Beats & Bars • Who They Wish I Was

Bookings and Interviews Contact: 1beatsandbars@gmail.com Mixed by DocDaMindbenda Mastered by Alejandro Jaz Jasso Download Album Here > https://www.mediafire.com/?dqj5qc25x0dtjp7 The first official release from Beats & Bars is Who They Wish I Was, a complete 9 track EP. Written and produced by students of Little Village Lawndale High School, Who They Wish I Was chronicles the day to day life of these southwest side teenagers. Songs such as “Can’t Take It No More” focuses on their angst towards their environment and coping with the repercussions of street life in Chicago. The title song “Who They Wish I Was” has the teens proclaiming they will not become what society expects them to be as young men from the inner city. “It’s Alright” and “I Was Wrong” provide a hopeful ending to the project. Produced predominantly by Disrupt, one of the students in the program, the production on the EP is a perfect balance of soul samples and hard hitting drums. Who They Wish I Was encompasses the life many teens in Chicago face on a daily basis, but these teens plan on surpassing all expectations and becoming their cities next success stories.

Keeping their momentum going, the teenaged artists in Lawndale High School’s Beats & Bars after-school program have finally released their first official project, Who They Wish I Was. After impressing us with the video for the EP’s title-track a few days ago, the collective had us eager to jump into their proper full-length as soon as possible. Now, the time has come and the results should be celebrated.

Production-wise, Disrupt and CashmoneyAP made sure to provide their classmates with soulful canvases that set a high standard of quality from the very start. The emcees held it down on their end as well, spitting with sincerity about their struggles while keeping their heads high and rhyming in hopes of a better future. Bravo, Akua, Hotshot, Seloner, $toney, Cee’Jay, Q’Ross and Terentino all shine through their own unique personalities and it’s not hard to find yourself rooting for them by the end of the EP.

Who They Wish I Was is a testament to all the great things the youth can accomplish with proper mentorship and their teacher, Navarro, should definitely be commended for the work he put in over the school year to give his students an outlet to express themselves. Making a Hip Hop project under scholarly guidelines is a tough challenge to face, but Beats & Bars were able to overcome this hurdle with the help of Navarro and their genuine interest in the craft. Check out the project above and read what Navarro had to said to TheseDays regarding the recording process of the project:

Making an album sounds cooler than what it is to a group of teenagers. It takes a lot of work and patience. Helping them understand the importance of intros, interludes and outros to make it sound like a complete piece was something I needed to convince them about. Once we got those first songs done they got in a groove and we had a lot of fun. A lot of laughing, a lot of serious discussions also. I needed them to get to a point where they felt comfortable to talk about something a little deeper than what they're used to listening to.

 I really appreciated them being able to reach that part of themselves and speak on the realities of their lives.