Yellowknife (Apr 05/06) - Yellowknife living and rap collided last week as infamous Trailer Park Boys' rapper J-Roc and Aaron "Godson" Hernandez taught students how to "drop a tight joint."

J-Roc, aka Jonathan Torrens, helps 13-year-old Krista Flanagan with her rhyming during a rap session at Weledeh Catholic school. The celebrity rapper was joined by Yellowknife's own talent Aaron "Godson" Hernandez. Together, they also visited Range Lake North and William McDonald school to show students how Northern culture and rap are more similar than we might think. - Jessica Gray/NNSL photo

"Rap is just telling stories in rhyme," said J-Roc, aka actor Jonathan Torrens, to a class of Grade 7 and 8 students at Weledeh Catholic school.

"Inside each of you there's a little 'gangsta.'"

Torrens and Hernandez visited schools to promote literacy as part of the Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf Tournament in support of the NWT Literacy Council.Students from Range Lake North, William McDonald and Weledeh schools got a chance to show off their creative talent in the form of rap rhymes, which they wrote in about 15 minutes.

Hernandez and J-Roc performed some freestyle rapping to help students understand what it's all about.

With lines like "I like to listen to rap with my boom box in my lap," and "we're the only monkeys without fleas," the students seemed unafraid to try something new. "I wanna sing my rap again. I'll even do it alone," said 11-year-old Jordan Evoy, part of a group called The Ganstaz Luv.

One of his partners in crime, Keanan Campbell, 12, said he choked in front of the large audience, but had a lot of fun anyway.

Torrens told students that aboriginal culture's oral traditions and rap are similar in the way they are both a form of storytelling. He said he was impressed with Northern schools and how supportive students were with their peers.

"There was no jeering, and that's unique."

Hernandez said the sessions were important because it got students doing something they've probably never done.

"We're trying to let people know it's okay to do things they never thought they could do," he said.

William McDonald teacher Russell Ives said students enjoyed the chance to be creative and still learn about literacy. "It's like poetry and lots of people like to do it."