Learning by rapping has a different beat

DURHAM -- What do you get when you replace the four-letter words in many rap tracks with 50-cent words and their meanings?

Durham educators hope they will get better test scores.

Starting today, students and teachers at three high schools and the Durham public library will receive CDs and books aimed at building vocabulary through rap.

The materials are created by Flocabulary, a New York-based company aiming to teach vocabulary and U.S. history through the music popular with youths.

"We truly believe that when you can bring a student's passion into the classroom, that is when they truly succeed," said Blake Harrison, co-creator of the company and the program's lyricist. "Hopefully, they will memorize the music as easily as they memorize the other music they know and love."

Harrison and co-creator Alex Rappaport donated 2,000 copies of their vocabulary-building CD, "A Dictionary and a Microphone" and workbook to N.C. Central University on Wednesday. The materials fit into a new initiative at NCCU to teach hip-hop history and culture, officials at the university said.

The university gave some of the donated books to Hillside and Southern high schools and Early College High School, a small school at NCCU that allows students in Durham public schools to earn college credits.

The Flocabulary duo also spent part of Wednesday introducing the product to Durham teachers and brainstorming ways of bringing popular culture into classes.

"It seems like it has an interesting hook to it," said Rod Teal, principal of Southern High School. "Anything that brings in music could be popular with the students."

Teal and Hillside Principal Earl Pappy said they both were considering using the materials in English classes as a warm-up activity.

The 12 songs on the CD introduce 500 words that are often found on the SAT, a primary college entrance exam.

The songs include "Adventures of Carlito," which spells out the meaning of the terms it uses: "I know this cat named Carlos, we called him Carlito. The poor baby brother had a really small ego/ Diminutive in size, 4 foot 9, if you provoked him or goaded him it brought tears to his eyes."

The text highlights terms such as "diminutive" and "goaded," provides definitions and provides exercises.

The group just published a second workbook called "Hip-Hop U.S. History," which includes tracks that sample Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and profiles historical figures including Abraham Lincoln, John C. Calhoun and Nat Turner.