BOSTON — 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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