Rap Club

Progressive Arts Education

YOUTH MUSIC AWARDS

Outstanding Project & Best Young Leader -Toni Olabanji (2024)

Best Lyrics - TL (2023) Best Live Performance (2022)

Progressive & Inclusive

Music Education Project

CLUBS (IN & OUT OF SCHOOLS) | TRAINING FOR PRACTITIONERS & TEACHERS

CONFERENCES | TALKS | WORKSHOPS | | ONLINE/IN-PERSON COURSES

RAP CLUB is championed as an enabler of social mobility by Teach First, the National Lottery, BBC Children in Need and TES. It is a unique approach to modern music education - embracing young Black cultures - that can be thoroughly embedded within school curriculums and extra-curricular projects.

“Rap Club has changed my life at school I have somewhere I can express myself. And it’s not just us in a room rapping... it’s the only thing that makes me want to finish school at the moment.”
— School Rap Club Member

Founded by Benjamin Turner - during a detention - the project delivers bespoke character, creative and industry development for young people through a range of programmes.

RAP CLUB projects have performed regularly at Wembley Arena (audiences of 10,000+), The Royal Albert Hall, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Assembly Hall etc. in addition to featuring multiple times on BBC LONDON NEWS, performing live on Trafalgar Square to thousands and many other exceptional experiences. RAP CLUB has been featured by BBC Radio 4 ‘Rethinking Music’, national education paper School’s Week, the Camden New Journal and South London News. Those aspiring to industry excellence form part of the Spit Game community, working across music and film. Others have been supported to access independent industry careers including being signed to / taking up roles working at major labels (including Universal & SONY).

“I’m still on such a high from Rap Club and I can’t get those incredible young people out of my head.”
— Ndidi Okezie - UK Youth
“To produce such excellence in creativity and industry-reflective practice shows true creative ability.”
— Catherine Gilling - Director of Rhythm on the River Festival

Meet the Team Leaders

In addition to our leaders, there are many members of the Rap Club (and wider Spit Game) family, including our team of Rap Club Leaders, many of whom are alumni from our programmes.


  • Founder & Managing Director

    Award-winning educator and youth leader Benjamin Turner has spent over a decade transforming how young people engage with arts education. A former Head of Music across multiple London schools, he is known for embedding culturally responsive, industry-level practice rooted in youth voice, equity, and real-world impact.

    Now Founder and Managing Director of Rap Club Productions and The Spit Game UK, Turner leads the creation of innovative programmes that bring rap, storytelling and creative production into classrooms and communities. Through curriculum design, educator training and national partnerships, he supports schools to unlock new models of engagement — especially for Black students and those historically marginalised by traditional education systems.

    Turner builds pathways from classroom to career, helping young people move from Rap Clubs into professional music, film and theatre. With his young team of emerging educators and creatives, Turner is reshaping what inclusive, youth-led education looks like — always putting care, craft and culture at the heart of the learning. He is a champion for youth voice, agency and social action through creativity.


  • Head of Rap Clubs & Associate Director

    Growing up in Bermondsey, South London, Toni Olabanji (artist name BANJI) channels the full force of youth culture into powerful learning spaces. As Head of Rap Clubs, he leads the delivery of our in-school and community programmes — running clubs, coaching new leaders and shaping a generation of students through creativity, discipline and self-expression.

    A founding member of The Spit Game collective and co-architect of the Rap Club model, BANJI’s work sits at the intersection of grime artistry and educational transformation. Drawing from his roots in street cyphers and studio sessions, he creates spaces where young people feel safe to spit their truth, build skill, and find their voice.

    As an educator, Toni is known for his intensity, passion and fierce care for his students — holding high standards while mentoring with real love. His sessions empower young people to take ownership of their cultures and speak to their lived experience, often supporting them far beyond the classroom. In 2024, he was named Best Young Leader at the national Youth Music Awards in recognition of this impact.

    Beyond education, BANJI is an actor, rapper and film producer, having co-produced and starred in two BAFTA-qualifying shorts. But his deepest legacy may be the young artists, leaders and visionaries rising from the clubs he helped build.


  • Director of Creative Strategy

    Raised in East London and shaped by his own school experiences, Tate Boyce brings an unmatched fire to youth education and creative learning. A founding member of Rap Club, Tate went from participant to leader — using his lived experience to design programmes that speak directly to young people’s realities.

    Now Director of Creative Strategy, Tate helps shape the vision and delivery of Rap Club’s education work. Whether he’s supporting co-creation with students, designing session plans, or leading workshops on culture and identity, his mission is clear: help young people feel seen, heard and powerful in the spaces they’re often ignored.

    His creative insight and ability to connect with even the most disengaged learners has made him a vital part of the team. As a performer and writer himself, Tate uses storytelling to help young people process the world around them — blending hard truths with humour, heart and hope.

Join the Movement