Inside of CSUMB’s blandly named Building 2002, behind the door to room 202, which is adorned with a picture of Spongebob Squarepants and his friend Patrick, Jerome “S.K.” Johnson, Tre “Yung T” Burford and Javier “Scandal” Roman are making a rap song.

Roman, a music major, clicks on his computer and ominous instrumental music booming from five speakers fills the cramped confines of his sparsely decorated room. While the walls literally vibrate from Roman’s original keyboard and drumbeat composition, Johnson and Burford frantically scrawl lyrics on pieces of notebook paper like a couple of students taking a timed test.

About 10 minutes later, Burford starts rapping the lyrics he has just written over the music that is still playing. Roman, who is wearing an oversized black T-shirt with a picture of rap icon Tupac Shakur on it, sees Burford mouthing his rhymes and instructs the CSUMB freshman to “take it to the mic.”

Burford walks over to the trio’s “recording booth,” an alcove where two wooden free-standing closets with doors swung wide face each other. Stepping between the two open doors, Burford hangs a blanket over the closets, which creates a small, enclosed space, and stands facing a microphone.

“Tell me when you’re ready, Yung T,” Roman shouts. Burford puts on some headphones and yells the name of the trio’s group, Fort Knoxx, into the microphone. As he starts to rap, one can only hear the MC’s lyrics coming from the makeshift booth. “Mushin’ down the block/ No ills, just smashin’/ Purple in the ear/ With the 15 slappin’,” he raps.

Next up, Johnson takes Burford’s place in the booth, smoothly rapping a few lines. After Johnson has done his part, Roman sits and stares at the jagged lines that scroll across his computer screen. A few seconds later, he starts adding filters and reverb to Burford and Johnson’s vocal contributions.

Then, just an hour and 15 minutes after he first put on the bumping instrumental music, Roman announces that Fort Knoxx has a new number. As he plays the three minute and 40 second long song, which is titled “It’s a Bay Thang,” it doesn’t take much to imagine the song being played on KDON.

Roman admits that these recording sessions sometimes draw the ire of the dormitory’s RAs, but the band has only gotten a handful of warnings so far. Luckily, Roman’s roommate and longtime friend, Omar Elizondo, who walks into the room at the tail end of the session, doesn’t seem to mind. “That guy is amazing with the beats,” he says, while pointing towards Roman. “I’m pretty sure they’ll make it big soon, so I’m pretty excited to be their friend.”