F-bombs, the N-word, lyrics about sex acts and cheerleaders shaking their exposed booties — and still more — are featured in a rap music video shot in the Patrick Henry High School gym by a Twin Cities performer who attended classes there and his Chicago partner.
A Minneapolis School District official said Thursday that the people who used the gym last month on a Sunday afternoon misrepresented their intentions when they applied to use the space.
District spokeswoman Gail Plewacki said Patrick Henry Principal Yusuf Abdullah asked the producers on Monday to remove from YouTube the video "Keep Me Going," which stars former Patrick Henry student P. Skud and Lil Bibby, of Chicago. The video's creator has so far declined, Plewacki said.
Now the district is trying to get YouTube to take down the video, citing copyright issues with the unauthorized use of the school's name, logo and mascot, all of which appear in the video in several scenes.
The applicants, who paid $300 for the gym time, said they were going to produce a "basketball promotion," Plewacki said. "Clearly, a basketball promotion was a misrepresentation. ... We were tremendously misled."
She emphasized that the lyrics and imagery in the video, which is graphic and which has been viewed more than 66,000 times since it was posted last Friday, "do not align with our values. ... We do not endorse the content, and we do not approve of the content."
Aspiring rapper P. Skud, whose actual name is Lavern Jamison, said he doesn't feel that he pulled a fast one on school officials and was unaware that they want the plug pulled on the video, which was shot Nov. 20 at the north Minneapolis high school.
"The theme of the video is to never stop, to keep going," said Jamison, who put up $12,000 of his own money to get it made. "I was writing a story to motivate my little brother" who plays basketball at Osseo High School.
Jamison, 26, said he loved his 3½ years at Patrick Henry, before he graduated elsewhere. "I used to perform at Henry in talent shows," he said.
On Thursday afternoon, Jamison posted a video on Facebook apologizing to the high school, its principal and the staff for what he called a misunderstanding.
"I'm not trying to bring any shame upon the school," he said. "I didn't know it would be a problem. The permit explained that it was a music video." Jamison did not address whether the video would be removed from YouTube.
The video opens with teens entering the gym for a basketball game as P. Skud appears and the lyrics start with "Money, keep me going; drinking, keep me going."
The lines quickly turn raunchy, with crude references to sex, prostitutes, and utterances of the F-bomb and the N-word.
Fans dance on bleachers during the basketball game, and on the sideline dancers portraying cheerleaders in short skirts at times expose and shake their bare buttocks for the camera.
De Man Nyaundi, a 2007 Patrick Henry graduate, saw the video this week and called it "a misrepresentation of the school and the students and the alumni who went there.
"They're talking about drugs, promoting violence and exploiting women. ... This school has much to offer. ... I'm ashamed by this video."
The school's name on the wall is clearly viewable in the video as well as its athletic logo.
Plewacki said allowing the school's identity to be revealed in the video violates the permit agreement. She said the people in the video are not current students of Patrick Henry or otherwise affiliated with the district.
On the day of the video shoot, a maintenance person checked Jamison's permit, let the users in, left and then returned at the end of the two hours to check for damage and lock up.
"Our schools are public places," Plewacki said. "We like to have our spaces used by the public."
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
