Thrive Collective
Randy Mason is a NYC emcee and art educator from the Bronx who uses his passion for hip hop to help today’s youth find their voice and build community. As a father, husband, recording artist, author, educator and pastor, Ran draws from a deep well of unique and diverse experiences to tell stories through songs, engaging audiences of all kinds in a way that is real, relevant, meaningful and memorable. He began collaborating with Thrive in 2017 and founded our hip hop mentoring program R.H.Y.M.E. (Rhymes Help young Minds Excel) in 2021.
Randy recognizes that hip hop gives students “mic skills and life skills.” They’re learning figurative language, improvisation, creative writing and thinking, and poetry, all while having fun. Students use the four elements of hip hop to discover their voice (emceeing), movement (break dancing), a community (DJing), and their name (graffiti).
Patrons receive exclusive music and merch (via Patreon). Donors receive a tax deduction (via Thrive). Either way, you empower a dynamic emcee educator to bring hope and opportunity through arts, music, and mentoring.
R.H.Y.M.E. (Rhymes Help Young Minds Excel) Online is a virtual educational Hip Hop youth program that teaches mic skills and life skills through the art of emceeing. In November of 2020 Thrive Collective partnered with The Point CDC to provide R.H.Y.M.E for Bronx teens affiliated with their “Minds Empowered” and A.C.T.I.O.N programs via a six-week…
Jeremy and Randy review Thrive Collective’s historic 2020. Kindness still beats the virus, and so much more. “2020 has taken so much. And yet, despite all of that, we’ve seen the resilience of humanity. This generous spirit rises above all. … That resilience suggests that the antidote to the taker is the giver. … Students…
We are honored to announce three fun video updates right before Christmas. First, the most recent Met Stories video by the Metropolitan Museum of Art features clips of the Create! Harlem mural. New York City’s tourism office includes a clip of the Make Space for the Arts mural in a recent “All In” video feature…
R.H.Y.M.E. (Rhymes Help Young Minds Excel) teaches mic skills and life skills through the art of emceeing, with Bronx emcee and Thrive Studio Arts Director Randy Mason. This video recaps a RHYME workshop in collaboration with La Bodega Studios in the Bronx, sponsored in part by Bronx Council on the Arts, The Bronx Native, Empanology,…
Watch HeART Beat Online 2021 here. Replay the Live Stream Enjoy the replay edited by Tony Horn of Bric Arts Media. Originally hosted on Zoom and live-streamed on June 25 by Moving Image Studio of Museum of the Moving Image. 🔥🔥🔥🔥 An interactive, online arts festival with special guest, actress Luna Velez from Spider-Man: Into the…
“Reach High,” music, mural, and music video by PS/MS 188 Thrive Collective hip hop students (2020) Hip Hop teaching artist Randy Mason Video by Eric Mason / Mason Jar Productions Mural design by Marissa Molina with Romero Britto Sponsored by Nickelodeon, NYC Council Member Carlina Rivera, NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, and NYC…
Thrive’s Hip Hop Director Randy Mason presents Beats & Bars songwriting club at PS 188 this winter. With the Birth of Hip Hop, New York’s Young People Changed the World. New York was already one of the world’s great centers for arts and music when its children transformed world culture with the birth of Hip…
Video produced by Tony Horn / BRIC Arts Media for NYC Council The 2nd Annual HeART Beat Festival returned to Roy Wilkins Park in Queens on May 29, 2019. Middle school students painted murals, designed video games, break danced, freestyle rapped, competed at drama games and so much more. Thrive Collective collaborated with Museum of…
Thank you Carnegie Hall for inviting Marissa Molina and Randy Mason to present the Freestyle Five workshop last week for the NeON Arts Summer Showcase event. Special thanks also to NYC Department of Probation, NYC Mayor’s Fund, and NYC Council Member Bob Holden for supporting Thrive Collective as a NeON Arts provider in Jamaica, Brownsville,…
“Gifts > Guns,” song and lyrics by 6th grade scholar/emcees MS/MS 42Q in The Rockaways Teaching Artist: Randy Mason Sponsored by NYC Council Member Donovan Richards / Art a Catalyst for Change Use words not weapons Shoot for the stars not at them Give kids gifts not guns Help instead of harm People instead of…
