Rhyme Master|Rap Coach|
Qualified Mental Health Professional
Jeff Walker is a Rhyme Master, Rap Coach, and Qualified Mental Health Professional with a Masters in Educational Psychology and Counseling. Jeff uses his unique healing techniques with clients across the world for over 15 years. He is the creator of Rhymecology, which uses the power of hip-hop lyrics and culture to help people express, discover, and re-create their stories. Jeff’s products include his books, “Rhymecology: Using Hip-Hop to Heal” and “The Art of Hip-Hop Lyrics”, as well as the new “The Rhymecology Game, all of which connect therapists, counselors, and teachers, to the youth of whom they serve.
Jeff’s rhymes have been featured on 60 Minutes, TNT (Inside the NBA), ESPN, Staples Center, Dodgers Stadium, and Fox Sports Radio (where he served as the resident poet), and The Apollo. His writing credits include Will.I.Am, Jamie Foxx, Black Eyed Peas, and Randy Jackson. He has opened for Too Short, Sage Francis, Lyrics Born, and more. Jeff is currently available for one-on-one coaching, group sessions, speaking engagements, seminars & events, and more.
Jeff Walker
My Journey
The Flow Less Traveled
My family has no musical background and no rhythm. I was probably supposed to be in insurance or something. But there is an energy I have been courting since I was young.
When I began listening to Hip-Hop in the early 1990s, it was fresh, creative, and rebellious even as it spoke to a reality far from my own. I couldn’t have a piece of it as it was not who I was. I was enjoying it for the reasons most high school kids do, it matched the energy and anger of a teenager.
One day I heard a song called “Fast Life” by Kool G Rap and Nas and everything changed. I couldn’t believe the way that they were putting words together. I heard internal rhymes, rhymes stretching over various sentences and rhymes with a number of syllables. All my neurons were firing; I could feel the different parts of my brain connecting. I was 18 and in love.
I immediately began writing every day. Along the way I was laughed at. Along the way I was told to “stay away”, that it wasn’t for me, and “this phase will pass”. But that passion slowly turned into skill and people started to notice.
I also noticed that I had another talent and drive. This was to help people. I secured a day job in Long Beach, helping and counseling youth “at-risk” in Long Beach, California. Maybe I was supposed to be a Marriage and Family Therapist but the Hip-Hop bug never went away. So, I began incorporating my own love of hip-hop in my daily sessions and allowing the youth I was serving to do that same. I had found my calling and I named it Rhymecology.
Rhymecology is my own journey, my own failures and trepidations. It is my own success and manifestations. I know that writing and following my own dreams has pulled me through dark times and kept me going when it seemed impossible to. I know that there are scores of youth and adults who want to express themselves in creative ways and that is why I keep doing this.