Waddup yall, I’m Native American, and spent the last four years teaching elementary students at a few different tribal schools on the reservation (rez) I grew up on. I’ve since career shifted and am longer working on the rez, but am obv still invested in my community.

I went to Kendrick’s DAMN Tour stop in Denver a few years back and have concert footage of his HUMBLE performance, when he stepped back and let the crowd sing the entire verse by themselves. It was dope!

One night, stoned, I realized that Kendrick’s decision to let the crowd have our moment positively impacted my memory of this performance. This also served as a helpful anecdote I could serve up to my fellow, non-Native teachers who were struggling to connect to rez youth. I’d fire up my Kendrick video and show my peers a perfect example of how actively involving others in the performance made the performance more meaningful.

I think that observing how a rapper interacts with the crowd and keeps them hype, invested, and focused on him would be incredibly beneficial for teachers struggling to better connect with students that do not look like them (aka the white teachers on the rez struggling to connect with their Native students).

Ok, IDK if that’s way too much context or what, but my request is simple: Drop videos/clips/etc of rappers really engaging the crowd, getting hype, all that. I’d love to watch them and see if they have content worth sharing with my colleagues. Thanks yall happy holidays