SQUAD Presents : Code Red

Back Story  

Where did this all begin? 

Back in the Summer of 2013 a group of five young educated black males moved into the hot and humid Schroeder Hall located on Marquette University's campus located in downtown Milwaukee.

What were we doing at Marquette?

We had all be blessed with the chance to be apart of the Educational Opportunity Program offered by the university. During the summer program Michael Tayo (Me) , Brennan Wair, Deantrium King, Marshall Freeman & Eric Washington instantly clicked up based on similar interests and backgrounds.  Throughout the summer we had to take a few courses and attend various seminars to help prepare for the upcoming fall semester, and essentially getting a head start to the college life. 

A collection of massive punchlines are bars in the form of a conscious mindset...or in other words, straight fire!

Get to know the SQUAD ! Follow us on instagram.

Michael Tayo: @trilltayo
Deantrium King:  @king_standard
Eric Washington:  @w8lfofm3rquette
Marshall Freeman:  @mfreemanjr
Brennan Wair:  @b_thebarber_

How did the name SQUAD come about ?

... to be honest no one knows. The name was kinda given to us. We partied together, mentored each other, and most importantly studied together.. Those aspects are what set us apart from the rest. Our relationship definitely grew stronger towards the end of the summer, so we all decided to enroll in a diversity program called CommUNITY. This allowed us to live in the same dorm and on the same floor, that we could stay close and build as a brotherhood. The clout grew overnight. Entering the fall of 2013, as freshman, we took the Marquette campus by storm. From the hallways of McCormick to the sidewalks of Kilbourn everyone knew the 'SQUAD'. We were at all the campus events, parties and we were scholars in all of our course lectures.  We took off during freshman year and we still haven't landed. 

Code Red 

 So how did Code Red happen? 

A member of SQUAD, Eric Washington (aka Gatsby ) is also a member of a group on campus called MUsic ( ...get it Marquette University Music). Marquette MUsic's mission is to seed, develop, and promote campus based individual musicians or bands, while developing a culture of diverse musical appreciation and enthusiasm on the campus of Marquette University. Learn more about Marquette MUsic.  Gatsby would always keep us up to date on their upcoming projects and events . He informed us about their collaboration with Marquette Television and how they were looking to find different types of music for people to perform live on their show.  We saw this as a great opportunity to showcase our musical talent to the campus. The SQUAD are always freestyling, so why not ?  Code Red was ultimately a spontaneous track. Deantrium (aka 'AON' All or Nothing) found the beat and then the magic happened. We wanted the track to be more than just rap, we needed to come up with a concept that portrayed us in a positive light. The SQUAD was taking over Marquette's campus. We show up and we show out. Everywhere we go we shut it down. Its a movie when we roll through, so be alert... its a CODE RED 

Within 48 hours we had a catchy hook and three conscience verses ready, all we needed to do was get in the studio... this was the hard part. With such busy work and class schedules it was chaotic trying to get all of us in the studio at the same time. But with huge help from our sound engineer Lo, we made CODE RED. On November 16th 2016 we were the first EVER rap group ( or whatever you want to call us lol )  to perform live on Marquette University Television.  Check out CODE RED on SoundCloud and watch our live performance below!! Drop a comment and let me know what you think of our first track. 

Produced By : Syko

Mixed & Mastered By : Angelo 'Lo' David

Shout out to MARQUETTE for this opportunity. 

Michael Tayo1 Comment