“I just remember always being into rap music,” said Kosi Bunguy, a member of the Palomar College based rap group, WavPhilez.

Located in USU 3300, CSUSM’s Latin@ Center hosted their first ever Rappers Corner on Oct. 19. The theme behind the Rappers Corner is rooted within constructive and empowering freestyle rapping. The corner hosts planned performers but also welcomed any attendees to take a shot at laying down their own verses.

Interim Associate Director, Andres Favela welcomed attendees and introduced himself before giving the floor to Student Assistant, Ana Cardenas Benitez, who shared information on the services that the Latin@ center provides for students including free printing, scholarship information and peer coaching.

Favela then introduced Bryan “Dr. Peppa” Hernandez, a first-year transfer student from Palomar College who created the idea for Rappers Corner.

For Hernandez and company, expressing a positive message through rap is important to do in the midst of some rap artists whose content focuses on suggestive material and explicit themes.

Joining Hernandez and Bunguy was Judah “Good Savage” El, another member of WavPhilez and Braxton Marcellous, a musician. The three began to freestyle for attendees and eventually performed a new song titled, “Soulfood.”

A student asked what got the group into music. El started off with poetry before starting to rap around the age of 15. Bunguy talked about how rap connected with him and even though he listens to several other genres of music, rap/hip-hop always stuck out to him. Hernandez started performing music by singing blues, jazz and reggae, and started getting into rap earlier this March.

The Latin@ Center will be hosting their next event, My Undocumented Life, on Oct. 26 which will stage a presentation of undocumented student experiences.