Hip Hop

Bronx Arts Middle School: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

Bronx Arts Middle School x Thrive Collective / R.H.Y.M.E x The Point CDC Bronx Arts middle school students worked together with RHYME teaching artists Jason Roberts and Kevin Toledo for the 2024 spring semester to collaboratively write, record and film an original Hip Hop anthem and music video titled “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” The project…

read more

From the Music Vault: “RHYME Special” (2021)

In the summer of 2021 a small group of R.H.Y.M.E scholars gathered together with Thrive Collective teaching artists, Randy Mason and Kevin Toledo, at the Good Shepherd – Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence studio to write and record an original song highlighting what makes them special. The project was sponsored by the Verses Project with dinner…

read more

BMCC x RHYME Students Showcase Healing Through Hip Hop

R.H.Y.M.E x BMCC Counseling Center This fall teaching artists, Kevin Toledo, Jason Roberts and Thomas Fucaloro returned to BMCC for another sensational semester of Healing Through Hip Hop: An introduction to Hip Hop, songwriting, extemporaneous freestyle rap, poetry, cyphers, and beat making as an effective addition to traditional talk therapies. R.H.Y.M.E Teaching artists worked assiduously…

read more

RHYME x Queens Prep: “Into Your Mind”

R.H.Y.M.E. collaborates with students from Queens Prep High School to learn about hip-hop as a therapeutic outlet and be able to get hands on experience at songwriting, producing and audio recording. This eclectic record came from a series of writing exercises and production workshop in which students wrote, performed and co-produced the music by working…

read more

Thrive’s RHYME Director Collaborates with Ice-T at Songwriting Workshop

Ice-T was impressed. He had never witnessed anything quite like Randy Mason and his cajón. The legendary rapper, actor, and producer was a guest speaker and facilitator at an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) songwriting workshop for teens hosted by Microsoft and The Universal Hip-Hop Museum at the Microsoft Garage in New York City on August 10.…

read more

RHYME x RSA: “Persevere”

Thrive Collective/R.H.Y.M.E. collaborated with Renaissance School of the Arts to create the song “Persevere.” Over the course of 16 weeks, students and Teaching Artists connected to learn about hip-hop, song writing, music production, recording and performance. From developing the song concept to understanding how to write and count bars, students were equipped to be thriving…

read more

RHYME x Lilian Rashkis PS 371K: “Better Options”

Over the course of 12 weeks, students from PS 371K learned about hip-hop songwriting, production and audio recording. “Better Options” is a song about anti-violence in which students express healthy alternatives to violent acts. During our program, current events outside the school community mentioned gun violence amongst teens. In class, we made space to speak…

read more

RHYME x PS 34: “Kindness so Electric”

“Kindness So Electric” is a collaboration between PS 34 and Thrive Collective’s RHYME program. This song is about students going for their passions and converting negative thoughts to positive ones through the arts, unity and sports. Over the course of 20 weeks, students and Teaching Artists worked together to learn about hip hop, produce an…

read more

RHYME & ME: “Tragic Milagros”

“Tragic Milagros” is a song written, performed and recorded by participants of the Minds Empowered (ME) program at The Point CDC in collaboration with RHYME. Before working on the song, RHYME staff held writing workshops and group discussions supporting each other around the concept of love. In this song, we recognize that love is not…

read more