Carry on tradition. From its roots in the South Bronx, hip hop is a
movement driven by community, passed down from generation to
generation. Our intent is no different. Started in the fall of 2006,
The Remix Project is a program designed to help youth develop their
careers in the hip hop / urban culture industry. We draw on the
support of Toronto's own cultural industries and institutions, to
provide them with all of the knowledge they need to be successful.
Jeff Chang says that history goes in cycles. In breaking down the history of the project one has to look back to the year 2000, when a small youth program was started in South Etobicoke, Inner City Visions. Gavin Sheppard, a teenager at the time, started the project with the help of the local community health centre, the Lakeshore Area Multi-Service Project, or LAMP. Offering after school programming in their space, local kids would come out for freestyle sessions, dj workshops, b-boy/b-girl battles, and for those learning the ropes, and trying to get into the game, weekly roundtable discussions with industry professionals.
As time went on, recording artist Drex came aboard and helped expand the programming to include a recording studio, open three evenings a week in the basement of an office building. As any emerging recording artist knows, having access to free or low-cost studio time can be a blessing. Youth started coming in from across the Greater Toronto Area, regardless of distance, just to get their music recorded, sometimes for the first time. As the project began to grow and receive greater profile (won civic award for excellence in youth programming in 2001, featured in American urban mag XXL), Gavin and Drex worked tirelessly to continue the project, with both spending a lot of their personal time to help artists they saw promise in as well.
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Jeff Chang says that history goes in cycles. In breaking down the history of the project one has to look back to the year 2000, when a small youth program was started in South Etobicoke, Inner City Visions. Gavin Sheppard, a teenager at the time, started the project with the help of the local community health centre, the Lakeshore Area Multi-Service Project, or LAMP. Offering after school programming in their space, local kids would come out for freestyle sessions, dj workshops, b-boy/b-girl battles, and for those learning the ropes, and trying to get into the game, weekly roundtable discussions with industry professionals.
As time went on, recording artist Drex came aboard and helped expand the programming to include a recording studio, open three evenings a week in the basement of an office building. As any emerging recording artist knows, having access to free or low-cost studio time can be a blessing. Youth started coming in from across the Greater Toronto Area, regardless of distance, just to get their music recorded, sometimes for the first time. As the project began to grow and receive greater profile (won civic award for excellence in youth programming in 2001, featured in American urban mag XXL), Gavin and Drex worked tirelessly to continue the project, with both spending a lot of their personal time to help artists they saw promise in as well.
next page >
