Jay ARE (John Robinson + J Rawls) Youth Culture Power (Sampler) Feat. Tiffany Paige

Jay ARE (John Robinson + J Rawls) – Youth Culture Power (Sampler) Feat. Tiffany Paige

I will admit, when my long time friend and musical peer John Robinson sent me the link to this project, I didn’t really know what to make of it. It’s Soundcloud audio, so, is it a podcast? Not really, but there are conversations. So, is it an EP? Not really, but there are some songs.

The beats knock, the musical landscapes are incredible and Jay ARE are dropping serious barz (with a “z”) on us, but it’s not a traditional album format. Having had a few conversations about education myself (I am a 20+ year veteran of the public school system, as a teacher and recently became certified for administration), I knew it would be interesting to say the least and probably incredibly dope musically, so I gave it a thorough listen. The audio feast that ensued was so flavorful I had to go back for seconds and thirds. 

So what is it? Youth Culture Power is essentially several dope J Rawls produced, jazz-infused hip-hop tracks, blended with live instrumentation of the Liquid Crystal Project, over which the emcees rhyme poetics laced with the melodic tones of Tiffany Paige. This is merged with snippets of conversations from educators and scholars such as Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, Dr. Jocelyn Wilson, Martha Diaz, Dr. Bettina Love and Dr. Christopher Emdin, talking about attitudes towards students, the public school system and the current state of educating inner city youth.  This soundcloud player contains a sampler of the full project (Book + Album) that is on the way. 

At times it feels like you are listening to some good talk radio on WNYC or NPR. At times it’s some revolutionary, hardcore yet intelligent Hip Hop, the likes of which you get from artists like Dead Prez or Common. Some of the music is simple boom bap, hard beats and MCees dropping science. Other tracks contain sweet melodies in hooks, reminiscent of Lauren Hill’s contrasting her singing voice with her and the other Fugees’ intricate lyricism. The end-result is ear candy – audio that is equally rich in it’s musical tapestry as it is intellectually and spiritually stimulating. 

Jay ARE consists of educators and hip-hop kids J Rawls and John Robinson turned musical maestros, who have merged their musical work with their educational theories. Their upcoming Book + Album project, Youth Culture Power promotes their philosophy on education: Youth Culture Pedagogy (YCP). The group  believes that their pedagogy can “maximize students’  full potential for success and promote lifelong engagement in learning,” so this is more than just music.

To learn more, visit the website: itsjayare.com and follow: @ItsJayARE | @Whoisjr | @Jrawls82

– GMS (@GMS_MCMI)

Jay ARE (John Robinson + J Rawls) Youth Culture Power (Sampler) Feat. Tiffany Paige

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