Arts, Etc.Music

ULV’s resident rapper seeks success

BMUSE, better known as Ben De Ayora, practices his flow in the radio studio. A junior at the University of La Verne, De Ayora discovered his talent as an aspiring rapper while living in Brandt Hall his freshman year. / photo by Chrissy Zehrbach
BMUSE, better known as Ben De Ayora, practices his flow in the radio studio. A junior at the University of La Verne, De Ayora discovered his talent as an aspiring rapper while living in Brandt Hall his freshman year. / photo by Chrissy Zehrbach

Amira Seyoum
Staff Writer

“B MUSE represents the idea that everyone has their own inner muse. My muse is everything around me,” 21-year-old junior Ben De Ayora said, explaining the reasoning for his rap alias.

De Ayora, a broadcasting major, is also an avid rapper who loves music, especially underground hip-hop.

He is currently working on a six track EP, which he will turn into his first demo that he will give to recording groups.

“I am half-way finished. I’ve done three tracks,” De Ayora said.

De Ayora started rapping his senior year of high school in Merced, where there is not much exposure to hip-hop. However, De Ayora discovered it through a snow boarding video.

After listening to it several times, he felt like the music had beautiful meaning.

For De Ayora, it was too good to just listen to. He had to be a part of it and began writing.

“My first time free styling I was in Brandt on the second floor and I was OK,” De Ayora said. “I really did OK, I had six or seven sentences off the top of my head.”

He then began perfecting his craft and a former University of La Verne student and friend noticed.

John Martin, De Ayora’s current manager, approached him and told him that he believed he could go far. Martin, 23, who works for the producers of the “American Pie” movies, began talking to people willing to listen to BMUSE’s demo and give his music a chance.

“He has what it takes and he just needed a little direction and I wanted to help him out,” Martin said.

“I want my music to be something that can be played and still have a soulful meaning. I am not trying to sell out,” De Ayora said.

He loves the underground hip-hop scene and that is what drew him to his passion of learning it all.

De Ayora believes that hip-hop needs a revival before it dies and he has just what they are looking for.

What makes De Ayora unique is his style.

“My vocabulary is unique,” De Ayora said. “I am very true when I rap. My rap is poetry to a beat.”

“The huge difference between radio and underground hip hop is that the lyrics are more clever and that’s what I hear with Ben,” said Matt Paulson, a 21-year-old senior, who has known De Ayora for three years. “His rhymes mean something to him and they are actually really clever to me.”

His love for hip-hop has also led him to begin a hip-hop club on campus that students can join. As the creator and president, he is proud. Now that they have a temporary advisor the club plans on getting back into action.

The club is meant not only as a forum where people can speak and listen to hip-hop, but a place where De Ayora wants to educate those who may not know where it all began.

“If I’m not big enough to make it in the music industry, I want to educate people, I want to teach hip hop,” De Ayora said. “I want to be a part of it.”

Amira Seyoum can be reached at aseyoum@ulv.edu.

Amira Seyoum
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