Pittsburgh rapper Harvey “Frzy” Daniels showcased his talent at a Gateway elementary school on Feb. 26 to display the school’s character trait of the month: trustworthiness.

Dr. Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary’s 329 students in kindergarten through fourth grade cheered and screamed and reached for the rapper known for his freestyle skills – one girl even cried.

The first two questions the award-winning rapper and musician fielded from students were “Do you have a gold car?” and “Do you have a mansion?”

Frzy answered the first with a “yes.” He said Ford gave him a golden car after winning a regional Emmy in 2018, but that he “doesn’t drive it much.” His musical contribution to a WQED and PBS video tribute to the 50th Anniversary of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood earned him the award.

To the second question, Frzy (pronounced “frizzy”) said: “No. But I do have a big house and that’s cool.”

The rapper, who had Jan. 11, 2019 named after him, spent an hour at the school interacting with the students and teachers. Known for his freestyling talent, he asked students for topics to rap about. When students threw out topics like Fortnite, TikTok, SpongeBob SquarePants and a second-grade teacher, Mrs. Kuehn, he made up lyrics to a beat on the fly – much to his audience’s oohs and aahs.

But there was a deeper message lying beneath the star’s performance.

Frzy, 34, said he realizes he is a role model, something he didn’t necessarily have at that young age.

“I wish I had someone like that growing up,” he said after the assembly. Growing up in East Liberty, Frzy had a rocky relationship with his dad, Harvey Kenneth Daniels, who had a history of substance abuse.

With his notoriety growing after recently shattering a Guinness World Record for performing the longest freestyle rap – 31 hours – at The Block Northway in Ross Twp., Frzy said he has visited more than 160 schools in the region to show children their dreams can come true.

Sandwiched between the freestyle raps and the excited cheers from students, Frzy encouraged students to pick whatever thing they wanted to do in life and focus on being the greatest they can be.

Frzy’s appearance resonated with Naomi Morris, a fourth-grader, who said her favorite part of the assembly was his freestyle rap about Sonic the Hedgehog. She said she wants to be a rapper.

“At least I want to try to,” she said.

Parker Dehaven, another fourth-grader, is setting his sights on playing basketball in the NBA.

Allowing students to dream big is what led Emily Levine, a Cleveland Steward Jr. Elementary School third-grade teacher, to reach out to the rapper to have him visit the school.

“He sets goals and he gets them,” Levine said. “I hope the kids see they can be an athlete, an artist – and give back to the community. You don’t have to fit into a box, they can be anything.”

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