Move over Dr. Dre. Ahmad Ali Lewis is a rapper who is actually going to earn his PhD at Stanford University. A 32-year-old music artist from South Central LA, Lewis beat the odds and received a full scholarship as 1 of 20 transfers accepted out of 1,200 applicants.

Choosing a record deal over college, Lewis hit the Billboard charts when he was 18 with the song “Back in the Day.” After his solo career, he started the group 4th Avenue Jones, and went on to tour the country as well as overseas.

Fourteen years later, Lewis will continue his postponed college education. He has already graduated from two-year Long Beach City College as valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA. In the fall, he will transfer to Stanford as an undergraduate student to study sociology and African American studies and then proceed to receive his doctorate in social work. In the end, he wants to be a professor. According to him, “Rapping and teaching are not that far apart. You’re rapping, you’re talking. You’re a professor, you’re talking.” If that’s so, he must really enjoy the sound of his voice.

Lewis, who once lived near a crack house and street gangs, will soon head up to the Bay Area to step foot on the green grass, palm tree-lined campus of Stanford with students at least ten years his junior—teaching them a thing or two about life “back in the day.”