Ever thought of Hip-Hop as a professional career? The University of Illinois now can help one with that. The school’s summer program, ‘Illinois Summer Youth Music Hip-Hop Camp,’ allows 5-12 grade students to work on their Hip-Hop skills. This summer marked the 6th year of the camp program taking place.
“The Illinois Summer Youth music tradition itself as a whole goes back, I think, 100 years, where students have been coming to campus over the summer to get better whatever musical instrument or discipline they’re studying, everything from show choir to piccolo, black chorus, piano, what have you,” said one of the Hip-Hop summer camp’s coordinators Lamont Holden. “I think it was about ten or twelve years ago they started the tradition of rock camp.”
And then, seven years ago, Lamont and Adam Kruse, another program coordinator, decided to launch a Hip-Hop summer camp program. Turned out Lamont’s and Adam’s idea was long-awaited.
“I’m here at the University of Illinois, and whenever we do something that’s Hip-Hop related, people are like, well, where’s this been? Why has it taken so long? But the fact remains that somebody has to decide to do it,” Lamont explained. “And so I think the basic premise of the camp is that students come, we meet them at whatever experience level they are at in whatever discipline they decide to choose. Whether it’s production, music production, beat making, whether it’s being an artist and performing, whether it’s being a songwriter, whether it’s being a songwriter and expressing their talents that way, or audio engineer.”
Illinois Summer Youth Music Hip-Hop Camp End Goal
Currently, the program offers an opportunity for students to take summer classes in beat-making, DJing, songwriting, and many other disciplines. However, the end goal is even broader.
“The effort that we’re undertaking does not just include this camp,” Lamont explained. “We’re trying to build an ecosystem where we get a chance to work with K-12 students. As we come in contact with these students, they’re talking to us about their interest in Hip-Hop. I remember as a young black kid when I told my elders that’s what I wanted to [work in the Hip-Hop industry], they told me to get a plan B. And when somebody says, I want to play the saxophone, or somebody says, I want to play the trumpet, nobody tells them to get a plan B. [Instead,] they tell them to work really hard. Because there’s already a path outset for you to have a career that way.”
The ecosystem, which Lamont and Adam work on, should allow the camp members to get a decent college education in the field of their interest. “They’ve been coming to camp. They’re getting really good, and they’re thinking about college,” Lamont explained. “Well, now we have a path for them at the university level through music tech where they could study artistry. I teach classes in undergrad for monetizing your music career. I teach classes for audio recording, audio engineering, as well as beat making. Right. So now you were a student that has come to camp. Now you have the opportunity to get enrolled in classes here, and now we can show you how to make music your career.”
Written by Nikita Serdiuk | IG: @nikitasrdk | Twitter: @nktserdiuk
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