Buzz-Worthy Kids: Young Doll Hairs

CONLEY, HOBBES, GOMEZ & KADO

BY CHRIS SHANNON
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz

Before gaining notoriety for their “Attendance Rap” video, the Young Doll Hairs tackled an even more intimidating subject:

Calculus.

The creators of the NTV Calculus Rap video – Brandon Kado and Tobias Gomez – both take calculus at Natomas High School and were inspired to record their own song after viewing a series of videos about the subject.

“We were watching videos in our teacher Ms. Hennessy’s class,” said Gomez. “She starts showing us videos of people rapping and we were like, ‘we could make so many better videos than this’.”

To complete the ensemble, Kado and Gomez were joined by Michael Conley, who collaborated with them on an earlier video, and DJ Hobbes.

“We already had Conley with us from the weather (video),” said Kado. “We needed someone who’s probably going to be good at rapping or someone really popular that can really bring in a crowd. So we got DJ Hobbes to do it as well.”

BRANDON KADO

“That’s kind of how the whole Calculus Rap came about; from there on we just winged it.”

Kado and Gomez were able to give their video a realistic feel by filming during their calculus workdays and TV Occupations class.

Both students wanted to song and video to focus on academics while keeping things light and humorous.

“Our goal ultimately wasn’t really as much based solely on calculus because it’s such a limited group,” said Kado. “It was more based on getting people focused in their class period. Their math class whatever level it is. Aspiring to do better and to even get to the level that calculus is.”

When people see calculus on a whiteboard, they get all freaked out and even if you’re a calculus student, you still get freaked out when you see it.  -Gomez

Said Gomez, “I think it really humored everything. So it’s basically saying ‘yeah, a lot of people don’t know what’s going on in calculus. It’s really difficult unless you’re the teacher, but go ahead and try at least’.”

Their efforts paid off. According to Kado, teachers loved the video and began approaching the pair to do things for their classes.

Gomez feels the video even helped improve morale at Natomas High.

“Our normal morning announcements blasts news, news, news,” said Gomez. “Occasionally you’ll get something funny, but when people see stuff like this they start laughing, they’re ready to get in the day, and ready to finish up their second period.”

TOBIAS GOMEZ

Both seniors, Kado and Gomez are set to attend UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara Community College, respectively. The are looking to continue making videos in a different format.

They plan to debut a new video made for the school’s Farewell Rally this Friday, May 11.