It can happen at any moment during the day. It can also happen at any setting, by the fountain, near the student lounge, or even at a bus stop.
A circle sometimes forms with two people taking center stage. One of them is the person who is making the beat with his or her mouth, while beating on his chest as his feet pound on the ground, sounding as if he is a drummer in a live rock band.
The human beat machine (Beat box) is just setting the tempo, while other students, one by one, freestyle their raps to the beat in ways that make the onlookers cheer, jeer, and rock their heads up and down.
There is more to Fresno City College ‘s thriving hip hop community than a freestyle rap session by student hip hopers ciphering in between classes.
Here is how the story goes:
Juicy has the center stage and he is spitting his flow talking about how great he flows, what he plans to achieve. He tells a few lies here and there, while painting a lyrical picture for the onlookers to visualize his clearly stated point of view.
Juicy verbally passes the microphone to Sticcy, who spits a different style of flow to Sound Ethic’s chiming breaking beat, while many of the female onlooker’s vibe off their hype presentation.
Not to mention that they had a video guy recording the cipher; who will more than likely take the video and put it onYoutube.
Sound Ethic explains why he loves the cipher session, “It’s fun, and it brings people together. We will be rapping and people will stop and listen; everybody in the crowd are just listening.” Sound Ethic went on to say, “Kick up a fresh beat and it draws the attention.
The four are members of a larger group called, “Game Tight Entertainment (GTE),” who all are students at FCC. Sound Ethic’s major is Accounting, Sticcy’s is Culinary Arts, and Juicy’s is Political Science.
When asked why they value going to college, Sound ethic said that he does it “to help the community and maybe, one day, help the world.”
Sound Ethic’s point was later made by an interrupting cell phone call from “Big Thighs.” She called to ask them to meet her at the Jack in the Box on Blackstone near FCC, so they could catch a ride to a performance at the Boys and Girls Club.
“We are college kids that come from different neighborhoods; we are trying to show that they can be successful,” Big Thighs said.
The culture surrounding FCC’s cipher gets thicker as the beat gets louder and the lyrical content explores another flavor because each its participants’ voices add a different aspect to its culture.
Apeezy, an FCC freshman female rapper has never preformed on stage, nor has she busted any rhymes in any of the college’s random ciphers, but she does spend plenty of time in the lab (recording studio).
Apeezy explained how she got into rapping , “My mom lives down the hall from a guy named Dennis who has a studio; I would go down there to chill…Hearing them rap inspired me to start rappin.”
Apeezy writes poetry and she comes to the Hip hop community with the philosophy that says that if she can write a good poem, then she can write a good rap as well.
Below is an excerpt of Apeezy’s flow:
When you see me on tha streets just say hello
Don’t beep your horn cuz I aint a @#$
If you wanna get to know me just ask my name.
Don’t come up to me try’n to spit yo game
Cuz I already know what you’re about
If you talk that mess Ima zone you out
J Swig prefers not to rap in any of the ciphers because he is concerned about copyright. “I sometimes want to rap in the cipher, but I don’t because people are recording, and I don’t feel that they should be recording me without my permission,” said J Swig.
J Swig spits his rap at home with his partner Mar. They both are now looking for a recording studio to drop their lyrics and beat made with Fruity Loops 8.
Mar’s story takes a different twist because his road to FCC pass through Juvenile Hall, where Mar received his high school diploma, on it.
Mar believes that going to college is a responsibility because he wants to be the first male in his family to graduate.
He also jokingly stated that he couldn’t let his sister, who is also going to college, out work him, “Whatever she can do, I can do.”
Both Young Flawle$$ and The Jag are members of a group called the West Coast Dream Team, and they can easily testify to how much work it takes to get to the light at the end of FCC’s education tunnel.
They both graduated high school back in 2000; both of them dropped out of FCC in 2001, and they both went to prison and made their way back to City College, Flawle$$ in 2008 and Jag 2009.
Flawle$$ who has a 3.6 grade average says he did that on purpose. He also will graduate after the spring semester and he says he uses school as an avenue to “learn the business aspects of what it takes to be successful in life as well a the music industry.”
Jag shed some light on his perspective of the ciphers session, and went on to speak about what goes on in a West Coast Dream Team’s studio session.
“I see the freestyles sessions…some got it, some don’t.” Jag went on to say, “People ask me to spit a little something, but that is not me. I say, go buy the album if you want to hear something, or come to the lab.”
The West Coast Dream Team’s Butter in Our Veins album can be purchased online at I tunes or Amazon mp3.
The cipher sessions are just an off shoot of what goes on in the lab where many of the rappers rock the mic with the same vigor and vocal display that many of the rappers in the cipher session have.
We have a set agenda. We push each other to the limit like a family because we don’t play; we put our blood, sweat and tears into this. We have a set agenda, so we already know what we are going to do.
Jag said, “We know who is going to jump on a particular song, or someone might have a song and say Jag you will sound good on this song… You just have to see it; the homie might say that verse is mediocre, or the homie might say that’s a keeper.”
