Cool Prof: Hip-Hop Prof

It&#39s 11 on a Friday night, and I&#39m chilling with my journalism professor before the weekly rap show he promotes. Yes, you read this right &#39 I used the word &#39chilling!&#39 Old school is where it&#39s at. Anyway, I&#39m 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.

&#39There isn&#39t much similarity between rapping and teaching, except that you have to be articulate&#39 says Petras, greeting new arrivals to the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. &#39I 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.&#39 [Editor&#39s note: It&#39s true! Notice he didn&#39t 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&#39s 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.

&#39My style is high vocabulary, intellectual and often political,&#39 he says, thoughtfully sipping from a bottle of Poland Spring. So don&#39t expect any feuds with The Game any time soon. But Petras does have a harsher side.

&#39As a teacher, I&#39m pretty strict. I guess I&#39m strict with a lot of things, though &#39 my diet, my writing. I&#39m strict like that with my hip-hop stuff.&#39 He pauses. &#39At the same time, I do give A-pluses. You give the student whatever they earn.&#39