I’ve been enjoying The Jose Vilson quite a bit lately. Kindred rap enthusiasts are rare in this job and awhile back I promised him some sort of rap / English classroom poster. Making good on that here:
Resources
- high-res jpeg: master your speech
- layered psd: master your speech
- google large images search: talib kweli
- lyrics sheet: “holy moly,” talib kweli
- photoshop tutorial: “using light and shade to bring text to life“
- free font: blackletter
- great conversation: rap for english
16 Comments
jose
November 12, 2007 - 12:53 pm -As a certain Denzel Washington / Frank Lucas would say in American Gangster, “My man …” I like this a lot, and I’m definitely going to hop on this. Peace.
jose
November 12, 2007 - 1:26 pm -By the way, I read your comments on the “Rap for English” blog, and you took the words right out of my mouth. Well done.
Joel
November 12, 2007 - 3:28 pm -I really enjoy reading your views on design and presentation. Wonderful stuff here! I wish more teachers had that kind of an understanding of visual design.
robertogreco
November 13, 2007 - 1:22 am -Now spin these into rap / math classroom posters:
http://www.jamphat.com/rap/
jose
November 13, 2007 - 6:31 pm -First off, that link above this comment pales in comparison to this poster. Secondly, I actually printed out the poster you have on here. Thanks a mil.
Tom
November 14, 2007 - 5:27 am -I have never been so inspired. This is, without a doubt, my favorite post of all time. robertogreco’s link is also great.
I’m going on a poster designing spree. Hope you don’t mind the idea theft. (not that I’d stop, but I’d at least feel bad)
Tom
Tom
November 14, 2007 - 5:29 am -While it’s not Jay-Z’s at the time- the line “read a book you illiterate son of a bitch and step up yo vocab” is in the song Big Pimpin’.
I’ve always wanted to use that.
dan
November 14, 2007 - 10:23 am -Man, wish I could find Jay in high-res. “Step Up Yo’ Vocab” is a great line.
Tom
November 14, 2007 - 2:05 pm -What do you think? A little plain, I think I’ll add some individual words that are a little above level but it’s decent.
The above comment about stealing was a joke (on the Internet it’s harder to gauge my sense of humor or maybe I’m an ass in real life). Let me know if you’re ok with my posting a few of these.
Tom
Tom
November 14, 2007 - 2:06 pm -“What do you think?” in the above comment is a link.
http://bionicteaching.com/trials/jayz_big.jpg
That’s what I get for trying to be fancy.
jose
November 14, 2007 - 3:41 pm -That’s hot. I’m stealing this, too.
Tom
November 14, 2007 - 5:04 pm -Had to make another one. This time with Tupac- http://bionicteaching.com/trials/2pac.jpg
It’s hard to get decent pictures of rappers though. Most of them suck in terms of quality and size. I’m trying to stylize them enough that it won’t matter much.