When you were in high school, there were probably a few talented people walking through the halls whom you respected. People whose creative aptitudes inspired you or made you want to work with them on some sort of project, school-related or otherwise.
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But sometimes there is such a glut of talent in a single school that it becomes history, even staggering. Did you know that several of the biggest names in rap music from the 1990s went to the same high school? It’s remarkable but true. Let’s take a look!
George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School
Located in Brooklyn, New York, George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School is a vocational school at 105 Tech Place. It is named after the groundbreaking electrical mind George Westinghouse Jr. But, more than his name, the school is famous for four others today.
Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, and Biggie
The bombastic rapper Busta Rhymes attended the technical school before he transferred to Uniondale High School on Long Island, where he graduated in 1991. He was in the same class as The Notorious BIG, and Jay-Z was a few grades ahead. In an interview with MTV News, Busta said he and Jay rhymed together in the lunchroom.
“One day, someone came up to me like, ‘Yo, Jay’s in the cafeteria.’ Back then, no one called him Hov yet. They asked if I wanted to step up and battle. So I did. At the time, speed rapping was the trend, and both of us could do it well. Jay was nasty with it, especially because he was rolling with Jaz-O and them—that was their style.
“Honestly, he got the best of me. I spit one verse, and that was all I had. My tank was empty! Then he hit me with two or three more, and I was like, ‘Here we go.’ But I gave it everything I had.”
Busta also told Fuse, “I didn’t know Biggie rhymed in school ’cause in school we was cuttin’ a lot of class and we was smokin’ a lot of w**d and bullsh*ttin’. I knew Jay-Z was rhyming ’cause me and Jay-Z battled in school, speed rapping. He had finessed the speed rapping phenomenally at that time and I was new with the speed rapping, but losing that battle to Jay in speed rapping is what made me one of the most dangerous speed rappers today. […] Jay know he can’t see me in no speed rapping today.”
DMX
While Busta transferred from the school, Jay and Biggie dropped out. But DMX is also rumored to have attended the school. But it is unclear if that is actually the case. The “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem” rapper is from Yonkers, which is about an hour north of Brooklyn. DMX also isn’t listed on George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School’s list of famous alumni. But many online swear that he walked the halls for a short time.
Either way, even having three of the biggest names in rap is quite an accomplishment for the institution. And if we can add DMX’s name to that list, all the better!
Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage
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