{"id":293215,"date":"2026-09-24T19:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/293215\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T19:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:44:07","slug":"philadelphia-student-uses-rap-to-call-out-education-inequity-and-the-matrix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/293215\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia student uses rap to call out education inequity and \u2018the matrix\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n

Precious Eshiet is tired of what she calls \u201cthe matrix.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old student at Germantown Friends High School is the winner of Chalkbeat\u2019s first-ever back-to-school rap contest<\/a>, which aimed to uplift youth perspectives on education. It grew out of interviews with local teen rappers confronting a culture of violence in the hip-hop industry<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In Eshiet\u2019s contest submission, \u201cthe matrix\u201d refers to young people feeling pigeonholed into a certain future based on their race or economic backgrounds. It\u2019s been front-and-center for her while selecting her demographics on college applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re putting people into certain boxes, and based on the boxes you click, they already have a perceived spot for you,\u201d said Eshiet, who goes by the artist name Presh so Fresh. \u201cIt\u2019s like everything\u2019s a fixed destiny, and you can\u2019t really fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sample of her lyrics from the winning entry: <\/p>\n

Corruption in society, but check it like a list\/ When they giving like a matrix I ain\u2019t really gotta miss\/ I\u2019ve been blessed with a mission, I\u2019m getting to the hit\/ Talk about intelligence I\u2019m gonna let it hit.<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Precious Eshiet<\/p>\n

Eshiet has been writing verses since immigrating to Philadelphia from Nigeria at age 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was primarily when I started rapping,\u201d she said. \u201cI started writing poetry because it was an easier way for me to comprehend English.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Germantown Friends, Eshiet co-leads the Black Student Union and sometimes performs at school events. Her rap reflects her personality: positive and polite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never learned to curse,\u201d she said. \u201cIn Nigeria it\u2019s not a thing. I only started hearing curse words when I was like a freshman in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’re here to help.<\/p>\n

Every day, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reporters are answering your questions, following the money, and digging into what’s happening in the city’s public schools. Keep up with our free newsletter, delivered every Wednesday and Friday morning.<\/p>\n

She hopes her winning entry will have a positive impact on younger students :\u201cThey need something that inspires them to do right, to do them, not something that could end up hurting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she tries to confront realities that she says many Philadelphia students contend with daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day when I wake up, I hear on the news that there\u2019s always another shooting,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s always another this or that, and it generally makes me so sad that there are so many students who are trying to get educated, but there\u2019s so many things inhibiting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the future, she\u2019s considering writing lyrics about the local and national political climate. For now, she\u2019s excited to be starting her final year of high school.<\/p>\n

Marsten House Studios, Audeoboi Studios, and Power 99 and WDAS radio stations were partners on the rap contest. <\/p>\n

This story is part of a collaboration between Chalkbeat Philadelphia and The New York Times\u2019s Headway Initiative, supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) via the Local Media Foundation.<\/p>\n

Sammy Caiola covers solutions to gun violence in and around Philadelphia schools. Have ideas for her? Get in touch at scaiola@chalkbeat.org.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with the city\u2019s public school system. Precious Eshiet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13447,121478,7623,121477,121476,69,71,70,7625,121475,6984,7178],"class_list":["post-293215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-artist","tag-back-to-school-rap-contest","tag-chalkbeat","tag-germantown-friends-high-school","tag-high-schooler","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly","tag-rap-contest","tag-student","tag-winner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}