Head of the South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, Graham Jones, has praised the Pattern and Push music initiative for its work with local young people.
Pattern and Push is a music competition for rappers and singers in South Yorkshire, with a focus on promoting and encouraging the use of positive lyrics.
The initiative takes selected applicants through a series of masterclass sessions, and assigns them a mentor from the professional music industry who works with them to improve their skills and create positive lyrics over a number of weeks.
These songs are then submitted to a panel of judges, who select eight applicants to move to the recording stage, where they write and record a track with their mentor. All eight finalists then perform their tracks live at the PUSH grand final, which this year was held at Sheffield’s Hope Works on Saturday 19th March.
At this year’s final, Sheffield rapper Sarinity Jones was crowned the winner, and will now receive an artist development package worth £5000. This includes consultation and marketing packages, a professional music video and studio recording, and a performance at Tramlines festival in Sheffield.
VRU Head, Graham Jones said: “At the South Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit, we recognise the importance of engaging people positively in arts and culture, particularly in music, which has such a big influence on young people today.
“Pattern and Push is an exciting project to do just that, supporting the development of young and emerging talent and promoting empowering lyrics which send out a positive message.”
Find out more about Pattern and Push here: https://www.patternandpush.com/ and read about the final in The Star here: https://www.thestar.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/sheffield-rapper-sarinity-jones-is-crowned-winner-of-pattern-push-2022-3619613
