Microphone Fiends

As a teacher at Tainan Girls High School I feel I get to e.f.f.e.c.t the future of Taiwan's movers and shakers. Most of my course is an attempt to get my students to think outside the box and step away from their test-based life. I confess that sometimes I do things more for my enjoyment than their English learning.

We make movies with the kids every year and this serves as a fantastic way for them to dabble with the concept of creative expression. The movies they make are great and they seem to have a lot of fun making them. However, as the students move to the second grade there is a lot of pressure from teachers and parents alike to concentrate on tests and test results. Hence, time 'wasted' on doing silly video projects that take up many sleepless nights is seen as an ine.f.f.e.c.tive use of their time.

This semester I told the kids we were still gonna do a video project of some kind but that we couldn't do movies due to complaints from the powers above. They were the first to suggest the idea of doing a music video. My ears pricked up as I imagined the Hype Williams style video we could make.

To cut a medium length story to a fair size, we ended up doing a video for Eric B and Rakim's immortal classic 'Microphone Fiend'. This has been a favorite song of mine for years an it has very little profanity so it was the ideal choice! It was that or La Di Da Di by Slick Rick but the 'with your wrinkled pussy, I can not be your loverrrrrrrrr' lyric made me go for the Eric B and Rakim joint.

It was simple. I told them to learn the lyrics, no mean feat, as they are not rap nerds like us. Then shoot some sections of the song for the video. Play the song when you are filming so I can edit it in time to the music. Only two groups did this making my editing job next to impossible. I also told them to find good places on the school campus to film and to take a few different takes of the same sections so I could edit them together. Get some clothes and props for the shoot I told them. The results I must say are quite fantastic and hilarious at times.

Here is the magic, please forgive the lack of lip sync at points.