Shorewood Native Finds Success in Hip-Hop Music

Maurice Pelman says it has been a fun ride, but he's not ready to jump off.

Following a music video gone viral — “Feelin' Fly Like a Cheesehead" which capitalized on the Green Bay Packers' run to the Super Bowl last year and yielded more than 1.3 million views on YouTube — the Shorewood native's group has formed partnerships with big-name events like Summerfest and Wisconsin State Fair, agreeing to produce videos for the annual affairs.

"Wisconsin Nights" by Higher Education Records sits on the front page of the State Fair's website, and the group produced "Summertime in the Brew City" for Milwaukee's annual music festival, Summerfest.

“It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s only a small taste of where we want to be,” Pelman said.

The group will also perform live Friday and Saturday at State Fair, 5 p.m. at the Cousins Subs Amphitheater and at a Madison-based hip-hop showcase, though a date hasn't been set yet.

Pelman, known as "Moses" to most, grew up in Shorewood, where his passion for music grew from his parent's.

He started playing the cello in fourth grade at , which he said is much better than Lake ‘Barf’. Once middle school came along, he switched to percussion and joined the marching band, after graduating to . Pelman became a lead quad tom player by his senior year.

For a birthday during his senior year in high school, he was gifted the “Fruity Loops”, a beat-making program, which he claims to be “one of the most random gifts" he has ever been given. He'd move on to superior equipment, but it served as a foundation from which he would grow.

Putting together "beats" and making music had become his hobby and passion, and he really found his artistic self in his first year in college he said.

“I went through an interesting time towards the end of my freshman year of college, which was not the most enjoyable time of my life," he said. "It just kind of added more fuel to the fire and I was able to use it like an outlet for me to get my feelings out and was like a healing process.”

Pelman would further hone his craft at the Madison Media Institute, an institute that deals strictly with the arts like music.

Pelman then met his soon-to-be mentor Chris “Godxilla” Taylor, “one of the best engineers in the state," he said. 

"(He’s) pretty much the go to guy for anyone who comes to Milwaukee to record,” Pelman said. “He’s always grilling me, always on my case."

Mo and his partner in the group Sean "Sean Smart" Loughran would then linked up with Adam “Defcee” Levine who introduced the two to many people in the First Wave program at UW — Madison, helping form a group.

The group's label currently includes about 10 artists. They released albums and mix tapes, showcasing the artists.

While the group has seen some success, Pelman noted, Higher Education's focus is on the music.

“From here on out, it’s just us making music, doing merchandise, and spreading the word," he said. "While Higher Education Records has done a few projects for commercial entities, and while we enjoy doing that, our main goal is just to make and push our original music.”