Story by Jason Paladino and Jennifer Chaussee

Music producers, DJs and vocalists make up the Oakland-based nonprofit Today’s Future Sound, which teaches music production to students in K-12 schools around the bay and beyond. In its infancy, TFS was a natural convergence of Elliot Gann’s training as a clinical psychologist and his love of hip-hop. For nearly ten years, Gann has been using music production education as a way to create a culturally engaging therapeutic outlet for kids and teens while also teaching them tangible life skills. Oakland North spent some time with Gann, his students and his staff to learn about some of the challenges and highlights of mixing education with hip-hop. Watch the video.