A NEW recording studio at a youth club was opened by Top Boy actress and Mercury Prize-winning rapper Little Simz on Wednesday evening.

The musician, who grew up attending the LIFT Youth Club in Angel when it was known as White Lion, said that she hoped the recording studio will be a space for the kids “to tell their stories and make incredible art”.

She credited her time at the youth club as an integral part of her success, explaining that growing up in London “where everything is so close to your face”, doesn’t “allow you to dream, doesn’t allow you to have an imagination”.

She added: “It was the youth club that really shifted my way of thinking. It was a place where I felt safe, it was a place where I was reminded that I can dream, it was a place that breathed community, and breathed life into young people.”

Performances from members of the youth club for the opening event included an original ballad called U from Gracia Kayindo, and Moresha Mansaray’s performance of her original song Diamond.

Little Simz also had busy day on Tuesday when she went back to her old school Highbury Fields and met the current generation of pupils, as pictured above. She also gave a spoken-word performance at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Donegal Street

Ms Kayindo, 27, and Ms Mansaray, 21, have both been attending the youth club since they were 13.
Ms Kayindo told the Tribune: “This was the place I could truly be myself. We’ve been asking for this studio for such a long time. We’ve been using the rooms to record, but now the studio’s here, I mean it just feels unreal.”

Ms Mansaray added that Little Simz’s visit had made the opening event even more exciting.

She said: “What’s so inspiring is to see her success, and then seeing her here, and where she’s come from, it must be inspiring for all of the younger kids as well to just see that this is a path they can go down as well. It really can happen. It’s down to them. But they have support here.”

Judith Samuels, who has headed up the youth club for 37 years, and was a youth worker when Little Simz attended as a teenager, said she was “overwhelmed” by the turnout and level of support for the studio.

Nathan Samuels, Ms Samuels’ nephew and a lead youth worker at LIFT, added: “A lot them aspire to be actors, aspire to be rappers, so for them to see that she came from here and made it to that level, it’s just inspiration.”
Ms Samuels said: “Over the years, it’s evolved, it’s got better and better. We look at what the trends are with young people.

“Everything we do here is in consultation with young people. So that’s what makes a success of it.”

She added that the young people were involved there from the beginning. “And everything that’s here – from the courses to the activities, to everything we do – it’s all been in consultation with young people.”