs’ slow song- makes you want to listen to it but not do anything
• Be able to bop your head to

The group want people to hear their song and feel they can relate but not feel there being told what to do. They know this will be a difficult task but feel as they are the same age group as their audience and come from the same background that they can deliver a song which other teenagers will respond to.

I asked the group to think of real life situations that they or someone they know might have been in and to think of ways to resolve this without using gang violence.

They said one of the main reasons conflicts start are guys 'screwing eachother' (giving each other dirty looks) they believe that if people concerntrated on their own lives and didn't worry about what others were doing, there would be no reason for people to 'screw' eachother.

Other reasons for conflict are:

Pride                                                                                     Image                                                  

Girls                                                                                      Money

Rep                                                                                       Bigotry

Power                                                                                   Respect

Insecure

The track's message could be:

• There are different ways to make money
• Inspire yourself from someone else
• Work hard and one day you’ll get what you want
• Why kill someone over stuff you don’t own?
• You don’t know when you might get killed
• Don’t go with a group of people to attack one person
• When you’re by yourself your head is down

Next week we will begin music production and listen to lyrics.