RZA Surprises Staten Island Elementary School Students With iPads

Legendary rapper RZA surprised students in Staten Island with iPads after their teacher asked for help.

BYCole Blake
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RZA surprised students at PS 78, Stapleton with 30 new iPads on Thursday after their teacher, Jo-Ann Accardi, tweeted at the Wu-Tang rapper asking for help.

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“I’m here today because one of your teachers sent me a tweet on my Twitter and she said that there wasn’t enough iPads, just enough to go around,” RZA told the students, according to SI Live. “I reached out to my Wu-Tang brothers and Apple, and we have some iPads here going to the school and going to your classes so you guys have a better chance for a proper education.”

RZA answered questions from the students and explained the importance of education.

He added on Instagram with a post of the students captioned, “I would like to thank the #Children’s Literary Society #CLS and P.S. 78 for instilling positivity into the youth."

Principal Jodi Contento thanked RZA for his charitable act: “I really want to emphasize that any time somebody who has roots in the community comes back to share their successes, that’s the most priceless thing we could have for our school,” Contento said. “It’s all about bringing in the positive role models. We know how much is out there that is not always positive for us to see. Having those positive models and success stories are tremendous.”


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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.