“#Song4Unity” was a song project envisioned, created, organized and led by Sahffi Lynne. The concept came to her after a trip to Peru, when one of the residents of the Andes mountains was sharing food and said to her, "we don't have much in the mountains, but what we have, we share." Coming home to her city in turmoil, she realized what she had was music, and many connections to different musical communities in Baltimore through her background in classical music, her work with house and R&B musicians, as well as her own acoustic music. To share what she had, a "We Are the World"-type project was born in her mind.
The concept was to have a diverse musician community come together to write a song to unite the hearts and minds of their communities in Baltimore through music. Proceeds of the song would go to an organization working towards unity, and it was decided to choose #SaveADopeBoy, a grassroots organization founded by Derrick "OOH" Jones of Brownfish, not only for the continued wonderful work that Tiffany Welch is doing, but to honor one of our beloved musicians who has left us. (To date, over $500 has been raised for the organization!)
The project began in July, 2015, with a call on Facebook from Sahffi with a simple request; who would be interested in being a part of such a project? With over 125 responses, Sahffi began the process in August, 2015, with a group of 15 multi-genre musicians (rap, R&B, folk, indie, rock). The Living Well (a community space in the city) kindly donated two nights to the writing project. A producer and recording engineer at 430 Entertainment Studios came forward to offer his services for the song. In the end, over 50 musicians, producers, photographers, artists and talent came together to conspire to release "Let's Make It Happen" in April, 2016, to coincide with the anniversary of the April, 2015 Baltimore uprising. All participants donated their time, talent and in some cases finances.
Download the song, all proceeds still go to #SaveADopeBoy: https://song4unity.bandcamp.com/
Inspired by the project, Sahffi's daughter Neema encouraged a “Kids #Song4Unity” at her school, Catonsville Middle. Sahffi went in to her choir's class and co-wrote "All Sorts of People" with the students and the choir director, Mr. Tom Dickerson. The choir performed their original song at their end-of-year choir concert in May, 2016.
Watch the kids sing their unity song, "All Sorts of People": https://youtu.be/euR1gveVudc
Join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/song4unity