LITHONIA, Ga. — The hip-hop genre of music celebrates 50 years in the industry. While many cities have had concerts to celebrate, one elementary school principal is using rap lyrics to get his students excited about learning.
Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes visited Marbut Elementary Traditional Theme School where there were some special guests in the ‘Lit Lab’ on Monday.
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When the Nappy Roots wrote a hit song about 20 years ago, the lyrics were about their life stories. They mention growing up poor but staying positive to create a different life for themselves.
Something many kids in DeKalb County and metro Atlanta can relate to.
“I think education, educating yourself, and having a plan allows us to be 20 years in and having the opportunity to talk to y’all now,” said Nappy Roots member Skinny DeVille.
They never knew that their work would have them sitting in this classroom at Marbut Elementary in Lithonia, inspiring children to be the best they can be.
But the principal of Marbut Elementary, Andre Mountain said, he always knew he would use hip hop to teach.
“I grew up in the hip-hop culture. It’s the 50th anniversary of hip-hop so I wanted to create a space where you can tap into what kids love, but also use it as a bridge to literacy with vocabulary and comprehension,” Mountain said.
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He creates lesson plans where he breaks down rap lyrics and compares them to the work of Maya Angelou and James Baldwin.
The students were engaged and they learned a lot.
“Today was really fun and it was really inspiring,” student Morgan Green said.
“Without reading you cannot do (nothing); always get help and never fall down,” student Andy Osu said.
“The most important thing that I learned is not to only pick one thing that you want to do for your whole life,” student Chloe Pinky said.
“Music excites children. Using music and then taking the music away and looking at the words saying OK, what was the intent from this writer? That’s what we’ve been trying to do with the Literacy Hip-Hop Lab here at Marbut,” Mountain said.
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Mountain has had other artists at Marbut Elementary doing the same thing… inspiring and sharing things with these kids that they’ll never forget.
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