Remember when an emcee stood for master of ceremonies? Master of Ceremonies ? one who has a firm command of the language and has the ability to convey a message or a point effectively, succintly, and to move the crowd through words. JoRanso is the embodiment of these principles, and has a long history as a speaker to justify his title as the second coming of the emcee.Since 1987, JoRanso, aka Trinity, has been traveling the road to greatness as a powerful speaker. The journey began in the second grade, where JoRanso entered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?s Oratoracle Contest, a competition that brought together poets and speakers of many backgrounds and levels to compete in a forum conducive to determining who the best orators were, and who needed more practice. For seven consecutive years, JoRanso won the competition in every category in which he entered, thus establishing his power to touch the crowd with his words at a very young age.Carrying this oral tradition into Berkeley High proved to be a double-edged sword for JoRanso. Respected by his elders, but feared by his peers, JoRanso was dubbed ?high power? by the teachers in the Black History Department for his power of knowledge, but condescendingly labeled ?Farrakhan? by his fellow students for the same reason. This dichotomy of reactions overwhelmed the young JoRanso, who escaped to isolation in the school library. There, within the confines of books, the emcee in JoRanso began to show itself and flourish. It was there in that library that JoRanso developed a loyal following among peers, simply by bonding with his fellow loners over coffee and hiphop, and freestyling knowledge that attracted the black student population, as well as catching the attention of would-be rappers.Having earned a respectable reputation as an emcee as a freshman, the next stop on JoRanso?s journey was Berkeley High?s Live Lyricist Society, an elite organization of lyricists, poets, emcees, and progressive thinkers
