Area Rapper Gets Teaching Job at Local School Answering Students Questions with "you already know"

By: Bobby Johnson, WTL

Updated: 11:49 AM CT, Fri February 4, 2022

Andre Kistler, 32, from Wilmington, North Carolina recently finished his first year teaching at Freemont High School. The locals know him only by his rapping name "Kis O' Death." After winning local competitions, but failing to really break into the hip hop circuit, Kistler finally decided to put his teaching degree to use and go into education. This has been a story told time and time again, but this story changes with his unusual methods.

"The first day of class, he said that he was going to teach us the only way he knew how," said Rosalyn Dermont, one of Kistler's students. We asked him what that meant and he just replied, "you already know." That was the first time he answered a question this way, but it wouldn't be the last. He seemingly decided to keep up his Kis O'Death persona even after the faculty insisted he go by Mr. Kistler when in front of the students. Part of this persona is repeating the hyped up phrase "you already know" anytime a student asked him a question. He was known for sprinkling the phrase in his songs and now, apparently he would do the same in his classroom.

We asked him what that meant and he just replied, "you already know."

This way of teaching raised concerns, not only for the parents of the students, but the students themselves. "I love Mr. Kis O'Death. He is a really great guy," said Cameron Limpias, another one of Kistler's students. "But I was trying to get into Harvard and I didn't see how telling me that I 'already knew' was going to help me with the AP Economics exam! I was panicking!"

"I love Mr. Kis O'Death"

Kistler's unorthodox teaching method was brought before the school board. Dozens of parents were furious that their children could fail to meet their academic goals because according to one irate parent, Willie Harrell, "a deadbeat rapper couldn't pull up his pants and teach."

However, the complaints came to a halt when the test scores started coming in. Students taught by Kistler had a GPA that was 7% higher than their counterparts. They also scored 15% higher on their SATs after having spent just three months under Kistler's guidance. The "you already know" attitude was working and researchers still don't know why. What we do know is Kistler is a revolutionary and his ways will be studied for the foreseeable future.

Update: Kistler has been asked to continue teaching AP economics for the next school year.