Ran$om, known by most as junior Jamal Dyar, has recently released his second debut single “Drive Slow.” Dyar’s rap style is unique. He raps about his daily lifestyle and how life is for teenagers in today’s society.

Dyar refers to himself as a “lyrical politician rapper” who raps about certain situations that relate to his life as a teenager. One example of this is a line in one of Dyar’s songs: “Dignified feel like my school is an institution/ Run experiments on us just to figure out evolution/ My mom don’t believe in the industry/ Telling me the rap game already got 10 of me.”

Dyar has been writing rhymes since the age of 13, originally writing spoken word and eventually moving into rap. One of the influences that affected his decision to start writing rap was his long-time friend Daniel, “also known as Precise.”

Dyar’s rapping style is not what you would usually hear on the radio. “I rap about things that are on my mind at the time and what’s going on in the world, right then and there,” said Dyar, referring to his raps more underground.

Dyar has big dreams: he hopes to one day “get signed over to an individual label if possible.” If this happens, Dyar he said he would “remain underground” simply because because that is his style of rapping.

“Mainstream rap is mainly focused on beats,” explained Dyar, voicing his dislike for rap produced by major labels, “whereas underground is focused on lyrics and actually MCing.”

Dyar believes that most modern day mainstream rappers aren’t MCs, because “to be an MC you must have a knowledge of what’s going in society and be able to feel everyone’s perspective, whereas in [mainstream] rapping you can just rap about clothes and being famous.”

Dyar has been receiving mixed emotions from the South community regarding his raps. “[It’s] mainly good feedback, I’d say,” said Dyar, “mainly a lot of people like my stuff, there are a few haters, but I couldn’t care less what they have to say.” This ‘rise above it’ attitude results from Dyar’s belief that bad feedback based on grudges should be ignored.

Sophomore Alex Smith isn’t a fan of Dyar’s music. He criticizes one of Dyar’s songs by insisting that “the beat was a copy off of another song… [and] the gist of it was that ‘I’m not going to donate money to people overseas.’ The whole thing was a little off.”

“Maybe I don’t have too much room to say, because it is kind of personal,” Smith continued, “but he doesn’t need to get cocky and blow up about it.”

Dyar’s close friend junior Keanu Vorachit is a large supporter of his music. Calling himself Dyar’s “unofficial manager,” Vorachit initially rapped alongside Dyar before moving into a more managerial position. He explains that he enjoys Dyar’s music because “it is feel good music and sounds different.”

Dyar has another single, “Rubes and Crooks,” releasing soon, “which will hopefully be produced by [local producer] St. Paul Slim, if all goes good,” he said.