Kendrick Lamar Visits NJ High School Students who are Studying ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’

A North Bergen, New Jersey high school got quite the surprise when Grammy winning rapper Kendrick Lamar showed up to class.

The Compton native attended the class headed by English teacher Brian Mooney, who used Lamar's newest album, "To Pimp A Butterfly" as inspiration for his students. In Mooney's daily curriculum, he was teaching Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye" by drawing parallels from Lamar's lyrics.

"One of the most important elements of hip hop is something called 'knowledge of self,' which a lot of hip hop historians will talk about. And that's so educational," Mooney explained to NBC News in regards to why he connected a novel to Lamar's album. "That's talking about identity. And so, it's less of matter of using hip hop to trick kids into learning, but it's more of an actual frame work for teaching and learning."

Lamar must have heard about Mooney's class via his blog, which detailed the overall classroom experience. Mooney also uploaded excerpts from his students' essays.

"I was intrigued that somebody other than myself can articulate and break down the concepts of To Pimp a Butterfly almost better than I can," Lamar said reported by The Rolling Stone. "That let me know he's a true lover of music."

On June 8, Lamar paid a visit to the classroom where he sat with students and talked about several different topics, such as poetry. Lamar also freestyled with the teenagers before performing one of the tracks from his album, "Alright."

Speaking with NBC News, Lamar shared his thoughts on how music and people in the music industry can affect young minds.

The rapper said, "I didn't think I made it for a 16-year-old. So when a 16-year-old is intrigued by it, it lets me know how so far in advance as a society we actually are. And that inspired me on a whole 'nother level. A lot of times we're put in these positions where we don't know we're role models. And just off the simple fact -- whether we want to be a role model or not -- just the simple fact that we come from these Urban communities, these harsh worlds and we're on TV and kids are looking at us, we're already influence.

We influence their minds, we influence the way they talk, the way they dress. Every time I meet kids and they explain it to me what they got going on in life. I got to get out of my selfish ways of knowing that the music is not just about me anymore."

Watch Lamar's performance here: