When a substitute teacher walks into a classroom, students look forward to a 60-minute bludge filled with dated instructional science videos and surreptitious laptop Tetris. The grade six class of Fiske Elementary School, Chicago must have been surprised when their sub hit them with a one-day intensive into the musical history of Chief Keef.
Now, Chief Keef is not typically an object of academic examination in the mainstream quadrivium. This may be due to the controversial nature of his personal life: at age 20 Chief Keef already has a comprehensive criminal record and four young children. His youngest son was named ‘Sno FilmOn Dot Com’ – in an effort to promote his new label FilmOn Music. Or it could just as easily be due to his limited talents as an artist. Either way – that wasn’t enough to stop one plucky substitute teacher from channelling her inner Dewey Finn and dedicating an entire lesson to the Almighty Sosa.
Maybe she felt it was her duty to educate the next generation of world leaders about the beautiful union of 808 kick drums and off beat raps. Maybe she needed to read them that ancient tale of the Gucci duffel bag, brand new Jordans, and bubbling Pyrex. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to learn about Drill.
Well, the kids will have to learn about Drill sooner or later
But whilst her taste in music was modern, her teaching methods were dated; assessing her student’s knowledge with the archaic method of standardised testing. Question 3: who shot Chief Keef when he was 16? Question 11: why was he placed under house arrest? “At what age did he stop attending school?” asks Question 8, casually inviting the class to examine the causal link between money, power, fame – and the necessity of a formal education. (Answer = there’s none). And just to be a real hard ass she graded them. Look! This dude got an ‘A.’ A little trap lord in the making.
Parent Shawnta Powell was upset to learn that an entire lesson had been devoted to the controversial rapper. “If you were a sub, you were supposed to take on whatever assignment the regular teacher was given, not what you wanted to give them” she says. Another concerned mother, Katrina Sanders, had hoped music class would teach her son about the great composers: Mozart and Beethoven. Ahhhhh, but Katrina, is it not time to embrace a less whitewashed curriculum that examines the music of different cultures?
Sure. But start with Jay-Z. Chief Keef is somewhere way further down the line. And a thorough examination of his criminal history probably wasn’t necessary. Even a 6th grade music class has the good sense to leave out the part about Beethoven’s post-hepatitic and cirrhotic liver.
But in perhaps the greatest dereliction of her duty as an educator, the questions she asked weren’t even hard! Everyone knows Chief Keef’s real name is Keith Cozart. The mind of a 12 year old is a precious, giddy and ever-expanding thing! It has to be challenged! Not with asinine questions about stage names. But with stimulating discussion on the birth of Chicago Drill from Atlanta Trap.
Despite the attempt of this modern day John Keating to bring the gift of music to the youth – she was formally dismissed. That’s that shit I don’t like.