REMIXING HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION
by SAM SEIDEL with TONY SIMMONS and MICHAEL LIPSET
THE CLASSIC BOOK ABOUT WHAT HIP-HOP CAN TEACH EDUCATION • REMIXED FOR 2022
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Many educators already know that hip-hop can be a powerful tool for engaging students. But can hip-hop save our schools—and our society? Hip-Hop Genius 2.0 introduces an iteration of hip-hop education that goes far beyond studying rap music as classroom content. Through stories about the professional rapper who founded the first hip-hop high school and the aspiring artists currently enrolled there, Sam Seidel lays out a vision for how hip-hop’s genius—the resourceful creativity and swagger that took it from a local phenomenon to a global force—can lead to a fundamental remix of the way we think of teaching, school design, and leadership.
This 10-year anniversary edition welcomes two new contributing authors, Tony Simmons and Michael Lipset, who bring direct experience running the High School for Recording Arts. The new edition includes new forewords from some of the most prominent names in education and hip-hop, reflections on ten more years of running a hip-hop high school, updates to every chapter from the first edition, details of how the school navigated the unprecedented complexities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and uprising in response to the murder of George Floyd, and an inspiring new concluding chapter that is a call to action for the field.
FOREWORD by HIGH SCHOOL FOR RECORDING ARTS FOUNDER
DAVID ‘TC’ ELLIS
CONTRIBUTIONS
GLORIA
LADSON-BILLINGS
D SMOKE
HERB KOHL
GEORGE
CLINTON
VIDEO ILLUSTRATIONS by MIKE MCCARTHY
Featuring the entire original book plus updates to every chapter and new contributions from D Smoke, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and High School for Recording Arts founder David ‘TC’ Ellis.
AUTHOR PHOTOS by SQUINT
SAM SEIDEL
Sam is the Director of K12 Strategy + Research at the Stanford d.school and author of Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011). He speaks internationally about education, race, culture, systems, and design.
Sam has contributed to three anthologies: Starting Up: New Schools in New Times (Teachers College Press, 2012), Imprisoned Intellectuals (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), and The New Abolitionists: Prison Writing and (Neo)Slave Narratives (SUNY Press, 2005), as well as in education publications, such as Education Week, Voices in Urban Education, and UnBoxed.
He is on the editorial board of Revolutionizing Urban Education: Hip-hop, Pedagogy, and Communities. Sam graduated from Brown University with a degree in Education and a teaching certification, was a Scholar-in-Residence at Columbia University's Institute for Urban and Minority Education, and a Community Fellow at the Rhode Island School of Design.
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While working with national recording artists as an entertainment lawyer, Tony met David "TC" Ellis and assisted him in the formation of Studio 4 / High School for Recording Arts. He cofounded Another Level Records, the first national student-operated record label. Tony is the Executive Director of the High School for Recording Arts, Co-Founder / Co-Director of the New School Creation Fellowship at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education, and Co-Founder of the Center for Love and Justice at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education.
Tony has served as board member to such leading national school reform organizations as Education Evolving, Reaching At Promise Students Association (RAPSA), Coalition of Independent Charter Schools and Edvisions, Inc.
His association with RAPSA lead to his contribution to the report, "Seizing The Moment: Realizing the Promise of Student-Centered Learning" and to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools report “Over-Age, Under-Credited Students and Public Charter Schools.” He was also a part of the working group that lead to the National Association of Charter School Authorizer report on alternative accountability and has been a member of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.
Tony has been a member of the Saint Paul School District Quality Review Team and a peer reviewer for the Minnesota Department of Education for Federal Charter School Program grants. Tony has keynoted or made major presentations to educators across the United States and internationally in Bangkok, Xian, Vancouver, Montreal, Oxford, and Copenhagen. He attended Howard University and Pace University and also earned a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers University School of Law.
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Michael is a scholar, author, educator, artist, creative producer and Hip-Hop head. His work sits at the intersections of critical arts pedagogies, education change, pushout re-engagement, teacher preparation and social justice.
He holds a PhD in culturally sustaining school change from McGill University and an EdM in the Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Michael serves most proudly as the Director of Social Impact at the world renowned High School for Recording Arts, a Course Lecturer at McGill University, and as a Researcher at the Center for Policy Design.
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David “TC” Ellis, the Founder and CEO of Studio-4 and Founder of High School for Recording Arts (HSRA), was born in St. Paul, MN. He is a graduate of the St. Paul Open School and was the first rap/Hip Hop artist to release a record in Minnesota.
TC was recruited by Prince and Warner Brothers. After time spent working with Prince and Warner Brothers, Mr. Ellis started an independent recording studio, Studio-4 and worked with a variety of traditional and alternative educational programs.
Through musical work with a number of young black men who had dropped out of high school, David discovered these young artists would often ask questions about how to copyright and publish their work. Guiding them through the process, Mr. Ellis realized that these youths could engage in educational processes while pursuing their career in music. With that realization, the High School for Recording Arts, HSRA, was born.
David has been honored as an Oxford University Roundtable Fellow for his work with Studio-4 and High School for Recording Arts. While at Oxford, David presented his work before leading educators from around the world to wide acclaim.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS and INTERVIEWS
CONSULTING and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT