Meek Mill is being more realistic and heads back to school. On Friday (Jan. 22), the Philadelphia native visited Overbrook High School to encourage students to stay in school and get an education. During his speech he revealed that he has enrolled in college.

“I just enrolled in college myself,” he told the students. “I took it upon myself to do that because I want to be the best at what I do. I want to be the best at what I do so I enrolled in college to educate myself, get myself more knowledge because knowledge make money, being educated makes you money and I like making money and taking care of my family.”

Meek also told to students to focus more on themselves and their families. “Nicki Minaj, Drake ain’t gon’ benefit ya’ll,” he said. “When I was your age, I never had a chance to talk to Jay Z, I never had a chance to talk to Beanie Sigel to ask them how can I get there.”

Going to college is a great image for Meek and it might make the judge be a little lenient on him when he goes to his Feb. 5 sentencing for parole violations.

Check out his message to the students of Overbrook High School below.

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The Obamas have done it again. The first family of the Unites States of America has time and again challenged the formality that is associated with their position. President Obama and FLOTUS have always tried to be more accessible to people, and speaking ‘with’ them than ‘to’ them. This time it was First Lady Obama who shocked the world with her musical skills.

First Lady, Michelle Obama joined Jay Pharoah of Saturday Night Live to record a music video encouraging college enrollment. It’s quite astonishing to know that Hip-Hop music has reached The White House, especially after President Obama admitted that his favorite rap song was Kendrick Lamar’s track “How Much Does a Dollar Cost”. The US has been seeing a steady decline in college enrolment over the past two decades. A major factor for this is said to be the exorbitant tuition fee. The problem plaguing the American higher education system isn’t new. In fact, President Obama himself took 25 years to clear his student loan debt. Chicago Sun Times reported that Obama took out $42,753 in loans to pay for his Harvard Law School tuition. The US President has been quoted as saying, “I was in my 40s when we finished paying off our debt. And — and we should have been saving for Malia and Sasha by that time… ”

The idea of a rap video was genius to capture the world and spread the message of education. Rap music in the beginning was the songs of the oppressed and brutalized youth. Their message was loud and honest, for example NWA’s “F**k the Police” resulted in backlash from the mainstream media and citizens who did not understand their struggle. Rap music was demonized and misunderstood. As 2015 come to a close, we can see now that Hip Hop has shaped our culture tremendously. Some may argue but rap music has revolutionized popular culture. Look at the fact that a once underground dance “Dabbin” has finally reached the mainstream audience and that just to name a few cases.

“I want to honor and empower young people who are working hard in school and pursuing their dreams – and I want to do it in a fresh and fun way,” Michelle Obama said in a statement.

She has rapped with so much swag that Sam Reich, College Humor’s head of video, said, “I think the country will join me in saying, ‘Mrs. Obama, we think you should cut an album,’. All jokes aside, how do you guys feel about our First Lady dropping a rap album?

Check out the video below and feel free to leave your comments.

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It looks like the Based God has been requested to drop his knowledge on a collegiate level, once again. Having already given lectures at NYU, UC Riverside, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon, rapper Lil B will be making his way to UCLA on Thursday, May 28. The way Lil B is going, he may just start picking up adjunct professor gigs.

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On his latest single, “Nobody’s Perfect,” J. Cole raps to an undergraduate biddie, “Take the weekend off and come home soon; I graduated way too long ago to be sneakin all in your dorm room…But baby where your roommates? Did you make sure the door’s locked?” Against the backdrop of abrasive dance beats and constant chatter surrounding hoes and money—or hoes looking like a bag of money—any Billboard Hot 100 single that offers something remotely different feels refreshing and worthy of some admiration. J. Cole’s ease spitting collegiate culture, writing on tropes that appeal to neither the rage of America’s most deprived nor the excesses of America’s most privileged, alludes to something American hip-hop music and its critics have often overlooked: the bourgeois rapper’s voice.

Attending college—the proverbial entrée into the middle-class—has never really been foreign to American hip-hop music. From Public Enemy’s Chuck D & Flavor Flav, who met while at Adelphi University, to Talib Kweli, who studied experimental theatre at New York University, to David Banner, who acted as the student government president at Southern University, countless rappers have sent Frisbees across the quad. But Public Enemy’s raps were more or less focused on mobilizing the downtrodden residents of America’s slums. Talib Kweli’s sorts of intellectual hip-hop certainly give a nod to the Black bourgie sensibility, but don’t really speak to the Black middle-class experience itself. As for David Banner, his half-naked, “work them hips” ladies can speak for themselves. The main point being that although rappers have come from that diploma-totting class, it wasn’t too audible in their raps.

Of course, Kanye West’s scholastic trilogy—College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation—was probably the most obvious display of collegiate culture in the history of American hip-hop music. And it deserves recognition for boldly confronting the complex economic, social and cultural issues facing Black, university-aspiring youth, while warping the empty promises (read: employment) of a college education. But as much as the album titles may suggest a neat narrative, honestly the trilogy was only sprinkled with these moments, in songs here and there, mostly in skits. West largely mocked the University institution, as well as the Black adolescents who, as he seems to suggest, make a misguided choice to participate in it. College, for all intents and purposes, was the butt of West’s joke.

But in “Nobody’s Perfect,” J. Cole, who graduated magna cum laude from St. John’s University, willfully demonstrates his easy navigation of the coed life—the playful avoidance of dorm security, the open-door policy of on-campus undergrads—without any further comment. Nurtured by the college experience, J. Cole’s verse articulates it in earnest. Drake less directly displays his exceedingly middle-class upbringing on “Crew Love.” Rejecting the college route, he blithely raps, “I guess we’ll never know what Harvard gets us. But seeing my family have it all took the place of that desire for diplomas on the wall.” Drake basically trades his middle-class upbringing for the rises-from-the-ashes-of-the-ghetto story all too familiar to American hip-hop music, ironically putting a spotlight on his supremely bourgeois experience.

It is enticing to conclude that we are witnessing a more honest hip-hop milieu, one in which rappers need not bottle up their identities in order to fit the industry’s mold. But such censure would not be so fair to those who, like Chuck D, may not have bottled up anything at all, artists who chose simply to rap from more of a soapbox than a diary. Instead, the quad’s renewed presence in hip-hop verse may indicate a shift towards a more confessional hip-hop, one in which the artist him or herself becomes more visible. As dorms across the country are once-again trampled by hoards of the young, the horny, and the cerebral—all hopeful contenders for that coveted membership in the bourgeoisie—the day-to-day realities of American college life, and middle-class life at large, are finding a somewhat unexpected home in the rhymes of American hip-hop music. Who knows, we may even soon hear the woes of the young, the graduated, and the debt-ridden unemployed.

Benjamin Ratskoff is a contributing writer for respect-mag.com

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Though he dons the grim nickname “Funeral Fab” and hasn’t released a studio album in three years, Fabolous’ career is far from dead. In fact, his recent show at The Bowery Ballroom showed that his career isn’t even in critical condition; it’s doing quite well.
Before the funeral service began, Fabolous was preceded by fellow Brooklynite Troy Ave, a short and stocky emcee with a 50 Cent-like image and penchant for chanting “Powder!” No, he’s not a fan of that old Jeff Goldblum movie. Beginning his set with “Snow,” a track from his mixtape Bricks in My Backpack 3, it was very apparent that the powder Troy Ave [allegedly] deals with is much more literal. Even though he didn’t distribute powder at the show – probably a good decision on his part – he did distribute alcohol, much to the joy of the audience. Troy Ave probably wanted to end his set with his song “Merlot,” which features Fabolous, but that didn’t happen. Nevertheless, he left the stage with a huge smile. Despite his uncanny stylistic resemblance to 50 Cent (Exhibit A: his bulletproof vest; Exhibit B: “Shame”), the audience showed him immense love.

Shortly after Troy Ave made his exit, Asher Roth rocked the stage. “Rocked” isn’t being used casually here.  Playing with a wicked band, the rap world’s favorite college kid was a far different artist that night. Conscientious and soulful, Asher Roth’s set featured surprisingly pensive lyrics like “What happened to rap?” and “The shiny things are only temporary.” Asher Roth showed this more introspective side on his mixtape Pabst and Jazz, but it was intriguing to see these songs performed at a concert where you’d expect him to simply run through his greatest hits. Hinting that this side of himself may be the side he wants to be more known for, Asher Roth equivocally declared, “College was fun.” What exactly this means remains to be seen. Hopefully his upcoming album, Is This Too Orange?, will clear things up.

After Asher Roth and his soulful band finished their striking set, Fabolous emerged, triumphant and extravagant. Noticeably wearing the literal antipode to “Brian Pumper jewels,” the lyrical funeral director started the set with his version of “You Don’t Know Bout It.” Randomly performing with a band, it seemed strange for Fabolous, a prominent artist, to begin his set with another artist’s song. That being said, the choice set the mood for the night. Fabolous is a well-known artist and a veteran emcee, but much of his recent career has been characterized by strong feature verses and mixtapes. That’s not a diss. The truth is just that recently Fab has released so many strong mixtapes and feature verses that he’s become known for repossessing songs. Fab’s penchant for repossession was apparent when he followed “You Don’t Know Bout It” with “Black City,” his version of Tyga’s hit “Rack City.” As soon as the band started playing the instrumental, the crowd knew what was coming and responded with ear-shattering cheers of anticipation.

While Fab began the set with new material, he eventually started performing his classics. The tracks “Breathe,” “ Young’n (Holla Back),” and “Into You” sounded notably fresh with the band backing them. In true New York concert fashion, Fabolous brought out two special guests, Lloyd Banks and Ryan Leslie. Both guests were well received, but Banks definitely drew the most love from the crowd. Performing Banks’ song “Start it Up,” Fab and Banks somehow amplified the crowd’s already-frenetic  frenzy. New Yorkers love their own.

All in all, Fabolous performed about 20 songs. The benefit of having so many well-known feature verses is that you can have a very varied set. While songs from The Soul Tape and There is No Competition 3 filled the set and kept the tangibly younger crowd amped, at the end of the show Fab declared that his next album, Loso’s Way 2, is his next big project. Considering that Fabolous has previously had two platinum albums, it’s not surprising that he wants to go back to being known for his own tracks. That being said, judging from the crowd’s reaction to his more recent songs, New York probably wouldn’t mind another mixtape or guest verse in the meantime.

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