Hamden Youth Usher In The Sounds Of Summer

Lucy Gellman Photos.

At first, it was just the beat floating over the room, full of synth as it began to make its way onto the floor. Bathed in green and blue light, artists LG3 and Jaydoof stood center stage, waiting for the percussion to drop. When it did, an electric current ran from LG3 to the audience, and he jumped into the lyrics. As he moved, Tupac's baby face undulated on his black and purple shirt. 

That sound came to Thornton Wilder Hall at the Hamden Public Library Thursday night, as young, Hamden-based rap artists LG3, Jaydoof and SNL_Breacho all took the stage for "Sounds of Summer,"  a rap concert sponsored and organized by the Hamden Youth Services Bureau (HYSB). Between Instagram livestreams and bites of cookies, chips, and pizza, close to three dozen youth danced away the evening, lifting up their peers in the process. 

Collaborators on the show included the Town of Hamden, We Are The Village, Hamden Police and Fire Departments, the Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program (ConnCORP), 94.3 WYBC, and the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program (CT VIP), which opened its New Haven-based recording studios to the artists earlier this year. 

Daniel Hunt and Susan (Sue) Rubino.

"This is a positive event for our youth, where they can come out and enjoy, have some fun, and just perform some music," said Daniel Hunt, a youth services commissioner for the Town of Hamden who organized the event with Hamden Youth Services Coordinator Susan Rubino. "We're gonna keep doing this every year."

 From the moment attendees arrived, they could feel that excitement across every inch of the space, a brick building that rises off of Dixwell Avenue beside the Miller Memorial Library and Hamden's Town Center Park. Outside the auditorium, volunteers checked attendees in and served up steaming hot slices of pizza and M&M-studded cookies, the smells mingling in the air. As strains of DJ Platinum's set made it out into the hallway, several bopped along to The Jackson Five and Megan Thee Stallion. 

Inside, bright, confetti-colored pinpricks of light reached every corner of the room, pulling attendees of all ages up onto their feet to dance. By the double doors, even adult volunteers eased into it, unable to stay still after Master KG's "Jerusalema" came on. Onstage, DJ Platinum moved to the music, his shoulders constantly in motion. Every so often, he checked in with the audience, seeing how people were feeling as they waited for musicians to take the stage. 

In a makeshift green room behind the stage, the night's three headliners ran over their sets one last time, making sure not a hair was out of place, a lyric unmemorized. Beneath a gray and green beanie, Jaydoof (a.k.a. newly minted high school grad Jayden Harris) took a deep breath and willed in a good show. After years of listening to and writing music, Thursday marked his first big gig since performing at his high school prom.  

"It feels great," he said. Since performing at his high school prom last month, "Everybody's hitting us up on Instagram and in person, and they are showing us a lot of love I just hope people turn out like they said they would, and I just hope I can give, like, the best of my ability without messing up." 

"You won't mess up," Rubino interjected from where she had been listening quietly. "Or sometimes, if you mess up, it turns out to be a good thing. Like, 'Oh, it was pretty cool that I did that.'"

All three added that the concert felt like it had been years in the making. Levone Gilbert III, who performs as LG3, has been writing music since he was a student at Wintergreen Elementary School. Now a recent graduate of Eli Whitney Technical High School, he said that his music has become a way to process his emotions, whether he's feeling sadness and pain or deep excitement. 

Growing up, he was inspired by musicians including Young Thug, Drake, Fetty Wap, Jay-Z, Jadakiss, Tupac and Biggie Smalls—as well as the organ, drums, trumpet and gospel that filled his ears every Sunday at church.   

"If I'm in a certain mood, I'll find a beat and I'll rap on it," he said. "It helps me express myself. I feel that with music. Music is like an escape for everybody. Like, you can't listen to music and be sad all the time. If you listen to music, your body feel good. Like, you feel good when you listen to music."    

SNL_Breacho takes the stage.

Fifteen-year-old Ivan Cox, a.k.a. SNL_Breacho, added that he was excited to perform as a way to honor those who have cleared the musical path, including his older brother Malachi. As kids, the two used to freestyle with each other over a beat that they found on YouTube, challenging each other with words and phrases meant to grow their craft. A few years ago, Cox started recording and writing his own raps on his phone and computer. 

As he took the stage just minutes later, Cox transformed from a soft-spoken teenager into SNL_Breacho, a green light pulsing behind him. Gesturing out to the audience, he began singing over a synthy, roiling drumbeat, easing into the music as the track unfolded. As he held one arm out, fingers extended, the audience took it as an invitation to rise from their seats and come close to the stage. 

"Make some noise for SNL_Breacho, make some noise!" DJ Platinum shouted into the mic as attendees cheered. "He's got one more song for you all, y'all ready?"

It set the tone for a longer set from LG3 and Jaydoof, who met in middle school and have been supporting each other as musicians since.

Bottom: Friends Camille Godfrey and Devyn Goodlow.

Exchanging a single glance that seemed to say We got this, the two launched into their first number, pulling a growing crowd closer to the stage. As they rapped, flashlights came on in the audience, bouncing to the words. At one point, they criss-crossed the stage, changing places while not missing a beat. The audience went wild. 

"For me personally, it's just a good vibe," said Camille Godfrey, a rising senior at West Haven High School who came with Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School student Devyn Goodlow, and was dancing midway through the first track. Goodlow, who is a rising senior studying the flute at Co-Op, lives in Hamden and said she was glad to see the concert take shape in her town.    

Back outside the auditorium, Hunt said that he was thrilled to see the event come to life after months of planning. While he was born and raised in New Haven, Hunt grew up spending time with a grandmother in Hamden, and ultimately moved to the town as a young adult. At 26, he's the town's youngest-ever commissioner, and "the most committed" that Rubino has seen in her three decades as a city official, she said. 

Gabi Jones, Susan Rubino, Alex Lopes and Daniel Hunt.

The concert grew out of his passion for the town's youth, Hunt said. For years, he's been thinking about how to stem the tide of gun violence among young people in Connecticut, an epidemic that has touched him personally. In New Haven and later Hamden, he led community marches to protest youth violence. He worked for years as a student support specialist in New Haven's public schools. Music, he realized, was also part of the answer. 

Last year, he was inspired by seeing the work of the New Haven Youth and Recreation Department (YARD), which brought G Herbo, HoodCelebrityy and Tootsii to the Westville Music Bowl in August 2021, a back-to-school show last year, and staged citywide gospel concerts this and last April. He was also drawn to rap specifically, he said; he grew up listening to it and loves it. When he came to Rubino with the idea of a rap concert last year, she was game. 

"It has gone through several iterations!" Rubino said. Originally, Hunt and Rubino were planning the program with Hamden's year-round youth ambassadors, including Gilbert. Then in January of this year, Hamden cut its youth ambassador program. It meant going back to the drawing board. Hunt wasn't deterred, he said: "I just wanted to start doing events that were positive for the youth."  

LG3 and Jaydoof.

He and Rubino didn't do it alone, he added. In addition to several community partners, they were able to work with Senior Youth Ambassador Alex Lopes and Hamden Local Prevention Council Youth Leader Gabi Jones. The two, also there volunteering on Thursday, said they were excited to be a part of it. Lopes, a rising senior at High School in the Community (HSC), said he thinks of it as “like a family.”

Both Rubino and Lopes pointed to the importance of events that center teens, who are experiencing trauma and transition as they navigate a new normal. While HYSB offers weekly summer activities like its “Party in the Park,” held each Tuesday afternoon at Villano Park and Splash Pad, they are often designed with younger children in mind. This is the first rap concert of its kind. 

"It brings the community together," Lopes said. “It’s so many different people.”

Jones, who now works as a teacher's assistant at Hamden Early Learning, added that it warmed her heart to see Gilbert onstage after working with him for part of the planning process. 

"He's like family," she said. "When you see someone like your family onstage, it’s exciting. It really brings people together and creates positive things.”

For more from the event, check out the above videos or the Arts Council's YouTube.