An AP U.S. History teacher in New York City got to impart some true knowledge to her students recently: She’s name-checked in a rap song.
Sari Beth Rosenberg (@saribethrose) posted proof to TikTok earlier this week, and the video now has more than 19 million views. The caption reads, “My students didn’t believe me that I’m in a rap song.” The video shows Rosenberg standing in front of the classroom TV as a music video from rapper Ro Ransom plays.
Eventually it gets to the lyric: “My teachers told me that I wouldn’t be shit/Not Ms. Rosenberg she was on some G shit.”
“why was I waiting for her to appear dancing in the video,” said one commenter.
@saribethrose Thank you to my APUSH student @roransom for putting me in your bars & making me forever cool 😎 ✨ 💜 💎 🔮 #roransom #school #teacher #teachersoftiktok #apush ♬ original sound – Sari Beth Rosenberg
While several commenters wonder if he was rapping about another Ms. Rosenberg, Ro Ransom (real name Noah Gale) dropped into the comments to set them straight: “She really did hold it down.”
“As a teacher, this is the highest compliment,” said another commenter.
The lyric is from a verse from the Harlem rapper’s 2018 song “Floetry,” off the EP Possessed.
In another TikTok, Rosenberg includes a photo of the two when he came to visit the school after he graduated. And in another TikTok, she pokes fun at the fact that her video going viral means she’s all over her “students’ FYP.”
@saribethrose Replying to @💛Peep💛 ♬ original sound – Sari Beth Rosenberg
Rosenberg, who’s been a teacher for 22 years, tells the Daily Dot that Ro Ransom was her student in 2011, and “was rapping even back then and still did awesome in the class.”
She says she did get a heads up that she was name-checked on “Floetry” before it was released in 2018, but “I had to wait like everyone else to hear it when it came out.”
As a high school history teacher, Rosenberg’s work is vital, and she’s used TikTok to discuss the role of educators. Earlier this month, she spoke about how difficult but crucial it is to talk to students about what is currently going on between Israel and Palestine.
“Our students need the classroom more than ever so they can have safe, guided conversations about really heavy topics that they’re seeing online,” she said in the TikTok.
She tells the Daily Dot that one of the reasons she posted the classroom video, which a student recorded, is because it’s a “feel-good story that I think everyone could use right now, and especially because so many are speaking negatively about teachers, I want to remind people how it’s a really incredible and powerful profession.”
Update 4:22pm CT, Oct. 27: Ro Ransom tells the Daily Dot that “Sari really was and is the coolest teacher. She was always understanding. (I was working well into all hours of the night in the studio even back then.) I’m glad everyone is showering her with compliments, ’cause she deserves it.”