The Philly songwriting teens who caught John Legend’s attention with their original album

It’s not every day that local high schoolers share the stage with John Legend. But in October, the singer joined a handful of students from Hill-Freedman World Academy at the Philadelphia Film Festival premiere of the new documentary he executive produced, Stand Up & Shout: Songs From a Philly High School. It follows the school’s songwriting program where sophomores create a full-length studio album.

“I am a songwriter at the core of my being and I love watching these young people discover what it means to find that spark inside of you, find that story inside of you, find that song inside of you — because everybody has it,” said Legend from the stage. “It’s so powerful. It makes me want every kid to be able to do this.”

Soon after, 17-year-old seniors Niambi Goldstein, Jaden Alvin, and DaShaun Hudson freestyle rapped in front of the EGOT-winner. They were confident and kind, encouraging one another when the verse faltered or the transition slowed; it was the same gentleness and smart playfulness shown in the documentary.

As sophomores in 2022, the trio was part of the class that made Growing Up Black, the sixth album from Hill-Freedman Records featuring 34 original tracks. Every song is written, performed, and produced by students in the International Baccalaureate Design/Music Technology program, with assistance from World Cafe Live. This cohort received special guests during their album-making: a film crew.

It was a tough year of school, with mask mandates still in place and post-pandemic anxiety lingering. Reports on a youth mental health crisis piqued director Amy Schatz’s interest. Then, when she read about Hill-Freedman music technology teacher Ezechial Thurman’s program, she thought it would be great to observe how students were coping with hardship and coming back together in the classroom.

Schatz grew up in Lafayette Hill, in Montgomery County, and was eager to film in Philadelphia. She pitched the idea to HBO and later connected with Get Lifted, the production company of Legend, Mike Jackson, and Ty Stiklorius — a creative team with deep Philadelphia roots who wanted to amplify the city’s musical reputation through a story about young people.

When Schatz arrived at the Mount Airy school, she could feel the teens’ hesitation and knew she needed to start building trust.

“At first, I wasn’t really sold on doing the documentary, but the more they were here, the more I was pushed into showing my music side,” said Goldstein in an interview with The Inquirer. “Once I did it, it just felt good.”

Songwriting came quickly to Goldstein, who grew up in a family of singers. Her mom and aunt make a cameo harmonizing a gospel song. Her brother also appears, jumping in the studio to be a backup singer on “Empathy,” Goldstein’s emotional and defiant track in response to violence she’s seen in her community. Her voice is sharp and clear: “We don’t want no empathy / Tears in the pillow / Felt too strong for sympathy / Was losing brothers from a young age but don’t forget their memory / In this survival of the fittest.”

The teaching artists who led the class — Kristal Oliver, Andrew Lipke, and Bethlehem Roberson — helped the students lean into their emotions, and added melody and structure to their lyrics. Though incredulous when Oliver said they could write a song in minutes, the sophomores trusted the process and leaned into their vulnerability.

For Adrian Guzman, 18, that meant confronting grief. Two of his grandparents died in the same year that he began songwriting. At the time, he was listening to mariachi music, and legendary Mexican singer José Alfredo Jiménez’s “El Jinete,” about a horseman searching the world for a missing love, resonated with him deeply. Guzman suggested singing a cover for the album. “I compared [the song] with myself, because I didn’t spend a lot of time with my grandparents. I knew that my grandfather sang,” said Guzman. “My parents always said, ‘Try to be as close as possible to the music because it’s one of our family’s legacies.’”

When he first performed the song for his family, they said they felt the presence of his grandfather with him. “It was something really beautiful that I haven’t felt before,” said Guzman.

Alvin, who performed at the premiere, said his family was a big motivator, too. He didn’t take songwriting too seriously but found that it helped him process stress. “I want to write for my mom as well cause she really pushed me to keep writing,” said Alvin, who continues to write songs as a creative outlet. “Even recently, I’ve just had a breakthrough on my mind around songwriting … mistakes are a process and they build you up, they make you better.”

The film also plays up the silliness. When the class splits into groups of record labels, Schatz hypes them up with VH1-like camera angles and gives some songs a music video treatment, like the R&B ballad “Be My Girl.” (The crooners dressed all in white.)

Through the film, there’s also an undercurrent of genuine support among the students. Hudson was one of the most prolific writers, effortlessly freestyling bars with little prompting — everyone wanted to be on his label. “We were writing a lot of songs that year, like, 10, 15 songs a week, but other people wasn’t moving at that frequency,” said Hudson. “So we had to fix that and support the ones who didn’t lead themselves, didn’t see themselves.”

One of Schatz’s favorite scenes is when the students sing karaoke together to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” It made her tear up. “They were singing ‘I hope life treats you kind and I hope you have all you’ve dreamed of,’ and that’s my wish for them.”

Now in their senior year, some students have dreams of pursuing music while others might maintain songwriting as a hobby. “If I’m feeling down or any emotion, I can transport it and transform it into song,” said Naika Saint-Pierre, 17.

Stand Up & Shout, named for a song on Growing Up Black, is available to stream on Max. The students hope that viewers will embrace creativity in their own lives and learn more about the real Philadelphia in the process.

“Philadelphia, and especially Philadelphia youth, isn’t really portrayed in a good light. People like to focus on our crime rate, and stuff like that [and] put us in boxes or numbers,” said Goldstein. “We’re, like, real people. We’re not just statistics, and there’s good things that come out of this city.”