- Welcome to Kalamazoo Lively Arts.

The show that takes you inside Kalamazoo's vibrant creative community and explores the people who breathe life into the arts.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

- I'm Jennifer Moss here at Miller Auditorium.

On today's show we check in with Achickwitbeatz, meet MC and activist Ed Genesis, and visit the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center to take a look at their work with students in another installment of our artists in residence series.

- Today, my conversation is with Lexi Terrian.

She's a violinist extraordinaire, and also artist in residence at the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center.

It's located in the Douglas neighborhood here in Kalamazoo.

So you're a teacher, right?

- Yes.

- You're a teacher.

And when did you start teaching at the facility?

- So I started teaching with them in 2016, October 2016, and I was 17 years old.

So I was still in high school when I started teaching with them.

- Wow.

That must have been kind of cool being in high school like that.

- It was awesome and it totally helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my career.

It's actually the whole reason I switched majors.

I started out as chemical engineering at Western and then I loved teaching so much that I decided to switch to violin.

- Okay so Helen L. Fox, tell me a little bit about her, what you know.

- Yeah.

So I've actually run into her, not run into her and spoken with her, but I've seen her down at the bus station when I was younger.

And I always just kind of knew her as the lady with the cart.

And as soon as I started teaching at the HLF GMC, I learned that she would go into students' homes and basically give lessons for whatever that student could afford which was awesome to hear especially being a student who relied heavily on scholarships to take private lessons.

- So what kind of lessons are taught there?

- [Lexi] Yeah, so we are a gospel music center.

I actually teach primarily violin classical music.

So I use the Suzuki method.

I know that Jordan Hamilton, our cello instructor, also uses essential elements and Suzuki method for classical studies.

But I know that our piano teacher, Ms. Bertha, she'll incorporate gospel, Motown, whatever she can for her students.

Right now, especially with the triplets, it seems like we're still using like teeny tiny little bit of bow, right?

When we first have the triplet fifth line where we start having groups of them.

Right?

- Yeah.

- So rather than seeing you... (playing violin) Can you try being... (playing violin) And let's just take it in groups right now.

So can you try that first one for me?

(playing violin) So the next one.

(playing violin) Can I hear that?

(playing violin) Yes, that was great.

And seeing this move was awesome.

- What about the benefit concert for the Jambalaya Orchestra?

What did that look like?

- Yeah, so that was actually a performance that was put on by me and some colleagues at Western.

We were in entrepreneurship in music, led by the wonderful Dr. Lisa Coons.

And we were tasked with putting together some sort of performance that would catch the public eye.

So I had just been approached to start teaching with Jambalaya Orchestra.

And I was like, well, why not just incorporate the two?

And so we started planning and we had to book venue, a venue to record in.

And then John, a member of the team, started editing as soon as we recorded the piece violin.

Hayden did a beautiful job playing and all of the music was by black composers.

So we put it together, edited, and then live streamed it and had a donation link so that we could get some startup funds for the orchestra.

- And it must be so exciting to be able to see kids who come in with very little knowledge, but a love, they want to learn and then see them bloom.

- Yeah, it is awesome.

I've had two students who are complete beginners, like never touched a violin before in their life.

And one of them, I have two lessons a week with him and just seeing him grow over the past I think two years I've had him is amazing because this kid couldn't put down fingers to begin with.

And now he's just blasting through this book and I'm kinda like biting my nails and I'm like, oh my goodness.

I'm like, now I have to keep up with you, but it's fun.

They definitely keep you on your toes.

One more time and now make it piano.

(playing violin) Okay, now we're going to go back to the line and I want to hear your difference between forte and piano.

So... (playing violin) There you go.

- So can you tell me a little bit about how you even developed virtual lessons?

- I think earlier I called Bridget and Joe right at the beginning of all this.

And I was like, hey, you know we can't let our students just fall to the wayside.

We need to really prioritize them and get them on Zoom and hold virtual lessons.

So I was the one who kind of started with my students.

And then after that we started to roll out to other students and other instruments to make that available to them.

And luckily all the teachers were like, yes let's try it.

Now, can we fix a couple more technical things like our bow hand and arm?

So rather than being bent like this... (playing violin) Think about that table.

(playing violin) There you go.

- Tell me a little bit about the students that you teach.

- I teach a wide variety of age and skill levels.

Some of them had started music before and I think it's important that it's in that neighborhood because we have multiple students who can just walk to the center when it's their lesson time.

And I know near the end of my high school experience I was catching the bus to crescendo just so I could have a lesson.

And so I think it's awesome that these students can basically walk out their front door and have lessons at their fingertips basically.

- I love it.

Lexi, thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you for having me.

(applause) - What up dog?

(crowd responding) - I said what up dog?

(crowd responding) - Y'all all right?

(crowd responding) My name is Ed Genesis, the onliest.

I am the lead mentor with Speak it Forward.

Y'all give it up for that one time.

(applause) - Well today my conversation is with Ed Genesis.

He's an artist, community activist.

Thanks so much for talking with me here today.

- Thank you for having me today.

- Well, you know, after learning a little bit about you I was trying to think like, how would I describe you?

And to me, you're an overcomer.

- Overcomer, survivor is what I like to tell the youth a lot of times when I talk to them.

So yeah, I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana.

Gary is poor.

It is still is to this day.

And my father was murdered by off duty police officers with non-registered police guns.

And when I was two years old, so I was raised by a single mother in the inner city.

And I say, by the time I was in junior high I really fell into the wrong crowd so to speak.

By my 10th grade, I was expelled at 16 years old for taking a gun to school.

I wasn't trying to be tough.

I wanted to survive.

Honestly, I was afraid a lot and there was a family meeting and my grandmother told my mother it's time that you get them out of here.

- And then you move to Kalamazoo.

- Well, yeah, not being here a year, hanging out at the mall and I got into some trouble.

It had nothing to do with me, honestly, but police were called and a officer came and asked me, did I have anything to do with it?

But he grabbed me and I yanked away.

I was...

I was assaulted by police and charged with my first felony at 17 years old in Kalamazoo.

- And you know, this kind of sounds cliche, but this is like, I think of this, the saying, and again it reminds me of you because you know, sometimes if you want to see the change, you have to be the change.

- Absolutely.

So recently I was made Co-executive Director for Speak It Forward, which is a nonprofit with Gabriel Giron and our late brother Kurt Latimer.

Honestly, the mentoring part, it begins there.

It begins with anybody older talking to the youth and actually taking the time to say, not one day you'll figure it out or you're not old enough now but actually trying to give them the tools and the skills that they need to speak up for themselves.

- So we didn't talk about this before the interview and I'm going to put you on the spot.

Like, could you do a little freestyle rap for me right now?

(laughing) - No problem.

- No pressure.

- So this is IMC and it is, I know a lot of y'all heard of MCs before.

Just probably never knew what the MC was for.

Is it microphone control and move the crowd, master of ceremonies, or musical clowns.

If the music companies have a major celebration for meaningful conversation, I'll make for certain y'all know that the master came in a mink coat with matching converse, munching on some chips and drinking some old champagne.

Might curse during my mic check in the middle of the concert I may call my magazine connect, manhandle your crew.

Man, I'm so cold if I float in the Mississippi church it'll make Miami cool, not to mention my cadence and mental capacity makes classics of my creations.

MC most confidently, model citizens meditate constantly when they listen to me.

And this is my career.

Also my chance to make things more clear for my culture.

Even when the millions come, magazine covers and movie cameras, I'm still keeping my composure.

Money can'’t bring my momma Closure If I mimic and copy these major chumps to hit the music charts, they got no hearts.

No soul.

It was like the Manchurian Candidate's under mind control, want to misguide the children and glorify means that they chose a moving crack through minority communities.

Money can't never let the mortuary close, but your mouth can and hold up.

All I'm saying is mark your calendar just like you know the Messiah coming.

Like you want media coverage or the mountains crumbling, the moon crashing, the mushroom clouds.

I'm so much of a MC, if I flowed in morse code, I can move crowds.

Maintain the crowd while the mob chill, a merciless champion and mini cat with a Molotov cocktail.

I'm talking multiple casualties.

I most casually murder competition like a military commando marching confidently to this military composition.

I don't see many other MCs but I might let the mutated chihuahuas fix me macaroni and cheese.

Peace.

(laughing) - I love it, I love it.

When did you first start rapping?

How old were you?

- I was actually young when I first started, maybe seven or eight years old, just hearing the music and just wanting to mimic what I was hearing.

I thought it was cool, some of the coolest things I'd ever heard.

It's a lot of artists that would talk about entertainment as well as dropping some knowledge inside.

And it would make me open up my Encyclopedia Britannica, which was before Google, and either that or the dictionary, and I would have to read some of these things or would have to ask a teacher or somebody.

And so I thought these guys were phenomenal.

- Now how did some of your raps get in Forensic Files?

- I wanted to make money from what I was doing.

I didn't want the fame so to speak.

I wanted to be heard.

I wanted to tell the stories that I knew, but I also wanted to figure out how do you really make money from it?

There's a guy in Battle Creek where we were recording at the studio.

Wasn't his commercial, but his music was placed in a Dove commercial.

And I said, well, how did you do that?

And he said, well, I have publishing.

And I said, wow.

I started taking notes.

Same way I did when I was young, went home, no longer Encyclopedia Britannica.

Now we have Google.

So I Googled what is publishing.

And I got my publishing and my wife was my manager and the music supervisor heard my music and he had it placed in, on Forensic Files.

- And you also competed in BET's 106 & Park, right?

- I submitted a freestyle to MTV 2, Sucker Free Freestyle, and it made it and it played for that entire year.

So that opened the door for different industry type of things that says, well, you might want to check this out or you probably should check this out.

So BET 106 & Park had freestyle Friday.

And it would be where rappers would compete to see who's the best.

And yeah, I went and auditioned and I made it to the finals.

- Wow.

You said MC as opposed to a rapper but what's the difference between like rap and spoken word?

- Well, okay so rap is, the only difference between rap and spoken word, so I've been told by some great poets, is rap is typically done to a beat.

That's it.

But to be a MC is to actually move the crowd.

I want y'all to really, really get ready to embrace all of the poets that come to the stage tonight, give it up for everybody.

Everybody put their hard work together and they're coming to demonstrate and present something to you tonight for the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival.

So we gonna get started.

Y'all ready?

(crowd cheering) - So Ed, when you wake up each morning, what motivates you?

- What motivates me is having an opportunity to actually say something.

I can't explain the trauma of what society does to especially a young black man in America to silence you or to feel like even if you do know the words that who wants to hear your words.

What motivates me every day is that I have an opportunity to keep picking at that same wall.

Or if we knock that wall down, pick at the next one.

And as soon as I get the first chip in the wall I call so many different people around me.

Like, hey, this wall's chipping.

And we're just all right there at the walls.

- Well, Ed I love your world.

I love your world.

I want to see it too.

Thank you so much for talking with me here today and giving me a chance to - Thank you.

- learn a little bit about you and and what you're doing here in Kalamazoo.

I really appreciate your time.

- Thank you so much.

- Well, today my conversation is with Achickwitbeatz and she's a music producer, writer.

So when you were a little kid and you were listening to music, what were you listening to?

- Well, it's kind of a weird memory.

So, you know, apparently when I was really young, like before I can actually remember, I used to kind of play with the records all the time.

So my parents decided that they had to teach me how to actually use the record player so I wouldn't break things.

So they said I was like four years old doing this.

I knew how to operate the 45 and put the little stopper in to make sure it played right.

And so, you know, I remember a lot of classic hits, a lot of Motown, you know, as I grew and, you know, kind of got introduced to rap, Slick Rick's children's story was the song that made me fall in love with hip hop.

You know, the video was just so entertaining.

I love storytelling and you know, his accent of course just pulled me in.

And, you know, I've just been fascinated with it ever since.

- Do you remember what it was like when you created your very first beat and like people responded to it.

- It was crazy for me.

I was really excited because, you know, I knew that I was kind of, you know, wet behind the ears as far as it went, but, you know, to have people excited about it.

And the first track that I ever sold was actually one of the first beats that I had made.

- [Kim] Wow.

- And so, you know, that was really, really encouraging for me.

And, you know, I kind of wanted to just keep getting better and better, but the fact that people were believing in me already when I wasn't even exactly where I wanted to be, it was just, it was a rush.

- Is there an overall vibe that you have?

- Yeah, if I had to put it into words, it's probably that I am generally pretty chill.

So most of my music kind of has that vibe, even if you know, I like to listen to party music, dance music as well, but even that still kind of has a subtle hint of... - I'd love to be able to like hear or create like, even with that chill vibe, can we like kind of make like a little groove beat there?

- Yeah.

Huh.

All right.

Let's see what I can do.

- [Kim] Now are these all tracks that you're putting in?

- [Achickwitbeatz] So with the machine you've got like all these different pads and then you have the different groups.

And so, although I usually don't do the drums first, but if the groove's important, that's the best place to start.

- [Kim] Yeah.

- [Achickwitbeatz] So, you know, I got the kick drum here to kind of give us the basics.

- [Kim] How important is it for you to be able to express yourself this way?

I mean, do you ever think of, if this wasn't available to you, how you would get out what you're feeling?

- [Achickwitbeatz] Oh gosh, I don't know.

I'd probably drive my poor husband crazy.

So, you know, it's a great way to relieve stress, express emotions without keeping them bottled up, you know, it's yeah.

It's really a, it's a godsend.

Let's see what we got here so far.

(drumming) - So when someone commissions you, say to create a beat, what do you need to know?

Or what do you need to hear to be able to create that beat?

- A lot of times people will come to me thinking that they want one thing.

And so they might use terms that don't really fit with what they're looking for.

So I'll have to ask them more about the energy that they want other people to feel.

So, you know, I've created background music for commercials, for theme songs, for podcasts, and you know, bloggers.

Bloggers typically like so that the music makes, if I sit down to make a hip hop track, but if it turns out to be house music, I'd just let it happen.

- Yeah.

- So that's a little bit harder when you have to stick to something in particular for someone else.

So, you know, a lot of times I'll give myself a couple of days, you know, I can't like, it doesn't take me that long to actually make a beat, but I don't know how many other genres are going to come out before I get to the one that I need to make.

So I kind of give myself a little leeway there just in case.

Okay, maybe you wanted something R&B, but the next three beats I made ended up being techno or something like that.

- And so now you're adding a third layer.

What's the third layer consist of?

- [Achickwitbeatz] In this case, it'll be some horns here.

(chill music) So I'd probably put that in for the hook.

You know how there's always something a little bit different to let the artists know where it's supposed to go.

- Tell me about the Wu Tang Dead Prez connection.

(laughing) - Oh yeah, yeah.

So desertees are affiliates of Wu Tang and the track.

That's also one of my favorites too, riot gear, that they made.

I didn't see that coming at all.

When they bought the track, I didn't know who they were going to work with but you know, once again, I know them.

I know they're not going to do anything crazy.

So, you know, it's like, oh good.

And he's like, man, I can't wait for you to hear it.

So, you know, when he sends it to me, he lets me know that Dead Prez was a feature, which you know, was just mind blowing to me.

I know just looking at my phone like, oh my gosh I can't believe this is happening.

And what was kind of interesting about it, which I didn't find out until later, was that originally in the beginning of the track they shout out a Wu Tang member inspected that.

And that was because originally that was going to be for his beat, but they decided to go with mine instead.

So, you know, that was really, really exciting.

Whoa.

They picked my beat over an original Wu Tang member.

So that was really, really exciting for me.

(chill music) Yeah.

It's a process, no matter how good you get, you know?

It's just like, you never know what you don't know.

So it's always important to kind of stay open.

(chill music) - [Kim] I like it.

- [Achickwitbeatz] So it's just endless ways to be able to express yourself.

And I think the thing that I love the most about it is being able to inspire people.

So, you know, you've got the artists that are so talented already but then to be able to create something that makes them want to create is just, it's really fulfilling.

- It's like making magic, right?

- Yeah.

Yeah, it really is.

Yeah.

- Thank you for joining us on this week's episode of Kalamazoo Lively Arts.

Check out today's show and other content at wgvu.org.

We leave you tonight with a performance by Ed Genesis.

I'm Jennifer Moss.

Have a great night.

- I was born inside of a catch 22.

Gary, Indiana where they test any dudes, especially skinny dudes just to see where your heart lies.

Mines was wild and untamed, blamed on the policeman pistol that banged, pushed me in the game, left my daddy in the archives.

I never learned much about love.

From what I gathered and understood if you're from the hood, then you was one of our guys.

And if not, then you had to leave from the spot we was trained to squeeze off shots quicker than your car drive, half grown mad and gone off mad dog, 2020.

Then you think I'm thin now.

I was really skinny then and didn't really care about naked, bad temper, very little patience, bad winters, spent them in the basement playing old jams, like the gap band.

Everybody hat bang claiming they got next on Ms. Pacman.

And I wonder what really lies ahead in this room full of black men.

My momma told me when drama on me, don't be scared.

Be prepared or you might be dead.

Ed, look, you're going to have to fight, freeze, or hit the fence.

I'm like mom, I got asthma.

Don't none of them answers make sense.

Had to find the perfect route to work it out in the inner city being skinny.

(crowd cheering) Thank y'all very much.

Thank y'all very much.

- [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

(relaxing music)