Wale and Rare Essence

Photo by Lars Niki/WireImage for The Recording Academy

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Go-Go Given The Royal Treatment At Inaugural D.C. Block Party

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The Recording Academy's evening of back-to-back concerts starred artists with ties to D.C., Maryland and Virginia: rappers D.R.A.M. and Chaz French, singer-songwriter Kevin Ross, art-pop vocalist Angelica Garcia, and go-go masters Rare Essence
Eliza Berkon
Membership
Jun 26, 2019 - 11:40 am

Jeriel Johnson says there are "incredible artists" everywhere. "But we know that some of the greatest ones are right here."

The executive director of the Recording Academy's Washington, D.C. chapter spoke with enthusiasm in a red-carpet interview just before the chapter’s inaugural Block Party on May 10. On a Friday evening, the micro music fest kept the crowds entertained at City Winery in trendy neighborhood Ivy City. Emceed by local radio personality and former BET host Joe Clair, the evening of back-to-back concerts starred artists with ties to D.C., Maryland and Virginia: rappers D.R.A.M. and Chaz French, singer-songwriter Kevin Ross, art-pop vocalist Angelica Garcia, pop outfit MAKUTA and D.C. go-go masters Rare Essence—with a surprise cameo from rapper Wale.

"It's a deep legacy," said Carl "Kokayi" Walker, GRAMMY-nominated producer and GRAMMY national trustee. "From Duke Ellington to Fugazi to Bad Brains to Chuck Brown. We have Marvin Gaye, everything."

Just before sunset on the third floor of the year-old concert space and hub for oenophiles (in a building once home to nightclubs Dream and Love), guests in Louboutins and blazers took seats at picnic tables to hear Brooklyn-based MAKUTA. Helped in part by their loud sartorial choices (think: ABBA meets Spice Girls) and touring drummer Christian Zawacki (a Virginia native), the family quartet played a string of rock-infused pop tunes. Doug Makuta, born in nearby Norfolk and lead vocalist of the band, has another tie to Virginia: He’s signed as a songwriter to ole-Bluestone, a collaboration between rights management company ole and Virginia-bred producer Timbaland.

One of the standout performers of the night, Angelica Garcia, is definitely one to follow. Within a minute of fading up a few soft notes on her Roland wave sampler, Garcia had the audience under her spell. She stood entirely alone on stage with a Tori Amos-like intensity, bathing the room in a rich aural tapestry of looped harmonics.

"I appreciate how lively every [D.C.] show has been," Garcia said before the show. "It's been cool that the crowd has been so mixed and diverse that people are usually very welcoming of my music." The artist’s father is from Mexico, and Garcia names Mexican ranchera singer José Alfredo Jiménez-Sandoval as one of her go-tos for inspiration.

D.C. Block Party: Wale, Rare Essence & More

The night was also a celebratory one for local musical education. In an interlude between sets, Johnson, chapter president Von Vargas and other local GRAMMY leadership members recognized a few regional schools for their contributions in music education: T.C. Williams High School (Alexandria, VA), Kelly Miller Middle School (D.C.) and the Richardson School of Music (Takoma Park, MD). They also presented Ottley Music School (Hyattsville, MD) with a $1,000 check to support their program.

The D.C. area has made as indelible mark on rap, with artists such as Shy Glizzy, Rico Nasty, Innanet James and D.R.A.M. gaining increased national attention in recent years. Chaz French is well-deservedly also on that list. Clad in an unassuming ensemble (tucked-in mustard polo, high-water tweed pants and black-and-white Adidas), French was dynamic and unapologetic in his rooftop performance. After abandoning a small balcony stage—saying, "It’s too far; I've got to feel the energy"—French joined the crowd below, delivering a short but feverish set, including a moment when he let his young daughter, Akai, take the mic on recent single "Handful."

But, as several interviewees mentioned, D.C.'s most sacred genre is perhaps the spirited, funk-based go-go. The music found itself in the national spotlight on May 7 with #MoeChella, a public demonstration and concert attended by thousands and now just one of several #DontMuteDC rallies popping up in response to local controversy: Due to noise complaints, a D.C. cell phone store that had played go-go for decades was temporarily barred from doing so. It’s an issue that resonated with many residents, a symbol of the seemingly boundless gentrification that’s redefined the city in recent years.

"Some of our members and our board were out there that night during the rally, and I think a lot of people have since come to us," Johnson said. "There was emergency legislation that they were trying to pass in October of 2018, called the Amplified Noise Amendment Act. And as a chapter, we stood against that. We felt like the underlying idea was to ban live, amplified street performances.

"That is what this city has been built on," Johnson said. "It's just been great, all these months later, we’re still at it, and the community’s still at it, and we’re doing everything we can to rally around local musicians."

Just before 10 p.m., D.C.-bred rapper Wale stepped out to introduce Rare Essence but stuck around for a live collaboration of the artist’s GRAMMY-nominated "Lotus Flower Bomb." The legendary go-go group, founded in 1976, recently dropped "Don’t Mute DC," a musical defense of go-go and its history. 

"This is where go-go was born, and this is where go-go lives," Wale told us earlier in the night. "That’s the unique gumbo … our Trojan horse in the music game, essentially."

As the band moved on to play its own polyrhythmic take on Ashlee Simpson’s "Pieces of Me," it was difficult to find someone who wasn't dancing.

Beyond The Beltway: A Closer Look At Washington D.C.'s Vibrant Music Community

Hero The Band perform at the Recording Academy Atlanta Chapter Annual Membership Celebration
Photo: Marcus Ingram/WireImage

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Report: Music & Culture Infrastructure Can Create Better "Future Cities"

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How sound planning for a creative future in our urban areas makes all the difference for artists and musicians
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Oct 23, 2019 - 2:27 pm

The future, as they say, is now. And for music makers around the world, building a future for themselves often starts at home, in their local creative community and in the city where they live. While technology has expanded communication and made the world smaller, cities continue to grow, making planning for the future a critical cultural mission of the present.

To that end, a new report by global organization Sound Diplomacy titled "This Must Be The Place" examines, "The role of music and cultural infrastructure in creating better future cities for all of us." The 37-page deep dive into community planning and development highlights the importance of creative culture in what it calls "Future Cities."

"The government defines ‘Future Cities’ as 'a term used to imagine what cities themselves will be like," the report states, "how they will operate, what systems will orchestrate them and how they will relate to their stakeholders (citizens, governments, businesses, investors, and others),'"

According to the report, only three global cities or states currently have cultural infrastructure plans: London, Amsterdam and New South Wales. This fact may be surprising considering how city planning and sustainability have become part of the discussion on development of urban areas, where the UN estimates 68 percent of people will live by 2050.

"Our future places must look at music and culture ecologically. Much like the way a building is an ecosystem, so is a community of creators, makers, consumers and disseminators," the report says. "The manner in which we understand how to maintain a building is not translated to protecting, preserving and promoting music and culture in communities."

The comparison and interaction between the intangibility of culture and the presence of physical space is an ongoing theme throughout the report. For instance, one section of the report outlines how buildings can and should be designed to fit the cultural needs of the neighborhoods they populate, as too often, use of a commercial space is considered during the leasing process, not the construction process, leading to costly renovations.

"All future cities are creative cities. All future cities are music cities."

On the residential side, as cities grow denser, the need increases for thoughtful acoustic design and sufficient sound isolation. Future cities can and should be places where people congregate

"If we don’t design and build our future cities to facilitate and welcome music and experience, we lose what makes them worth living in."

For musicians and artists of all mediums, the answer to making—and keeping—their cities worth living in boils down to considering their needs, impact and value more carefully and sooner in the planning process.

"The report argues that property is no longer an asset business, but one built on facilitating platforms for congregation, community and cohesion," it says. "By using music and culture at the beginning of the development process and incorporating it across the value chain from bid to design, meanwhile to construction, activation to commercialisation, this thinking and practice will result in better places."

The report offers examples of how planners and leaders are handling this from around the world. For instance, the Mayor Of London Night Czar, who helps ensure safety and nighttime infrastructure for venues toward the Mayor's Vision for London as a 24-hour city. Stateside, Pittsburgh, Penn., also has a Night Mayor in place to support and inform the growth of its creative class.

Diversity, inclusion, health and well-being also factor into the reports comprehensive look at how music and culture are every bit as important as conventional business, ergonomic and environmental considerations in Future Cites. Using the Queensland Chamber of Arts and Culture as a reference, it declared, "A Chamber of Culture is as important as a Chamber of Commerce."

In the end, the report serves as a beacon of light for governments, organizations, businesses and individuals involved in planning and developing future cities. Its core principals lay out guideposts for building friendly places to music and culture and are backed with case studies and recommendations. But perhaps the key to this progress is in changing how we approach the use of space itself, as the answer to supporting music may be found in how we look at the spaces we inhabit.

"To develop better cities, towns and places, we must alter the way we think about development, and place music and culture alongside design, viability, construction and customer experience," it says. "Buildings must be treated as platforms, not assets. We must explore mixed‑use within mixed‑use, so a floor of a building, or a lesser‑value ground floor unit can have multiple solutions for multiple communities."

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Be Like Björk: Iceland Unveils New 'Record In Iceland' Initiative

GRAMMY U at Lollapalooza

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Photo Gallery: GRAMMY U Fall Semester 2019

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Check out what GRAMMY U students have been up to this semester
THE GRAMMYs
Membership
Sep 27, 2019 - 10:54 am

Photo: Saloni Jaisingh

Irish singer Hozier welcomed GU Chicago students into his SoundCheck followed by a Q&A during his stop in Chicago on his Wasteland, Baby! tour.

GRAMMY U_Masterclass Soundscape_111219

Photos: Saloni Jaisingh

In this immersive experience at Soundscape Studios, GU Chicago students were able to mix and record their original music with audio engineer, Michael Kolar!

Photo: Kristin Klimas

GRAMMY U Chicago were invited to watch the internationally acclaimed group, Of Monsters and Men, SoundCheck at the Aragon Ballroom!

Photo: Maria Tangarova

Texas Chapter GU members gathered together to take a photo inside the iconic ACL Fest frame after their Industry Insights program with festival staff.

Photo: Maria Tangarova

Texas Chapter GU members gathered backstage at Austin City Limits to learn from some of the masterminds behind the festival that "Keeps Austin Weird." 

Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images

On August 29, New York GRAMMY U members were able to attend SoundChecks with Jonas Brothers at Madison Square Garden followed by a special Q&A. All students were invited to stand on stage at the world's most famous arena after seeing the brothers perform their latest hits.

GRAMMY U Lollapalooza 2019

Photos: Saloni Jaisingh

TK

GRAMMY U Chicago students had the exclusive opportunity to tour the Lollapalooza grounds before the festival began. On this Behind the Scenes tour with C3 Presents, students learned about hospitality, booking, and production straight from the team that puts the festival together.

Photo credit: Getty Images

GRAMMY U SF students took a venue and production tour with ZEDD and his team at his favorite place to perform, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

Photo credit: Recording Academy Staff

GRAMMY U Nashville Chapter students pose with Maggie Rogers at the Ryman Auditorium. The students were able to attend her Soundcheck and participate in a Q&A regarding the music industry. 

Photo Gallery: GRAMMY U Spring Semester 2019

TK

 

Denzel Mendoza

Katie Summer

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Portland Trombonist Denzel Mendoza Isn't Done Dreaming Yet

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Featured on John Daversa and Kabir Sehgal's GRAMMY-winning jazz album, 'American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom,' trombonist and DREAMer Mendoza discusses his unique journey and how we can embrace our differences through music
Jeffrey Silverstein
Membership
May 17, 2019 - 12:40 pm

Created in response to a culture of xenophobia permeating the U.S., American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom is a triumphant, GRAMMY Award-winning record celebrating the resilience and artistic voice of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival) recipients in America. In 2018 Philanthropist and music attorney Doug Davis turned to world-renowned trumpeter John Daversa and composer Kabir Sehgal to produce and arrange an album aimed to further dismantle the often bitter narrative spun by media of the immigrant experience through jazz, a genre that has stood at the forefront of social justice for decades.

Together, they assembled a cast of 53 Dreamers (young people who qualify for DACA) to re-imagine seminal works from the likes of James Brown ("Living in America"), Led Zeppelin (“Immigrant Song”) as well as traditional patriotic songs ("America the Beautiful"). Having made a name for himself performing alongside rising singer-songwriter Haley Heynderickx, Portland-based trombonist Denzel Mendoza was selected to join the cast of Dreamers for a whirlwind recording session at the Miami Frost School of Music.

A proud Filipino, Mendoza was born in Singapore and began performing in the sixth grade after his mother gifted him a pawn shop trombone. Ahead of an upcoming tour, he spoke with us about taking a non-traditional path in music, the importance of feeling seen, and the impact working alongside fellow Dreamers had on him.

You’re now firmly rooted in Portland's music community. What brought you to the Pacific Northwest?

It was quite a journey for me to come to Portland. I moved here three years ago from New York City. I was there for two and a half years. I went to the New School for jazz and contemporary music, but I was only there for one semester. For me, a proud Filipino, I didn’t want to take the flight of shame and go back to Las Vegas so I decided to stay for the remainder of those years.

It was an insane process of trials and tribulations. I became homeless during that time as well. By the end of the two and a half years, I ran out of money. I couldn’t handle not being able to support myself so I decided to join the army. I wanted to join the military. My cousin was attending West Point during that time. I attended his graduation ceremony and that inspired me so much so to where I was ready to join.

Do you have other family members involved in the military?

A lot of uncles and some of my aunts are. Mostly Marines, Airforce, and Navy. My cousin was one of the first in the Army. I said goodbye New York, I’m going back to Las Vegas to see my recruiter and join the army. I moved back, I see my recruiter and I bring in all my paperwork and he sees that I’m under DACA. Once he saw that, I wasn’t able to join. It’s extremely interesting. There’s a loophole: If you’re an immigrant and joining the military, you could get a green card or get citizenship pretty easy. If you’re under DACA, in order for you to join the military you have to speak another language. But I’ve been here since 2000. I’ve lived in America since I was five. All I know is English.

What were you feeling when you were denied entry to the military?

It was extremely disappointing. I felt like a failure because I felt as though I had failed musically in New York and I failed joining the military, even though it wasn’t my fault. By chance, while I was in Las Vegas, two of my best friends Dan Rossi and R.J. Reyes, a drummer and bassist who also dropped out of music school were in Las Vegas at the same time. We used to play music together in high school religiously.

Serendipitous that everyone was back at the same time.

Yep, just the three of us. During that time RJ had been writing these tunes and he said, "Dude, I have this gig with a prominent band from L.A called Knower. It’s Genevieve Artodi and Louis Cole." They’re in Las Vegas and we play a house show with them. It went so well and we were so inspired that they dug our music and invited us to L.A. The three of us were like, "Yeah, let’s do this!" At that time, Dan, the drummer, was also living in Portland.

That’s the Portland connection.

That’s it. He goes, do you guys want to move to Portland? Literally a week or two after I moved from New York to Las Vegas, I pack my bags up, I take the van and I move to Portland, Oregon. Music just flew from there.

It sounds like that was a huge turning point for you. Meeting local singer/songwriter Haley Heynderickx a couple of days after Trump's election was another one. Can you describe that interaction and how it impacted you?

That was also very serendipitous. My whole life has been serendipity and luck, honestly. I mean I’m a hard worker, but I’ve also been very fortunate an lucky and I’m grateful for it. It was a day or two after Trump got elected. When that happened, I woke up in tears. His rhetoric throughout his entire campaign was like, "Let’s end DACA, let's deport every ‘illegal’ immigrant." What kind of a term is that? "Illegal?" Am I a criminal? Ugh.

I was devastated. I had a gig two days after, somewhere at PSU, and I was supposed to sub. I didn’t know where it was on campus. I’m milling about, didn’t know where to go or what to wear, walking around aimlessly with my trombone. I go on Facebook and I see that close by there is this welcoming back party for a name that I recognized on Facebook, Haley Heynderickx. I decided to go because it was close by. I go to the house and the first person to open the door is Haley! I didn't know she was Filipino, when I saw that, I was like, "Are you Filipino?" She was like, "Yeah!" We immediately connected. She sees that I have my trombone and for some reason she’s like, "Do want to open my set?" I was like, "Yeah, you sure you just want to hear solo trombone?" She was like, "Yeah, of course."

I played a solo trombone set. At that time, I felt like I had nothing to lose. I came out to the crowd in that house and said, listen, I’m undocumented. I don’t have a plan set. This is going to be an improved set of how I feel. I have been a member of Haley's band ever since.

When were you contacted about the American Dreamers album? Were you familiar with John Daversa’s work prior?

Also kind of wild how this happened. I knew about John Daversa since high school. He’s a prominent bandleader, arranger, composer and trumpet player. He teaches at the Miami Frost School of Music and I believe he did some time at USC. He’s well orientated with the college music and college jazz scenes. Also, Genevieve from Knower also did gigs with John Daversa. The crazy sixth-degree of everything.

I had no idea that the project existed. I was at a recording session with the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and I kept on getting calls from a random number. During a break, I call back and it’s Doug Davis, a music lawyer and one of the producers of said album. He said hey, I’ve heard about you, you’re undocumented, I know you play trombone, here’s this project. I’d love to hear a recording of you. I sent him the KEXP video of Haley's session with the full band. He gets back to me and he’s like, quote me on this, "You are exactly what we need, you are the unicorn we are trying to find."

He used "unicorn"?!

He used unicorn! I was like, "Dude, don’t say that, come on!" I was extremely happy to hear that. He said I want you in this project. We’re going to have a documentary made. There will be videographers in Miami, we want to fly you out. When can you do this? I tell him, whoah, I’m about to go on a month-long tour with Haley in two days. He’s like, "Okay, we can fly you out tomorrow."

So does that mean you did all of the recoding in one day?

In one day. It was absurd. I left the following day for Miami. I got there at like 9 or 10am. I tried going to my hotel and it wasn’t ready for me yet. I had taken a very early flight that I almost missed. I got to Miami, I was a mess, I haven't brushed my teeth, that whole airplane look. I wasn’t able to shower or anything so I went straight to the recording session. It was at at Miami Frost School of Music, a place I really respect because a lot of my contemporaries and people I met at the New School either went to Miami Frost for their grad or undergrad.

I get to the recording studio, and it’s the whole nine yards. It’s one of the most professional settings I’ve ever been in. I get there and there are cameras everywhere. I told myself to stay cool and pretend like you know what you’re doing.  fter that, Daversa hands me a folder of music that he wrote. All arrangements and originals of songs that portray what it’s like to be an undocumented immigrant in America. These tunes are so hard. The first tune was "America the Beautiful" in quarter note at 295 or 300. Extremely fast, I’m sight reading the whole thing. 14 hours later, we’ve got an album. My next flight was the following morning to SXSW for the Haley Heynderickx tour.

"With this album we are trying to voice the fact that we are here and we are not only creative artists, but that we hold PhDs, we speak multiple languages."

The album features over 50 musicians who qualify for the DREAM act. Can you give some context to that piece of legislation for those who might be unfamiliar?

DACA stands for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. What DACA means is, if you qualify, you have to be a certain age and you have to had entered the country before a certain age. If you do qualify, you are protected from deportation. You get a social security number, you get a workers' authorization permit and you are allowed to work legally. The most important thing for a lot of DREAMers is you are allowed to go to college. That is the reason I was able to go to the New School. There’s no such thing as the Dream Act, we’re just called DREAMers. It’s DACA, but the Dream Act I believe has been denied for the past 20 years.

You've mentioned that historically DREAMers tend to remain silent around their status as undocumented. Does a project like this help change that narrative?

That’s the point of this album. We DREAMers are trying to create a voice for all of us. The lucky 53 that were involved, we are coming out of the shadows to say that we exist, we benefit this country, we pay our taxes, we work, we create art, we make this country better. There is so much rhetoric and naivety around people thinking that DREAMers or undocumented immigrants in general are criminals. For us, we can’t have anything on our rap sheet. If we are to commit a crime, that’s it. We have the cleanest record ever. It's something that people need to understand.

With this album we are trying to voice the fact that we are here and we are not only creative artists, but that we hold PhDs, we speak multiple languages. One of the DREAMers who fascinated me the most, Saba, who I believe she was from Pakistan. She goes to school in Texas- she’s about to get her PhD. She is a mathematician, but she also plays piano and has a beautiful voice. All the DREAMers on the album are the most talented and humble and interesting people I’ve ever met. It was nice to finally meet people who were in the same position I was in on such a large scale.

The spoken word introductions to each piece are powerful. In yours you say that an early age you hoped that maybe if people saw you with your trombone they would notice you. Has winning a Grammy made you feel seen/validated on a larger scale?

It’s interesting, the post Grammy win for me. Portland is such a small town and the music scene is even smaller. Everyone plays with everyone. With me being in all of these projects, I was able to make a voice with my horn in this town very quickly. Doing the tours I’ve done, people have recognized my name and what I do. After the GRAMMY win, people were like whoa, Denzel just won a Grammy, let alone the project itself winning three.

I was being seen more. The limelight was kind of crazy for a hot second. It became a running joke between me and my musician friends, like oh Denzel can't make this rehearsal ‘cause he’s out winning Grammys. I don’t hold it over my head.

So, why the trombone?

Growing up in Las Vegas—Southwest vibes. I had a lot of family in Southern California, older cousins and whatnot. They introduced me to ska. That was happy-go-lucky music with boisterous horns. I know so many trombonists who are prominent in the jazz scene across the country who, say, "Yeah, I picked up the trumpet 'cause of ska." A good friend of mine is the touring trombonist for Streetlight Manifesto. We would do pep band gigs for NYU.

Initially I wanted to play trumpet. My mom bought me a trumpet from a pawn shop. I was pumped, I brought it to my sixth grade brass class. My teacher said no, your lips are too big for trumpet. Which is absolutely ridiculous 'cause that’s so not true! But I realized they needed more low brass than trumpets. I tested out a baritone, tuba, and fell in love with the trombone cause I thought it was funny.

You’ve begun composing under the moniker "Illegal Son." What are your plans for that project and how does it differ from your other work?

Illegal Son came from that night that I met Haley. It was the beginning of my understanding that I can perform as a solo trombonist and people will listen and hopefully will be capitaved. I did another gig with a bass player a few months after that and it was an avant-garde, solely improvised act. My whole idea with Illegal son is that it's mostly improvised.

The term "Illegal Son" definitely comes from me being undocumented for the majority of my life. To live as an undocumented immigrant, your whole life is literally improvised. There is no tomorrow. Any second, an ICE officer or police officer can just pick you up. I’m always watching my back. It's an improvised day, every day of my life. With that project, that’s how I perceive my music. There is a form and there are many emotions going on. The group now is an upright bass and drums, a trio. The people that I’m playing with are well trusted friends that know how to be emotive with their instruments and listen and improvise.

You’ve played a supporting role in projects for a long time. Do you enjoy stepping into the "driver's seat"?

Do I enjoy it. [Laughs.] It’s a completely different mindset. For the the entirety of my life as an instrumentalist, I’ve always been a side guy. I’m completely happy with that, but I need to have this expression of myself and the only way I can do that is through a truly leading role. It is something that is extremely challenging for me. I’m always worrying about what my band members think. It’s difficult, but it's something that I’m challenging myself to do. It’s a passion project. It’s my voice more clearly through music.

It’s hard to say it clearly.

If expressionism was music, Illegal Son is expressionism in that form. It’s emotive and all over the place, but there is beauty and resolve and chaos to it.

Purple Pam Foundation Honors DJ Pam The Funkstress With Scholarship Contest

Sierra Lever

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:NEXT With Sierra Lever: The Rising Music Marketer Talks Artist Storytelling, Kendrick Lamar & More

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The future industry leader and Associate Marketing Director at Columbia Records opens up about how 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D City' inspired her to champion artists' stories and pursue a career in music
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Nov 11, 2019 - 1:31 pm

Meet Sierra Lever, a young music professional primed to make waves in the industry. As Associate Marketing Director at Columbia Records, she already has worked on such major releases as Tyga, Polo G, Chloe X Halle, Chase B, and previously at Motown Records on Migos, Stefflon Don, Zaytoven, and more. She's also featured in the latest episode of :NEXT, the Recording Academy’s new digital short-run series featuring the future of the music industry.

Music Marketer Sierra Lever Is :NEXT

Her journey began back home in Portland, where she put on parties to showcase local talent. She began booking more artists, big artists, such as Too $hort and Big Krit on her college campus. Her DIY spirit and interest in the behind-the-scenes workings of the music business led to her joining GRAMMY U and eventually taking an internship in the Recording Academy, where she worked in the Awards department and the Executive Office.

This wide range of experience helped illuminate Sierra's path into marketing, where she could learn how to tell artists' stories in a way that helps spread the word about their music. And while going to a Spice Girls concert as a little girl that lit the initial spark of Sierra's interest in music, it was a seminal hip-hop album that showed her the way to a career in the industry.

"Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was the album that really inspired me to enter into the music industry," she said. "[It] really tells his story. And it connected to me, and it connected to so many, It really represented the pressures of our environment that we live in… the minute I listened to it, it was on repeat. There's really no skips for this album. It's very thematic. It has all these different themes from the Bible to street violence to love and lust, all those different elements."

Sierra felt she was part of something when she listened to that album. Not content to be just a fan, she wanted to share that sense of belonging. She drew inspiration from the artists she loved and channeled those storytelling concepts into her own career on the business side of music.

"You have to be a student of the game," she said. "That is what really shows. You see these artists and you see how them studying the game really translates to their evolution over time, and I feel like that's the same for me working as a professional in music, [finding my] individuality [and] really taking risks."

Sierra first heard about :NEXT as an intern at the Academy. As her eligibility for GRAMMY U was coming to a close, Lever thought it'd be the perfect segue into a professional career. She was right.

"The best part about being a 'Nexter' is really being able to connect with your peers and see your peers evolve. That is a big thing for me, to be able to support each other, to know that you do have a support system," she said, adding, "We have panels, we have these industry vets that we get to have that face time with and connection with."

Sierra also talks fondly of her mentor, Recording Academy Washington D.C. Chapter Executive Director Jeriel Johnson. "He is someone who is really connected in the urban [music] space, someone who is a leader within it. I identified with him in the sense of, this is where I want to go and where I want to grow," she said.

"The most valuable lesson I learned from him is to always try," Sierra said. "Always go with your foot forward in the sense of, 'I'm learning and I'm going to be successful.'"

Now, Lever is striving to pursue her dreams in the music industry, and being a part of :NEXT has helped her stay on course. She compares the support she's received—and given to her fellow young music professionals—to that of a family.

"I will say this: The GRAMMYs, they are a family to me. There are so many people who have seen me evolve over time," Sierra says.

Her long-term vision is to continue to tell artists' stories, and she's off to a great start. She puts it best when asked what else she's learned from Johnson,  her :NEXT mentor, about being successful in music:

"When you strive for success, you never fail, you just learn."

:NEXT With Scott Michael Smith: The Innovative Producer/Mixer On Taking Risks, Steve Reich & More