Rappers of Samo

Intro: Rap is a huge part of youth pop culture and has been one of the most popular genres since its birth in the 1970’s. The first official rap group was The Sugarhill Gang, and since then there have been many influential rappers from across the country, ranging from the east coast with the Wu-Tang Clan and The Notorious B.I.G. to the west coast with 2Pac and Snoop Dogg. A handful of students at Samo have taken an interest in rapping. Those who are seriously considering a rapping career were interviewed.Judah HoganJudah Hogan (’17) discovered his passion for rap in elementary school, when his mother would force him to participate in musicals.“By being in those, I realized I hate musicals. But I liked the rap part of it,” Hogan said.“In the musical I’d play a rapper or something. So I just really got interested in performing and stuff. And so that’s what made me get into writing.”Hogan’s passion for music has been ongoing for most of his adolescent, he has been freestyling since sixth grade. Hogan wants to take his talents to a professional level.“I want to be one of the best rappers to ever been,” Hogan said. “I even want to sell out Madison Square Garden.”Hogan is dropping a mixtape in December, and he plans for that album to be the first of many. He has been releasing tracks to the drop date,. He has been working on his album, I asked him about his studio process.”I either will be at my house or go to a friends. They (friends) have a studio and I will just go and record there and most of the time we will hangout then record. Sometimes I’ll write first for material or people will give me beats and I’ll write to that,” Hogan said.As he has a simple process, he plans to start with a bang as he has high hopes for this mixtape. Although he has started his rap endeavor recently I asked about any shows he has done.“I did one concert at a party, it was really fun a lot of people came. It built my want for being a rapper as it gave me so much content with what I was doing,” Hogan said.Hogan uses rapping as his an outlet in his life and a way to express his feelings, or simply as a calming process.“For one, I love to make music and listening to it, and for me it’s a way to vent. Some people can go to a counselor or something. I can just write a song or make a beat and I can just calm down. It’s just very therapeutic.”“My friends and stuff kind of encouraged me to actually put stuff out there,” Hogan said.Thankful for the people that have encouraged him to pursue his passion, Judah is inspired by many rappers and singers, such as Joey Bada$$, Al Green, Frank Sinatra and Chance the Rapper. He is currently on Soundcloud as @jewduh and has, so far, released four songs: “Amnesia,” “Stoner Joe,” “Smoke One” and “Turnt.” “Amnesia” hit over a thousand plays in under a week, and Hogan promises more songs are coming, and that his mixtape will be big.Billy CoxFor Billy Cox (’18), rapping starting with battling. Billy would rap battle people around his neighborhood.After his father’s death, it was apparent that Cox stepped his game up.It soon became something extremly important to him. His rap started to represent more than one thing. It correlates with his state pride for Alabama. Not only did he rap for family but he rapped for the people living among and like him.“I plan on going further than anyone else from my home state,” Cox said. “I want to be the first rapper from Alabama who goes platinum, who goes on a world tour. I just want to become someone through music, that the world can remember but my state will never forget. Also to give people from city hope that they can do it too.”Cox has big goals, and his determination will take him far in the world of rap. He also uses rap to ensure that he is always the better version of himself.“I chose rapping to keep me from continuing on the bad road I was on after my dad died and before I realized it I was really good and I fell in love with making music,” Cox said.Like many other musicians, Cox’s art is an outlet for life and a way to cope with things. Although he raps because he loves making music, you can see that his rap means much more.“The person who inspires me to rap is Doe B; he's a rapper from Alabama who almost made it. He was signed to T.I. (rapper), but before he could blow up, he was killed in Alabama. I want to carry on the torch that he started,” Cox said.Cox has quite the repertoire of accomplishments in his craft as he has over 20 + songs recorded and mixed and I'm working on a new mixtape right now called “Memory Lane”. As Cox has had many songs I asked him to explain his process towards each songs. “My production is really getting the word out hard marketing I get along with all different crowds so that's a really helpful too,” Cox said. As marketing is why he has been able to make so many songs the actual production process is very interesting.“Once I have a beat that I'm going to write to, that is the easy part. Then figuring out what angle I'm going to go with is harder. I spend a day perfecting what I wrote. Once I'm in the studio recording and I'm finished, I let my producer finish mixing, which can be time consuming, so while he does that I move to the next song,” Cox said. To listen to Cox’s music, you can go on Soundcloud to @#IGM KrazyKidd.Music is a big part of almost everyone lives. It brings joy in the simplest of ways. To Judah and Billy music means even more to them as it’s how they express themselves and what they want to pursue in life. Make sure to hit up Judah and Billy on soundcloud and give them your support. Keep up the good work.