Among the restless population that inhabits our school, there has arisen a group of students that has discovered an outlet which allows a flow of creativity to be released, curing the everyday stress of high school.
“It all started with my friend and I, we had a little argument, and in order to settle it, we decided to have a rap battle,” states Nasib Abdullah, undefeated rap champion until recently, otherwise known as “Yung Seeb.”
The recreational rap battle group, “Block Day Barz”, takes place in the physics classroom of science teacher, Andrea Strock, on Tuesday during conference periods. Students express their concerns through rapping in a your turn-my turn format, shooting rebuttals and rhymes back and forth at one another.
Yung Seeb describes this outlet, “[rapping] Allows me to express myself lyrically. It’s a positive way to settle a dispute. It’s good because the past three years during conference have been spent sitting around doing nothing…now we actually have something to do.”
This group is supported by different teachers, one of which decided to enter the rap battle herself, challenging the undefeated Yung Seeb, and ultimately stripping away his title.
History teacher Jessica Pullen, recently appropriated the title of champion in her battle at Block Day Barz and shares her sentiments about the rap contest, “This might be one of the only activities that has been organically derived from students. This is not aggressive, violent, nor destructive, but productive.”
Pullen decided to take initiative in her support for the battles, entering herself and rapping her own lyrics in a battle against Yung Seeb. “Sir Isaac Newton? You don’t have his jaws. My name is JPull and I’m breaking his laws,” states Pullen, leading to her victory at the December 4th rap battle, where she proclaimed, “I defy the laws of gravity.”
After her win over Abdullah, Pullen moved on to face AP Economics teacher, Trent Thornton, otherwise known as ‘Turbo’, in the season finale on Dec. 12. Well over 100 students were present to witness the groundbreaking battle between these two teachers. Thornton ultimately won as the crowd cheered him on.
Aside from the recent success that the club has faced, Block Day Barz has faced their obstacles. After having using inappropriate lyrics for their battle, the club had to receive the necessary consequences; these repercussions included dismissal from standing in front of the cafeteria in order to have the battles and also leading to censorship of lyrics.
Principal Dan Serrano comments on the danger of the inappropriate use of the rap battles, “Sometimes they can turn into fights. I do support the idea, but there needs to be guidelines and regulations.”
