14 DAY TRIAL // To say that Lil Wayne’s music is exclusively for the ears of the grown-ups might feel redundant but, even if most of the world is of the same opinion, some teacher in the US thought it would be perfect to teach 8th-graders literary concepts.
After noticing a complete lack of interest on part of the kids in the classics (here’s looking at you, Shakespeare), the teacher picked Lil Wayne’s “Six Foot Seven Foot” release to show them instances of figurative language.
The teacher knew that the kids loved Lil Wayne’s music but, according to the rapper himself (speaking to ESPN), what he or she didn’t think about was whether they should be paying closer attention to the lyrics.
In the interview below, towards the end of the video, Lil Wayne explains that there’s a huge difference between hearing an offensive track and listening to it, a distinction that the teacher failed to make. It cost him or her 3 weeks of suspension time.
Still, that’s not to say that Lil Way feels ashamed of the music he’s written and released so far.
“I’d never be embarrassed by anything I say because I say it and I mean it. But I don’t think that kids – I mean, I don’t think that you should be trying to teach it any way to kids because I don’t record it and say it for kids to listen to it,” he explains.
“So, not that it’s okay for them to hear it, but if they hear it, then so be it. They hear it. But when you trying to teach them to listen to it, that’s a difference and I don’t try to teach them that. I just – I do what I do. And I don’t think that would be right for you to try and teach kids what I’m saying,” the rapper continues.
As noted above, the teacher was suspended for 3 weeks for this lapse in judgment, but not before the school’s principal came to his or her defense in the media, saying the teacher was only trying to help them “grasp the concepts of literary devices such as pun, simile, metaphor.”
