School spirit is largely associated with dressing up in school colors and attending or participating in athletics events. This past year, senior Guilan Massoud chose to manifest his enthusiasm for his school differently—through rapping.

Massoud, who has been rapping for six years, is the first to represent Whitman in the third edition of a local music video called Moco Cypher. Produced by Kennedy high school alumni, brothers Andrew and Ramone Messam, the video showcases some of the top high school rappers in Montgomery County from Blair, Watkins Mill, Blake, Whitman, Magruder, Springbrook, Einstein and Rockville high schools.

“A cypher is a group of individual artists all together on one hip-hop beat showcasing their unique rap talents,” Andrew said.

Moco cypher plays off of this concept by having each rapper write his or her own lyrics and perform them sequentially and cyclically.

The Messams came up with the high school cypher idea as a way to expand their video production business, Kno-Effort, which is an offshoot of Black Liberty Records.

“We wanted to get the youth and the community involved with our work, while sending a positive message out,” Andrew said.

The brothers want to remind kids of the importance of working hard and staying in school, Massoud said.

The name “Kno-Effort” incorporates this message through its double meaning.

“You know and understand effort, but you do things effortlessly,” Massoud said.

The third edition of the cypher video has over 50,000 views on YouTube and WorldStarHipHop, a video-aggregating site. It was also recently featured on the local radio station, WPGC 95.5 FM, and is available on iTunes for 99 cents.

“It was especially awesome [to be on WorldStarHipHop],” Massoud said. “I watch WorldStar videos all the time, but to finally be in a video was so cool.”

The videos are more than just a fun hobby for many rappers—they’re a way to cope with the hardships in their lives.

Junior Bertram Henry, who appeared in the video from Rockville High School, enjoys rapping because it helps him sort through the issues going on in his life, he said.

“I started putting how I felt and my experiences on paper and let it all flow out,” Henry said. “I wanted people to hear my message and understand my perspective and what I’ve been dealing with as an individual.”

For the cypher video, the Messams gave the rappers a wide range of what they could write about in their eight bar verses; no profanity was allowed, and the lines had to send a positive message about the school or community.

“I just thought about all of the stuff that Whitman is associated with: blue and white, vikings, high as s*** SAT scores and being intelligent,” Massoud said. “I wrote the whole thing in like 20 minutes—it just came to me.”

When it came to filming the video, Kno-Effort sent a director to produce and film. Though Massoud was encouraged to film in places that represented Whitman, he had flexibility in deciding how to portray himself and the school.

“I wanted my part to stand out, so I tried to dress differently,” Massoud said. “That’s the most common thing people have told me about the video—like ‘hey you look different compared to the other people’— and that was my goal.”

Massoud wore a white blazer and carried a tote bag. The video featured a variety of low angle shots of Massoud high-fiving a friend while walking off of a school bus and scenes with the drumline.

Senior Colin Mitchell, a percussionist on drumline, participated in the filming of the video.

“The experience was awesome,” Mitchell said. “The director came to drum line practice and just told us to do something cool. We decided to air play our fried chicken cadence with the dances and it ended up looking great.”

Massoud appreciated that the experience shed light on county’s large amount of diversity, he said.

“The past schools that were in cypher were not a completely accurate representation of the county as a whole,” he said.

As for next year, Kno-Effort plans on continuing to expand its cyphers. Since the Messams also created a third Prince George’s county cypher video, they are considering making a rap-off video between Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. They also plan on releasing their first high school cypher movie.

Though Massoud will be graduating this year, he plans on taking a gap year before going to college to work on music, as well as pursuing an idea for a social media that will help aspiring artists promote themselves.

“[The cypher video] was definitely my most unique rapping experience,” Massoud said. “It taught me how to collaborate with others on a track and I felt like it was definitely a great experience.”

Henry agrees with Massoud.

“All of the [high school cypher rappers] got the opportunity to chase their dreams in a positive way,” Henry said. “Some of us might even make it big.”