2013 in Rap

Every December, the super smart rappers at Flocabulary call off the Week in Rap to pull it all together and celebrate the preceding 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours and 525,600 minutes in rhyme. 

And the annual Year in Rap is born.

If you’re not familiar with the weekly current events program promoted and brilliantly executed by the hip hop poets behind Flocabulary, check it out.

It’s part of larger project targeted to a community of educators who proved struggling high school students can be reached with rap songs covering everything from U.S. History to SAT vocabulary words.

And once again, the rappers are looking for a few good collaborators.

In partnership with the education page of The New York Times, Flocabulary is offering students an opportunity to get their rhymes published by two very prestigious news organizations.

Super creative rappers can choose at least four important New York Times stories and write their own Year in Rap following NYT’s Learning Network commenting standards—no profanity or vulgar language.

Get ideas from last year’s winners:

Obama re-elected for second term,
this time he’s promising to be more firm.
He’s still devoted to his plan for health care,
while Republicans exclaim, “It’s just not fair!”  (Sarah C.)

And:

Sandy’s winds and rain hit the east coast.
The beaches were destroyed, the boardwalk was toast.
Coasters in the water, sand was everywhere,
we donated time and money to show that we care.  (J.H.)

Or think about what’s been on your mind this year:

High school seniors wanted a vacation

From problems they were having

With the Common Application.

Lyrics should be submitted to the Flocabulary-New York Times Learning Network Year in Rap contest as a comment to an article inviting Year in Rap submissions by 5 p.m. Eastern time on January 7, 2014.

The top five raps, as judged by The Times and Flocabulary staff using a posted rubric, will be featured on both the NYT’s Learning Network and Flocabulary.com.

You can work in a team or by yourself.  But the rules allow only one submission per student and no videos or links to videos.

It’s been a crazy year.  Lots of ups and downs and a whole lot of change.  But life goes on.  Just ask Flocabulary.