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Anthony Thompson, is a 2005 Recording Institute Of Detroit
Recording Engineering Program graduate is an instructor for
Youthville. Anthony and Youthville actively help keep Motown a hit
factory by working with the Motorcity's youth.. |
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Youthville is a privately
funded educational center in the New Center area of Detroit servicing
thousands of young men and women between ages 11 and 19. Motown
Heritage Club member, Anthony Thompson is an instructor for several
programs. Youthville is a great place to entertain youthful
minds, build character and to start building career skills.
Anthony received his Motown Heritage Club Membership certificate this
month from co-founder Harold Bowles.
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Anthony and
Harold Bowles |
Anthony gave us a tour of the extensive Youthville facilities, and we
have posted a
Youthville Picture Tour, so you can experience the tour yourself.
Here's Anthony's story, in his own words:
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History & Getting Intro The Music Business
What got me interested in the music business is that when I was
younger I was hanging around RJ Rice (of RJ's Latest Arrival).
Talking to RJ made me want be more than just an entertainer, but to be
a CEO and learn how the business operates properly. I have relatives
that sang with Stevie Wonder I even have people professionally in my
family. And then Xzibit you know that’s my cousin also, so…I have
people in my family already involved in music.
I did different searches for schools and was actually going to Florida
when I found out that we had a school here. I live and die for
Detroit, everything I do is about building up Detroit. So when I found
out we had a school here I just immediately came up there I didn't
call or anything, just came right up. I had a great time there [at
RID] and they challenged my mind.
I wasn't really going to RID just so I could be in the studio, but was
going to be a business man on the business side. What changed, in the
school, is that I started getting interested in actually putting the
album together myself. Then too, the business man came though, "Hmm, I
can save money also." RID challenged my mind, and just made me
more interested.
I have a degree from Michigan State University, with concentration in
pre law and also in Music Theory. I went up there on a football
scholarship. I wanted to do entertainment law. But, once I started
working with my god brothers, I pretty much just fell in love with the
music and that was more of my focus than anything. We built a little
studio up there at Michigan State in a basement and we just started
recording straight to the computer.
Resurrection Entertainment
We have a label. We do film. We're doing media, mass media, from
websites to video editing, you name it, we pretty much have it
covered, including digital photography. We plan on launching
everything next year, 2007 and right now we have a few groups. I just
want to start the label off with 5 groups and we're probably going to
do our first releases next year, 2007.
Right now we're more focused on Resurrection Foundation. We just
finished a business plan and proposal where we're going to be hosting
a music conference, a fashion conference, sports conferences, and
we're also doing a financial conference. I believe in giving back
first because the community blessed me, gave to me and embraced me - so
my first duty is to give back to my community.
We're going to go from there to launch Resurrection Entertainment and
we're going to run that out of Youthville. We have 5 artists right now
which we're trying to build up, record and promote.
Youthville
Youthville was founded to help get the kids in this area get off the
streets and give them an opportunity because a lot of them don't have
the opportunity technology-wise. Many don't even have internet at
home. I instruct digital music, pod casting, cell phone
ringtones, and we're just getting started with our video editing
program.
We service ages 11 to 19. And we also have the full fledged recording
studio with classes like beat making, how to be a DJ, we have web
radio. We're bringing in basic ProTools, and we have basic Reason right
now. So we have a lot of things to offer. We also have instructors who
are teaching string instruments, piano and playing drums. This is a
great place to entertain your mind, build your
character and start to build your career. So just come down here to Youthville, get
scheduled, and signed up - its only $25 for the whole year. You
can join and be part of any program. We have kids from all over the
city and the suburbs. We have kids coming up from as far as West
Bloomfield, same price for everyone and we only charge you $25 for a
whole year.
Youthville is something that I wish I would have had coming around. I
had to pay a lot of money in tuition to learn and through a program
like Youthville I would have had an opportunity to learn many of these
things for just $25. The importance of Youthville to our young is to
help them capture their dreams and put those dreams to use at an
earlier age. They're able to try out different things just to see what
they're interested in. For example, many kids from this area don't get
to try archery - you might find someone that was excellent with their
archery and get a college scholarship. Its just a whole facet
of different opportunities. In the area of the arts, we have animation
classes to graphic design and students are able to do their own
cartoons and storyboards. So they're just opening their minds to new
heights.
We're open from Monday to Thursday from 2:30 to 9PM and then Friday
it's from 2:30 to 11. Saturday we're open from 10 to 11. More than the
5,000 kids are registered but there are other programs that come in
and use the facility also.
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