(upbeat music) - My name is Tim Smith.

People call me PT and I am the founder and CEO of Center of Life.

COL, or Center of Life, It's a lot of things, you know, it's everything but a bureaucracy.

I don't see COL so much as an organization, even though technically it is, I see it more of a movement We take the natural talent of the person and we connect that to opportunity and we connect the opportunity to education and we connect the education to career.

So, you know, it's a journey.

(upbeat music) KRUNK is a project that I started back in 2004 in connection with the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

And we were doing some research on what was the one single most influential thing that was, you know, impacting the lives of teens and preteens.

And that one thing was hip-hop.

♪ The KRUNK movement, no ♪ ♪ Heey ♪ ♪ We not at all rappers ♪ ♪ Heey ♪ ♪ The KRUNK movement ♪ ♪ Heey ♪ ♪ We not at all rappers ♪ - What I do here at KRUNK is I am the KRUNK coordinator, I guess you could say, basically I run KRUNK.

We was all chilling, rapping, making beats in the car.

And PT was like, yes you know, I had this idea for the KRUNK movement and I want you all to like take initiative.

And we kind of like took the idea and it exploded.

(upbeat music) - I joined KRUNK probably around 2006, 2007.

They knew I rapped.

So, you know, they heard me rapping throughout the school.

I was bad on the people and they say, "hey, you know, why don't you come join this program that we have?

We get to perform all across the city.

We going to schools and stuff like that."

(upbeat music) So then I came and I auditioned for PT.

And the rest was history.

The purpose of KRUNK is to spread a positive mental and physical health message, to be proactive in the community because KRUNK is all about people.

You know, we're all about helping people.

And we feel like people are the key to everything.

You know what I'm saying?

Being able to reach people, touch people, connect with people.

- The goal is always been to, if you want to be a star in this, then here's the place to learn how to do it so that you can go off and be that person with confidence.

CAPA is a creative and performing arts school downtown.

And not everybody gets an opportunity to go to CAPA, but everybody can try to come to KRUNK.

- KRUNK is about being you and doing what you do.

It's not about you having to be somebody else.

- As a unit and as a team all the way around COL has become stronger over the past two years.

- We're able to constantly communicate with one another, stay on top of the things, PT and COL did amazing work with the food drive that they had just like going around the community and just making sure people had meals.

You know what I mean?, hot meals that they can eat throughout the course of the pandemic.

- This is the first summer that the students were strong enough artists to be able to hold down their own shows.

Star Camp this year was adjusted around the students specifically.

This has been the first year and the first full summer where all of the rappers were females and the dancers were guys, and that's almost never been the situation.

- Like family for real, people say like, "oh yeah, that's my second family.

That's my second home."

But this is my first.

This is the place that I go where I'm like, I have nowhere else to go.

I get to express myself like any way that I want to.

I get to meet people that have the same goals and the same mindsets as me and I get to escape from wherever it is, whatever it is that I'm like running from or hiding from.

- I can get more of a family here.

I get more opportunities here.

I get a lot of positive words spoken to me in here.

So you know what I'm saying?

It's just a nice little feeling.

- I would describe the energy as peaceful.

As soon as you walked in the doors, it's just like, now we're here now.

We're not only here to work, but we're here to like enjoy ourselves and have fun.

- When you have your different like areas, your different groups.

It's like, you got you work, and then you get your family, it's like is one in the same.

I come to KRUNK nothing and like, dang, I got to go to work.

I'm like, I got to go to work.

- KRUNK means love, loyalty and dedication.

- Putting your own outlook on what's going on.

- KRUNK to me means family.

KRUNK to me means future.

- Life.

KRUNK is life.

The idea of KRUNK will remain forever.

♪ The KRUNK movement, no, we not at all rappers ♪ ♪ The KRUNK movement, no ♪ ♪ Heey ♪ ♪ We not at all rappers ♪ ♪ Heey ♪ ♪ The KRUNK movement, no ♪ ♪ Heey ♪ ♪ We not at all rappers ♪ ♪ Heey ♪ ♪The KRUNK movement, no ♪