It is no secret that in the current youth generation, rap music is by far the most widely listened of the genres. In recent years, there have been several young and rising stars that have become icons to young people; from XxxTentacion to Travis Scott, a door has been open to a wide majority of Generation Z and has attracted them to chase after these overnight successes. With music artists building a strong connection with the young generation, it has inspired them to follow in the footsteps of their role models. At Manheim Township High School, there are a number of creative and passionate students who rap in their spare time. With only being in high school, they are willing to showcase their talent to the student body, and possibly make it to the big stage one day as other rappers have.

“The Durag!” as Mr. Sassaman likes to call him. Tylil Jackson, a junior, is among the group of high school rappers who started his career this school year. When he was beginning, he did not go by a nickname. Then he tried experimenting; he went from terms such as “Lil Penz” until he decided the name “Lil Durag” fit him perfectly. His inspiration for this comes from his long time support for “Ski Mask the Slump God,” who has the signature look of wearing a velvet durag. Aside from this rapper, Tylil has developed a love for the late XxxTentacion, or Jahseh Onfroy. Onfroy grew in popularity after he released his song “Look At Me” in 2017. Tyli’s fandom only grew after he was fatally shot in June of 2018. While well-known rappers make music to express their feelings, political woes and desires, Tylil only wanted to make music to bring humor to other people. So it is true: out of his nearly 15 released songs, half of them are based off of events that occurred this school year that brought drama to students. Instead of causing more drama, he wants to pull the humor out of them. All the ideas for these songs come from one place: “my brain.” To compose these ideas, Tylil does not have a big studio setup, but gets through by using several apps on his phone. According to him, managing this is easy on top of his school work and job at Burger King. “Lil Durag” is focused on the future, and hopes to be well known one day so that other people know to never give up on their dreams, because he never did. As he continues to make the climb, his only advice to himself is by never giving up on his dreams.

“Straight Outta Lititz,” Jackson Conte’s shirt reads. In the music world though, he goes by “JVC.” These letters stand for the initials of his name. Growing up, Jackson was active on social media and began to grow a love for the up and coming rappers “Migos,” “Lil Uzi Vert” and several other popular artists in the rap industry. As he became more aware of rap, peers of his started making music and uploading it on Soundcloud, a popular, free service for anyone to upload their own music. Jackson wanted to give it a shot, so he decided to write his first song. This occurred over a year ago. The inspiration for his music comes from a variety of messages rap music. With this, he also is trying to grow a following by making these songs like the current genre of hip hop. JVC will admit he has made some good songs in his short time, but also is not afraid to criticize himself over songs he could have spent more time writing. “It’s not that hard,” he confesses. However, Jackson does not want a career in the music industry. While it is a side hustle he enjoys in his spare time, he does not see the end goal as making rap music for as a career. Jackson has developed a friend group that has the same talent he does, and often collaborates to make music with the group. The trade-off to this was that he was able to grow a following among people in the school. Jackson believes that to be a successful rap artist, one must speak to their audience. He understands that if you do this, the music will tell a story and develop a diverse amount of flow with his followers. JVC does not plan on being the next star of his time, however many other famous rap artists did not, either.

With his hair cut low and waves in check, Tyler Brown is not new to the music industry. “FgnWavy” is the name he goes by, representing the friend group he is apart of, “Fgn,” and just to fit his style. On Tyler’s own time, he follows the well-known A Boogie, along with a handful of underground artists who seek the top. As he uploads his music on Soundcloud, the best part of the job is that he gets to be his own boss and make music that inspires only him. Rap has always been appealing to Tyler and the hunger grew inside of his head to become apart of the rap artist community nearly two years ago. Much of the inspiration is drawn from when he is in a “bad mood,” as Tyler describes, because having a negative attitude helps his music to have a positive impact. As he wants to gain more views on his songs, Tyler is focused on being serious about the music that comes from FI studio. Tyler describes the balance of school, life and a music career as being  hard at times, however, in his own words, “I get it done.” The ultimate goal for the young artist is to turn this into a full time career that he can hopefully live off of. Tyler does not do it for the money, he does it for the experience and construction of his musical talent. For now, Tyler plans on keeping his dedication and commitment to his music, because he sees this as the only way to become what he dreams of: becoming one of the few who succeed.

These three rappers are among the handful of students in Manheim Township High School that have an ambitious talent that they want to take full advantage of. All three of these artists have not given up, and they do not plan to anytime soon. The action of not giving up has been said by many memorable people in all of history, many who achieved greatness. With this in mind, Manheim Township students seem to already be on the path of chasing this greatness that has been represented for so long.