His name is Steven Hintz. He almost always wears jeans and a t-shirt, and a big smile on his face. And whenever he’s at Langley, he usually wears something else as well: the rapper title “White Noiz.”

Hintz skyrocketed to prominence at Langley after his performance at the Beat McLean pep rally, but he has been rapping since age 13. He first became interested in the art when he heard the song “Mocking” by Eminem, and decided to try writing his own songs.

“I figured I could do it too,” said Hintz. “At first, it was just a hobby. But once high school hit, I began getting more popular, and people started asking me to rap for them in the halls all the time.”

His rapper name, White Noiz, originated when he was reciting one of his earliest raps to his neighbor. “My neighbor looked at me and said, ‘You’re white, and all I hear is noise.’ And that’s where I got the name,” said Hintz.

He describes his style as versatile; his songs are about everything from the issues he sees around him, to his environment, to his personal life. He is extremely devoted to rap, spending about four or five hours each Saturday and Sunday writing lyrics in order to perfect them.

“Why freestyle something in two seconds that will not sound good, when you can take your time and make a masterpiece?” he reasoned. “I try to think of lots of different phrases and metaphors, to add variety to my raps. I also try to rhyme more than one syllable at a time – for example, instead of ‘bark’ and ‘spark,’ I’ll say ‘loud bark’ and ‘now spark.’”

Hintz’s biggest performance so far has been his appearance at the winter pep rally. It originated when English teacher Ms. Sandra Hamilton noticed his talent for rapping and helped get him the connections he needed to appear in the rally.

Hintz spent about two weeks writing and preparing for his school-wide debut. “I wasn’t that nervous. The only hard part was having to rap to both sides of the gym, because I wasn’t prepared for that. But it was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.”

In the future, Hintz hopes to expand his reach beyond the halls of Langley and perform in the community. “I’m definitely going to keep rapping all through high school,” he said. “When I’m rapping and I can tell that people are liking it or relating to me, it’s the best feeling ever.”