Oliver Polizos, who goes by the name Hyperion, is a junior at Concord High School and an up-and-coming rapper.

Listeners can find his music on Spotify and YouTube.

Hyperion decided to pursue music as a career in 2019 “to create a message for people to be inspired by and follow.”

Why rap?

“I feel like it’s a more creative field where you can express certain things, especially when it comes to being able to create, like, poetic things,” he said, weighing rap against pop, jazz and rock. “I feel like in hip hop, it’s easier to create a message that everyone can relate to.”

He said there’s a lot to love about the genre.

“I think it’s a mixture of both, like, being able to be creative on instrumentals that are more complex and being able to challenge myself to do more complex rhyme schemes.”

He finds the process of seeing a song come to life “rewarding.” 

Asked how it is being a young rapper in the music industry, he acknowledged that there are challenges. 

“It’s definitely different. Opportunities are harder to attain, because there’s not a lot of artists who are my age. Being able to gain the interest of people who run venues and stuff to be able to perform is a lot harder, compared to people who might be in their 20s.”

On the other hand, he said, “Being young is a breath of fresh air. A lot of people that I’ve worked with are older than me, but they say seeing someone who’s younger is definitely different, but overall great to see.” 

Upcoming goals include releasing more albums and getting 50,000-100,000 streams on his recent album, The Rise Up.

Down the road he would love to earn a Grammy nomination and work with greats like Jay Cole or Kendrick Lamar. 

People can check out Hyperion’s music on his YouTube channel:  https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCv0EKwKNZzrl2kKPPqODkUw.

Hyperion also has an online store where people can buy his merchandise: https://hyperion-merch-store.myspreadshop.com/.