Vallejo rapper and entrepreneur LaRussell is going back to school with his newest music video.
Tasked with creating a theme song for his daughter’s school, LaRussell wrote "E.L.I.T.E." based on the name of the school: ELITE Public Schools.
Students ranging from grade school to high school helped write verses for the song in just a matter of hours, and it's their voices listeners will hear on the track.
"My thing was to just say things that feel good and feel fun to say," LaRussell said. "They are ingesting it into their body not knowing that it's affirmations. They are really just affirming themselves through the day."
ELITE Public Schools is a charter school formed six years ago. The school says its focus is on being culturally responsible to a community made up of mostly students of color.
"This is not just for ELITE. This is for all students worldwide," ELITE Public Schools CEO Dr. Ramona Bishop said. "It will be a daily impact. I can do anything, I can be anything if I just follow the code."
Released just last week, the song has already gone viral on social media.
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"I just really like to see people and when they are happy while doing it," LaRussell’s daughter, Melody, said.
Every verse is a reflection of how students say they view themselves and hope others will too.
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"I feel like it is really great because now the outside looking in can know what our school is about and know what we have to offer," student Jermeer Hicks said.
Student Jade Bess said she's heading to NYU after being accepted into 32 universities and receiving nearly $370,000 in scholarships.
"Before I came to ELITE, I was known as just the quiet, smart girl, but when I came to ELITE, everybody was smart and everybody had big dreams and that allowed me to make mine bigger as well," she said.
It’s a vision of greatness for the students LaRussell said has made this his most impactful project yet – a feeling not even arenas and stadiums can provide.
"This is so much more fulfilling," he said. "It really made me feel like I was necessary in this world, and I know that if I wasn’t here it would be dramatically different because that didn’t exist until I was here."
