Hip-Hop for Educational Change: We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For

By Gabriel “Asheru” Benn           The current public school system in America is in a state of emergency. Federal programs like No Child Left Behind, aimed at improving schools through standards-based reform, have caused many schools to focus on teaching the limited sets of skills required to show academic growth on annual standardized tests. As a result many teachers, particularly those in urban school districts, are reduced to having to “teach to the test,” for fear that their schools will lose funding and resources for not meeting their annual goals for academic progress. The real cost of being labeled a “low-performing” school and losing funding is the total omission of the many arts, music and physical education programs that offer students opportunities for creative expression, a more well-rounded educational experience, and an outlet to demonstrate other “intelligences” not normally validated in the typically stringent school setting.  

damn rhi-rhi

Gourmet UNDFTD Quattro

icandy: atlnightspots

b!tches:  hey dickie

drey:   what’s good b!tches?

icandy: k.i.m…(keep it movin’)

b!tches:   hey dickie

drey:   what’s good b!tches?

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jadakiss as BIGgie smalls

what is sex?

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ure hott when u became a celeb without having to say a single word

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happy superbowl sunday

(colts  -5 / 57)

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harlem renaissance

“Let me welcome both of you
uh, to the show this morning to talk about what I consider
to be a very very important topic, uh, the Harlem Renaissance
But before we get into that…”

Yeah, Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)
Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David
And you wonder why, people don’t own they homes (why?)
Cause the racist bank wouldn’t fuckin mortgage a loan
Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)
Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David
And you wonder why, people don’t own they homes (why?)
Cause the racist bank wouldn’t fuckin mortgage a loan {WAKE UP!}

Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)
Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David
And you wonder why, people don’t own they homes (why?)
Cause the racist bank wouldn’t fuckin mortgage a loan
Until after the invasion of, gentrification
Eminent domain intimidation, that’s not negotiation
And it’s frustratin to look at, every day
Like watchin a porno, on 56-K
Biohazard labs instead of store rooms
What’s next motherfucker, projects as dorm rooms?
You ain’t fool nobody in this community duke
With your little fake Manhattanville community group
Ivy league, real estate firms are corrupt
I lay siege to your castle like the Moors in Europe
They treat street vendors like criminal riff-raff
While politicians get the corporate kickbacks (snakes)

Harlem Renaissance, a revolution betrayed
Modern day slaves thinkin that the ghetto is saved
‘Til they start deportin people off the property
Ethnically cleansin the hood, economically
They wanna kill the real Harlem Renaissance
Tryin to put the Virgin Mary through a early menopause
The savior is a metaphor for how we set it off
Guerrilla war against the re-zoning predators