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Award-winning music producers Larry Batiste and Claytoven Richardson were seniors at Castlemont High School in East Oakland when they decided to launch their own production company. The friends ratcheted up their courage and called a well-known music industry lawyer in San Francisco.
The attorney took the young men to lunch and spent the afternoon giving them a crash course in business plans, contracts and common mistakes and pitfalls to avoid. The advice was priceless, not that they could have afforded it anyway. Batiste, 51, and Richardson, 52, never forgot the kindness, nor the help and encouragement of other mentors who guided them through school-based music programs, and later through lucrative careers as performers, musicians, songwriters, arrangers, producers and publishers.
So this summer, Batiste and Richardson, now music directors of the Grammy Awards, will return the favor by helping launch Oakland's Musical Mentoring Project at Youth Movement Records, a nonprofit, youth-run record label and development organization that promotes leadership and artistic collaboration among disadvantaged youth 13 to 20.
At Youth Mentoring Records, the hook is the music, and participants can tap into what they love best — whether it involves writing songs, performing, producing or becoming the Bay's best DJ, said Chris Wiltsee, YMR's executive director. They come together as novices, energetic but a little rough around the edges, and by
At the start of every new session, the participants decide if they want to concentrate on music or production. After being exposed to so many different sides of the music business, they might shift sides, Wiltsee said.
"Sometimes, they come here and think they are going to be a singer, but they leave bound for college to major in business," he said.
That's what happened with Destiny Cornett, 17, a vocalist and graduating senior at Oakland School for the Arts who will attend Cal State Northridge as a business major.
She already had a pretty good handle on technical vocal technique, but she was able to perfect her stage presence and audience skills at YMR. She's even taking a ProTools class so she will know what people are talking about on the sound and editing side of things.
"I had a real positive experience at YMR. I'm learning so much," she said. "People don't think there's anything positive about Oakland, but when you are exposed to role models who are telling you, 'You can make it,' it opens our minds and eyes to the positive."
Batiste met Wiltsee through the Recording Academy chapter in San Francisco, where he serves on the board of trustees. Before long, he and Richardson were volunteering their time to teach songwriting and music theory. But the new mentoring program this summer is stepping it up a notch. They will be paired as professional mentors to five of YMR's most promising young musicians and performers, spending a month with each, guiding them in many facets of the business and the art of performing, and helping them produce their best work. A highly publicized concert will top off the experience.
"What makes music ... such a great thing is you are supposed to share the techniques and knowledge so it grows," Richardson said. "Unfortunately, you can't do that in the schools anymore, but it's such a great benefit to work at YMR. It will be fun for everybody, give them a chance to do what they want."
