I received a media SXSW pass from KANM Radio. With this pass, I was able to watch many musical shows such as Rico Nasty, Blueface, Black Pumas, and many more. I was also was able to attend different conferences and sessions. The two sessions that I chose to write about are ‘Wyclef Goes Back to School: The Making’ and ‘The Hustle: The Music Industry as a Student.’ Both sessions talked about the importance and impact of the younger generation on music.

Wyclef Jean is a rapper, producer, song-writer, and a politician from Haiti. Wyclef Jean decided to start a program called Wyclef Goes Back to School: The Making. In this program, Wyclef held a contest that attempts to find talented and unique students in college and helps them assert themselves into the music industry by serving as a mentor. He is currently working on an album produced by him that feature all these young musicians. Wyclef believes that there is an abundance of talent that is getting lost due to the political nature of the music industry. Wyclef talked about the importance of social media and using different music platforms to release your music such as Soundcloud and Spotify. Wyclef and his partners visit different universities and try to find the most talented musicians they can find. Wyclef set up a show with these young musicians at SXSW where they performed with Wyclef Jean himself. Mr. Jean also talked about the importance that the older generation has for the newer generation. The older generation should educate the newer generation of the generation that came before them but should also the newer generation’s sense of creativity. Wyclef used the example of his relationship with Young Thug to highlight this argument.

The Hustle: The Music Industry as a Student was a session that explained how a college student can break into the music industry. The session was narrated by a panel of students who were currently successfully entering the music business. The panel also emphasized the importance of social media to expand the reach of your music. They also talked about how the act of passing out mixtapes can actually be very successful, but it has to be done in a correct manner. They claimed that a positive attitude and a clear passion for your music would heighten someone’s chances to grab your mixtape. Another successful way to get people to listen to your music is to put up posters around campus. Lastly, the panelists discussed their story and how each one of them felt like quitting music because their music was not taking off. They claimed that your desire to pursue music should be based on your passion for the craft and not the greed. If you truly love the craft, you will never lose because you will continue to get better and will have loads of fun doing it.