Samad Savage, a graduate of Montclair High School, is not your typical rapper. In fact, a recent online review of his 2016 EP release, Some Odd World, touts him as a rising star in the hip-hop world and calls Samad “a proud weirdo that is more interested in being himself and having fun instead of trying to be something he’s not.”
His unique sound uses hip-hop and R&B stylings to offer messages of positivity, inspiration and unity of all people. This approach caught the ear of Jamie Pagliaro and Mike Halbert, two local dads who opened a learning center teaching kids to code. The two had set out to create a music video to inspire kids to learn to code (at their center of course!) and Samad was an obvious choice to write, perform and produce the project.
You can preview the music video here: Come Along!
“We reached out to Samad after seeing his music video, The Clair, which is a song about growing up in Montclair and embracing the uniqueness of our town. When I heard the line ‘In a town where it’s cool to be a weirdo!’ I knew he was the guy to help us get the word out,” said Jamie Pagliaro. This sense was confirmed when Pagliaro and Halbert spent some time with Samad at their Montclair-based center and found a resonance in his approach to inspire kids to code. The theme throughout the song is that whatever you can imagine – be it a video game, website, or mobile app – you code it!
“Code or be coded is what we like to say to the kids in our program. We want everyone to understand that they have the potential to become a producer of technology, to create the amazing digital artifacts around them, not to just sit around playing games and consuming technology.” Halbert adsds “Our collaboration with Samad was an exciting way to get this message out directly to kids, and his approach perfectly captured the fun and social nature of our academically-rigorous program.”
The Yukōdit Learning Center is based in St. James Church of Upper Montclair (581 Valley Road). To learn more, visit www.yukodit.com
Its remarkable to see art history reaching the next level right here before our very eyes. Coding is on the horizon as the next medium and its amazing to see the eagerness of these children to learn. (its like the next step after robotics) How wonderful that Yukodit has this vision and understands the importance of this “state of the art” and how wonderful that an artist like Samad Savage is conveying the message and inspiring the children to be creative with code(and how great it is to just be yourself!)
Thanks so much for your kind note Frank! We are definitely doing our best to inspire the next generation to be creators and not just consumers of technology. And Samad just nails it! -One of the Dads