EMCEE TAKES WISDOM TO RHYME: Vernon Thompson
INTERVIEW Charles Brown PHOTOGRAPH VZ Beatz
Vernon Thompson has every right to call himself the Hip Hop Educator. With a steep history of working in the school district, Thompson uses his expetise to create music for change. A graduate from Quinnipiac University for BA in Marketing, a former assistant basketball coach at Albertus Magnus College who took his team to their first NCAA tournament, and now an Assistant Principal at Warren Harding High School after teaching at Bridgeport Public High School (where he also served as an assistant principal), this artist uses the power of Hip Hop to facilitate positive messages for urban communities everywhere.
“I considered myself Hip Hop before I became an educator. I was an artist. So, I think it is vital that I first represent Hip Hop culture and then I bring Hip Hop culture into the education field.” - Vern Thompson
VALIDATED: With your history of furthering your education to becoming a teacher yourself, how much was education pushed onto you growing up?
VERNON THOMPSON: My parents are first generation HBCU graduates and both went over to obtain doctorate degrees. My mother was the first black woman to graduate from Bowman Gray School of Medicine which is currently Wake Forest University School of Medicine. So, the importance of education was instilled in my household from the beginning. My father was the pastor of the East End Baptist Church which was on one of the worst sides of town in Bridgeport, Connecticut. My father made sure the majority of the youth in the church attended college. He even brought students to school and took them school shopping out of his own pockets. My parents not only instilled the value of education in their own children. They invested in the education of the children in the community.
VALIDATED: What made you decide to use Hip Hop as a tool to reach the youth and also, how much has Hip Hop been an educator to you personally?
VERNON THOMPSON: Hip Hop is the language of our youth. I felt that there was no better way to communicate my message than to use the gift of Hip Hop. The minister stated that a Hip Hop song is more powerful than 1,000 sermons. The challenges we face in urban education and with the challenges our students are facing growing up in urban environments, I felt it was important to use every gift that I have to save a life. Lectures and speeches have a tendency to go in one ear and out of the other. Music and sonics speak to the soul. When you communicate with the soul, you have the opportunity to change the mind. I also thought that it was important to publicly communicate to my students that their music is my culture. We are connected through Hip Hop and the music has no age no boundaries.
VALIDATED: Months ago, you released the “Joe Clark Tape”. How has the response been from such a creative body of work?
VERNON THOMPSON: I'm very happy with the response, but the best part of the response is the response that I get from students who have gone on YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify and really tapped into the message. I also value the opportunity to speak to educators who may not be familiar with the urban environments, but have the passion to help students who come from low economic and low income environments and deal with the tragedies of violence in their communities. I'm proud of the fact that I can show artists that being authentically who you are can be appreciated and greatly accepted.
VALIDATED: Now as an assistant principal, do you find your responsibility of handling youth a lot more complicated or do you feel as if you have a bigger role to make an impact?
VERNON THOMPSON: I definitely believe that it is a bigger role to make an impact. As a teacher, you have an opportunity to make contact with approximately 100 students a school year, but as an assistant principal you have an opportunity to make decisions that affect the 1,200 students in the school building. Being an assistant principal also gives you the flexibility to develop relationships with more students because you are not confined to a classroom. So I really enjoy the role of developing relationships on a broader scale.
VALIDATED: You call yourself the “Hip Hop Educator”. Tell me how the students that you oversee connect with you through Hip Hop. They must see you as the cool member of the faculty at your school, right?
VERNON THOMPSON: Definitely. To start, Hip Hop affects everything from the way we communicate to the way that we dress. As students easily connect with you when they see Hip Hop and the fashion of Hip Hop culture has an impact on how you present yourself. I considered myself Hip Hop before I became an educator. I was an artist. So, I think it is vital that I first represent Hip Hop culture and then I bring Hip Hop culture into the education field. It is important that children can see us for who we are. I drive into work playing Hip Hop and I leave work listening to Hip Hop. If you want to develop relationships that have depth, it is important that you show those around you the depths of who you are. We are dealing with a misunderstood generation that needs honest leaders who are developed on a foundation of truth, and truth begins with being everything that you are and everything that God made you.
VALIDATED: In your opinion, could music today use more positive messages like the ones you spread or do you feel as if there is a respectable balance as it is?
VERNON THOMPSON: I believe music could use more authentic creativity and more artists cultivating their own sound and identity. In my era of being a young artist, the industry dictated a formula and the artist conformed. Today, the internet has freed the artist from that control. An artist's message can only reflect the life experiences that they have faced. It is therefore important that artists tell their stories and live in their truth!
VALIDATED: On your song "By Product" off of “The Joe Clark Tape”, you rap about how a child is pretty much living in and guided by a harsh environment but not by choice. With this being an epidemic in the urban communities, what do you believe are some of the steps that we can take as adults to show our children that their lives can turn around for the better?
VERNON THOMPSON: I think we must first be honest in saying we don't have the answer, but we cannot allow the answers that we don't have stop us from trying to save our children. Sometimes it feels like the message of avoiding the path of violence is falling on deaf ears, but I have to take a retrospective look at the children that have changed and allow that to motivate me every day to keep preaching the message of staying away from the streets. One of the greatest challenges with dealing with young people is that their brains have not developed and they are in positions to make mistakes that can ruin their lives forever and even take their lives. This is why we as adults have to make some choices for our children to protect them during their most vulnerable, precious years.
VALIDATED: For the readers, where can your music be found?
VERNON THOMPSON: “The Joe Clark Tape” and all of my upcoming projects can be found on all streaming platforms under the artist name Vernon Thompson.
VALIDATED: Any words of encouragement to anyone young who is pushing for a way out of their circumstances?
VERNON THOMPSON: Never be afraid to leave your neighborhood or leave a situation that is keeping you from success. Many times our familiar neighborhood and the people in it can't see your potential beyond your mistakes or the limitations of the people around you. I have seen so many people lose their lives or simply miss opportunities because they stayed in the hood that they were familiar with due to the fear of what might happen in new places! Face your fears, try new things, go to new places, give yourself an opportunity to grow and reach your highest levels of potential.