The Boys’ Asa Peters Takes Hip Hop at Conn from the Underground to the Limelight with His Expertly Produced Diss Tracks

There’s a game to Conn’s music scene and it’s ‘dysfunction.’ Some of it’s right in your face with the clean organization of the Music Department and MOBROC. Some is buried deep in the dorm rooms of noisy neighbors or someone who likes to sing in the shower. Just like any artists who live underground, the musicians have layers of talent and potential. A layer I would like to peel back is that of the Asa Peters ‘19 who is a co-creator of a rap-diss-collective called The Boys that records in the basement of Cummings.

In the basement of Cummings, you will find all the equipment necessary for a productive studio session. A group of students studies for exams, cracks jokes, refreshes their social media feeds while writing raps to a looped beat crafted by Peters. The words cool and groovy fail to describe the intensity he brings to a project. As a double major in Botany and Music and Tech, Peters’ involvement with music began when he was 8 years old and first picked up the saxophone. He has since expanded his music skills to include producing, which he has done for a total of four years. Peters can also play a selection of other instruments such as flute, piano, and drums. But his main baby is the alto saxophone. I wonder what type of relationship Peters may have with music in order to craft the soundscapes that he feels?

Fascinatingly enough, Asa describes music as sight. “Another relationship I have with music is how I relate objects to sound [which] subconsciously creates images in my mind.” When I first heard how Asa explains how he relates sound to images, I couldn’t grasp the idea of it. Memories come to mind when I listen to music, so the idea of your brain sending you Snapchat messages of how it visualizes sound is cool.

When I asked Peters about the music scene here at Conn, he observes that you can definitely find people who are heavily involved in music inside the classrooms of Cummings. However, Peters points out how, in relation to other genres performed on campus, hip hop has taken an underground approach. There aren’t any organizations on campus centered on the genre of hip hop, despite it being the most popular genre in the world, so the musicians interested in the genre lack significant resources to invite creative persons and help build community, like you might find for other genres on campus through MOBROC and the Music Department. Peters also collaborated with MOBROC rock band Montreal Protocol in 2015.

Peters points out how hip hop collaboration on campus is usually by word of mouth.  Any entity of Hip Hop is usually found as an extension among musicians on campus, not their main focus of genre. It’s an “if you know, then you know” sort of thing. When I sat down with Peters the other night, I was curious to find out how the rap beefs his collective is known for started. “The beefs started one night my junior year, we were all kicking back and my friend, Jake, fired a roast at me one night which made me a lil emotional so I fired a spicy track right back.” This has inspired the glorious rap battle between Nate Devine ‘19 and Elijah Pineda ‘19 for almost two years. The battle between Devine and Pineda is an extension of the music competition among the gents of Winch 11, according to Peters. “I produce the diss-tracks for Nate and Elijah acting as a neutral party and the other guys do the same. . . The rap feud between me and Jake set the precedent for Nate and Elijah,” Peters says. It doesn’t matter which side you pick in the Winch 11 battle; anyone can get the smoke.

Being a fan of hip hop and R&B artist D’Angelo’s work, I asked Peters how he feels as a producer on rap. “I think it’s really cool,” he says. “I always freestyle to my beats. Vocals can really change the way you hear a beat with flows and the way you punctuate words. I haven’t made anything with much meaning yet but I will say my flow is infectious.” •