R.H.Y.M.E x JHS 127

R.H.Y.M.E x JHS 127

Over the course of 12 weeks, students at JHS 127 in Castle Hill participated in the R.H.Y.M.E. (Rhymes Help Young Minds Excel) program—an initiative by Thrive Collective that uses hip hop music and mentoring to empower youth. Led by teaching artists Cellus Hamilton and JSWISS, the program invited students to get comfortable improvising, collaborating, rhyming on beat, speaking out amongst peers and expressing themselves creatively as tools to support wellness, personal growth, and skills they can use in their future careers.

After first participating in workshops to practice thinking on the fly and feeling the rhythm in cyphers that saw students work off of and support each other as a group, we delved deeper into creative writing skills by analyzing songs from professional rappers that demonstrated the art of storytelling and metaphors to communicate messages from their unique perspectives. We then had the students practice this by writing their own raps, as well as mock commercials about something they’re each passionate about.

Through the creation of their song and music video “Summer” students collectively came to a consensus to choose an instrumental that they liked, brainstormed ideas for a topic, wrote lyrics separately or in pairs, worked together to figure out how to best organize the sections of the song, and then supported each other as they recorded their parts. The students then led the creative direction of the music video that included props and an appearance from the assistant principal, also led the creative directions for the song cover art. By the end of the program, the students not only put together a conceptual, cohesive and catchy song, they were also able to participate in an advanced end-of-program cypher, thinking of entire rhymes to a beat, with everyone contributing.

The R.H.Y.M.E. program pushed students to use their imagination, understand and utilize literary techniques employed through music, and collaborate with their peers to reach a common goal.

Special thanks to Councilwoman Amanda Farias for making this project possible.

Special thanks to recording artist John Robinson for donating the instrumental.

Thank you JHS students and staff! Video shot by Cellus Hamilton and JSWISS and edited by Eric Mason.