DiverCity is trying to redefine what it means to be a highschool rap group. The Group was founded by young artists, Patrick Bui ‘19 and Liam Nicholson ‘18 in the basement of Nicholson’s parents’ house. The Little Hawk sat down with Bui and Douglas Tran ‘19 to talk about their up and coming rap collective out of Iowa City; DiverCity. Other members include City High student Andrew Tribbey ‘19, former Little Hawk Quinton Runge ‘19, and City alumnus Liam Nicholson ’18.

The group’s frontman, Bui, recalls when the group began.

“It was the end of sophomore year, we were in Liam’s basement, and we decided to start something. The original members were me, Liam, and Quinton,” Bui said.

This led to their first EP, “Latemix” which included four tracks that strung over 12 minutes long.

Bui cites the group’s inspiration as a variety of different hip hop artists, although his personal favorites are rappers Skizzy Mars and G Eazy, who he says were introduced to him via his brother. Tran states the Weeknd as his major inspiration. They credit these artists mainly for how they choose their beats and production.

Tran feels an important part of their group is the core theme of their music.

“It’s more of what the diverse group represents,” Tran said. “People of all different backgrounds coming together to make some different music.”

This theme is emphasized by their group name, DiverCity, to highlight how diverse their members are in both race and background. Tran also touched on how they plan to stand out in a competitive soundcloud rap scene and make their original sound heard.

“We’re trying to represent everyone. Trying to have a deeper meaning, and to actually be able to listen to the messages we’re trying to get across,” Tran said.

Regarding the group’s future, they’ve recently moved onto more solo material, but says a new project could soon be in the works. Now that the group has grown, they’ve also raised their production value and hope to participate in a live event. However, as of now, they don’t have plans to continue Divercity after they graduate.

“I think DiverCity will just be a high school thing. We’re just planning to do solo stuff after high school,” Bui said.

Their music can be found on Soundcloud, Apple Music, and Spotify.