麻豆约拍

MC and producer Ryan Burvick takes us behind bars on Rikers Island, New York’s largest, and up to now, most troubled jail. He leads a music production programme there called Beats, Rhymes And Justice, which helps inmates make music and imagine a different future off the island.

We hear from three of its students, all aged between 18-21 and awaiting trial. Ayosay has been on Rikers for five months. He’s an experienced rapper from New York who dreams of making it in hip hop. Trigger is working on two tracks that express his desire to make a better life for his four year-old daughter. Suave, a former student from the Beats, Rhymes and Justice programme, has recently been released after spending over two years in jail and is trying to adapt to life at home with his mother in the Bronx. We hear these student making music in Ryan’s portable studio on Rikers.

Rikers Island is located on an island in the East River, between the Bronx and Queens. Around 8,000 people are incarcerated there, across multiple complexes. Rikers has a long history of violence. Last year Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to close the jail, with the council calling it “a stain on our city’s great reputation.”

In this revised edition of the programme, which originally aired in 2017, we find out what’s happened to the young men whose stories you have heard. A mixture of good news and bad.

And in part two, airing the following week, we return to Rikers where there now a dedicated hip hop recording studio and where women are included on the program. We then follow some of the former inmates who , following their release, are continuing with music internships with Ryan. And we hear from a music industry talent scout who thinks the Rikers alumni have something special to offer.

• Just Radio production for 麻豆约拍 World Service
• Produced by Susan Marling

Publicity contact: EM3