Grime rap star Eyez mentors music students at his old college in Derbyshire

Elijah Eyes (stage name Eyez) will be teaching Grime, Drill, Hip Hop and R&B to Level one and two music students at Derby College Group’s Joseph Wright Centre.

Eyez started rapping when he was just 11 and has won international acclaim for his work. Now in his late twenties, he continues to perform across the UK with a strong fan base and YouTube following.

He is particularly vocal about his adopted home city, Derby, and his passion for nurturing young talent.

He explained: “I moved here with my family when I was six and, having attended four different schools, I knew a lot of people in different parts of the city and across UK.

“My music career really started to take off when I was studying Media at Derby College and I was getting invites to perform live across the UK, produce videos and appear on well-known online channels.

“My tutors were really supportive and understood that I needed to pursue my dream of being a major music star.

“Nowadays I am more grounded. I still love to perform but my other passions are to support emerging artists and to mentor young people.

"I have done a lot of education work at schools across the UK and also set up online tutorials which won me a teaching award.”

Eyez said there are a lot of well paid career opportunities in the music industry and his aim is to stretch his students into developing their skills and talents and give them the best chance in fulfilling their dreams.

He said: “I will still be doing my own music and hope to carry out creating opportunities for emerging artists to but looking forward to teaching at the college and very grateful for the opportunities to get my formal teaching qualifications.

“I am passionate about Derby and, in 70% of my songs I mention the city. I hope to be involved in Derby’s bid to become the UK City of Culture in 2025 and I hope that rap will be an important part of that bid because we have some really great emerging artists here.

“A lot of the time I am working and performing in London but I stay close to my roots and I have always taken six or seven local artists on tour with me including another Derby lad, Dubsy."

Eyez concluded: “Grime rap is something that needs to be in a bigger place and more accepted by in the mainstream.

“People often think grime is violent scary but it is essentially poetry and literacy which I love – so much so that one of my other projects is writing a children’s book ‘Rapper Cat’.

“I hope that I can be someone that the students can relate to and to come and talk to about what they are experiencing in their lives to then express in their music.”

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