You can hear Jamie Morgan ’11 long before you see him, the hip-hop music getting louder as he ascends a stairwell, or travels down a hallway. A boom box sits on Morgan’s shoulder.

This unusual practice, coupled with Morgan’s imposing 6’4 frame, makes the junior hard to miss.

Eyes are naturally drawn to Morgan, but not many expect music, which typically is hip-hop, to accompany their walk to class. As a whole, Morgan observes positive reactions from Staples about his boombox behavior, or as he calls it, “killing the game.”

“They think its pretty funny. Some of them like bop their heads, I get some pounds,” Morgan said.

Regardless, not all of the reactions have been positive.

“Some teachers have told me to turn it off, but that’s really it,” Morgan said. “[It] probably wouldn’t be a good idea for freshman to do that.”

Morgan began carrying the boombox around school this year. He and his friend Mikey Holmes ’10 thought it would be amusing, their team decision being heavily influenced by the character Radio Raheem from the movie “Do The Right Thing.”

“It’s just good old fashioned fun,” Morgan said. It is also spontaneous, as Holmes said,“Morgan and I never plan on bringing our [boomboxes] to school, it just happens.” Morgan has been known to bring his a few times without Holmes. When asked when he was going to bring it to school again, Morgan responded with a smile, “don’t worry about it.”

Morgan, along with Holmes, abides by an honor code between the two regarding the “killing the game.”

“Everywhere I go I get asked to turn it down. I’ll tell you ‘hell no’ to your face, I ain’t a coward. And if you keep trippin’ I’m a turn it up louder,” the song said.

With regards to the specifics of his boombox, Morgan recently purchased his new Panasonic boombox off eBay for $30 replacing his original $12 one from Goodwill. He has been happy with the switch.

“It’s way better and easier to shoulder rock and sounds better,” Morgan said. However, Morgan’s unique habit of carrying around a boombox isn’t his only musical involvement; he also scratches.

“Scratching is similar to playing a traditional instrument in that there are many variables in the sound you produce,” Morgan said. “The difference is that there aren’t many different notes to hit using the same input like the stroke of a bow string on a violin. There are as many different inputs as there are sounds on every record, and now MP3.”

Instead of learning to scratch from a trained instructor, Morgan took this task upon himself. “I just watched some music videos and figured it out on my own,” Morgan said.

Since teaching himself, Morgan has greatly enjoyed scratching. “I like scratching because it allows you to get closer to the music,” Morgan said.

Unlike many musicians, however, Morgan doesn’t practice certain types of scratching for given songs. “ I never rehearse my scratching, it’s all freestyle. It helps me enjoy and get into the beat more.”

Although this habit is unusual, Morgan plans on scratching at Toquet Hall in the future.Morgan scratches on one of his instruments; the turntables. He is working on attaining an Akai MPC, a sampler, so he can start to produce his own hip-hop songs.

Music obviously is and will hopefully continue to be a big part of Morgan’s life.