Cool Prof: Hip-Hop Prof

It's 11 on a Friday night, and I'm chilling with my journalism professor before the weekly rap show he promotes. Yes, you read this right ' I used the word 'chilling!' Old school is where it's at. Anyway, I'm talking to Mark Petras, a teacher at State University of New York-Purchase for four years and a veteran hip-hop artist of more than a decade.

'There isn't much similarity between rapping and teaching, except that you have to be articulate' says Petras, greeting new arrivals to the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. 'I know other MCs that teach who feel they are bringing truth to the stage and the classroom. I know others that try and rhyme in the classroom. I would never do that. Your students would lose respect for you.' [Editor's note: It's true! Notice he didn't rhyme!].

Petras got into hip-hop back in fifth grade growing up in South Salem, NY, where there was little call for the music genre. Influenced by Run DMC, LL Cool J and Rakim, Petras began rapping for real while enrolled Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications where he majored in journalism. Moving on to Manhattan, Petras began making his name on the underground rap and open-mike scenes while continuing his education at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

'My style is high vocabulary, intellectual and often political,' he says, thoughtfully sipping from a bottle of Poland Spring. So don't expect any feuds with The Game any time soon. But Petras does have a harsher side.

'As a teacher, I'm pretty strict. I guess I'm strict with a lot of things, though ' my diet, my writing. I'm strict like that with my hip-hop stuff.' He pauses. 'At the same time, I do give A-pluses. You give the student whatever they earn.'