St. Paul youth find their voices with summer songwriting group

Nodding and bouncing to beats behind the Arlington Hills library on a recent summer evening, a dozen young local musicians sang and rapped original songs to tell the world about themselves.

The artists, a group of St. Paul kids in their late teens and early 20s participating in the annual St. Paul GetDown, have been honing songs together this summer, using music to talk about their joy and pain.

“I’ve been making hip-hop therapy, in a way,” said Jelani Osiname, 21, who raps under the name Boogie. “There was this vulnerability to it, where I could talk without being judged.”

Ahead of the show, Boogie and the other performers met to go over their songs, get some last-minute advice and get their jitters out by goofing off together.

They feel at ease, because preparation started weeks ago for some, years ago for others.

The St. Paul GetDown, a program run by the city’s parks and recreation department, brings a dozen young artists together for 10 weeks of writing, rehearsing and recording. Some have participated since the program’s first summer in 2023, and others are just starting.

They all work under the tutelage of Terrell X’Avion, who performs locally as Terrell X and Carnage The Executioner.

“What I try to do is try to see what the kids have already, and what they want and need,” X’Avion said. “I help guide them with the vision they already have.”

The artists stood or sat around a Selby Avenue basement ahead of a recent performance as X’Avion flitted between them. He’d ask them to try out different pieces of their songs, or play other artists’ music with them — nodding along as Richard Owens, or Pres, sang Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” and beatboxing as bassist Carmine Perzichilli played snippets of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin.

This is Osiname’s third year in the GetDown and he has been working for years on some of his songs. Meanwhile Perzichilli’s three-piece instrumental band, Milk, is using the ten-week workshop to try out something new. The group is working this summer with singer Nyla Spika, putting words to a song written by guitarist Frank Bygness.

“When Nyla fills in, it just works,” Perzichilli said, as the rest of the group nodded.

He hopes to collaborate with other singers and rappers in the group this summer too.

“We’re looking forward to working with other people, after being just the three of us for so long,” Perzichilli said.

By the end of the 10-week program, all the artists will have a new recorded track and at least two opportunities to perform in the city.

The show on July 9 showcased performers’ songs about gun violence. The issue hit home for some performers: A colleague in the 2024 program was killed over the winter, St. Paul’s community recreation director Mario Stokes explained.

Rapper KD Kapone, real name Daivyonna McHie, speaks about grieving the violent death of another friend in her song, “Three Threes.”

“The first thing I wrote was, ‘KD where you been at, I know I haven’t dropped a couple songs in a minute,’” McHie said, explaining her song about grief and anger.

Survival and dreaming about a better future were themes in several songs, whether the vocalists were mourning a death or grappling with a first heartbreak.

Other songs were about finding fun and silliness in youth: the feeling of speeding down the highway, smoking marijuana and laughing with friends.

In the back of the audience — mainly families of the performers, with a few library staffers and curious park-goers — X’Avion and Stokes clapped, pumped their fists and yelled out a few lines along with the singers and rappers.

The GetDown artists will perform together three more times this summer, with the program culminating in a free performance at Harriet Island on Aug. 23 with the Minneapolis rapper Brother Ali.

Though some of the artists aspire to recording contracts, fame and money, X’Avion hopes they can see the beauty of making and performing music for their loved ones, making their own venues in the do-it-yourself music tradition.

“They are their own community,” he said.

Working on her song with GetDown artists has helped McHie become a better artist and performer, she said.

“This is a crowd I want to be around,” McHie said. “This is strangers who turn into friends and support each other.