Rap music plays a significant role in Saint Louis pop-culture, and with many headlining artists naming it as their home town, lots of ambitious high schoolers in the area have become inspired to start their own rap journeys in hopes to make a name for themselves. Most of these parties start by posting clips on a free-to-use streaming app called SoundCloud, but few make it onto bigger music platforms. The Lunch Table Freestyles group is one that might not ever make it out of the notorious SoundCloud circle, but who knows, Eminem and Kanye West didn’t debut till they were 26 years old, so there’s still hope. Nonetheless their creative and innovative beats have blessed many ears and they have managed to become one of the most well known music groups at KHS.
The Lunch Table Freestyle group consists of 10 senior students at KHS who make music collaborations together on their different online platforms. The group said they haven’t always had so many members though, because it all started with one bright-eyed Nipher student and a dream.
“[The Lunch Table Freestyles] is a rap group that our friend Xavi started in eighth grade with a few friends,” Eli Dick, senior, said. “Come freshman year more of us joined and we went from there.”
Xavi Arguedas, senior, said that he got the idea to start the group from a TikTok he saw back in the day of people freestyling at lunch. After that day, their name started to grow.
“After we started, COVID happened,” Arguedas said. “Once we realized we couldn’t make freestyles at school anymore, we decided to just post them online”
The Lunch Table Freestyles grew bigger as the boys advanced through their high school years, but not everyone that they met could qualify to be a part of the exclusive group. Only a select few could meet the standards and be able to call themselves a fellow Lunch Table Freestyler.
“The way we’d let people in is if they could freestyle,” Arguedas said.
“If they were good, then they could be a part of the group.”
The group said they didn’t have a specific style of music that inspired them throughout their musical journey, because their beats often change. While they wouldn’t categorize themselves, they said that one person they really resonate with is a Saint Louis sensation that goes by the name of Soysaus.
“Soysaus is actually a big inspiration,” Arguedas said. “He came out of Kirkwood, and we’ve already collaborated with him a few times, which has been pretty cool.”
After explaining how they get around 500 streams per song (with none being personal streams due to their humble approach), the boys said that they don’t see their music going anywhere big after high school. With all of them separating for college, they said it would be hard for them to keep up with everything.
“Unless it pops off, we don’t expect to continue with our music after we graduate,” Arguedas said. “We plan to drop our last album this May, and it’s really like the end of it all.”
The group said they don’t have strict rankings of all of the rappers in their group, but they have a few people that stand out amongst the others. Some have been a part of the freestyles for longer than others, so naturally they have different skill sets.
“He doesn’t want to admit it, but [Arguedas] is the best out of all of us and he’s the group leader,” Aidan Bohner, senior, said. “He’s the one that started Lunch Table Freestyles and got it going.”
Arguedas, however, tends to disagree. He said that there are a good amount of talented musicians in the group.
“Eli is the best rapper,” Arguedas said. “I just happen to run it.”
The boys said they love The Lunch Table Freestyles so much because everyone is so passionate about it, but nobody takes it too seriously. At the end of the day, if nothing else, they’ll always have the lunch table– because even if the rap game doesn’t work out, everybody’s gotta eat.™
