The contest’s mission is to empower students ages 13 to 18 to code their own song for the chance to meet Ciara via a video call and win up to $10,000 in tech prizes that will help inspire and further their dreams.

“And so it just made sense that it would be here and now.”īlack Girls Code, a nonprofit dedicated to computer science education for Black girls and gender nonconforming youth, announced the launch of the nationwide contest, “Build a Beat Challenge with Ciara,” earlier this month to spark a musical coding revolution.

“Of course, when we talk about girls making beats and the technology to further their efforts in music production, that’s right up my alley!” MC Lyte tells Us Weekly exclusively.

Iconic rapper MC Lyte has been a pioneering female force behind the mic for over three decades, and she’s now inspiring a new generation of young coders to trailblaze the next path of music industry creatives with Black Girls Code’s latest contest, “ Build a Beat Challenge With Ciara.”

Gifts for coders