text: flocabulary flocabulary is a brooklyn - based company that creates educational hip hop songs , videos and additional materials for students in grades k - 12 . founded in 2004 by blake harrison and alex rappaport , the company takes a nontraditional approach to teaching vocabulary , united states history , math , science and other subjects by integrating content into recorded raps . flocabulary 's website features videos , lesson plans , activities and assessments . the company has emphasized outreach to underprivileged schools in its business decisions . as of 2015 , more than 35 , 000 schools use flocabulary products in the classroom . flocabulary has been praised by rapper snoop dogg ( aka snoop lion ) and historian howard zinn , and the company 's products have been generally well received by educators and the press . however , the project has been criticized for perceived cultural inauthenticity and politically charged material in some song lyrics . history blake harrison conceived of the idea that would become flocabulary while in high school . inspired by hip hop artists like outkast and a tribe called quest , harrison wanted to combine the easy of hip hop lyrics with educational content . harrison graduated from the university of pennsylvania with a degree in english . he then moved to san francisco , where he met alex rappaport , a music graduate of tufts university . harrison shared his idea with rappaport , and in 2004 the two made a demo recording of two songs with a combined total of 80 sat words . within two months made the songs available for free streaming , and soon afterward harrison and rappaport set up a flocabulary website . cider mill press published flocabulary books and distributed them through sterling publishing to sell the book at barnes & noble and borders stores . the hip hop approach to sat vocabulary sold 10 , 000 copies in its first year of publication and was reprinted five times . in 2005 , flocabulary went on a promotional tour of concerts at schools . by early 2006 , flocabulary began self - publishing its products . harrison and rappaport raised $ 50 , 000 from family and friends and began visiting schools and education conferences to sell their products . flocabulary entered into a contest for startup businesses at columbia business school and won a social value award . after participating in a collaborative business advice program with columbia students , harrison and rappaport decided to stop self - publishing and returned to cider mill . flocabulary raised $ 110 , 000 from investors and hired 30 sales representatives . in september 2007 , a line of flocabulary products was released called " word up " for teaching standardized test vocabulary . word up ! proved successful and helped to double their annual revenue in 2008 to $ 600 , 000 . flocabulary 's 2007 release shakespeare is hip - hop featured musical and lyrical contributions from a number of hip hop artists , including grammy award - winner 9th wonder . in 2008 , harrison and rappaport created the week in rap , a weekly series of songs that has covered current events including the 2008 presidential election and the results of california proposition 8 . by 2009 , flocabulary made $ 900 , 000 in annual revenue . rappaport says that flocabulary has made access to its products a priority over profitability , saying , " we wanted to reach the kids who might never get to the sats , whose families weren 't buying books at barnes & noble . " according to rappaport , flocabulary has made " social responsibility a core value [ of the company ] and never [ let ] it get overshadowed by our revenue goals , " and , " we 're trying to make this as affordable as possible , because unfortunately the schools with money aren 't necessarily the schools that need flocabulary . so we 're trying to work with some government organizations and other charities to really get these into the schools that need them . " flocabulary 's non - profitable social projects have included charitable donations and outreach to underprivileged schools . in september 2010 , the use of flocabulary was postponed in oklahoma city public schools after several teachers voiced concern over some of the lyrics in the program . the lyrics to the song " old dead white men " drew complaints for referring to the founding fathers of the united states as dead white males , a term used to criticize perceived disproportionate emphasis on the contributions of historical european males . the lyrics to " " also compare andrew jackson 's policy of indian removal to adolf hitler 's final solution . rappaport responded that the materials were meant to keep the students engaged and promote discussion , but the company has since replaced the song on its site . tucker carlson said flocabulary was a " get - educated - quick [ scheme ] " that disregards historical " context or accuracy " , and said " there are still no independent studies that demonstrate rapping about social studies is any more educational than rapping about sex or gunfights . " carlson particularly noted what he saw as over - simplification of the african - american civil rights movement in the song " let freedom ring " . by june 2016 , when flocabulary raised a $ 1 . 5 million convertible note from rethink education , the company had produced more than 725 educational rap videos . [ 1 ] reception school library journal notes that , " [ flocabulary 's ] catchy songs hook k - 12 students in a way that textbooks can 't . " a reporter for the wall street journal visited classrooms where flocabulary was being used and remarked that , " when third - grade teachers asked questions about the videos and vocabulary , the problem wasn ’ t getting children to raise their hands , but to put them down . " a reporter for writes that " as a lesson supplement , it gets the job done — not every memory tool inspires comments like " " on youtube . " academics howard zinn and cornel west endorsed hip - hop u.s. history . menchville high reported that use of flocabulary increased sat scores from 420 to 477 , though the principle said the school can 't verify to what extent flocabulary did or didn 't have an influence . a study conducted across six us states by former international reading association president roger farr demonstrated improvement in reading and writing skills among middle schools students who studied with flocabulary . proficiency increased by more than 20 percent . snoop dogg has expressed support for the company 's products . jack rosenthal of the new york times says that flocabulary is " one example of how web sites have latched onto mnemonics as ways to teach sat words to high - school students . " in november 2014 , reporter laura called a video about credit cards in flocabulary ’ s financial literacy series “ direct , clear and insanely catchy . ” common sense media notes that , " one of flocabulary 's best qualities is that the songs sound like real rap songs , not an embarrassing facsimile that 's obviously for educational purposes . the backing beats and samples are catchy and memorable , and videos contain a fun combo of stock footage , original animation , and , for the week in rap , current news clips . " in the book slam school : learning through conflict in the hip - hop and spoken word classroom bronwen low , while praising flocabulary and similar programs for incorporating hip hop into american schools , argues that flocabulary is culturally inauthentic and refers to flocabulary 's methods as a gimmick . similarly , while the book the anthology of rap supports shakespeare is hip hop as an " effective and entertaining [ tool ] " , the author said flocabulary failed to " illuminate rap 's distinct poetic tradition . "