Sam Seidel - Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education

Foreword

George Clinton

W hen I was thirteen years old, I heard a song called Why Do Fools Fall in Love by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. I had just moved to New Jersey and, barely a teenager myself, I was already working at a barbershop. I knew as soon as I heard that song that I wanted to make my living through making music. So I formed a doo-wop group and we practiced around the barbershop. Ten years later, we had our first hit single, I Wanna Testify and I have been traveling the universe ever since.

Just like Frankie Lymon inspired me, I have gone on to inspire others. Countless rap records have been made by sampling my songs and sounds, but it doesnt stop there. Ive collaborated with some of the most talented hip-hop artists from all over the country from Tupac to Too $hort, from Outkast to Wu Tang. And it isnt just about the music itself. It took a perfect storm to give birth to hip-hop and it was funks ethos that taught hip-hop the fine art of dancing underwater without getting wet.

Because, like funk, hip-hop is not only a music, its a way-of-life. For me, it was funk that opened doors to traveling the world, singing, writing, producing, and so many other opportunities. My musical ideas and abilities were my tickets, but funk was the passport. The same can be true for young people; through hip-hop they can discover how to transform one opportunity into the next new thing.

Whenever you hear people say, That aint music! That aint no real music... Thats gonna be the new music. You can count on that being the new music. Because kids love to do what you dont want them to do. You dont like it... Thats what its gonna be . Think about it. Feedback on the guitar was noise when I was growing up. Jimi Hendrix made that sucka pleasurable!

Thats what Hip Hop Genius is. Taking something that everyone else thought was a mistake and making it the next big sensation. Taking what youve already got in your DNA and unlocking it to make your circumstances into something infinitely better. Thats what Ive had the chance to do. And so has David TC Ellis. Hes done his job with the school, coming from the streets, kicking it about anything possible. Even when they try to stop his ass. And I know theyve tried to stop him. But hes been doing it and hes still doing it and Im glad to see hes still doing it.

And Im glad to see the young people at the High School for Recording Arts doing what they do. Every day, these youngsters make the choice to be creative and collaborate in the face of the chaos around them. I know because Ive been there.

Ive walked through the school and felt the energy. Ive been in their recording studio and watched a young man engineer as I stepped to the mic. Ive rocked alongside their talented students and staff. Ive known TC, the schools founder, since Prince introduced us and we recorded, performed, and appeared in a movie together!

Ive seen how unique and transformational the educational model is and how hip-hop is saving lives. Through hip-hop, kids learn ways to count, sequence computers, and do the most involved tasks. Because we learn when were interested in what were learning.

If you can find a way to get somebody interested enough to learn, theyll do it themselves. The key is for them to learn how to learn. Not to learn tricks. To learn how to be open to learning. When you learn how to learn, then youre able to appreciate things.

So why arent more people creating schools that understand and value this?

When I was a teenager, I was passionate about music, but that passion had to be fed outside of school. I wish I could have gone to a high school that allowed me to focus on music and entertainment.

Every day, kids are getting struck by a desire to be something, the way I was struck by that Frankie Lymon song. The High School for Recording Arts is one of the few places Ive seen that fashions itself to help those young people dive so deep into their dreams that they become their realities.

I wish everyone could visit this school. If you cant make it in person, read this book! I hope it inspires each and every one of you. I want it to spark a movement. Whether it is more schools like the High School for Recording Arts or a whole bunch of different programs coming together, I want to see a nation of talented, confident, creative young leaders rising up.

Ill see you up there!

George Clinton is the founder of Parliament, Funkadelic, P-Funk, and Mothers Hip Connection.

Preface

Herbert Kohl

H ip Hop Genius is an exuberant book. It tells the story of the High School for Recording Arts (HSRA) in St. Paul, Minnesota, aka Hip-Hop High, and provides an in-depth portrait of what an effective special public high school can do to allow students, even those with the least successful school careers, to thrive.

The school is centered on the recording arts and hip-hop culture. In particular, hip-hop originated as rap-based music and dance performance in the South Bronx; hip-hop has grown into a cultural movement involving dress, entrepreneurship, and political and social activismactivism on a worldwide scale. Central to hip-hop is respect for the most creative, ingenious, and egalitarian aspects of urban African American youth culture.

Like all other cultural movements that hope to survive and grow, hip-hop culture needs to develop continuity through an education appropriate to the values it espouses. The High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul is a bold and exciting attempt to build a high school rooted in this culture and based on performance, music and video production, community-based learning, the study of urban African American youth culture, and the development of performer and community-controlled businesses. It also attempts to integrate more traditional academic knowledge into its hip-hop focus. But it is resolutely centered on a music production studio, small businesses, and classes designed to analyze the role of African American teenagers in current social, political, and cultural production.