Joseph ‘Jo Blaq’ Macklin,
DistrKCt

Joseph ‘Jo Blaq’ Macklin, a multi-platinum Grammy award-nominated music producer, song writer, engineer, and vocal arranger, and a KC native, founded DistrKCt and the DistrKCt IS Foundation.

In 2015, Macklin was nominated for a “Best Pop Vocal” Grammy for his vocal production work on Ariana Grande’s My Everything album. He was again nominated tor two Grammys in 2016 for the vocal production on Tim Bowman’s Listen album and Jill Scott’s Woman album. Over his genre-spanning career, Macklin has worked with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Anita Baker, Justin Bieber, Cruz Beckum, Mario, Big Sean, B5, Chris Brown, 98 Degrees, Jasmine V, Next, Kendrick Lamar, B. Smyth, Evan Ross, Jordin Sparks, Shaunice, and others.

After 14 years working with top industry artists in Los Angeles, Macklin returned to his hometown in 2015 with a mission in mind: create pathways and a venue tor Kansas City youth to gain first-hand knowledge, experience, and a well-rounded foundation in various careers in the music production industry. A graduate of KCK’s Washington High School, Macklin seeks to make available industry- leading tools, techniques, and resources he and his peers did not have access to growing up here.

Since 2015, Macklin and DistrKCt have partnered with the Full Employment council and the University of Central Missouri to otter accredited training to under-served youth in Kansas City in the fields of digital media production and trades like audio engineering, performance, broadcasting, coding (C++ ), sound design and mixing, videography, music production, and more.