TheLegendsLeague | Bryan Espiritu

One of the most precious things that I’ve reacquainted myself with lately is sleep. Since Tuesday I’ve been able to take naps, go to bed early, wake up energized, and take the city (and the LCBO) by storm. It’s something that I think a lot of people take for granted; that, and getting off of work early enough for the sun to be out still. For the past few months I had been working a couple of jobs and my schedule resulted in me being at work from 10am – 10pm everyday, with a mandatory stop at LiveStock in between to keep my sanity. Some question why I did it, and the answer I give them for the 10-3 part of my day, is simply to get money. The 3-10 part, well that’s a little bit different. We do that shit to make change.

Tuesday marked the (potentially momentary) end to my career as the Creative Arts Program Director at The Remix Project. I had been there for 2 semesters (1 year), and met some of the most influential individuals in my life during my stay. Here’s a little glimpse into the official last day of Remix. Consider it me acquainting you with one of the most precious things in my life before, and after Tuesday.

All photos courtesy of my bro Will’s blog. Get familiar.

Ronnice (left) – Graduate of T-rexXx’s Business Arts Program.

Shez aka DJ Wristpect – Graduate of T-rexXx’s Business Arts Program. Lookin’ confused at Will taking photos so goddamn close.

Cola – Graduate of my Creative Arts Program. Always cheesin’.

Dolla Sign Eye En Oh Tee! Sinot aka “Don’t let the snub nose sneeze. At-choo”. – Graduate of Noah “40″ Shebib’s Recording Arts Program. Performing on the Revival stage.

T-rexXx say they like his Dougie. He fresh. Flya than a, flya than a.

The Commissioner aka Ghetto G’s Us aka G-Shep aka Gavin Robert Sheppard aka No Aka’s. The Man behind The Remix Project and the successful lives of hundreds and hundreds of people. One of my mentors and close, close friends.

F-Dub – Graduate of 40′s Recording Arts Program. Gettin’ it in.

AirKing (Monyak) – Graduate of my Creative Arts Program. He’s probably sayin’ “Checkit out, boom!” in this pic.

Mon eating barbequed rat. Seven in the background sayin’, “SHE’S ACTUALLY EEEEEEEATING IT!!!!”

Me with Karla Moy aka HustleGRL aka The Youngest In Charge aka The Newest Member of TheLegendsLeague Official Team??? – Graduate of my Creative Arts Program. This young lady applied to my program at 15 years old and I quickly found out that she is one of the most hard working designers in the city, taking on upwards of 50 clients a month!!! She not only manages her own website, the promo pieces for many of Toronto’s HipHop/R&B talents, a fansite for her favorite Rapper/Actor, Drake, an internship at Chris Smith Management doing online work for everyone from Fefe Dobson to Jarvis Church, stars in Joell Ortiz videos wearing Ideall Clothing, supports every single Toronto talent you can think of, and plays big sister to her young bro, and little big sister to her older bro, but she is also a sweet, sweet girl, who seems to somehow smile through every day like nothing can knock her stride. I am so proud to have been involved in the past 6 months of this young lady’s life, and am happy to say that I’m gonna have the opportunity to continue to mentor her throughout her career. Get familiar, this girl is a machine.

T-rexXx and Fresh – Graduate of the Business Arts Program.

Drex, 40, and me – looking like a real weirdo.

T-rexXx and Bobby Redef – Graduate of the Business Arts Program. You may know Bobby from such Legends League collabo tees as, The New Standard Of Canada (seen here on both T-rexXx and Bobby).

The New Breed. Yo, fuck all you teachers out there who don’t do your jobs for the sake of your students. The Remix Project is the truth man. We hire one graduate from every stream as a youth leader to assist our new participants in the coming semesters with their Remix experience. Paid positions, motherfucker, no internships.

L – R: Hopeton (Recording Arts Youth Leader for semester 3), Future the Prince (Business Arts Youth Leader for semester 3), Drex (Resource Co-ordinator / The Boss When The Boss Ain’t Around), T-rexXx (Business Arts Program Director / Your Host For This Evening And Every Evening Here After), Gavin (The Boss), 40 (Recording Arts Program Director / The Most Talented Musician I Know), Chantle Beeso (The New Business Arts Youth Leader for semester 4), F-Dub (The New Recording Arts Youth Leader for semester 4), William Nguyen (The New Creative Arts Youth Leader for semester 4 / My Young Bro / The Most Sought After Photographer In The City), Bjoern Arthurs (Creative Arts Youth Leader for semester 3), me (Creative Arts Program Director).

Giselle Mapp – Graduate of 40′s Recording Arts Program. Performing on the Revival stage.

William Nguyen – Graduate of my Creative Arts Program. I don’t really get on mics but I had to introduce this dude to the stage. He’s one of the most talented and sought after photographers in Toronto’s event scene, an amazing young photographer all around, a friend to countless, countless individuals in a way that goes beyond friend counts on MySpace and Facebook. He’s a brother to his brothers, a man of his word (most of the time), an inspiration to me as a person and as a creator, he holds the league record of most albums on Facebook, runs an amazing blog (that I took all of these photos from. :P), and has a heart the size of Wall-E.

I really found a young brother in this dude, a friendship that I wasn’t expecting, but greatly appreciative and accepting of. My experiences and conversations with Will really made me open my eyes to the possibility of good people still be around, and the likelihood of me starting to look beyond my past and realizing the potential of what my future may carry for me if I’m just able to breath for the time being and remember how good it is to exhale sometimes. He always referred to me as his “Teacher”. I’m grateful that Remix is more of a family than an educational institute because as far as I can remember they say sometimes it’s the young ones that show us old folks what life’s really about. That’s a big part of my heart right there, foreally real.

Note: Men hugging men involves the awkward “No Dicks Touching” stance. LMAO.

That’s wassup.

Me and Chantle Beeso – Graduate of my Creative Arts Program. Alright… I gotta go relax for a bit, ’cause this post is making me all emotional and shit. I’ma be back in a hot second.

Aight, I’m back. No tears shed, just some smiles and a glass of water.

I gotta say, my participants this round were unbelievable. The amount of talent that I had packed into one 6 month program was unreal and I’d be shocked if I found another set of young talent as driven and aspirational as the group I was fortunate enough to lead and learn from. This young lady right here though, is something extraordinary. She came into Remix with plans to write and press an entire magazine of her own, including book and CD reviews, articles, interviews, editorials, and ads (of Remix related talent), as well as a full design and layout and covering the cost of printing. I know the amount of work that goes into doing something like this. It’s no walk in the park. And that, teamed with a job at Baskin Robbins, training for marathons, internships at Urbanology Magazine and with the Governor-General of Canada (yeah, Remix got it on lock like that), work at the Air Canada Center, writing for Hip Hop Canada and Connect The Dot, keeping her hair done nice and her outfits right, and getting shabbed out with the rest of Bebe’s Kids, is a feat that is nearly impossible for any experienced writer/entrepreneur to manage. Oh, I forgot to tell you – she just turned 17. This girl actually pulled it off. Seriously. With help from young designer, Colanthony Humphrey, also a graduate of my program, and the printing assistance of my homey, Adiel Papa, Chantle was able to conduct her interviews, write her reviews, collect all her ads, write her editorials, AND help art direct the magazine layout. I don’t know what else to say. T-rexXx is a lucky, lucky man to have her help as the Business Arts Youth Leader for Remix 4.0.

I’m so proud of this girl. She’s highly, highly rated by many of the city’s heavy hitters as a force to be reckoned with, and I can guarantee you that success for her is going to be an endless amount of gold for the grabbing. She was a star in my program, someone whose monthly reports read something like this:

“I am consistently impressed by Chantle. NOTHING has changed. Month after month her work ethic is on point, her progress is on pace, and her confidence is at peak. I don’t know what to write about her anymore. She’s really about to hurt the game in a major way”.

Literally every month I had to talk about how she had been doing, and it started to get boring. ALL of my reports on her were exactly the same.

I tip my hat to this girl, and I don’t take my hat off for just anyone. She was a huge influence on me, and along with the rest of this years grads, has engraved a special place in my heart.

Juan Mesa – Graduate of my Creative Arts Program. Ripping the stage at Revival.

This dude applied to my program 6 months ago, trying to get in for visual art. He came to his interview following my reading his slang heavy application with only 2 pieces in his sketch book. Truthfully, for me it was almost a novelty interview. I wanted to see who had written this application that had a ton of gun and girl references, a pile of slang speak, and a reference to his hometown – Money Is A Major Issue (MIAMI, for all you morons). He was incredibly quiet and reserved, rocking a 4 XL tee and baggy Girbauds. After realizing that his sketchbook didn’t have sufficient work in it for me to consider him for the visual aspect of my program, I went out on a limb and asked him if he ever thought about taking up writing. There was something about his application that was powerfully poetic, and I thought maybe he had something more in him to show. So he pulls out this notebook, and asks if we (Gavin and I), would like to hear something. Out of seemingly nowhere, in his thick Miami accent, he reads some of the most powerfully heartfelt and well crafted words I had ever heard. And Gavin and I were dumbfounded.

Juan is someone who I will never forget. His talents continue to be unearthed on a daily basis, having performed at the Remix graduation, displaying his first ever painting at the Remix Family Business event, and then doing a frontside 180 kickflip in front of the Remix building when Will and his homies came through with their boards. His life stories are an inspiration to me, and given a few years, I’m sure they’ll be an inspiration to many, many others.

Chantle, her homegirls and little sister flashing BESO Magazine. Guess who her sister is.

2 of my favorite participants, Amber – Graduate of T-rexXx’s Business Arts Program and ICVisions/Lakeshore O.G., and William.

2 of my favorite peoples. Will and Grace. Oh shit, sorry.. I meant, Will and Gav. Yeah, Will and Gav.

Remix Alumnus, Adiel Papa and Gav.

Omada – Graduate of T-rexXx’s Business Arts Program, Chrissy – Graduate of T-rexXx’s Business Arts Program, Gav, Amber, and Chantle.

Back Row: Obie – Remix Alumnus, T-rexXx, Rich Kidd (I think).
Front Row: Karla, Tenisha – Graduate of 40′s Recording Arts Program, Kyauna – Remix Alumnus, Brian, and Royalz – Graduate of my Creative Arts Program and Remix Alumnus.

40 and the young protegé, Coop (The Cope). This boy’s dangerous, no nono.

T-rexXx, Gav, and 40. You know what motherfucking time it is.

I’m gonna miss these guys man..

A LETTER TO MY REMIX FAM:

“It’s been a good road, but as all of you already know, I’m no longer going to be the Creative Arts Program Leader at Remix.

I wanted to send a big thanks to everyone for your energy and commitment to the program, your six month plans, and your lives. There is nothing that anyone can say to me about any of you graduates that shakes my faith in you as strong individuals with limitless storages of potential, and I hope that what I’ve been able to provide you through tutorials, lessons, yellings, shabfests, and most importantly, heart felt conversation, is a glimpse into what I see in you all.

We come from a familiar place, and that place is not greatly accepted by the vast majority of people in this society. I see in you the ability to become successful representatives of how passionate those who come from struggle and stress can be, and how truly and traditionally ‘successful’ that passion can make you. It is impossible to replicate the energy your lives have given you. It’s remarkable. And it’s worth every minute that Gavin, Drex, Tyrone, 40, Amanda, your youth leaders and myself put towards you. Be sure to show that same commitment to yourselves now that you have succeeded in proving yourselves to your peers, your parents, and your mentors over the past 6 months.

It was honestly hard to leave graduation, to leave the bbq afterwards, and to realize that this amazing semester of Remix is over. There is growth in graduations, but with that growth comes the pain of going. I want you to know that my leaving Remix has everything to do with putting myself into a position of being heard and understood; something that we all want you to strive for. As an alumnus of I.C. Visions, the predecessor to The Remix Project, I’m sure that my choice to make these moves can be understood by you all.

I would love to continue to play mentor to some of my graduates, and promise to play the role of friend to everyone who stays in touch. I’m not disappearing so long as you’re not, so get at me through facebook, phone, email, bb messenger, and let me know how ya’ll are doing.

If you don’t already know, you can see how I’m doing on the daily at The Legends League. I just posted a ton of Remix pics from graduation.

Much love at all of you.
And please remember:

You guys are our future present, we’re just around to help others see what we see in you.

With Love & Respect as usual,
be.”

- Bryan 'be.' Espiritu