Beat Making Lab

During a blackout in Panama, we filmed this amazing video with Yomira. Lit by an iPhone and recorded with a usb mic. Check out the color explosion and how the graphics come alive at the 2min mark. Thanks Pan II Creative!

Professor Pierce Freelon and Apple Juice Kid collaborate with youth in the Democratic Republic of Congo at Yole!Africa.

Here is the full story about how beat maker and DJ, Professor Angel Sound ended up making music at a prison in Panama.

In this video we make a beat in a prison, in the rain forests of Gamboa, Panama with Professor Angel Sound (an incarcerated DJ who was blackmailed into muling cocaine for the Nigerian mafia) and his fellow inmate, who loves Macaroni and Cheese.

Beat produced and lyrics written by the youth of Portobelo, Panama. Created in a Beat Making Lab at La Escuelita del Ritmo. Inspired by festival de los Diablos y Congos.

Meet Martin, a young accordion prodigy from Portobelo. Apple Juice Kid vs. Pierce battle to make a trap beat sampling his accordion.

Yaci, Osvaldo and Darin - three Panamanian youth - go from cowbell to MPC while learning the skills to become beat makers. Check us out Wednesdays for more stories, and beats from Panamanian festivals, schools and prisons. In Portobelo, Panama a Beat Making Lab was established at La Escuelita Del Ritmo.

Zenga, is a global dance anthem by Congolese maverick guitarist Flamme Kapaya, produced by Apple Juice Kid. Created in a Beat Making Lab, the song and video were created during Yole!Africa's SKIFF Festival. Zenga is part of a free EP called "Amani Goma" released by Latino Resiste/Mal Dicen/ARTVSM with remixes by Apple Juice Kid, 13th Tribe, and Carnnibal.

A Beat Making Lab is an electronic music studio small enough to fit in a backpack. We build Labs in collaboration with communities all around the world; donating laptops, microphones, software and other equipment. From our first Beat Making Lab in DR-Congo, producer Apple Juice Kid reaches into the backpack and reveals some of the tools that we use.

Cho Cho Cho is the first song and music video produced and written by the youth of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Created in a Beat Making Lab, the song was inspired by a popular call-and-response chant in Goma, and the video was filmed during Yole!Africa's SKIFF Festival dance competition.