Keepin it Real

After my students finished annotating their poems today, one of my students asked me to give him some feedback on some of his rap lyrics. I was hesitant, but the kid swore it was just a hypothetical story; otherwise, I would have to send them to a counselor. He was just trying to catch the real experience of the NJ suburban streets. The story seemed to be about a kid who was on sleeping pills and was falling asleep in class, and then I think some girl stabbed him in the head, but I stayed away from the stabbing and asked why a kid would take sleeping pills before school. He said that the kid was at home at his desk trying to do homework, so I asked why a kid would take sleeping pills before doing his homework, and he explained that the kid could not sleep, so he took some pills and was doing homework because he could not sleep (but if he was falling asleep doing work, why wouldn't he just go to bed?). So I told him that I did not see that part of the story in the lyrics; it wasn't in the story, so how were people supposed to get that part if it wasn't in the lyrics? But he explained to me in all seriousness: "Oh, that's in the beat."