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Lawrence Baird , a freshman at GTCC , loves music and rapping. He used to mainly rap about clubs, cars, money and girls, but an experience as a senior last year at Smith High School changed his focus for the better, he says.

Baird, along with fellow Smith students Ykhoa Hdok, Jimmy Nguyen and Amber Baldwin , wrote and produced an anti-bullying song that was recently chosen to be featured on a CD compiled by the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention .

The song was chosen from more than 500 entries. The CD will be distributed to schools across North Carolina later this year with the purpose of empowering schools, communities and students to prevent bullying and other school violence.

“I learned that not all songs have to be negative, and I want to make more positive songs about life experiences now,” said Baird, who is studying audio engineering and wants to be a music producer and rapper. “This turned out to be a positive song that wasn’t corny.”

Music for “Sing with Me, I’m Bully Free ” was composed by Hdok, a senior, with lyrics and vocals by Baird and Nguyen, who also graduated last year, and Baldwin, a sophomore.

With a hodgepodge of talent from various musical backgrounds and interests, the students were invited to participate by director of bands Charles Butler.

“I recognized potential in some of the students during talent shows at Smith, and I was guided to Ykhoa, a student who makes beats using Fruity Loops (a popular music-making software),” Butler said. “I saw Jimmy in a talent show, met Amber between class changes as I noticed a beautiful voice coming from behind my band office, and Jacques (Lawrence) was a clever and witty member of the band that I have heard rap on several occasions.”

The group worked on the project in a makeshift classroom studio after school for about a month.

“We didn’t have any professional equipment, so we did the best we could with what we had,” Hdok said.

Baldwin, who has been singing since she was 9 and is a member of Smith’s music club, said she thought the project would be a great opportunity for her to express the way she feels about bullying.

“No individual should be belittled because of their uniqueness,” she said.

Baldwin also learned that recording could be tedious.

“Every note had to be precise, and every word had to be pronounced clearly,” she said. “I was elated when I heard how far our song made it.”

Hdok said working on the project was a great learning experience. “I learned the importance of working with people and not giving up,” he said. “Mr. Butler was very hard on us at times, but looking back, I now know that he was trying to show us that the music industry can be tough.”

Butler agreed that the students learned about the importance of working together.

“Each one of these kids have aspirations of becoming recording artists or songwriters” Butler said. “They all had to humble themselves and keep egos in check.”

Hdok said he was shocked and excited when Butler pulled him out of class recently to tell him their song had won.

“It had been months since we finished the song, and we did not hear from anyone,” Hdok said. “I thought that everyone had forgotten.”

Contact Jennifer Atkins Brown at 574-5582 or jennifer.brown@news-record.com