It’s Wednesday (February 5, 2003) afternoon. The kids of the Upper East Side’s Millennium High School are amped. They’re sitting semi-quietly in the rows of their almost-packed auditorium while Erick Sermon sits onstage, nodding to the brave ones who holla his name. “E Double!” “Erick!” He smiles and waves, knowing the future P.Diddys, Jermaine Dupris and Green Eyed Bandits may be in the room. Sermon is taking a break from recording with Redman and Keith Murray to participate in the NYC leg of The John Lennon Songwriting Contest Educational Tour Bus, a non-profit mobile recording and multimedia studio. The bus travels the country, providing workshops that encourage students to learn how to compose and write songs using traditional instruments as well as today’s top technologies.

The NYC winners, who were chosen via radio stations, online and newspapers, represent New Jersey, Staten Island, The Bronx and Manhattan. For the next two days, the winners will hang in the studio with Erick Sermon, creating their own version of Lennon’s “Imagine.” “I was chosen for the New York part of this,” explains Sermon. “I’m excited about that as far as kids that get chances to actually be in a recording studio and actually make a record, put vocals down. It’s fun.”

In a flash, Brian Rothschild, the Contest’s Executive Director, ushers about 100 kids on stage to sing “Imagine” with Sermon. It’s both cute and comical. The tour will travel to 19 cities. The grand prize winner receives their lyrics published in Usa Weekend, a trip to New York, where their lyrics will be set to music on board the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond, a Yamaha AW16G 16-track hard disk recorder/CD burner, a supply of CD-R music discs, plus the winner’s school will receive $500 from themusicedge.com. Two runners-up receive a $500 U.S. Savings Bond, a Yamaha P80-88 Note Weighted Action Digital Piano, a supply of CD-R music discs, plus the winners’ schools will receive $250 from themusicedge.com. If you’re at least 13 years old and in grade 7-12, log onto www.usaweekend.com and click on “classroom” for details.