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Who over 21 doesn’t know this song? Back in the day, when I was young- I’m not a kid anymore, but some days I wish I was a kid again. And that’s all I know of the song, but it was a damn good song.

This post is for Kyle, who was gracious enough to give me the “Ahmad” album for my iPod before I left for Vietnam.

One thing to note: the article tries to make it sound so hard for someone to get into Stanford by transfer. This is in fact true, but you have to remember, Ahmad is a former music star, and can probably afford the tuition. And black. With all the academic qualifications. Who doesn’t want that story among your alumni?

Rapper turns scholar

HE HAS NEW HOME ON STANFORD CAMPUS

By Larry Gordon
Los Angeles Times

Article Launched: 08/24/2008 01:37:13 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES – Ahmad Ali Lewis made a deal with his mother back when he was a high school student: He would go to college unless he got a recording contract for his upbeat rap music.

It was a big if. But Lewis, 17, an honors student and top football player, skipped the college entrance exams and signed with Giant Records. “I said S.A.T. – whatever. I want to R.A.P.,” he recalls.

His 1994 album, called “Ahmad,” included a hit single, “Back in the Day,” a nostalgic riff on his south Los Angeles childhood. In it, he rapped:

“I miss those days, and so I pout like a grown jerk

Wishin all I had to do now, was finish homework.

It’s true you don’t realize really what you got til it’s gone

And I’m not gonna sing another sad song, but

Sometimes I do sit and reminisce then

Think about the years I was raised, back in the days.”

Looking back, Lewis said he does not regret his teenage decision, even though his early success was followed by struggles in a music industry he criticized as promoting violence in the black community. Now 32 and the father of a 4-year-old son, he is still recording songs but he is also finishing homework.

Ahmad the first-name-only rapper has become Ahmad Ali Lewis the Stanford-bound scholar.

Lewis enrolled two years ago at Long Beach City College and graduated in May as valedictorian, with a 4.0 grade point average. He was accepted as a transfer student by several universities for this fall and chose Stanford. “When I stepped on campus, something in my gut said, ‘Dude, this is where you belong,’ ” said Lewis, who plans to double major in sociology and African-American studies. He expects to get a doctorate in social work and become a professor.

“I love teaching,” said Lewis, who tutored at an elementary school. “Rapping and teaching are not that far apart. You’re rapping, you’re talking. You’re a professor, you’re talking.”

Compact but broad shouldered at 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, Lewis still has the build of the running back he was in high school. His head is shaven and he has two tattoos: on his left shoulder, a map of Africa containing a woman’s face and on his right forearm, “4th Avenue Jones,” the name of the soul-rock-rap band he co-founded with his former wife, singer Tena Jones. When he talks, he waves his hands in the open-fingered style of rap performance.

He speaks of his Christian faith and academic ambitions with enthusiasm, humor and what he jokingly concedes is the “egomania” of a well-loved child. His mother, Paulette Holt, inspired him by starting college when she was a divorced mother of three and also “brainwashed me,” he said. “I always thought I was better than average, that I was handsome, smart and talented. It was a trick,” he said. “Being black in America, from the ghetto, you need that extra little bit of confidence. So that’s kind of my mission to give other kids that kind of confidence.”

The odds were against him at Stanford, which accepted just 20 of this year’s 1,200 transfer applicants. But Lewis was admitted and offered a financial aid package that will cover his tuition, room and board, which total more than $47,000 this school year. He’ll also receive funds for books and living costs each year through a highly competitive grant program the Virginia-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation offers community college students transferring to four-year schools.

“Ahmad was really a standout in all the areas,” said Vance Lancaster, a Cooke foundation spokesman. “He is truly a scholar and a humanitarian who just happens to be a chart-topping rapper.”

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10290698?source=rss

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