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When I was 16 I would have wanted that there would be somebody to teach me about DJing. There was nobody to teach me so I had to learn by myself. I had to find things from the magazines, there was no internet back then.
Bass Camp is a year long work shop project for youth. It aims to activate youth with the means of urban culture.
Finland's top mentors guides kids on different areas of culture. Main fields being DJing, producing and rap. We have also had extra activities like dancing.
Youngsters have applied to Bass Camp via a web form and that way we have selected the participants.
Kids get to learn skills here that they otherwise wouldn't be able to practice elsewhere.
Kids want to do lots of things by themselves, but it's too hard to get started alone. The main point is that here they get to learn together as a group.
Let's listen the second take, it could be better than the first one. The second one is really good.
My job is to keep the spirit up and be the director.
I think this is a great opportunity for a guy like me who has been in the music business for a long time. This is an opportunity for me to share my knowledge and encourage the children.
It's our responsibility to pass down the know-how and see how the young generation develops it.
I can give precious tips how to avoid the worst mistakes and how to find the right path for themselves faster. In my opinion that's a very precious job.
Some of the participants are clearly from good families, some have been taken in custody and are in foster families or lives in institution. So the backgrounds differs a lot. Somebody's biggest dream might be just get to move back with their own families. So getting in an environment where adults who are not any official authorities are present gives a freedom to young. We are not instantly trying to correct them or judge them.
When we got the first song with all the choruses and parts ready, even the persons who actually didn't participate in the making of it could share the feeling and understanding the fact that "hey, we have actually made something collectively". And the song was actually a good one. That was a great moment.
I'm very glad that I have met these people. In many cases my prejudices has been proven wrong. It feels so good when I see how excited they are and how easily they absorb the knowledge and develop on the level where I am myself. For me that has taken years. They conceder that to be the basic level from where to start. We have the next Finnish champions of rap and future top DJs here. That has actually been everybody's opinion.
This is our world, we call the shots.