Bryan Echols says he’s in the business of saving souls—figuratively speaking, that is.

Echols hopes this summer that successful black men such as hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco, Bad Boy Entertainment CEO Sean “Diddy” Combs and Glenn Martin, vice president of Fortune Society Inc., will prove to be a new kind of salvation for Chicago’s youth. 

These high-profile figures will appear in a new documentary, “Bring Your ‘A’ Game,” that will be shown in community clubs and other Chicago venues before debuting on BET in September.

Echols, the executive director of the Woodlawn-based Metropolitan Area Group for Igniting Civilization, also known as MAGIC, is working with other community groups to use the movie to bring a message of resilience and hope to black youths in Chicago.

“Bring Your ‘A’ Game” is a documentary that came out of the 2025 Campaign for Black Men and Boys, an initiative that aims to improve the social and economic situation for black males by the year 2025. The 22-minute film features the stories of prominent black figures that were able to raise themselves out of poverty.

Christopher Hightower, 21, an organizer with the Southwest Youth Collaborative, says five issues that black males often struggle with drive the need for a documentary like “Bring Your ‘A’ Game”: education, health care, economic development, criminal justice and fatherhood.

“I’m actually a young father myself,” says Hightower, who has a 4-year-old daughter. “All of these issues were just bothering me because it seemed like no one around me, like none of my friends, really noticed what’s going on, that we were lacking so much. I just feel like we really need to educate the youth and people in the community.”

Sheldon Smith, 20, grew up in Woodlawn and says “Bring Your ‘A’ Game” is different than your average motivational video.

“The ‘“A” Game’ video was actually a great mentoring video for youth in general to educate them to become CEOs and wealthy people in the world instead of just average citizens walking around doing nothing with their lives,” Smith says.

Smith, who was incarcerated at 17 for armed robbery, became involved with MAGIC after he finished his six-month sentence and is now one of its lead organizers. He says the video is especially relevant for black youth in Chicago who are from impoverished backgrounds.

“When you’re from a low-income neighborhood, and all your life, all you’ve ever seen was—nothing, too much of nothing,” Smith says. “Mices, roaches, people that talk with no English or just steady use of bad English, then soon you will adapt to that.” A big part of the initiative is to introduce the youth to a different way of living and thinking, including the way they can speak and dress for success.

Echols adds that fear of the unknown plays a major role in why impoverished black youth do not strive to do more because they have never seen black men in successful business positions.

“I may not know what a traditional CEO is, because I’ve never seen what a traditional CEO is,” Echols says. “But I know what a hustler is. And a hustler and a CEO are very close cousins. They’re the same individuals—they’re trying to build an empire. I believe the ‘“A” Game’ has the platform for discussion to transition wannabe-hustlers to wannabe-CEOs.”

Even though Echols says the video doesn’t have all the answers, he thinks it’s an effective platform to stimulate conversation and inspire black youth to have higher aspirations.

“I’m very optimistic, extremely optimistic,” Echols says.