Story by Jeremy Kohn
Inside the confines of 2500 S. Washington St. in REO Town, Lansing lies a haven. A haven for people who enter its doors to experience the culture of hip hop in a positive environment. The leader behind this progressive movement known as All of The Above Hip Hop Academy, (A.O.T.A) is one Tyson Pumphrey, also known as Ozay Moore.
Moore’s journey leading to A.O.T.A. came through a wanderlust series of events, one of which was meeting Moore’s future wife in Portland, Oregon.
“We got engaged and she wanted to be close to her family,” Moore said. “I moved here (Michigan) in March of 2006 and attempted to move back to the Northwest in 2008 — and then quickly realized that in terms of quality of life, resources, community and family, that Lansing is where we needed to be.”
Another stepping stone for A.O.T.A. was Moore’s work in the Detroit public school systems.
“I met a guy named Chris Johnson, a trumpet player doing jazz studies at MSU. He connected with an old band director he had in Southfield, and they started brainstorming ways to get back into the school through music.”
Johnson posed a question to Moore about collaborating together on a project.
“What do you think about merging hip hop and jazz and doing these youth activities and curriculum support assemblies?,” he said to Moore.
Moore agreed and the two musicians used their musical talents to create educational rap songs for Inkster Public Schools.
“It was almost like a modern-day School House Rock,” Moore said. “It was called the Learning Express. We wrote original material about the planets, writing traits, math concepts, recycling concepts — you name it.”
Moore loved mentoring, but the commute to and from Lansing was starting to take a toll on him.
“I started brainstorming what would it would look like if we brought hip hop to academic spaces or the college — Residential College for Arts and Humanities — MSU or even the local public schools,” Moore said. “That was the seed planted to what All of The Above Hip Hop Academy would become.”
When trying to sell his vision, Moore found some people saw only the negative side of hip hop.
“When I would go into conversations, and say, ‘I want to figure out a way of having positive social outcomes through hip hop culture — depending on who I was talking to, some people who were familiar with your Public Enemy, your De La’s, and your Tribes, and familiar with the concept of positive social consciousness through hip hop, I didn’t have to explain it,“‘ Moore said.
“It was people who were not involved in youth development, where the funding streams were who were like … ‘pump the brakes you keep saying hip hop, all I know about hip hop is misogyny and violence,’” Moore added.
In the early days of A.O.T.A.,Moore explains they didn’t really have a space. Some of the places where they set up shop included Edgewood Park, The Oakpark Y.M.C.A, and REO Town.
“We were a bunch of ragtag artists, and educators in the beginning,” Moore said.
Some of the people who were essential in the growth according to Moore, were James Gardin, Sareem Poems, Rayshawn Grissom, and Shondel Brandon. Moore also thanks their board members: Rashad Muhammed (board president), Joseph Mole (treasurer), Erik Scogsberg ( former vice president), and Suban Cooley (board member).
With the help of the local community, A.O.T.A became a 501c3 non-profit organization, with a mission.
“A.T.O.A. is about mentoring youth, supporting artistic expression, and serving our community as a hip hop cultural resource,” Moore said.
A.O.T.A practices these principles through workshops, classes and events. The art of beat-making, writing rhymes, graffiti -tagging and break-dancing are taught to the youth.
“We do breaking classes at the Cadillac Room, and we do B.A.R.S. (Beats and Rhyme Sessions) at our headquarters,” Moore said.
A.O.T.A. mentors Lansing School District students at Eastern and Sexton High School.
“When someone puts together a great song, or figures out how to program the drums the way they want to,or booked their first show … we get to revisit those feelings that we had when we had our first taste of tangible growth,” Moore said.
Recently, the hip hop activist has taken a backseat to teaching, balancing family life and a leadership role.
“I love teaching,” Moore said. “We have great teachers already … we have James, and Y’z– just excellent class facilitators. My role is best served in administrative support and organizational support.”
All of the Above is a place where young artists can develop themselves such as Mikeyy Austin.
“Everybody was a mentor to him, and he was taking that information, and applying it immediately.”
Moore reflects on some of the organization’s successes, after celebrating 10 years.
“Last year was a big year for All of the Above Hip Hop,” Moore said, “We got to M.C. and facilitate the State of the City for the Mayor. The city has been really supportive of us, we did the mural festival Below The Stacks, alongside a fellow A.O. T. A. creative member who has his own program called Muralmatics.”
“It’s ongoing every time we turn around, there is something memorable that happens,” Moore said. “2019, everything just kind of elevated to a different level … I don’t know if that translates through social media. People are starting to ask more questions about what we are doing and how we are doing it.”
The A.O.T. A. ringleader explains what’s is in the works for 2020.
“We had a strategic planning meeting at the end of the year,”he said. “It’s about recreating and building upon last year. Utilizing our 2019 Fresh class group, establishing this place as a centralized location for hip hop culture … community building, and more events … I am doing this Rakim show, which is crazy.”
This is the beginning of an ongoing series highlighting the All of The Above Hip Hop Academy. Stay Tuned …
The Palm Reader 