High School for Recording Arts gives students chance at hip-hop career

Simmons arrived just in time to settle the students down and get them focused before leaving the school.

"We're going there to handle big business," he said. "If there is any time for us to be serious, this is it."

Nick Vlcek

High School for Recording Arts, located in St. Paul, serves 225 students using a combination of classroom instruction and independent projects

Nick Vlcek

David Ellis, High School for Recording Arts founder, freestyles in one of the school's professional recording studios

Details

Slideshow: Meet the students

MPLS TV Video: Hip Hop High

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More About

• Savage (Rapper)
• David Ellis
• Dominique Farrar
• Tony Simmons
• Paula Anderson

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While the other students goofed off in the State Farm parking lot, Savage kept a straight face.

"It's just really cool we get to do stuff like this," Savage said. "This school has helped me grow into a young man."

Savage is now in his sophomore year, but is a semester ahead in credits. He's planning on applying to Harvard his senior year, but hopes his music becomes a career. He wants to be a major-label rapper by the time he hits 21.

"I don't want to just be another one of my mom's sons that graduate," Savage says. "I want to be that one that takes my family to the top."

Check out citypages.com for a mpls.tv video featuring student interviews and live performanes.