The idea that any New York City Prep School student is unaware of Urban Rap Culture would be like claiming those same kids don't know the Yankees play baseball in the Bronx. That might be true for someone who never set foot in the very eclectic world that is Manhattan, but those would absolutely be the only ones willing to buy the concept of "Ice-T's Rap School."
Sort of a combination of "American Juniors" (remember that experiment?) and "Scared Straight," famed rapper and actor Ice-T goes to York Preparatory School, accosts the headmaster, Ronald P. Stewart to let him take a classroom of students and teach them the basics of rap so they can perform at a talent show at the end of the term.
Most all of the amusement comes at the expense of the kids, who are going through the fish-out-of-water motions of "discovering" what "a beat" is and how to "break it down." Field trips to the city's outer boroughs bring both learning and apprehension, as the little group of hothouse flowers get exposed to the harsher side of life beyond Lincoln Center, and see just where much of the inspiration for the rhymes come from.
Truthfully, if you went to any of New York's private schools, you would find that most, if not all of the kids have iPods filled with the hardest hardcore rap out there, so the concept of the program is flawed from the very start.
Does this intrepid band of wannabe Snoop Doggs and Lil Kims have what it takes to win the crowd at their final performance? Only you can be the judge of that. Maybe if they played the whole thing less for the obvious jokes and more for the truth, this could have been worth watching. Ultimately, this only turned out to be a joke on everyone, especially the students of York Prep, who took a serious hit to their street cred.
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