Overcoming Initial Komplikations

By Kameron Moore-Mitchell, November 9, 2007

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Turn the Beat Around: Oakland-based Youth Movement Records gives young people a chance to make some money as artists, while learning to become community leaders.

"I remember like yesterday when I broke into the biz, square cat from Michigan said he was lookin' for kids. The new beat of the Bay to hold down the fort, some kids with talent is what he's really looking for. I said I'm down just get at me I'm ready for anything in my mind thinking I'm gone be a start by spring. First time in the booth I had a rude awakening trying to lay this wack track, really wasn't no fakin' it. Dude said 'go home you need just a little practice, inside I wanna cry 'cause I really thought I had it. Went home started grindin' trying to keep this from my momma, rappin' she wasn't hearin' it plan was to be a doctor. So I started sneakin' and lyin' performin' on the low ... But in a few weeks I was really on my way."

This is most of the second verse from a song I wrote and performed called "Initial Komplikations." Every song I write is a story about something in my life, something I've gone through, dealt with, have overcome or are in the process of overcoming. "Initial Komplikations" is about just that, the complications or obstacles faced before we make it, and the saving grace in each situation that carries us to success. Youth Movement Records (YMR) was my personal and musical saving grace.

I still remember like it was yesterday when Chris Wiltsee, the founder and executive director of Youth Movement Records, came to one of my Oakland Youth Commission (OYC) meetings to recruit some young music heads. I was hooked once he said "music." I decided after 30 seconds of his speech I was going to be a part of YMR and do everything to make it to the meetings after school. There was one problem -- my mother.

My mom wasn't a hip-hop fan, and she wasn't down with me wanting to be a rapper. As a mostly single parent, she had paid for my private school education since childhood. So telling her I wanted to use that valuable education to rap was a "slap in the face." Even, so, I told my mom about the OYC meeting, not forgetting to mention Chris and his program. I told her it was a music program and that I would be helping with implementing the program from the ground up. What I failed to mention is that I would also be performing.

Community Leaders in the Making

Youth Movement Records is run as a record company that is partially a collective of artists and partially a group of music biz and community leaders in the making. In the beginning, YMR's main component was its weekly company meetings. I missed the first YMR meeting (I wasn't driving yet), but I made the second. The meetings were held at La Peña Cultural Center, on the border of North Oakland and Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue, a neutral and accessible place that Chris had put a lot of work into securing.

At the first few meetings, we had the chance to talk a little among ourselves, eat some snacks, introduce ourselves and answer icebreaker questions. Then we would get down to business. YMR's first meetings included not only rappers and singers, but also many aspiring music business, label operations and behind-the-scenes participants. Every meeting we got something accomplished. In the very beginning we set goals, and every meeting following brought us one step closer to achieving them.

One of the main goals in the first year was to produce a compilation album, which would be our first group project and the company's debut release. At every meeting we worked on the album in some way.

Some of us were disappointed that we didn't immediately go into the studio and record tracks, but looking back I'm glad we did it the way we did. It gave the group time to organize the album better. The artists wrote and perfected songs, producers worked on tracks, and the behind-the-scenes people did marketing and promotion, and booked a venue for the album release party. After all the hard work, a release was born, YMR's first compilation, The Movement.

The Movement Moves Forward

We collectively picked a name we thought best described what we were trying to do in the Bay Area and what YMR is all about. The Movement is still one of my favorite album titles of all time. The simple but complex name references the program, Youth Movement Records, and makes you want to find out for yourself what YMR is all about. Reactions to the compilation were varied, but the purpose of the music was never in doubt.

Even if you hated the music on The Movement, there was something undeniably great about the project that you had to respect. Every lyric in every song had a purpose. The artists all told real-life stories, both their own or stories of their community's experiences. Each artist was real and believable.

When it came to writing songs for the compilation, Chris never gave us limitations or restrictions about what we could or could not say. He let us write freely, and worked hard to get us to write songs that meant or were about something [meaningful].

Youth Development Through Options Instead of Rules

I remember being in the studio for the first time with Chris. I wasn't recording; I was just there to watch my fellow label-mates record and work their magic since some of them already had some experience in the studio. I remember hearing this particular artist record and looking at the reactions on everyone's face when he started rapping some inappropriate lyrics.

Instead of cutting him off, yanking him out of the vocal booth and chewing him out, Chris simply waited. Towards the end of the recording session when he stepped out of the vocal booth Chris said, "Sounds great!" I was confused and thought, "What the hell? I thought YMR was supposed to be one of those positive things?"

Afterward, Chris let the engineer play back the freshly recorded track. As it was playing, Chris turned to the artist and said, "You know, it's a great song. I am concerned a little bit about ..." I smiled and thought to myself, "That was smooth."

Chris' social worker background shone through that day. Using suggestion and explanation, he had found the best possible way to tell a young artist how to make his song more honest. Chris gave the artist options: He could leave the track as is, let his friends hear it and be happy, or change it up just a little, and have a track that would be on the YMR album. That track made the first album and is still a hit among YMR fans today.

What community leaders normally do is come right in, lay down the law, and tell participants, "If you don't obey, you're gone." Or even worse, give them no initial rules or guidelines, and when a participant breaks one of these unwritten rules, they're punished. YMR's philosophy is to guide participants through the process of making their own rules.

Teens Call the Shots

Within YMR's first few meetings, I noticed something very different from any other program I had been involved with. And I've been in many: Youth government, young entrepreneurship programs, to Sickle Cell Camp. While many of them claimed to be youth-run, only YMR was, and still is, truly and wholly youth-run. Of course, you need the old peo--, I mean, adults -- to be involved to a certain degree for legal reasons, expertise and contacts. But YMR truly allows youth to be involved in every aspect of the company, all the way up to the board of directors. Youth are in control, but they're also given proper guidance and advice.

YMR Programs Today

We learned a lot from in our first year, and following years have added more structure to the program. With the addition of new programs, operating structures, youth leaders and equipment, YMR now offers classes and production over three cycles per year, with 20-30 new youth joining each sequence.

• YMR hosts 12 events annually, releases a compilation each fall, places youth in internships each summer, and manages multiple special projects and collaborations.
• Company meetings now take place monthly. Youth Movement All-Stars (YMR's touring group of artists) meet monthly as well.
• 200 youth are now involved in YMR annually
• CD sales are now over 1,500 per release
• Tracks are selected through a peer-led process called the Sound-Board.

To hear the music of YMR or watch more videos, visit them at YouthMovementRecords.org.