MIAMI – Miami-based music producer Thomas Demerritte, who is also Founder and President of the non-profit ADMIT Program, has just published the first-of-its-kind book for young readers about the music industry. That’s a Rap! – A Music Industry Sourcebook for Generation Next (funded and distributed through Demerritte’s Tavette Entertainment Group) is an easy to read 160-page book that focuses on various aspect of today’s music industry.
It was written to provide today’s youth with reading material that enlightens them about one of their favorite subjects, while presenting useful information about getting into and succeeding in the music industry. In addition to its new website at www.thatsarapbook.com, That’s a Rap! is initially being promoted with a series of book signings beginning in the month of February, 2010.
To show his appreciation for the local support of his expanding program, these signing events will begin in the Miami area and will include February 6th at Church of the Ascension in South Miami-Dade, February 13th at African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and sponsored by Joint Alumni Coalition, and February 20th at Miami-Dade South Regional Library and supported by the Office of Commission Chairman Dennis Moss’s as one of his many youth initiatives.
Future events are being coordinated for Miami-Dade’s North Regional and Caleb Center Libraries, as well as the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale and several bookstores. National tours and promotional efforts targeting major urban areas and music markets are also being planned. In addition to helping to supporting the ADMIT Program, a generous portion of the proceeds from the signings will go towards providing funding for disaster recovery efforts in Haiti.
The music business can be an intimidating and misleading thing for young people to try to understand. That’s a Rap! is one of the first books written specifically for today’s youth to give them a better appreciation of the music industry. Readers will be surprised to find out that most people who work in the music business can’t sing or play a note of music! These behind-the-scenes music careers are the ones that last the longest, and this book will show you why.
That’s a Rap! also explores the history of hip-hop, teaches about social responsibility in music and introduces the author’s P.L.E.D.G.E. Principle to young readers who are considering music industry careers. With the steady decline in the measured reading skills of many urban youth (particularly among African American males), this book is designed to provide them and other young people with reading material that is interesting to them. That’s a Rap! feeds their attraction and fascination for hip-hop music and sets straight what they believe they know about the music industry.
However, That’s a Rap! will be an eye-opening experience for readers of all ages as they will quickly see that all is not what it seems to be in the music business! The book explores concepts such as: why the artist is usually the last person to get paid for much of the work he does on his CD, the money-making strategies secretly at work when hip-hop artists “feud” with each other, why many powers-that-be are hesitant to end destructive portrayals of hip-hop culture, and why new artists may often be better off initially by selling their own CDs. All-in-all That’s a Rap! – A Music Industry Sourcebook for Generation Next gives urban youth an opportunity to read an interesting and relevant book that is laid out in an engaging and conversational style. This book was written to fill a critical need for books that promote the practicing of reading skills, while providing knowledge of the multifaceted but misunderstood occupation that is the music business.
That’s a Rap! is foreworded by internationally known hip-hop impresario DJ Khaled, whose tireless charity work in the South Florida area places him in frequent contact with Demerritte to collaborate on various projects to benefit at-risk youth. This book is ideal for language arts instructors, parent-teacher associations, libraries, literary circles, parent-student book chats, in-school reading clubs, music schools, social service agencies, youth development programs, employment training programs, book clubs catering to adults with children, chain book stores located in urban areas, Afro-Centric book shops, career fairs, and book festivals. Further information about this book can be obtained by visiting the website at www.thatsarapbook.com and it can be ordered online at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and will be stocked in local book stores. Information about the nonprofit ADMIT Program, which will be the first of many organizations to use this book as a textbook for students, can be obtained at www.theadmitprogram.org.
About The Author
The book’s author, Thomas Demerritte, founded the Alternative Directions Music Industry Training (ADMIT) Program in late 2002 to teach youth about the ever-changing music industry and let them write and record their own positive songs. His presentation of the ADMIT Program concept to Black Enterprise magazine resulted in him being featured in a prominent article, including being shown on the cover of Black Enterprise’ February 2003 edition! Since its formation ADMIT obtained legal nonprofit status in 2005 and has worked its way through many Miami-Dade County schools, social service agencies, youth correctional facilities, churches and other youth organizations. This has resulted in ADMIT’s current operation of three recording and training studios in North, Central and South Miami-Dade County with both after-school and in-school services, and hosting many CD release parties to distribute thousands of CDs to the public comprised of positive songs written and recorded by over 500 ADMIT participants from elementary school to college age throughout the years.
Demerritte’s initial idea was to write this book to serve as a teaching tool for the youths attending his program. He later decided to write it as a general information guidebook and make it available for young people all over the world to provide them with a better perspective on the undervalued business and technical sides of the music industry. “At only $14.99, That’s a Rap! is a must-read for today’s youth since they all are either interested in or affected by the music business”, states Demerritte. “My book is important not only for its ability to touch, engage and train our young people, but That’s a Rap! also spreads the ADMIT Program’s messages of education and positive contributions through music to other parts of the country. This informative book and my national speaking engagements to promote it will allow ADMIT to be considered for replication in many other areas, while generating more of our own operating funding”.
While he holds a Masters Degree from FSU in Administration, Tommi D (as he is known by his production clients) is also an accomplished musician, songwriter, sound engineer, and music consultant who resides in Miami with his wife Dahlia. He spends his limited spare time fishing, cheering for Miami area sports teams, making fresh beats and dreaming of new projects to elevate kids everywhere.
