The influence of the hip-hop culture is a unique experience to behold. From its infancy, rapping has been an avenue for artists to express a dominating ideology of their city or home.
Kooley High is a group of rappers that are known to promote the classic Hip-Hop scene in Raleigh, but bring a cool swoop of current up-to-date quality.
The group is comprised of six Raleigh natives who met at N.C . State. In an area where rapping wasn’t a common thing to see at a music venue, the members of Kooley High originally began by hanging out at events hosted by the former N.C . State student group H2O .
The group brought awareness to the small hip-hop community, which was underground at the time, through rap shows that would fill the Bragaw Residential Hall student lounge.
“We had some pretty epic parties,” Thomas Kevin, known as Foolery, said. “When we started performing there wasn’t a whole lot of live Hip-Hop going on,” Kevin said. “We just kept doing shows and creating a fan-base, but a lot of talent coming from young cats was showing up.”
From the beginning they had seen friends succeed in music, like producers 9th Wonder and Khrysis .
Seeing this success made dreams of having a place in the music industry seem more possible.
“I used to just make music in the dorms all the time man,” Alexander Thompson, also known as Charlie Smarts, said, “but actually doing it and seeing people around me do it made it so much easier.”
Thompson, like all the other members of Kooley High, is originally from North Carolina and an N.C . State alum. They all graduated from different colleges within the University and do not regret their experience. Like most other artists out of Raleigh, all of the members of Kooley High attained college degrees. The degrees are coming in handy; James Meyer, the DJ for Kooley High, also known as DJ Ill Digitz , runs the online store and helps with funds, band production and marketing.
“A lot of people who are out and have graduated from college lament that they aren’t using their degree,” Meyer said, “but I use it everyday in the day to day operations in networking, and with the business managment degree you learn about accounting, inventory and business planning, forecasting and all that.”
Meyer helped run the Kooley High’s blog as well, which has been getting so popular that other artists started requesting if they can put their own stuff on the blog, almost as a stamp of approval from Kooley High to help promote them.
The gang has reached new heights, being one of the few hip-hop collective groups whose members have diverse backgrounds making them more relatable to fans.
“We’ve created a balance and another outlet for hip hop,” Marlana Evans, also known as Rapsody , said. Evans is the only female member of the group. “You know we’re different; we have boys and girls, different races,” Evans said. “We just make fun music so people can actually have fun.”
Meyer, Thompson, and other band members Thomas Kevin, also known as Foolery O’Kooley , and artist Tab-One, moved to Brooklyn as a result of Kooley High’s rapid growth. After a year, Kevin and Tab-One moved back to North Carolina. The move to New York will allow the artists to work in music, with Kooley High as their main project, giving their following a boost. From being seen on television in the U.S ., to being debuted on Canada’s MuchMusic channel, this group is on the rise.
