Yazi Ferrufino sensed that there was a creative soul around every corner in Boston. In 2024, they even started walking along Newbury and Boylston, asking passersby, Do you have a friend who makes music?
A simple video of that outing blew up and became the foundation of Ferrufino’s artists and repertoire group that brings a new approach to music discovery. Unlike most other outfits in this lane, The People’s A&R is out to build the actual connections that lead to artist awareness.
In transient Boston, where people are constantly moving for new jobs and schools and cheaper rent, connections matter. This music scene is also always shifting, but Ferrufino sees this as an actual advantage, an opportunity even.
“We have so many different types of people, cultures, influences, skill levels, and backgrounds coming into the city,” they said in a recent interview. “We have to make use of that rather than look at it as something temporary. …
“I’m not sure what the Boston sound will be like a few years from now, but I think it’s going to be something really unique if we’re able to look at being a transplant city as an advantage.”
Camera after college
Ferrufino grew up in Arlington, and in 2013 left home for Drexel University in Philadelphia to major in environmental science.
“I didn’t really have any interest in art at that time in my life,” they said. “I was really into trying to figure out a way to help communities around the world.”
It wasn’t until 2015, after leaving Drexel and moving back to Boston, that they picked up a camera. Out of boredom, Ferrufino started doing street photography during a blizzard, and came to fully embrace the form in a short time.
After shooting the Front Bottoms at Boston Calling in 2016, they became particularly drawn to music photography. That experience opened doors, including touring with bands like Disclosure and photographing pop stars including Billie Eilish.
“It was the first time I really felt the energy of a sold-out crowd,” they said about photographing Eilish. “That was the first time I cried behind the camera on stage.”
A great day in Boston
In 2017, the City of Boston engaged Ferrufino about a grant to pursue a photography passion project. It was called “A Great Day in Boston,” based on the iconic 1958 photo “A Great Day in Harlem.” Shot by the great Art Kane, the original is widely regarded as one of the most iconic photographs in jazz history, featuring nearly 60 jazz musicians on a New York stoop.
Ferrufino’s project would be split into three sections: Boston’s hip-hop scene, a photo installation in the Boston Common, and then, finally, a music festival. But the grant fell through, the opportunity vanished. They abandoned that concept, but “A Great Day in Boston” nonetheless helped foster a shift in passion—from merely documenting music scenes, to actively participating in them.
“[Quarantine] made me reflect on my passions growing up and what I love within music,” Ferrufino recalled. “There was a lot more that I listened to personally, and I was like, Why am I not involved in these communities, actually?”
Around the time they found that passion, Ferrufino discovered That Good Sh*t, an Instagram account and platform covering the underground music scenes in New York and Los Angeles. They wanted to pursue something similar close to home, but understood that first they had to find their footing within Boston’s unique scenes.
“I basically just spent the first two years fully trying to immerse myself in every single subculture I could find in Boston, which allowed me to start creating friendships and find little pockets of community within every sector.” Ferrufino said the approach gave them a unique advantage: “I knew that nobody could really replicate it, even if they tried.”
Becoming The People’s A&R
After several years of immersion and relationship-building, “A Great Day in Boston” became The People’s A&R. The organization connects artists across genres with free marketing and event-production resources, and helps amateur photographers enter the music industry.
“We have the resources; we just don’t share them, which is why it feels like, to a lot of people, that there aren’t enough resources,” Ferrufino said of Boston’s DIY communities. “It’s really up to us to take advantage of [the resources] and help each other. We can’t do that if we don’t know each other.”
A lot of Ferrufino’s engagement techniques speak to this challenge. Their “Do you have a friend who makes music?” clips are based on the social media series “Do You Make Music?” by Discovering Artists. They added the keyword “friend” to bring the videos closer to home. The goal is to support local artists, but also just to generally reinforce the scene’s tightness and genuine friendships.
New edition
Adriana Arguijo is a professional photographer who has spent a decade doing event photography and portraiture. She became drawn to highlighting local underground music after seeing The People’s A&R’s work and decided she wanted to get involved.
“When bigger artists come here, of course it’s fun and engaging, but it’s not people who actually live in the city and connect with each other,” Arguijo said. As she sees it, The People’s A&R has generated always-needed exposure to more of Boston’s fringe scenes.
“I do feel like the work … is breaking that idea that there’s a limit to how much connection you’re able to make, or how much you’re able to grow and learn from different scenes,” she added. “I feel like that’s really important from a human growth perspective, to expose yourself to things that you might not be familiar with. I feel like we can learn a lot from each other when we open up different opportunities.”
One way they teach and learn is through the organization’s magazine, Collectors Edition. It’s an “artist-forward” publication, with each issue revolving around one show framed as a “piece of Boston music history.” Subjects are asked to shout out their favorite local artists and businesses.
According to Leila Lamb, a pop artist and founder of the party collective gLAMB cage, Ferrufino’s impact is significant.
“I think Boston is very lucky to have Yazi, even if Boston doesn’t know it, because this is a person who loves their city and is willing to put all of themself into it in a way that I think is very rare,” Lamb said. “They renamed themselves to The People’s A&R because it’s the truth—they want to find creativity and artistry wherever it exists in the city, and they want the whole world to know about it.”
Lamb’s working relationship with Ferrufino began in 2025, after they offered her a free photoshoot. The two began working closely together, with Lamb inviting Ferrufino to her shows. She said the experience has pushed her to not only be a better artist, but a more involved member of the vibrant underground community.
“It’s just something that I greatly admire,” Lamb said tearfully. “I feel very lucky to know them, and I wish that more places had somebody like them.”
Follow The People’s A&R here.
