It's a balmy day in late April on Long Island University's Brooklyn campus during the week before finals, and Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment Students perform songs they recorded throughout the semester.
The students vulnerably pressed play into their creations, which ranged from a grungy rock setting to a rap song with ad-libs to Playboi Carti and an airy R&B singer, all around the socially conscious theme of putting the pieces together.
The songs will be packaged as part of an EP created by each student for the songwriting department's final project — which certainly beats writing an eight-page research paper or completing a 50-question multiple-choice test on a Scantron.
“[There’s] opportunity here for them to see contemporary folk music as an art form worth studying,” explains Dr. Carrie Erving – teacher at Roc Nation School. Advertising sign. “This is worth a lot [it]. It is still quite rare. Compared to many programs, it is harder to find.”
One of the school's pillars is a focus on the practical rather than the theoretical in the ever-changing music industry to properly arm students with the skill sets they need to hit the ground running and thrive. Roc Nation School Dean Tressa Cunningham was approached about an idea to broker a partnership between Roc Nation and LIU in 2020 — and the team faced the turmoil and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to launch Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment in autumn 2021.
The school has approximately 300 students, in six different Bachelor of Arts programs (three on the music side: applied music, vocal performance and music technology, entrepreneurship and production). About 52 percent of those students are from New York state, while there is a balance of kids who come from all over the country to see what the Roc has to offer.
Cunningham made the Roc Nation School a superstar acquisition when she recruited Jay-Z's longtime engineer Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton to the block. The Grammy Award-winning engineer joined in June 2022 and serves as Director of the Music Technology, Entrepreneurship & Production program.
“I thought it was a really good opportunity for me to help design the curriculum. We pride ourselves on being current and up-to-date,” explains Young Guru Advertising sign. “That's something I love about where my industry is. It is constantly updated and you must keep up with the season. Our goal is to make graduate students successful. There are so many examples of people who are successful who don't just want to be No. 1 Advertising sign.”
Tuition is currently $32,000, but 25 percent of incoming freshmen at the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment receive Hope Scholarships, which allow them to explore a tuition-free education. Additionally, Tressa Cunningham reports that 99 percent of the student body in the program receives some form of financial aid.
Young Guru hopes to add a Master of Arts degree in the near future, as the sports program already offers a master's degree in sports management. He also helps oversee the state-of-the-art Pro Studio under construction, which is set to be completed for student use this fall.
It's a “full circle moment” for Guru with Dave Malekpour (Pro Audio Design) handling the sound, who also designed New York's famed Baseline Studios where Gu actually lived and made recording history. The Dolby Atmos-enabled studio is equipped with four isolation chambers, a control room and a lounge.
Ashlynn Guions is a 21-year-old student at Long Island University in Brooklyn. Her mom actually told her to look into the Roc Nation School of Music after hearing a radio ad that piqued her interest. “I didn't see a program like that, which I think led me to it,” he says Advertising sign in conversation on campus. “Being surrounded by like-minded students in the same space, but also so different and different, I don't think I can find that anywhere else.”
Guions will be part of the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment's inaugural graduating class (approximately 100 students) when she receives her diploma in the spring of 2025, shaping the future of the music industry. A Music Technology, Entrepreneurship and Production major, she is an aspiring choreographer/creative director inspired by Charm La'Donna and Parris Goebel, who hopes to one day find a career in the live performance industry.
Guions loves the sense of community at the program on the campus located between downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene. He recalls a “big cypher” on the first night of college that set the tone for the next three years. “The fact that everyone has different but specialized talents is so cool,” she muses.
He found a streak in performing and currently works at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in backstage concert planning, which is adjacent to the LIU Brooklyn campus. While Guions and the rest of her peers are much more confident in their abilities these days, that wasn't always the case.
The 21-year-old recalls the lack of confidence in students exploring their potential career aspirations early on, whether as producers or singers, and how their mindsets have now done a 180 with a strong belief in themselves and their craft.
“Going in, I feel like a lot of us would be humiliating ourselves too much,” he admits. “We wouldn't say, 'I'm an artist. Oh, I'm creative. I'm trying to do that.' [Now] When I got into my junior year, everyone was like, “That's what I'm doing, come to my show!” There is confidence and excitement to graduate. [To] come out and do ours. It's really nice to see everyone confident in what they're doing now.”
He continues: “Reflecting on when we first came in, everyone was like, 'I'm rapping a little bit. It can succeed.” Now people say, “That's plan A.” That's the biggest difference I see from the first year to now.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/liu-brooklyn-roc-nation-school-music-guru-1235689944/
