Beats, rhymes and justice: Hip-hop on Rikers Island - Part two

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We are back on Rikers island – New York’s largest and most notorious jail where Ryan Burvik works with inmates on a unique hip hop program. We hear Ryan working with Mikey MTA and Zig on raps that express their regrets and their ambition for the future. What is new is the inclusion of women using hip hop as a way of telling their story. We hear from the talented Remy who used her skill as a performer during her three years in jail to leverage visits from her six-year-old daughter. We also follow some of the students once they have been released. Not just Remy but Angel and Trigger and Enterprise Wise are all enrolled on Ryan’s internship at his studio in West Queens.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Ryan Burvik on the BBC World Service.
0:10.0	We're on Rikers Island, New York's largest gym, for more stories of hip hop and music making
0:15.3	behind bars.
0:17.3	Most of the young brothers and sisters here are on Raman and waiting trial, some unable
0:21.7	to afford bail, 89% of them are people of color that can spend anything between a day
0:27.7	and three years here in a tougher gym.
0:47.5	I run a music program, it started as Beats, Rhymes and Justice, and now it's called
0:52.0	the Free Studio, with the emphasis on free for the free minds, free styles and free thinkers.
0:57.5	The program helps young detainees manage the frustrations of being incarcerated, to
1:02.5	express their feelings and their hopes for the future.
1:05.6	As we're here later on, that future can mean continuing with music on an internship or
1:10.7	even trying for a career in the music business after released from Rikers.
1:16.6	But for now, in South Rikers Island and jail, we have a new, fully equipped studio where
1:21.4	we can do our work and make our music.
1:25.6	So I got four young brothers here on three individual computer stations, right?
1:30.2	Each station is loaded with the iTunes pre-set playlist with a bunch of beats that's produced
1:33.9	by me and my team.
1:37.2	Some of them are writers, some of them are producers in the making and some of them are aspired
1:41.3	to be like engineers.
1:42.3	And some of them actually just have an idea of maybe just being in the entertainment industry
1:46.0	but not sure where they fit in music.
1:49.3	I'm Mikey MTA, that's his rap name.
	...

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