Video: Watch ‘Get Lyrical’ By Professor Lyrical (@ProfLyrical) [Dir. @MysterDL]

Professor Lyrical is an artist and educator known for using the positive aspects of Hip Hop culture to empower citizens to self-advocate for socioeconomic change. In addition to being a highly acclaimed lyricist, performer, and rap music recording artist, he is also a full-time Lecturer of Mathematics at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He teaches within an innovative first year cohort (Foundation Year) and additionally teaches undergraduate and graduate students majoring in mathematics and education who are pursuing careers teaching math. He has already taught a staggering 100+ courses at eight Boston area colleges and universities in a variety of subjects spanning from “Hip Hop Culture & Lyricism” to “Calculus”. Professor Lyrical completed the coursework for his Doctorate in Higher Education at Northeastern in 2014. His proposed dissertation seeks to examine the factors leading to high attrition rates for underserved populations majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) based disciplines. Lyrical’s additional research interests include seeking ways to engage future diverse STEM leaders using Hip Hop culture and Hip Hop-centric pedagogy and curriculum, inside and outside of the classroom, while encouraging young people to think critically and creatively as engaged citizens and problem solvers. Recently, Professor Lyrical was a featured speaker at a Tedx Talk conference in Portsmouth, NH discussing many of these same ideas (while opening the event with a freestyle about topics the audience chose).

Lyrical cites his education at UMass-Lowell (BS Business; MS Mathematics) as crucial to his success as an educator and musician. He has been featured in scores of national and local television shows, magazines, and other publications. As an award winning rapper and freestyler (having also competed as Lyrical Lord Plourde in elite invitation-only battles such as The Supermen Battle for World Supremacy, East Coast Zulu Nation Battle and many many others), Lyrical has released records which have topped national college radio charts, both as a solo artist and with his groups X-Caliber and Invasion, and received mainstream airplay from a variety of stations–across many formats. He is often hired to speak and perform bridging music, mathematics, and academia through his words, powerful lyrics, and highly impressive improvisational freestyles.

His latest album, ‘Put Em All To Shame’, was released with a 200 page book, “Put Em All To Shame (The Curriculum)”. The album features three songs with his wife, Love Jones, an accomplished classically trained University of Virginia alum and Berklee College of Music jazz vocalist. Chuck D of Public Enemy recently publicly endorsed Professor Lyrical’s “wonderful” book and album (‘Put Em All To Shame’), pleading for folks to support it while calling Lyrical a “Rapademic reacher.” The “albook” is available on ProfessorLyrical.com, and on all major download music and eBook sites. As part of the promotional campaign for the ‘Put Em All To Shame’ release, one song will be periodically released from the project to exemplify its timeliness. All of the production on the album was originated in the mid-late 1990s and was brought to a halt when DJ Shame was fed up with the direction of music being released in the industry. Shame (also chosen to compete as a World Supremacy DJ battler from Massachusetts) played 100 of them for Lyrical, allowing him to choose his favorites for the album. “Get Lyrical” is the epitome of this project reflecting the sound of early 1996 as Lyrical was recording with his group X-Caliber, squeezing in recording and production time with the legendary Ski Beats between sessions for Camp Lo and Jay-Z.

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