3 Cheers: 10-Year-Old Rap Artist 'Flow King' Spreading Positive Message Through Music
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Norristown rapper is spreading a positive message and he's not even in middle school yet.
"You can dream it, you can do it, education can pursue it, I got hopes and dreams, so I gotta work to it," Flow King rapped.
This Norristown rapper is ready to work for his dream. Ten-year-old Khalil "Flow King" Jordan was given the opportunity to make a music video featuring his original song at his school, Marshall Street Elementary in Norristown.
"There are about 750 students in that one shot," said Rotation Records CEO Joe Staiber.
Khalil's music teacher, Emily Bulman, knew Khalil was talented since seeing him in kindergarten.
"I remember seeing this boy at our talent show that we do every year at the school and he got a standing ovation," Ms. Bulman said.
It wasn't until she needed help writing a song for the school's spring concert that she realized how special he was.
"She was like, 'I have a theme, the theme which is hopes and dreams, right?' and she's like, 'But, I just don't know what to do with that theme,'" Kahlil said.
It took only one day for Khalil to come back to Ms. Bulman with a hook to the song.
"A week later, I had a whole full song," Khalil said.
"So you wrote 'Hopes and Dreams' in basically a week?" CBS3's Chandler Lutz asked Khalil.
As Khalil and Ms. Bulman worked on the song she told him they needed to do more with the song.
"It was just him and I in my classroom, and we were working on this song and he's performing. I looked at him and said, 'We need to do something with this. We need to record this,'" Ms. Bulman said.
Ms. Bulman connected with Rotation Records in Norristown, who brought Khalil in for a real recording studio experience and eventually helped produce the music video.
"They had every teacher, every student involved," Staiber said. "It was just incredible. It was a great day of shooting. It's the perfect story, especially today. To have a young man to be able to write not only great music and lyrics but also a positive message. And that's what this boy does. It's something special."
Does Khalil want to be a rapper when he grows up?
"Yes, I do," Khalil said. "I don't want to stop doing what I love. Music brings people together."
We say 3 Cheers to Khalil as he reaches towards those "hopes and dreams."
"My ultimate goal is to motivate myself and other people through my words and my songs," Khalil said.
The label was able to do the shoot thanks to a grant from a nonprofit called Expressive Path. A lot of people came together to make this happen.
Even though he did a master recording in the studio, the song that made the video was actually recorded at home by Khalil using Garageband.