On May 28th, 2011, our scheduled Voices Behind Walls workshop took place at the J. Paul Taylor Center.  That Saturday afternoon I passed out our program agenda titled 'The Graphic Novel' which discussed the release of Greg Neri & Randy duBurke's Yummy the Last Days of a Southside Shorty and Percy Carey & Ronald Wimberly's Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm.  Within that agenda we also included several topics from The Beat Within one of those titled "Decisions".  In the prompt it asked, "While you are in juvenile hall you have a lot of decisions to make about whether you follow court orders to stay away form your friends, drugs, a specific neighborhood, etc.  Is there a decision you need to make that you are worried about?  What is that decision?  Have you thought about what the effects of your choice will be either way?  Describe the pros and cons about making (or not making) that decision?"  About a month later, Manny aka Sicko and DeSean aka D-Loc walked into our workshop with the concept for a track in response to The Beat Within topic.  The instrumental was found on youTube titled "Chicano Rap Instrumental #6".

Earlier this year Manny had entered our workshop and introduced us to his talents by freestyle rapping for the those in attendance.  At the time and for several years, I've been recording mostly youth's acapella poetry, rap, & instruments (e.g. guitar, keyboards, beatbox, etc.). We've also conducted several audio recordings with beats by playing the instrumental from a boombox in the background and having the youth rhyme in one take while capturing the boombox audio behind them.  Manny watched our recording process and recomended that we allow him to show us how to use the equipment & computer programs properly and turn our recordings into actual studio recordings.  Ever since Manny started participating, our workshop has never been the same. He's led our recording sessions and has taught us all the method of recording studio quality songs with our laptop, mixer, and MXL microphone. 

I first heard DeSean aka D-Loc on a track called "The System" along with Flaco who had recorded several tracks with a staff member from JPTC.  We will be making "The System" available via our VBW Sessions youTube soon.  Lyrically, DeSean is one of the most talented MCs I've had the priveledge of working with at JPTC and along with Manny they've recorded several tracks that we hope to make available soon.

The "Decisions" marks a whole new beginning for the Voices Behind Walls workshop thanks to Manny's understanding of music production and the participation of JPTC's MC/poets.  Manny revolutionized our approach to recording and has established a unique method of recruitment amongst other youth that are interested in learning.  Recently, he also involved his brothers on the outside who produce music and have provided original instrumentals that we'll be releasing as official VBW singles in the future.  These singles will be burned onto Verbatim Digital Vinyl CD-R's and will include the following tracks: 1) the song lyrics + beat, 2) the acapella, and 3) instrumental version.

Over the years, from El Paso to JPTC, whether it was Joseph's (from Delta) recommendation that we call our program Voices Behind Walls in 2006, or M.Gomez's first publication in the Beat Within in 2007, or Richard's recording of poetry + rap versions of his writing, or Gaby's social + politcal + artistic interpretations of her thoughts, or Mousey & Oden's production skills on the Keyboard, and now Manny, DeSean, Blue's talents as true MCs (Manny also as producer), and also the emergence of graphic artist such as Joseph A. (JPTC) - over the years these youth have contributed priceless talents to the growth of our program and the documentation of thier work through our platform online and in print with groups such as The Beat Within.

I encourage all that are familiar with the process of recording and that have a passion for the expressive arts, especially Hip Hoppers out there, to share some of the knowledge with all youth, especially in spaces where these resources may be challenging to setup.  You never know where you'll find some of our most talented young people. 

Peace.

Lee Rhyanes
VBW Director + Co-Founder