T.C (David) Ellis, Rap protégé who appeared in Prince’s movie “Graffiti Bridge.” Ellis rapped the hit songs “Twin Cities Rap” and “Bat Rap.”

TPS: So, we’re just catching up on all of our friends and acquaintances from
 ”back in the day.” I understand you’re living in Vegas now?

TC: No, I still live in St. Paul, but I TRAVEL and work quite a bit in Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. I spend enough time there, it seems like I live there!

TPS: What has you doing all that traveling?

TC: Well, I’m very excited because this Fall we’re opening a brand new High School for Recording Arts in Los Angeles. I’m the Founding Director. Also, I helped to develop the Explore Knowledge Academy in Vegas. That’s what I’ve been doing these days–working to develop programs and schools like the one I started in the Twin Cities. I do technical consulting for innovative educational programs.
 
TPS: How did that start?

TC: I used to see a lot of High School-aged kids cutting classes. They’d hang out around my recording studio in the St. Paul skyway. These kids had no real interest in school, but boy, did they have a lot of interest in rap and recording. They’d ask me all kinds of questions and would try to talk me into letting them record. So finally, I let some of them–and they were good! And they were motivated and passionate. That’s when I realized there was a real need in the community to help these kids–a lot of them at first were “at-risk youth,” but over the course of 9 years that we’ve been up and running, we’ve been attracting kids from the suburbs who just didn’t “fit” in the traditional school system.

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