Beatslam

"MC as poet, MC as reporter"

The Beatslam project as part of Artransmit encouraged Manchester and Salford teenagers to use MCing to talk about their lives via a series of workshops at youth centres. The aim was to steer them away from conventional subjects like "gangs, drugs and bitches" towards "positive MCing", says Project Manager Prue Yeoman.

"Previously their lyrics were at best negative and at their worst violent and insulting," says Chris Jam, DJ, singer and youth development worker for Beatslam and Remix The Streets. "So we thought we'd put together a project that would encourage people to look at their lyrics positively".

In collaboration with the Wythenshawe and A6 regeneration partnerships, the workshops took place at Family Action Benchill and North Salford, Woodhouse Park and Longsight Youth Centres with additional sessions at Radio Regen's city centre headquarters. "We had a lot of strategies up our sleeves for trying to bring out the 'MC as poet, MC as reporter' message in a way that the young people could really identify with so it wasn't like being at school," says Prue.

Convincing them that "poetry" was cool was tough. "The code of MCs is that to even mention the word 'poetry' means you're very square. We just tried to make them understand there's a lot of different ways to look at MCing and they didn't have to be locked into doing it the way their mates were," says Chris Jam, youth worker on the project and a long-time Manchester DJ.

Techniques included playing them a CD tracing the history of rap poets and MCs back to the 1960s and having them rewrite a BBC Radio news report in rap. They were given thesauruses and writing pads and encouraged to break with tradition by writing their lyrics on paper. Chris says it was impossible to win over all the young MCs. "There was resistance from groups of lads who go around in posses and have their own idea of MCing. We lost some participants because they just weren't prepared to work with us. A lot of that was to do with peer pressure."

Prue agrees, saying the biggest challenge was the "quantum leap" between the young people's previous notion of MCing to Beatslam's "MC as poet, MC as reporter" theme. For those that embraced the concept with enthusiasm, however, she hopes Beatslam may have a lasting effect by having brought out their creativity. "Maybe they'll form a band, start singing or acting. Even encouraging them to write down their lyrics, which they'd never done before, gives them a new writing skill."

"A really positive aspect has been seeing the young people themselves really buzzing from the project and seeing their confidence increasing. Especially the young women we worked with because MCing is not traditionally their space and we made it their space."