justice through music
Dedicated to bringing music and empowerment through lyrics and beatmaking to youth in under resourced communities.
Who We Are
Our Mission
Beats4Justice is an organization dedicated to bringing music and empowerment through lyrics and beatmaking to youth in under resourced communities.
Our History
Beats4Justice was founded in 2023 by Leo Horton on a environmental justice trip to Jackson, Mississippi. Horton connected with the musical interests of youth in Jackson and came up with the idea to use music to form a cultural bridge between youth in Jackson and youth in his community in NY.
Our Projects
In our most recent project in Jackson, Mississippi, we ran a 2 day music production class where we taught youth how to program drum beats, create melodies, and write lyrics to empower themselves and their communities. We also donated studio equipment such as microphones, speakers, 15 computers and 15 licenses for music production software.
Our Partners
We partner with Mississippi Communities United for Prosperity (MCUP) and College and Communities Partners Program (C2P2) to teach music production classes and donate studio equipment to for their youth programming. We also partner with FL Studios to acquire licenses to be donated to our youth.
Press
Our article in the Highlands Current.
Our article in Masters Tower.
Future Projects
Maji Moto Village, Arusha, Tanzania
Peekskill, New York, USA
our team
Leo Horton, Founder & Director
Leo Horton, Founder & Director
Leo Horton, Founder & Director
Leo Horton is a musician from NY who makes Rap, Afrobeats and Pop. He founded Beat4Justice in 2023, and is the project lead in Jackson Mississippi. His passions are music, and connecting communities.
Shawn Pichardo, Educator
Leo Horton, Founder & Director
Leo Horton, Founder & Director
Shawn Pichardo is a rapper from NY with thousands of streams on Spotify. In the field he educates youth on lyric writing and sampling, the art of taking old songs and manipulating them into hip hop beats.
Alexa Murphy, Educator
Leo Horton, Founder & Director
Alexa Murphy, Educator
Alexa Murphy is the youth poet laureate of Westchester County, NY. She focuses on social justices issues in her work ranging from Intersectionality to socioeconomic disparity. Her passion, is criminal justice reform particularly in under resourced communities.