Hypel

Raised and residing in the north side of the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the young microphone controller and street poet, Leonard Searcy, known by the stage name of Hypel, (an acronym standing for Hope, Youth, Power and Everlasting Life), is making his mark on the world of music and hip hop with an extended idea of the age-old art of storytelling. No doubt there is current hip hop artists out in the present day who have the ability to tell a story in a song. The difference is that Hypel approaches songs as chapters within a large story that sums up by the final track of a project. This entails the skills of blending intelligent and conscious hip hop lyricism into songs that can appeal individually and also come together to create a exciting and suspenseful listening experience. Touching on topics of a fatherless home, domestic abuse, street life and love, Hypel expands the idea of hip hop and rap, and helps dispel the notion to the world that M.Cs are simply "just rapping".

His debut album entitled My Name Is Hypel, This is My Story has been a project 4 years in the making, including planning, writing and actual recording and production of songs. Writing and conceptual ideas began around 2004 and Hypel began recording the album in 2006. The album will be a completed story of the character named Hypel, and the different events happening in a frame of time in his life, from finding his first true love to a near death experience after fleeing an accidental murder. Sounds juicy already right? The album was slated for an August 2008 release in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area and for the rest of the world, yet has currently been pushed back until further notice.