On Saturdays, local teens take over the state-of-the-art recording studios on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus to lay down tracks about their lives and the people in them.
The program, Arts Greenhouse, started as a community project at the Center for the Arts in Society.
The rapper Mars Jackson grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. He’s been performing for about six years and said he wants people to know about the dynamic artists who make up Pittsburgh’s rap and hip hop scene.
Jackson says many wrongly believe that Pittsburgh’s pool of talent begins and ends with superstars Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. Jackson stopped by the station to talk to Larkin Page-Jacobs about the music he creates to address real life issues.
Ryan Neitznick and John Fischer comprise the production team known as La Harrier.
Their studio in Lawrenceville is also known as La Harrier, and it’s part of a growing aspect of Pittsburgh’s arts community — nontraditional, independent music producers.
They each grew up and began their musical careers in Pittsburgh but actually met and formed their partnership about six years ago in Philadelphia.