Hitting the Right Note With At-Risk Youth

SYLMAR — Shawndel Rosa knows firsthand the power of music.

It steered him out of trouble and away from gangs in the rough South-Central Los Angeles neighborhood where he was raised by a single mother, he said.

Now the former rap singer, who performed professionally as Jazzy D, uses the power of music to try to save other kids, many of whom are gang members or are at risk of embracing a gang life.

Rosa spends most nights teaching dozens of at-risk youth how to write, make and record music in a makeshift, 200-square-foot studio he rents above a dental office in Sylmar.

The students learn to use a 24-track mixer, a drum machine, a keyboard, sound modulators and monitor speakers. They also write lyrics, often reflective of a rough upbringing filled with disturbing crimes.

Rosa volunteers his time and provides the sophisticated equipment they learn to use.

“Some of these kids have a talent and love for music, but no money to learn,” said Rosa, 31.

Tony Smith is an example. He’s a tough 17-year-old who acknowledges he’s been in trouble for gang-banging, robbery and drug possession.

Lately, though, Tony said he has been too busy to “hang out on the streets with my thug buddies.”

He has been spending most of his free time in Rosa’s studio.

“It’s helped me stay out of a lot of trouble,” said Tony, wearing baggy pants, an oversize shirt and a thick, red knit cap. “Now I’m doing something good.”

His foster mother, Zonetta Thompson, agreed, saying Tony has changed in the year he’s worked with Rosa.

Thompson, who has had intermittent custody of Tony since he was 5, said that over the years he’s had several encounters with the law, but since he started working with Rosa he has stayed out of trouble.

“Now he’s even doing better in school, getting almost all A’s,” Thompson said. “Before, I couldn’t even keep him in school. It’s a big help for me.”

Rosa said he’s never rejected anyone willing to learn, but he does have a few firm rules: no smoking, drinking, drug use or other illegal activity in his presence.

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His group is not formally organized or officially sponsored. Rosa pays for everything, from the studio rent to the pizza and soda he often provides.

Preston Emerson, 24, known in rap circles as G Slim, spends as many as four nights a week working at Rosa’s studio.

Emerson said he’s been involved with gangs since childhood, but music has given him a new focus.

“You get the feeling no one is on your side and nobody cares, and gangs are there, so you get in with them,” Emerson said. “But once you have goals and other things on your mind, you don’t got as much time for the gangs.”

While recording his own lyrics and playing a drum machine are fun, he said it’s also therapeutic.

“Music basically has saved my life,” he said. “I would have lost my mind without it.”

Before Rosa rented the Sylmar space a couple of months ago, the group met in the Lake View Terrace home he shares with his wife and two children, ages 7 and 4.

When they were there, Rosa’s wife, Billie, said, “you could forget anything you wanted to do in the living room. We’re talking almost every single night.”

While she supports her husband’s mission, Billie said she is glad her home no longer serves as a revolving door for troubled youths.

“At times I’d be concerned, because some of them were scary,” she said. “For the most part, I think a lot of them just act tough, but some of them really are.”

Rosa said he has no illusion of saving every troubled kid or gang-banger in the area, but hopes to make a difference whenever possible.

“I know I can’t change everybody, but I want to at least give some of them the opportunity to do something that’s not negative,” said Rosa, who has worked full time for the last 10 years for the U.S. Postal Service.

He paused for a moment, then shook his head: “I have a guy that’s in prison right now, so I realize they’re not all going to do good.”

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Rosa, who has no formal musical training, said friends taught him how to work on much of the high-tech equipment he owns. In the 1980s he rapped and break-danced at various Los Angeles clubs.

He recorded an album with an independent label, and one single, “Wack Girl,” got a lot of air play on L.A. rap stations.

But Rosa said he never quit his regular job.

“I always tell the kids, ‘Stay in school. Keep a real job. If you stay in music, don’t depend on it to make a living,’ ” Rosa said.

Most people he works with haven’t even thought that far ahead, he said. Many are simply living day to day, still dealing with the novelty of being off the streets.

Terry DeLeon, 16, is one who recently began working with Rosa. His mother has noticed a difference.

“Suddenly, he’s thinking more positive and doing better in school,” said Veronica DeLeon. “He hasn’t been in trouble since he started with the music, and before he was in a lot of trouble.”

Jason Gamble, 17, said that’s because Rosa has a special way of steering people to the right track.

“He really cares about us,” said Jason, who lives in a foster home. “If this wasn’t here, we’d probably still be doing the same bad things.”

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’ I know I can’t change everybody, but I want to at least give some of them the opportunity to do something that’s not negative.’

Shawndel Rosa