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Using hip-hop to teach history

By Farnoosh Torabi | Special to amNewYork

January 8, 2007

In schools across the country, students will hear Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous speeches as somewhat of a hip-hop artist.

"He has this melodious and rhythmic speech pattern. It's perfect over a beat. ... It was cool to discover," said Alex Rappaport, who runs Flocabulary, a recording company that promotes literacy in the classroom through music.

Rappaport and co-founder Blake Harrison have recently introduced an MLK history book and soundtrack that teaches the significance and legacy of King's life and his role in U.S. history. For the musical duo, hearing is oftentimes believing -- and, thus, learning.

"Students either don't know who MLK is or have not heard his voice. It's providing that primary sense of voice," Rappaport said.

Flocabulary began in 2005, after buddies Rappaport and Harrison decided to put their combined college degrees in music and English, as well as their passion for music, to the test.

The business started with an SAT curriculum, using hip-hop beats to cue students to the meaning of 'peregrinate' and 'penchant,' 'amalgamation' and 'maudlin.'

"One kid just wrote in that his SATs improved by, like, 50 points," Rappaport said.

"Cool," Harrison nodded with a smile.

Flocabulary's young co-founders are pretty cool themselves. Clad in their denim pants and zip-up track jackets, they passionately explain that Flocabulary's mission is to boost literacy and help the underprivileged excel academically through great music. Rappaport and Harrison often write the lyrics but then use DJs and rappers they admire to produce the music.

"We're both big hip-hop heads," Harrison said. "We want to make music we like."

And the numbers are telling: In its first year, the music company had roughly 100 schools use its curriculum, including both the SAT Vocabulary and Hip-Hop U.S. History songbooks. In 2006 Flocabulary had found its way into more than 1,000 schools, including P.S. 79 in Harlem and P.S. 4 in Queens.

Flocabulary has been a special hit at schools for behaviorally challenged students, such as the Martin de Porres High School in Brooklyn. With government funding and a new round of investors, the company plans to expand its media offerings this year to include movies and software.

Sales have been fueld mostly through word-of-mouth and visits to www.Flocabulary.com, the company's homepage.

Rappaport and Harrison also go straight to the frontlines, frequently visiting schools for feedback.

"There's no more difficult an audience than a middle school kid," Harrison said. Especially, "at 8 in the morning," Rappaport added.

The consensus among the students, they said, is always, "We love hip-hop. We love video games." And on that note, the two men have discovered the trick to Flocabulary -- to combine cool rhythm with education in an effective, entertaining way.

"Primarily, we approach it as musicians," Rappaport said. "High school kids don't want to hear Barney."

Farnoosh Torabi is a video correspondent for thestreet.com. Reach her at amSmallBusiness@gmail.com.