New Bronx High School of Hip Hop will use music as ‘vehicle for learning’ for public school kids

A new public high school in the Bronx will be turning every lesson into music class this fall.

The Bronx School of Hip Hop is set to open its doors in Claremont in September as the first-of-its-kind city public school that uses the genre music famously pioneered in the borough as a “vehicle for learning.”

“It’s a rigorous, future-ready New York City public school that is innovative and responsive to the community’s needs and really exposes our students to different pathways to really show their intelligence,” said incoming principal Jason Reyes.

While its name might conjure up a different idea, Bronx School of Hip Hop won’t be going to rap class in the morning before heading to a DJ session.

Instead, educators will teach the standard state curriculum through the lens of five core elements of hip hop culture.

“M-ing, DJing, Graffiti, Breaking, and Knowledge of Self — these connect directly to literacy, mathematics, science, technology, entrepreneurship, media and then cultural leadership. It’s not like we have these music electives. It’s more like hip hop is embedded through the academic program as a rigorous framework,” explained Reyes, a born-and-raised Bronxite.

“So MCing is still the English language. We’re talking about the analysis of rhetorical language, storytelling, literary analysis,” he continued.

“When we talk about how math relates specifically to DJing and production, you’ve got sequencing ratios, algebraic expressions and pattern recognition within that, as well as the whole financial modeling side of math with statistics.”

There will still be plenty of interesting classes that a regular public school might not offer, including audio engineering, beat production, video and graphic design and more.

The idea for the Bronx School of Hip Hop had been years in the making, with numerous longtime educators across the five boroughs recognizing the fascination students have with music.

Harnessing that attraction and using it as a means of engaging with students was something Reyes had done throughout his career, calling hip hop in particular “powerful.”

“It’s culturally relevant, students already are into the music and the culture of it. It provides an entry point for both teachers and students to meet and really create that engagement,” said Reyes, who pointed to Nas as an artist he has looked up to since he was a student himself.

Creating the first-of-its-kind school in the Bronx was a no-brainer, Reyes continued, calling hip hop the “number one export out of the Bronx.”

That notoriety and neighborhood connection could also mean that plenty of big-name musicians might be visiting the unique institution in its inaugural year, Reyes teased.

The Bronx School of Hip Hop will open its doors to its first-ever freshmen class this September in the same building as the merged I.S. 313 and I.S. 339.

New York students can apply to the Bronx School of Hip Hop as they would any other public school in the five boroughs — there is no zoning protocol or admissions test.

The approximately 120 freshman students will be the only ones in the school for the first academic school year, according to Reyes — they will also be the first sophomore, junior and senior classes as time goes on, as well as the first-ever graduating class.

That “founding class” will be integral in crafting the identity and personality of the brand-new institution, Reyes said, adding that he looks forward to having student-made beats ring through the halls for the change of class rather than a boring bell.

“They are the lifeblood of our schools and we definitely honor them,” said Reyes.