WATCH: SA teacher gifts students with rap song before Christmas break

SAN ANTONIO – For the past three years, on the last day before Northside Independent School District’s students and staff leave on a two-week Christmas break, Quinten Smith gifts his students with a rewritten version of “'Twas the Night Before Christmas” done in rap style. 

Smith, a three-year teacher at NISD's Warren High School, teaches 10th-grade English, mythology, and creative writing. 

On Wednesday, however, he dropped the textbook and turned to his pen and pad to spit mad flows and drop bars on his young pupils five days before Christmas.

It was a gift that not even Santa himself could give to the naughty or nice children.

“I can usually put a rap together in less than four hours (and) first find the beat,” Smith told KSAT.com. “I try to use something moderately popular so that it’s more recognizable. I’ll write one line and build around it.”

Rocking shades in the classroom, wearing a Santa hat and a “dabbing through the snow” shirt, Smith can be seen in a video of his rap song, which is titled “'Twas the Day before Winter Break,” that was captured by one of his students and shared to Twitter.

The tweeted video has since been viewed over 3,400 times and has received more than 80 retweets and nearly 200 likes. 

Smith told KSAT.com that, because he knows hip-hop/rap is the most popular genre of music among his students, he figures his raps serve as a nice “present” for them, bringing him to their level and serving as an “excellent vehicle of communication.” 

“My creative writing class is assigned to create a rap toward the end of the class, and I’ve seen students learn more about themselves and each other through their efforts and expressions with this project,” Smith told KSAT.com. 

“I know I’m doing my job well when they are learning, whether it’s about sentence structures or how to work through their own thoughts.”

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Smith said the reactions he gets from the students during his raps are just one of the many examples why he loves being a teacher. 

To watch Smith rapping to his students, click on the video above. Below are the lyrics to his “'Twas the Day before Winter Break” rap song.

So before we leave for  Christmas Break, I’ve prepped a little poetry,
“A poem or a rap sir? Cuz this sure sound like a flow to me”,
Call it what you will, you guys, but please don't scream and shout,
As I mr. Smith, your teacher, show you just what I’m about: 
I’m bout that no swag, braggin,
Imma make it happen,
Show these people a whole new world like Aladdin did wit Jasmine,
You know I got that fire, I’m the American Dragon,
Smith on the freshmen cypher, but ya boy an upper classmen,
How did get to this point in my life,
Thank middle school, with that Stevenson strife,
Teacher told me to go write my first poem.
Lyrical threads man, I started to sew em.
Got an A plus, knew that I had a knack,
English classes, put the team on my back
College rap battle refined my attack,
Now I inspire kids every time on the track.
Yeah
I’m a lyrical machine, Windex Flow, yo I’m too clean,
Don’t write words that are obscene,
I spit so pleasantly, give my class the best of me. 
Take over the world, yo manifest destiny,
Yo.
Never ran the streets, and I don’t say skreets, never ran in cleats
 but I can compete,with the hardest beats , And I stay selling snacks, man who tryna eat
Hey, why does every cool teacher gotta rap some?
Don’t even matter dawg, cuz I know that I’m the best one.
Rap confident, I’m the young Tony Stark,
Bars, two by two like I’m building the ark,
I light it up man, I don’t need a spark
Hit any beat given me straight out the park
And yo my
Flow so bright, when I spit it’s like the morning,
Flow savage booming coming out without warning,
Running anime and gaming I’m king of the nerds,
But you just give me a beat and I’m a beast with the words,
Now keep keep Bobbing yo head like the pops on my shelf,
Why do I Teach mythology cuz I’m a legend myself
Rap any teacher here, you know I’m winnin tha bet,
Kill em, intellectually in a minute, but not yet.

EMAIL: agarcia@ksat.com