Beat Making Lab

Arts and Music Series / 1 Season

We build studios in cultural centers around the world and train youth musicians in the art of beat making. Follow our adventures with new episodes here every Wednesday. Find us on Facebook at beatmakinglab, or chat us up on Twitter @beatmakinglab.

3m 15s

Cho Cho Cho (Music Video) filmed in Goma, Congo

S1 E1 / 3m 15s

Cho Cho Cho is the first song and music video produced and written by the youth of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Created in a Beat Making Lab, the song was inspired by a popular call-and-response chant in Goma, and the video was filmed during Yole!Africa's SKIFF Festival dance competition.

What's In the Backpack?

S1 E2 / 1m 32s

A Beat Making Lab is an electronic music studio small enough to fit in a backpack. We build Labs in collaboration with communities all around the world; donating laptops, microphones, software and other equipment. From our first Beat Making Lab in DR-Congo, producer Apple Juice Kid reaches into the backpack and reveals some of the tools that we use.

Exclusive Zenga (Music Video) by Flamme Kapaya

S1 E3 / 2m 45s

Zenga, is a global dance anthem by Congolese maverick guitarist Flamme Kapaya, produced by Apple Juice Kid. Created in a Beat Making Lab, the song and video were created during Yole!Africa's SKIFF Festival. Zenga is part of a free EP called "Amani Goma" released by Latino Resiste/Mal Dicen/ARTVSM with remixes by Apple Juice Kid, 13th Tribe, and Carnnibal.

Panama: Meet the Kids Behind the Beats

S1 E4 / 2m 36s

Yaci, Osvaldo and Darin - three Panamanian youth - go from cowbell to MPC while learning the skills to become beat makers. Check us out Wednesdays for more stories, and beats from Panamanian festivals, schools and prisons. In Portobelo, Panama a Beat Making Lab was established at La Escuelita Del Ritmo.

Field Trip: Prison Beats

S1 E7 / 1m 51s

In this video we make a beat in a prison, in the rain forests of Gamboa, Panama with Professor Angel Sound (an incarcerated DJ who was blackmailed into muling cocaine for the Nigerian mafia) and his fellow inmate, who loves Macaroni and Cheese.

Portobelo (music video)

S1 E10 /

During a blackout in Panama, we filmed this amazing video with Yomira. Lit by an iPhone and recorded with a usb mic. Check out the color explosion and how the graphics come alive at the 2min mark. Thanks Pan II Creative!

Behind the Beat: Portobelo

S1 E11 / 4m 2s

Apple Juice Kid samples comparsa band Barrio Fino, records hip hop/jazz quartet The Beast and flirts with renowned vocalist Yomira John in this episode, which reveals the production behind the song "Portobelo."

Female Hip Hop Crew Makes Beats in Senegal

S1 E12 / 2m 44s

"The people need a female rapper," says Toussa, the president of GOTAL; an all-women's collective of Senegalese rappers, producers, singers and beat makers who paired with a woman-led NGO called Speak Up Africa to write songs about global health issues in their communities.

Health Worker Beat

S1 E14 / 2m

Ina, a Senegalese beat making student, takes a field trip to an Intrahealth hospital to make a beat. She records baby squeals and blood pressure gauges; and interviews health workers and community leaders about family planning. These recordings were then delivered to a group of Fijian beat making students, who composed an instrumental entirely comprised of the found sounds.

Get Your Drums Right

S1 E15 / 2m 31s

Why do so many beginning producers' beats sound flat? Because they make the error of using the factory drum sounds that come with their beat making software. One of the cardinal rules of beat making is: if you want to create an interesting beat - start with an original kit.

Mashup: National Anthems

S1 E17 / 1m 34s

Celebrate independence with an epic mashup: US National Anthem [Star Spangled Banner] + Black National Anthem [Lift Every Voice and Sing]. Download the mashup at: www.beatmakinglab.com/mashup

Behind The Beat: First Beat Making Lab (2011)

S1 E18 / 2m 28s

The first Beat Making Lab was launched at UNC-Chapel Hill in the Fall semester of 2011, as a 3 credit hour course in the music department founded by Dr. Mark Katz (now the chair of the music department) and Stephen Levitin (aka Apple Juice Kid). This episode, shot and edited by UNC student Jon Kasbe for Reese News, shows the on-campus origins of the now international program.

Heartbeats of Fiji

S1 E19 / 9m 59s

Ben is searching for purpose. Masi is following a dream. From separate islands, yet connected through Hip Hop and Electronic music production, their paths crossed at the Fiji Beat Making Lab.

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