- Basically anywhere there are people
that wanna be heard, or wanna get something
off their chest, I bring Mobile Stü to them,
and give them the option to either record,
spit some poetry, sing, rap, self-express, really.
(crowd cheering)
Mobile Stü is basically a recording studio
that I started out of my car.
I was trying to solve a problem,
and that problem was equal access
to musical equipment, or a recording studio.
Young people from different neighborhoods
can all access a studio because
I bring Mobile Stü to the people.
Yeah, we're going on the street right now.
We're going to the hood.
So when I get to the spot, I pull over,
crack the trunk, get out all the equipment,
hook up the microphone, the mic stand,
then they see me pull out the mix board,
and I start playing beats.
Yo, where my Cypher Heads at?
We 'bout to get into this?
Everyone starts to come over
and wants to express themselves on the microphone.
♪ Boston on the map ♪
♪ Brand new beats, so it's a brand new flow ♪
♪ Four sticks just like a Kit Kat ♪
- And at the same time
that they're doing that, I'm recording it,
so I give them a version of what they said.
It's like an audible snapshot.
So there was this young man that was murdered in Dorchester.
There's a whole bunch of people that all, like,
they really wanted to get revenge.
I drove through with Mobile Stü,
and basically I'm giving them
the option to express themself.
I kinda realize that Mobile Stü wasn't
just as simple as I thought it was.
It was de-escalating people,
and so we're like, "This is de-escalating.
“How can we use this to de-escalate a national crisis?"
Which was cops killing kids.
Cops particularly killing young, black men.
We had the opportunity at that same time
to come together musically, which we use Mobile Stü to do.
♪ Walk with, feel with, let's do it ♪
- The important aspect of working
with officers and young people together,
there's a kinda different kind of a bond
when you know someone not just as a officer arresting them,
or having to see them when something bad happens.
Right after all of that stuff started happening,
I started getting calls from the Boston Public Schools.
Walking into an elementary school is a little bit different
because we're talking about a classroom
that was supposed to be the worst class
in the school at the time, special needs.
Young people that have been through some serious trauma,
and I found out that almost all the kids
in there were musically inclined.
They wanted to be a rapper, or a singer, or a poet.
(kids rapping)
To see a young person excited about something good
that they're doing, and I get to provide that moment,
that's what's gratifying to me.
These guys deserve to have the opportunity
to learn how to record.
They deserve the ability to express themselves.
You got this ability to get yourself heard,
even if it's just the whole neighborhood in that moment,
makes people feel value, that something
like that comes to them.
(crowd cheering)