NEWARK, NJ — The following article comes courtesy of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). Send local news tips, photos and press releases to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Don't forget to visit the Patch Newark Facebook page here.

His baby blue baseball cap was perched at the perfect angle, shading one side of his face. The Epic Records logo on its brim summoned the spirits of the label's hip-hop heroes: Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, DJ Khaled. The metallic-painted 45 record that hung around his neck nodded to albums that "go platinum," the vinyl tools of a DJ's trade, as well as Flavor Flav's clock necklaces.

But if his outfit recalled hip-hop history, as he stepped to the front of the Horizon Foundation Sounds of the City stage, DJ Show Off – aka Chad Soma-Foster of Newark – had only one story he wanted to tell: his own. "Like Medusa, I'mma turn ya to stone! And all the other MCs better say a pray-ah," he rapped, one hand spread wide in front of him, floating on the beat. "'Cause I'm the new hip-hop may-ah!"

As the crowd before him – a few hundred Newarkers spread across NJPAC's Chambers Plaza – cheered, he grinned. Not a bad debut for a 12-year-old MC. "It's like we were bringing food to a hip-hop potluck. We each brought our own special things," he said the next day, talking the performance over with his fellow performers, a crew known as the PSA.

PSA – the name, a play on "public service announcement," stands for Prodigies, Scholars and Achievers – are students of NJPAC's 2017 Hip Hop Intensive, a four-week class for teen and tweens on the history and practice of hip-hop, the musical and artistic movement born in the 1970s, now seeped into every corner of pop culture from hit radio to Broadway.

Four years after NJPAC first began offering classes in hip-hop, its workshops on major elements of the genre – DJing, MCing, beatboxing, hip-hop dance, graffiti and knowledge of self – are offered during the school year as well. But the summer class is special; students are bonded by studying together all day for four weeks, and this summer, by the chance to open a Sounds of the City concert for hip-hop legend Kurtis Blow, the first rapper ever signed to a major label.

"We allowed the students to perform a half-hour set of work that they had created … and following the performance, they were able to go backstage and meet with Kurtis Blow, including a Q&A session and photographs," explains David Rodriguez, Executive Vice President and Executive Producer at NJPAC. "Past students have had the opportunity to meet with Slick Rick, Afrika Bambaataa, and Bill Stephanie (former president of Def Jams and manager of Public Enemy). The hope is to give them not just a broader understanding of hip-hop culture and practice related to performance, but also issues related to the business of music, realizing that their career path could go in either direction," Rodriguez said.