Finished working @youthmusic_charity yesterday. I’m so grateful for the opportunity I had to work there it’s been genuinely life changing. Thank you team YM 🖤💛 Short story: At the start of 2020 it was ten years of @butterzsound the label I co founded with @skilliam and we wanted to give ten artists £1000 to start new labels and help them get their ideas off the ground. This would have been self funded of course and I’m not sure we even would have ever publicly spoken about it. Obviously the world went mad in 2020 and I was no longer financially able to do it, but I wanted to at least try it with one person to prove it would be an effective way of changing who feels empowered to own and take control. I asked Anz via text. We exchanged a few ideas and she went and launched and it was awesome. I thought once we are back on our feet I’ll do this again at scale. The opportunity to work with Youth Music came at the beginning of 2021 when we were a year into lockdown with no end in sight and I was just so lost and sad about everything. I wanted to make myself useful and work on something that would feel like it’s making a tangible difference to those who really need it. We designed the Next Gen Fund and launched last May, and since we’ve funded 103 artist projects. We got so much joy going through all the applications and the talent levels in this country are insane. Without YM I wouldn’t have started 🟨 - which has been a huge positive for my personal discipline, consistency and thinking that I could have never imagined when I started it. I’ll continue to be an ally for YM & organisations that are helping some of our most vulnerable get through this chaotic time by being creative. Last thing: My friends that work at corps that want to do music initiatives - talk to Youth Music - they have rich data about what is happening in the country and where the funding gaps are desperately needed. Let’s not just create things for the sake of it. Build on work already happening and support people and orgs so they can continue long after your campaign is finished. Going to rest 🟨 for a bit and be back soon ✌🏾