Marquan “Shump” Shumpert-Reid was 14 years old when a family friend came to his house in New Britain with new music software to create beats called FL Studio. He never imagined that day would set the entire trajectory of his future. An occasional look at Connecticut’s remarkable people, places and things Throughout the years, making hip-hop beats became a way to make extra money to feed his growing family. The side gig soon became a career that’s taken some unexpected turns — from producing music for five-time Grammy award winner Lil’ Wayne to now mentoring young people. Most people who work in music dream of a label contract, and Shumpert-Reid wasn’t any different. He wanted to be the next DJ Khaled, Mustard or Jahlil Beats, some of hip-hops biggest producers. He was well on track to become one of those big names, with plans to travel to Los Angeles for a record contract, but COVID-19 derailed that dream and instead sent him into Polanski Middle School in New Britain as a behavior support assistant. Working with kids was something he never seriously considered, Shumpert-Reid said, but now he knows this was exactly what he was meant to do. “I think that’s how God wanted it to pan out, truth be told,” Shumpert-Reid said. “This was God trying to show me, ‘This is what you need to be doing, and I’m going to bless you in this way.’ So yeah, it didn’t turn out as expected, but honestly speaking, I couldn’t be happier. This gives me a form of solace. I’m at peace.” At Polanski, Shumpert-Reid began an after-school program in 2021 called the Hit Factory where, three days a week, students could stay for hours and learn how to produce their own records. @chillshump AM I STURDY W IT ?? #fyp #producertok #teachertok ♬ original sound – THE BEAT COACH The program started with six kids, and Shumpert-Reid said they took in everything they were being taught “like a sponge.” The program grew to about 15 to 20 students, Shumpert-Reid said, adding that keeping just one child out of trouble is “a win for me every time.” “When I’m done teaching these kids and they leave excited, and they leave focused and they leave determined … that fulfills me. … It makes me feel like, ‘Damn, I got their brains turning. I got them into something that’s not negative,'” Shumpert-Reid said. “The kids who be [in trouble] is because they don’t have nothing to do. They don’t have anything to look forward to, and that’s what I be trying to [give them].” Shump’s story Shumpert-Reid is able to relate to the children he mentors because he remembers being one of them, he said. He grew up with a lot of their parents, in the same neighborhoods where they live. He’s experienced financial insecurity. He understands the culture. Music was a “creative hustle” that he began to take seriously after the birth of his first daughter and a need for extra income. “I got no college background. Truth be told, I grew up in the hood (the) majority of my life,” Shumpert-Reid said. “This was, to me, my way of easing things — easing my lifestyle, my livelihood and being able to feed my family and everything else.” By charging low rates for his beats, he began to gain traction around Connecticut. He developed close relationships with local rappers, like Zoe “Gangstalicious” Dowdell, whom he credited as a person who “helped me mold a sound.” After Dowdell’s death in 2017, Shumpert-Reid said he connected with female rapper “Snowsa” and produced a single called “Yank Riddim,” which blew up and began a snowball effect for the growing demand of Shumpert-Reid’s beats. He said he was offered an $80,000 contract with one record label but turned it down. Months later, Shumpert-Reid ended up on Lil’ Wayne’s radar, which led to a job producing the beat for the song “Stop Playin With Me” on the 2020 album “Funeral.” “The Funeral album went No. 1 on Billboard and it went gold, so I was able to receive plaques, and it helped me in the playing field as far as getting a dose of news,” Shumpert-Reid said. Marquan “Shump” Shumpert-Reid uses the application “FL Studio” to create rap beats. Credit: Tabius McCoy Record labels in New York City began reaching out with contract offers upward of $750,000, Shumpert-Reid said, but he was advised by his manager to travel to Los Angeles to meet with other companies and consider all offers before signing anything. They had planned to leave for Los Angeles on March 24, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world in early March before the trip and all work at the music labels was “put on pause.” Without any contracts, Shumpert-Reid became desperate for work. A friend approached him about an opportunity at the middle school in New Britain, where he was ultimately hired as a behavior support assistant and later developed his after-school program. The Hit Factory’s evolution The Hit Factory started as an easy way to make extra income through overtime and combine Shumpert-Reid’s talent for creating music with his day job, but it quickly became something more. “I developed a passion for actually teaching these kids how to make beats, along with just working with kids in general,” Shumpert-Reid said. “It makes me feel like I’m doing something I’m supposed to be doing and I’m doing something right … to help these kids think like the things that I do are achievable and within reach — it gives them a positive side of hope.” One day, Shumpert-Reid decided to film the after-school lessons for “teaching purposes.” He would then watch his lessons and make mental notes on how to better instruct the students. Shortly after Christmas 2022, Shumpert-Reid, with parental permission, made a TikTok video of one of the lessons, cutting a 40-minute video down to three minutes so families could see what their children were creating at school. “I posted it, it was late and went to bed,” Shumpert-Reid said. “Woke up and my phone’s going insane.” The video was getting thousands of views in minutes, and comments flooded Shumpert-Reid’s phone, with people asking where he was located, if it was possible to get the program at other schools, and telling him they thought it was an awesome project. The first video tallied about 1 million views within a week. When Shumpert-Reid posted another video, it gathered 2 million views in a day, he said. People began asking if he did online tutoring programs, whether he’d be willing to travel for workshops in other states and countries and whether he had a curriculum they could buy. “This had been the same thing I was doing since I was 14, a hobby,” Shumpert-Reid said. “And now it was coming in tenfold.” A GoFundMe account raised $15,000 to invest more into the program. Local and national news outlets were reaching out for his story. Shumpert-Reid was invited to be a guest on the Kelly Clarkson Show to talk about the work he does with kids. The show donated $25,000. With over $100,000 in donations, Shumpert-Reid and a partner began a nonprofit called Mud Multimedia Inc., with a studio in Bristol that he said was built as “a safe haven for kids.” “This is literally an incubator system for kids who want to learn music production, photography, videography, graphic design, entertainment literacy, any of that,” Shumpert-Reid said. In late August, Shumpert-Reid left the New Britain public school system and transitioned to a role at the Juvenile Detention Center in Hartford, where he will continue his work “teaching kids about music development and how to make beats,” he said in an Instagram post. “These kids need outlets and mentors, so I’ve decided to step up to the plate,” Shumpert-Reid said.