Chicago rapper Femdot is back in school. This time around, though, he’s professor Femi Adigun at DePaul University, his alma mater. His course, “Chicago Culture Through Hip Hop,” is a first-year program that he created to teach students how music reflects life in the city and how some artists portrayed those reflections.
As a student at DePaul in the 2010s, Femdot balanced work, rapping, coursework, networking and socializing. Now, the 30-year-old is an established rapper who’s teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., recording and dropping new music, hosting listening parties and preparing for his next show at the Glow Room on Oct. 5.
“In college I would be in class 20 credits a trimester, working full time and rapping, and people [would still] see me out everywhere,” Femdot told The TRiiBE. “Being a professor at my alma mater is, like, I’m just doing what I did then, but just on the other end with more knowledge.”
Femdot stopped by The TRiiBE Studio on Sept. 24, a few days before the release of his 12th project, King Dilla 2, which dropped today. Over a game of spades, during which he talked a lot of tough shit (and backed it up, lol), the new professor chopped it up with TRiiBE culture correspondent Rome J.
“Y’all ain’t make board? That’s tough,” Femdot said boastfully after winning the first hand. “That’s a 10-piece spicy right there. I ain’t gonna lie. All flats.”
Femdot is a Chicago rapper who’s been on the scene since 2014; he dropped his first mixtape A Tribe Called Fresh at 16 years old. He emerged during Chicago’s Blog Era, a beloved time of new, fresh and energizing artists in the late 2000s and 2010s that put the city back on the map. Femdot calls this era one of his favorites and taught about it in class, particularly coming out of the rise of Kanye West into Chance the Rapper’s seminal Acid Rap tape. Some of the artists who crystallized this era, Femdot said, are the likes of Chance, Tink, Bump J, Kids These Days, Mikkey Halsted, the Cool Kids and others. He even took his students on a field trip to Classick Studios, a foundation of Chicago hip hop that has churned out influential projects from Chance’s Acid Rap and Noname’s Telefone.
Of Femdot’s catalogue, his 2019 mixtape 94 Camry Music is the most acclaimed of them all. Asked where he thinks King Dilla 2 ranks among his previous drops, he placed it in the top three with his best: 94 Camry Music and Not For Sale, the latter is his 2021 mixtape.
Femdot likes to think of his mixtapes as small worlds which he’s able to create for his fans. “I feel like these smaller projects have been giving folks parts of me,” he said.
As much as he’s accomplished in his music career, the master lyricist admitted that academia presents a new level of accountability for him.
“I think the main thing I’ve learned [and] gained more respect for is lesson planning,” he said. “If I don’t come to class with some shit, then these niggas will not learn.”
He continued, “It’s a different level of responsibility.”
Femdot joins a special group of hand-selected rappers who teach at the collegiate level. West Side native Lupe Fiasco taught Rap Theory & Practice as a visiting professor at MIT in 2023, and is now teaching a new undergraduate rap course at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Houston rapper Bun B co-taught a course on Religion and Hip-Hop at Rice University in 2011.
“I’ve been able to do a lot of things that’s really, really cool in my craft, and [things] that are not really normal to do,” Femdot said.
Femdot has done interviews about his new DePaul professorship, but he said he hadn’t been asked yet about what goes into putting his coursework together.
“I kind of have free range as long as I met all the qualifications for the program that my class is in,” Femdot said. “Because I’ve never taught before, you know, when you ain’t never did nothing before, it’s kind of still fun to figure.”
He’s introducing his students to the city that inspired some of hip hop’s classics, and teaching about the literary devices embedded in the music. For example, his students are required to listen to certified Chicago classics like Kanye West’s College Dropout and Late Registration, Common’s Be, and Lupe’s Food and Liquor. Each of these albums are essential listens for anyone who calls themselves a hip hop enthusiast or historian.
“After the first class, we pretty much broke down what motifs were and what themes were and what the difference between the two was, and then broke down some of the cultural context that we’ll be talking about for the albums,” Femdot explained.
Femdot grades his students on a curve to make sure he’s not being overly harsh on grammatical errors, especially if a lot of students are making the same mistakes. “Grading starts with reading everything first and getting an idea of the environment I’m in, and then setting the criteria based on that,” Femdot said.
“I feel like I’m also a master of my craft, right? So I have to stand on that in both settings,” Femdot added about balancing rap and leading a classroom. “So I have to be able to be at the top of my game as a rapper, and being at the top of my game as a rapper is what allowed me to get my position as a professor. So if I’m the entry point to y’all understanding Chicago [and] Chicago hip hop, I need to be at the top of my game in that aspect too.”
Femdot shapes his daily routine on whether it’s a school day or not. Prayer, however, is non-negotiable. “I’m Muslim, so I get up to pray in the morning,” he said. “That’s usually, like, four or five in the morning.”
Surprisingly, the rapper is able to get through the day on his own inner-strength. He doesn’t indulge in the morning cup of coffee like most other educators. ”I don’t do no caffeine, unless it’s tea or ginger ale — but that don’t count, because that’s medicine,” he said before letting out a laugh.
On school days, after his morning prayer, he takes a nap, wakes back up, writes out the day’s itinerary and makes sure his lesson plan is complete. He’ll do any office hours on his schedule and teach his class.
He made it clear that each day ends with going to the studio, a testament to the consistency and passion that has elevated his career. “Whatever other adventures I end up in, I’m pretty much out [of the house by] 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m.,” he said. “I’m usually not back in the house till at least like 11:00 p.m.”
He’s super dialed in on his work and music; Femdot shared that he is single and has no children. “By God’s grace, one day, but not today,” he added.
Known for his lyrical mastery, and armed with a pencil he usually keeps tucked behind his ear, Femdot has been a pillar in Chicago’s rap scene for a while now. Most people caught their first whiff of the rapper when he released 94 Camry Music, which cemented him as a mainstay in Chicago’s rap scene.
The rapper is now in a much different headplace since releasing the first installment of King Dilla in December 2014. Back then, he said, he was still finding himself.
“As I continue to grow in my artistry, everything I do is rooted in Chicago,” he said. “Even as I got older, what I take and learn from different artists has shaped my sound, but my sound is very much my own and it’s very much rooted in the crib.”
King Dilla 2 almost sounds like something out of the early 2000s, with the use of layered synthesized horns on songs like “The Ruler’s Back,” ”Mr. Done It All,” and “RAPSTAR,” reminiscent of something straight out of a Jeezy mixtape. The project is nostalgic and fun; but at the same time, it’s a declaration that he’s here to stay and ready to carry the torch forward from those who came before him
“Rapping like it’s me versus me cause it is,” he spits on “RAPSTAR.” A bold statement that speaks to Femdot’s confidence, hard work and belief system. “Since I was a shorty, I always just felt like God gives you a toolbox of random shit and you’re supposed to build something with it,” he said.
Femdot hosted a listening party at Ramova Theater for King Dilla 2 on Sept. 10. There, he debuted the project for the first time in front of a packed room of supporters. I attended the party and interviewed Femdot there, too. “There was a lot of love in the room,” he said. “I mean, to pack a room like that on a Wednesday, that’s crazy.”
The DJ for the event was the rapper’s long time friend, DJ Chuck Hemi. On the road, Hemi is Femdot’s tour DJ. He also produced King Dilla and now King Dilla 2. The duo played the eight-song project on stage. During an on-stage Q&A session with iLLANOiZE Radio personality Pretty Riot, Femdot shared his next big goal.
“This is a very intellectual form of writing,” Femdot said about King Dilla 2 “I want to bring a Pulitzer to Chicago. I want a Pulitzer Prize for albums. I’m saying, that’s what I’m on. That’s the type of time I’m on.”
Femdot, a child of Nigerian parents, draws inspiration from his sister Seun Adigun, who he said does a good job at balancing a busy life. Adigun competed on the Nigerian track team in the 2012 summer Olympics, competing in the Women’s 100-meter hurdles. Then in 2016, she established Nigeria’s first bobsled team, which then qualified for the 2018 Olympic games.
“She is a chiropractor. She started the Nigerian bobsled team. She got five degrees, all types of shit, and did all that by [age] 30,” Femdot said about his big sis. “I can do anything I f—cking want to. I’ve seen all that up close.”
