WS Chronicle

Special to The Chronicle

In Quality Education Academy’s (QEA) inaugural “Lit4Lyfe” Series, QEA brought rapper Street Bud to give a high-energy concert on May 9.   The event encouraged QEA’s young scholars to be brilliant writers, speakers and readers, and to have fun doing it.

QEA students took the floor as Street Bud’s opening act, with their “Scholar Cypher,” showing that rap is the most creative form of poetry invented.

13-year-old Street Bud was a contestant on Season 4 of “The Rap Game.” Rocking rainbow-colored locks, braces and round glasses, the young rapper was just 12 when the season started last November. Producer and North-Carolina-born Jermaine Dupri named Street Bud the winner by hanging a custom So So Def gold chain around his neck during the final episode last month and he dawned the huge jewels at the concert.

Students cheered as Street Bud told them “I’m from Winston-Salem” and if he could achieve his goal they could too.

With a super positive message of “Make your parents proud” and “Pass your tests” so you can reach your goals in life, Street Bud had pre-kindergarten through twelfth graders jumping in the bleachers. Students enjoyed a hype concert and picture-autograph time after the show in QEA’s collegiate-sized gymnasium. Parents and their children joining the QEA family this coming fall got special front-row seats and “dapped up” the young artist during his show. Students rapped, sang, and danced in the after-school concert and applauded their teachers as the QEA staff took the floor for a dance-off.

Street Bud’s mother/manager and creative team joined the QEA fun and shared how much they loved the school. Of course, the young star is homeschooled, but admitted if he was not on the road, he would like to join the QEA family himself. The Street Bud crew, along with all in attendance, was invited to the next big event of the school, the family Black and White Ball on May 31.

Bringing the young rapper to QEA is the first in a series of school concerts meant to inspire students to showcase their creative and literary talents, such as rapping, singing, dancing, speaking, and acting, as well as show that, as they say at QEA “When we work hard, we play hard!” Students master public speaking, stage presence and writing through the series, and enjoy partnering with a dozen WSSU (Winston-Salem State University) education-major students, under Dr. James Etim, for the “It’s Lit” literature club.

The famous teen did the “Q Step” with several lucky students selected to show him the school’s new dance. Hundreds of QEA students, parents and teachers showed “Street” (as he is affectionately called) the “How We Do It at the Q” school rap and dance. Everyone admitted they had way more fun than they anticipated and cannot wait until the next “Lit4Lyfe” concert this summer.

Everyone who enrolls in QEA gets free tickets to the series of concerts and will show the Triad how to be scholars and “lit,” at the same time. See QEA’s school Facebook page for clips of the concert.