Around 2008, the influence of Hip-Hop on the children and adults in Derek’s orbit became impossible to ignore: grown men rapping to themselves as they walked down the street, children easily memorizing songs with catchy hooks and beats. He thought, “If I could create a program that included education, positivity, and catchy beats, the community would flock to it.” Unable to shake this idea, he decided to test the concept. As a substitute teacher for the Dekalb County School District, he played the program School House Rock for some kindergarteners…and they loved it. If this music and animation from the 1970s and 80s was still resonating in 2008, he knew that he could create something even better and more relevant. But he was barely scraping by at the time and couldn’t imagine financing such a project.