Kendrick Lamar's 'Alright' Inspires Scholarship for High School Students

An organization in Philadelphia became inspired by Kendrick Lamar's "Alright" and decided to start up the #BeAlright scholarship for high school students. The organization, which is called Oogee Woogee, started the scholarship contest at High Tech High School for their students. The objective is to get students to record a 2-to-3 minute video of themselves showing off their talent, and explaining some of the positive aspects of hip-hop.

The student that eventually wins the scholarship will be awarded $1,500 that can go towards books, as well as tuition.

High Tech High School is currently the apple of the Compton rapper’s eye, as English teacher Brian Mooney at the school created a lesson plan that went viral for using To Pimp A Butterfly in a parallel comparison to Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Eventually, this led to Lamar visiting the high school and the teacher’s classroom where he hung out with the students and even listened to some of their writing and poetry readings.

A video also shows him participating in a classroom cypher with many of the other students as part of Mr. Mooney’s lesson plan.

Wilikine Brutus, content director of Oogee Woogee, spoke with Philly.com on the news of the scholarship: “We always wanted to create a hip-hop-inspired scholarship. 'Alright' came at the right time and the visit to the high school gave us a concrete idea of what we wanted,” he revealed.

Currently, applicants of the scholarship have their videos active on the Oogee Woogee’s Facebook page, where the submission with the most shares and likes will be able to win the money. The contest is set to come to a close tomorrow morning, Aug. 25, at 9 a.m. The winner will be announced shortly after.

The organization also has hopes to bring the scholarship outside of Philly, to participants that can be more nationwide.