January 08, 2009
"I Will Forever Remain Faithful" - how the best rapper alive since the best rapper retired helped David Ramsey survive his first teaching year.
"In my first few weeks teaching in New Orleans’ Recovery School District, these were the questions I heard the most from my students:
1) “I gotta use it.” (This one might sound like a statement, but it’s a request—May I use the bathroom?)
2) “You got an ol’ lady?” (the penultimate vowel stretched, lasciviously, as far as it’ll go).
3) “Where you from?”
4) “You listen to that Weezy?”... The answer was, sometimes, yes, I did listen to Lil Wayne. Despite his ubiquitous success, my students were shocked. “Do you have the mix tapes?” asked Michael, a sixteen-year-old ninth grader. “It’s all about the mix tapes.” The following day, he had a stack of CDs for me. Version this, volume that, or no label at all. And that’s just about all I listened to for the rest of the year."
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