Rapper, Entertainer, and Entrepreneur Killer Mike teamed up with Tito’s hand crafted spirits to raise money for the Georgia Construction Careers “YouthBuild” program. Recently, Mike and his team were kind enough to host an event to raise awareness about the importance of learning a skilled trade.

“I’m from a family of tradespeople and union guys, so that’s what raised me, essentially,” says Killer Mike. “The trades guys on my street, that’s who had the nice cars, that’s whose family was well taken care of.”

YouthBuild is a pre-apprenticeship program for at-risk young people to come in, learn about all areas of construction, and then pick a direction based on that interest. Once a graduate of YouthBuild, a young person has their pick of one of 14 different trade affiliates in which to go to work.

Mike and his crew felt like the best way to get the word out in the community was to host the event at ‘The Swag Shop’, a barbershop in EastPoint. “A lot of times the Barbershop is the center of activity in our community. We talk about important things here, and this is important. It’s almost like therapy.”

Tito’s donated $20,000 to YouthBuild which will be used to fund an interactive construction trailer to teach young people about the trades and a bring hand-on experience out to the schools and community at large.