Youth crime in England and Wales is declining, according to government statistics. There was a 79% fall in the number of children receiving a caution or sentence between 2012 and 2022. But with 13,800 children still cautioned or sentenced during this period, it's clear there's still some way to go.
Beats Bus Hull is meeting part of the challenge by using a mobile recording studio to divert the city's most vulnerable young people away from crime. A professional-standard facility, the Bus has a recording booth, screen, projector and DJ set-up. The equipment is provided by Native Instruments, one of the project's sponsors.
Building and rebuilding
‘Everybody can relate to music. No matter what mood or situation you're in, there's always music that can change your heart or mind – it's a powerful tool,’ says Beats Bus Hull founder Steve Arnott.
The project started (without a bus) in 2014 as hip-hop workshops in Hull city centre, after Arnott was financially unable to pursue his dream of being a hip-hop artist. Arnott led the project and noticed that people couldn't afford to travel into the centre. Making the project accessible to people is what brought the Beats Bus to life.
Funding was received for this initiative after Hull's City of Culture crowning in 2017. But this was stripped a year later: ‘We had all these young people that were inspired, but then the funding got pulled and the equipment was sent back,’ says Arnott. This prompted the team to launch a GoFundMe, which raised £20,000 overnight after the project featured in Sean McAllister's BBC2 documentary, A Northern Soul. With the help of the public, the project became a company in 2018.
A particular calling
‘There are some difficult conversations I have with young people making a lot of money from the life of crime’, says Arnott. ‘Some say “I can make £3,000 a day from crime, how can you match that?” I say we can't – but we can guarantee you safety and a career if you put your heart and soul into it.’
Beats Bus has some impressive backers, with Youth Music, the Tudor and the Paul Hamlyn trusts all involved. The attention hasn't stopped there; Mark Ronson has given £1,000 to the project after learning of it on social media.
‘We're planning a fundraiser for the next three years to nationalise and go further, especially with the ‘No More Racism’ campaign. It needs to be more national. We need to be hitting this at a systemic level’, says Arnott.
To music educators working with children involved in crime, Arnott recommends allowing the young people to have agency and lead discussions. ‘We lay ground rules about having respect, then we empower them to talk about what they want to talk about, even if it's graphic or offensive, and we offer advice afterwards. If they say something negative or violent, we ask them, “have you thought about it this way?” Crime is driven by short-term effects, and it's hard to get the young people to see the bigger picture. I think music is a brilliant way of doing that.’
According to Arnott, ‘People say “Beats Bus saved my son”, or “if you help me make a song, I'll stop everything bad that I'm doing”’. Connor Phelan is one person who benefited from the initiative and is due to release his first album. ‘I was suffering from severe anxiety and depression’, he explains. ‘I used drugs every day for 11 years to numb the mental anguish and even started selling to fund my habit.’ Once he started with Beats Bus, he ‘found Christ, stopped using drugs, started going to the gym, and began building a career in music. I am now a music tutor at Hull University and a functioning artist.’
In five years’ time, Arnott is hoping for five buses in five different cities and to launch the Hip-Hop School for Excellence, providing provision for young people excluded from the system. ‘I want to leave a national legacy and a blueprint for communities to help young people.’
