ESSENCE Magazine and Berklee College of MUSIC
Ten Tunes From Teen Sonwriters Posted For Public Listening and Voting In Final Stage of ESSENCE Magazine and Berklee College of MUSIC Hip-Hop Songwriting Contest
NEW YORK/BOSTON, MA, April 19, 2006 — Essence's Take Back the Music campaign and Boston's Berklee College of Music have narrowed the search for the newest stars in hip-hop. Ten songs from more than 100 that were entered in the first ESSENCE and Berklee Take Back the Music Hip-Hop Songwriting Contest have been chosen as finalists and the tunes are now available at Essence.com for listening. The public is also invited to vote on their favorite in an online poll.
The 10 final songwriters are:
Jacob "Icee Jake" Bragg, 15, Columbus, OH
Janelle "Lyric Jones" Clinton, 17, Mattapan, MA
George "Chaos" Clark, 15, Cincinnati, OH
Anthony Heard, 17, Philadelphia, PA
Nyles "Lil Witness" Houston, 15, Brockton, MA
Jamaar Jackson, 16, Montgomery, AL
Landyn Jackson, 17, Detroit, MI
Victor Presson, 16, Derwood, MD
Brittany "B-Dangerous" Whittakar, 16, Covington, KY
Da' Rayia Wilson, 17, Claymont, DE