Good Look

Upon arriving at the BGC last September 2007 in Mount Kisco, NY, I was excited to meet the teen population I would be working with. In my past efforts with middle school and high school kids, I was able to include hip-hop related programming quite easily, mainly because their was such a deep interest in the culture from them. I never had to force it, they simply embraced it.

My first day on the job, I met Xavier Simmons aka Sosa (above left), and shortly thereafter I figured out that not only did he love rap music but in fact he was DMX’s oldest son. He was 14 at the time, and HUNGRY FOR THE MIC. He would constantly come into the center, quoting Juelz Santana, Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne verses, and I would see him writing raps on his I-Phone all the time.

Well it took me about two months to get my Mac lab completely popping with all the necessary equipment (six new 20 inch Macs, one Mac book, a mixing board, a midi keyboard, mics and speakers), but by November we had our own little in-house studio (see pics below), and Sosa and his younger boy Keran Stephans aka Young 1, started to “GO IN”. They would come through and record almost every day after school in the evenings, and right off the bat I noticed that they were both very talented. Sosa especially, a year older with a bit more studio experience under his belt, would one take all his verses, usually already memorized. And Young 1, 13 years old at the time, had an ill swag with a crazy flow, and for an 8th grader he could sure write DOPE HOOKS. They called themselves HOOD LEGACY, and began working on both group and solo tracks, taking advantage of the free studio time and bottomless supply of instrumentals I loaded onto the computer.

For me, it was a dream come true to work with such raw talent, helping them with their song structure and teaching them how to engineer and mix down their own sessions. They were pumping out material and all their peers were starting to realize these guys were for real. I began to put my buddies on to them, and it seemed as if everyone was in agreement. HOOD LEGACY WAS NO JOKE.

In addition to spitting over their favorite industry beats, Young 1 started making his own tracks on Garage Band which were pretty official. And with the success of Usher’s “Love in this Club” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, which both feature Garage Band loops in their instrumental tracks, it was clear to the kids that they could make hits without having to use high-tech production equipment. Sosa also had his own connects for beats through DMX, and I had my producer friends hook up some beat CDs for them to pick tracks from. And these two would EAT BEATS.

By January, HOOD LEGACY had a bunch of fly songs under their belt, so I set them up to perform at the BGC in the gym for an event we called “ROCK N JOCK”. We kept the gym open on a Friday night, set up the DJ equipment normally used for special events and teen parties, and let HOOD LEGACY close out the night with their set (see pic above). They picked their 5 favorite songs, and their stage show was a success. Sosa, the more gritty of the two, and Young 1, his laidback counterpart, complemented each other perfectly on stage. Everyone was impressed, especially me. “ROCK N JOCK” quickly became a monthly event, and the perfect place for HOOD LEGACY to showcase their new material.

Now, because of the legendary status of his father, Sosa is starting to get some well-deserved good looks (see his above article in XXL), working with DMX producer and industry giant Dame Grease, putting together a solo project. Still, the two find time to come through the BGC to work on material. It’s a scary to think that these kids haven’t even turned 16 yet. Watch out for HOOD LEGACY in the years to come. Check out some of their songs…

“GET IT IN“- produced by Young 1, this is the HOOD LEGACY anthem.

“GOOD LOOK“- I love how they ride this Alchemist beat.

“WE AINT DROPPIN“- They come hard body on this joint. Like Sosa says, “This is hell, welcome to my domain…”

“SUPERFRESH” featuring Stan Ipcus- We did this for the Dirty Jax mixtape, it came out dope.

Hood Legacy myspace