Today we’d like to introduce you to Demetric Walls.
Hi Demetric, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Demetric Walls and I’m the founder and executive director of MOTIVE-Music Opportunities To Incarcerated Voices Everywhere. I am the Co-producer of a relationship talk show called Heart2Heart, I am the owner of a food truck called “Turkey Heaven. ” I am the producer of a podcast called “Just Kickin it”, I am a music artist, producer and engineer and I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer science. At the age of 16 years young, I was tried, convicted and sentenced as an adult. While in prison, over the years I lost confidence within myself after learning that the majority of things I thought was true about myself and the world, were actually lies. I developed a speech impediment in which I would stutter extremely badly. One day while walking on the prison recreation yard, I observed some guys rapping and I stopped and said “Iiiii rrrrap too”, in a stuttering manner. The guys said, “well spit a rhyme for us”. I said my rap and one of the guys started laughing and said, “I thought we were going to hear a sweet stutter rap”. A light bulb flashed in my head and I said to myself, “wow, I don’t stutter when I rap”. From that moment going forward, I used music to overcome my speech impediment and I used music to help me relate to the books I read, by formulating raps based on the content of the books. I would perform concerts inside of the prison which increased my confidence and gave me hope. I used music as therapy. This experience was the driving force that laid the foundation for M.O.T.I.V.E.
Once released from prison, I partnered with one of my first mentors named Dr. Yusuf Shakur and we opened a community center called the “Urban Network”. We had speaking events, sold books and art, had a recording studio and hosted a weekly Freestyle Friday rap battle competition. I would learn how to use computers to produce and engineer music and recorded my first album called “Pain Is Information.” At this time I was also enrolled in ITT-Technical Institute. I obtained a bachelors degree in computer science and started working in the computer software field as an intern and reached to a System test manager. It wasn’t until around 12 years later that my life experiences would help birth the solution that M.O.T.I.V.E had to offer. I became an expert in understanding the life cycle of a product. Each version should be an improvement in comparison to the previous version. In order for an improvement to happen, a version has to be tested and all the things that are wrong, must be identified and recorded and reported to the developers. The developers would collect the data of issues and use this data to make improvements for the next version. A product would go through multiple versions as long as the product exists. Boom! A light bulb popped in my head again and my mission was now clear. This was my solution to how I can implement music as therapy. I view the generations as the product. My mission was clear as the blue skies. M.O.T.I.V.E- Music Opportunities To Incarcerated Voices Everywhere, would offer music as therapy for those incarcerated, their family members and victims. Life stories would be transformed into songs and recorded over the phone or an arranged setting and professionally mixed. These songs are data that will be used to fuel multiple workshops that will help the youth critical decision making by learning from others mistakes without going through it, open a communication barrier between family members and victims to allow healing, and give hope to the incarcerated, for their voices to be heard and inner child healed. One of the greatest methods of Restorative justice.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One struggle on my journey was trying to maintain a career while using my life experiences to support my passion to save lives. While working in the corporate world, I kept my past concealed in fear that I would get fired if many knew I was formally incarcerated. This prevented me from networking in the areas where my life story could help youth make better choices. I worked on my non-profit and introduce it to the world but was not connecting my life story to it. After 13 years of working at a company, I was released and my passion to save lives by using my experiences was screaming to be free. I finally connected my life story to my non-profit and it was the driving force that everyone resonated with whenever I talked about my non-profit. I knew that I had to become self employed in order to use my life experiences to save lives and I purchased a food truck which I operate called “Turkey Heaven.” Another struggle I experienced is getting others with specific talents to see the long term goal and support without money being the motivational factor. I invested with my own funds and obtain talents to help me turn my vision into a professional brand and a curriculum while simultaneously engaging with other organizations to build my network, and record, engineer, and produce songs for those incarcerated and run the workshops.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Hip Hop artist. My performance name is DWallsCanTalk. I am a music producer and engineer and user of music as therapy. I’m known for serving others. I feel if I focus on helping others, I will also find my purpose along the way. My most proudest moment is recognizing the power of music and using it to overcome a stuttering speech impediment and teach myself. What set me apart from others is my ability to solve external problems by studying myself and relating the problem to an area within myself which I found a solution to.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Everything revolves around relationships. Having a healthy relationship with yourself is the model you set for how the relationship with others will occur. No situation is greater than the strength within you and the solution contains the problem within it, therefore don’t focus on the problem, focus on the solution.
Understand that everything around us started from a thought, therefore if we learn how to positively relate to ourself, then we can thrive in any business that exist because the outside world is a reflection of how people operate internally.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://motive-musictherapy.org
