“F! P! THREE! F! P! THREE!” Red and retro students roared the name from the stands, and senior Max Melcher was lifted to the top of the crowd. He raised his ‘Westside vs. Prep’ shirt up, edging the crowd into a terrifically loud crescendo as the similarly ruthless score of 41-0 crowned him in fierce yellow light from the scoreboard behind. Powder lingered magnificently in the air, and Melcher’s lyrics lingered brilliantly in students’ minds as they jumped and jeered in wonderful rage.

“Did you see me out there? It was insanely hype! I’m so glad that we won that game,” said Melcher. “My senior year, 41-0, that’s the best we ever beat them, and we won because of my rap.”

Melcher was the artist of the popular rap trilogy of FP1, FP2, and FP3. The rap, posted on Soundcloud under the username HandicappedMax, embodied the Westside vs. Prep rivalry, and illuminated the hype and hysteria between the two schools, especially during football season. This year, he concluded the trilogy by releasing FP3 the night before the Prep game.

“The actual night I got like 2,000 views. Right now I have 4,189 [as of Sep. 16^th],” said Melcher. “This one went all across Nebraska, everyone knows me for it. When I meet people, I don’t introduce myself as Max Melcher, I introduce myself as HandicappedMax.”

And across Nebraska, faculty, students, and family members reacted to Melcher’s music.

“I had people on Twitter saying I changed the beef game…My mom knows about it, she makes fun of me for it…One of my coaches told me you’re on the football team, respect the tradition,” said Melcher. “I never had any problems with kids from Prep though, some of them think it’s funny that I do it. Others talk a lot of trash on Twitter, but they don’t say it to my face.”

Whenever Melcher thought of a lyric, he jotted it down in his notebook, or on his phone. He also listened to Gucci Maine and Eminem when he wrote. As Prep Week approached, he headed down to Studio 24 with a year’s worth of lyrics, paid $60 for an hour, and ‘freestyled’ the song, referencing his notes.

“I found the beat online on Youtube. I just went in and did my thing. [The sound guy then] made it sound a little bit better, and mixed it a little bit,” said Melcher.

Melcher, being a senior, did not plan on continuing his Prep songs.

“Michael Merical and I have been talking, and we’re going to do some tracks together; probably not about Prep though. I’m just going to let it flow, and if someone wants to pick it up after me, they can,” said Melcher. “They won’t be better than me, but they can try. This is basically, like I said, what I’m known for.”

Thus, the new legacy of school rivalry rap was left to time to perhaps create another face in the feud.