2015 in rap

Coalition members promoting their new 'locker'

Once again, the super smart rappers at Flocabulary have called off the regular Week in Rap to celebrate the preceding 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours and 525,600 minutes in rhyme. 

And another Year in Rap is born!

 

An online library of educational hip-hop songs and videos, Flocabulary currently serves over 35,000 schools and a community of educators who prove time and again that struggling students can be reached with rap songs covering everything from U.S. History to SAT vocabulary words. 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. 

And for the fifth consecutive year, the rappers are looking for a few good collaborators.

In partnership with the education page of The New York Times, Flocabulary is offering students, from 13 to 19 years old, an opportunity to get their rhymes published.

Creative rappers must choose from 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.

They’re welcome to get ideas from the 2014 winners:

Ferguson police force showin’ no mercy
Eric Garner and Tamir all causin’ controversy
On the world stage Russia tries to reign supreme
While ISIS spills innocent blood by terrorist means

 Or

 Shoutout to Malala, brave enough to eschew
The whole sexist system; education will come through
It’s hard to Shake It Off with violence and find a balance
But we’ll pour all our worries in an ice bucket challenge

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

College counselors were in for a shocker

As Coalition members promoted their new ‘locker’

Lyrics should be submitted to the Flocabulary-New York Times Learning Network Year in Rap contest as a comment to a blog post inviting Year in Rap submissions by 7 a.m. Eastern time on January 12, 2016.