Rapper Big Sean unveiled a new music studio at his alma mater, Cass Technical High School in Detroit Michigan. Cass Tech is the alma mater of many of Detroit's black architects and designers, including myself and Rainy Hamilton Jr. Cass Tech is recognized as one the best high schools in the nation and is one of the only Detroit Public Schools which requires students to take admissions test and requires a minimum grade point average for enrolled students. Big Sean graduated from CT with a 3.7 gpa and despite many scholarship offers, he choose to follow his true dream, entertainment.
This is where hip hop meets architecture! Hip hop artists creating spaces which not only allows inner city students to explore and cultivate their creativity, but encourages new ways of learning.
MTV News joins Big Sean in Detroit at his alma mater, Cass Technical High School, where he built a state-of-the-art recording studio for the students.
“Education is changing, man,” he continued. “A lot of these kids, they’re out of the traditional way of learning. We try and misdiagnose them with things like ADD or this and that, and sometimes it may be the case, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, they’re addicted to their phones because that’s how they’re learning now. Things are changing. This is a step forward in that direction.”
“They can learn so much, from engineering, to recording, to just creating,” he said. “The possibilities are endless.”
Check out this line from Big Sean's "So Much More"
“The same teacher who told me rap is what not to do
Said I’m throwing my life away, if I drop out of school
Want me to come speak to the kids, the point I gotta prove
Is that I did everything they told me not to do
After I went down the road they told me not to cruise
They ain’t know that was my road to success
Now my picture on the wall hanging to help the kids follow through”