First, thank you all for your patience while I finalized the recommendation assignments. Everyone should now be accounted for. Due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, a few assignments have changed which I will keep everyone's personal issues discreet at this time. Please review the updated list below and use these assignments moving forward. I have also attached a new Candidate Intake Template that is much easier to complete than the previous version. Please download it, fill it out to the best of your ability, and send it to each person assigned to recommend you. Remember, everyone also needs two recommendations, so you'll receive completed templates from those assigned to you as well. Once your assigned candidate returns their completed template, use the link below to submit one recommendation for each person assigned to you. (PLEASE NOTE: I will be including the link to send everyone when you are ready to submit your recommendations in your CLASSROOM section) RECOMMENDATION ASSIGNMENTS (Assignments were made strictly based on program needs and were not selected by preference.) • @Sirap TheHybrid → @Tiara Sweat (Kkoko S), Johantz Wilson • @Ravyn Mae → @Alicia Zane , @Sirap TheHybrid • @Big Chunk → @Mayom Akeeg , @Melodie Shekia • TBD → @Ravyn Mae , @Jay Louis • @Jay Louis → @Iseen Jahsenye , @Money Karlo • @Melodie Shekia → @Kendricks Gladney , @Money Karlo • @Kendricks Gladney → @Iseen Jahsenye , @Jay Louis

I told @Dawn Piercy i would share this with the community. Here is my AI story board for my song “White Flag” done ENTIRELY in Artist Vault 🎥 The sky is not even the limit. ANYTHING is possible , thank you @Tiffany Gaines for this amazing tool! 🔥🙌😭🙏✨ And if you know the history of Cleopatra, this will really hit 🙏

Every time I think I've peeled back the last layer, I find another one underneath it. If I'm being honest, it's still uncomfortable. Some of these conversations and reflections aren't easy, but I know they're necessary. I know healing isn't always comfortable. Sometimes you have to sit with the things you've been avoiding so you can finally make peace with them. I'm learning that the discomfort isn't a sign to stop, it's a sign that something is changing. I'm still doing the work, still healing, still becoming..trust the process #Whenyouroldestsaysabouttime @Tiffany Gaines I'll take a year's supply of Kleenex🥹

Come closer. Not because you’re broken but because somewhere between your first song, your first silence, your first “no,” and your first goodbye… someone convinced you that your light needed permission. Tonight, we return what never belonged to fear. The Prison With No Bars Some of uswere never chained by iron. We were chained by introductions. “Be realistic.” “People like us don’t make it.” “Don’t get your hopes up.” “Who do you think you are?” Before we learned harmony, we inherited hesitation. Before we learned rhythm, we memorized retreat. Before we learned our names, we answered to wounds. There is a prison that never needed walls. Its bars are built from beliefs. Forged in family. Hammered by heartbreak. Bolted together with betrayal, bullying, comparison, and applause that arrived too late… or never came at all. Some of us walk around carrying cemeteries where confidence should have lived. Some of us mistake survival for identity. Some of us became experts at disappearing before anyone else could abandon us. We call it perfection. But perfection is often fear wearing expensive clothes. We call it patience. Sometimes it’s panic with good manners. We call it preparation. But beneath the polish is a frightened child asking, “If I never begin… they can never bury my dream.” How many masterpieces are still breathing inside notebooks? How many anthems are hiding inside “Draft 17?” How many voices have mistaken their heartbeat for background noise? You said, “I’m not ready.” No… you were ready to protect yourself. Ready to postpone possibility. Ready to delay destiny. Ready to negotiate with the very fear that never intended to leave. Because fear never asks for your whole life. Only today. Then tomorrow. Then next week. Until years become excuses wearing calendars. Listen… The mountain has never laughed at the seed. The ocean has never mocked the river for arriving small. The sunrise never apologizes for beginning in darkness. Why then do we demand that people bloom

For years, I thought opportunities were something I was supposed to be grateful for, even when they came at my expense. One of the clearest examples was a 13-city tour where I was the only artist headlining the entire run. My label paid THOUSANDS of dollars for me to be there, the person traveling with me wasn’t paid either, and I was told the exposure alone justified the cost. Looking back, I realize how BACKWARDS that was. I brought years of training, DECADES of experience, countless hours of preparation, and a performance I had spent my entire life developing. I gained fans. I gained confidence. I gained experience. But none of those things change the fact that the value I created deserved to be VALUED! The lesson wasn’t that the tour wasn’t meaningful. The lesson was that MEANINGFUL and VALUEABLE were both true at the same time. And BOTH MATTER!!!! My Permission Statement What I create comes from a lifetime of becoming. It comes from stages I’ve stood on since I was three years old. It comes from experiences I’ve survived. It comes from questions I’ve spent years asking. It comes from truths I’ve had the courage to face and share. That cost something. It cost time. It cost discipline. It cost failure. It cost vulnerability . It cost the willingness to keep showing up when nobody was watching. That’s not free. I’m allowed to be paid for the value I create. I’m allowed to set a price without shrinking it. I’m allowed to receive compensation without attaching guilt to it. I’m allowed to stop confusing exposure with opportunity. The people who support my work are not doing me a favor. They are recognizing something that was already true. My work has value. My voice has value. My perspective has value. And I’m done treating those things like they don’t. — Sirap the Hybrid