A teenage hip-hop artist, Young Jinsu, formerly of Providence, sang and spoke to high students at Alvarez High School in Providence about overcoming adversity and using his inner strength to build character.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE — Young Jinsu is a teenage, baggy-jeans and warm-up jacket-wearing rapper who showed the students at Jorge Alvarez High School that you can be cool and go to school.

Jinsu, a rising rap star who has performed with Little Wayne and Bow Wow, strutted his stuff at Alvarez High School last week before a rapt audience of fellow teenagers.

“I’m from Rhode Island, and I represent Rhode Island,” said Jinsu, a pencil-thin teenager with the clean-cut good looks of a Gap ad. “My Mom left when I was 8. She was into drugs. I can relate to your stories.”

Backed by a soundboard, Jinsu launched into a couple of rap songs whose lyrics were lost in the gym’s echoing spaces. One song was plaintive and sounded like a ballad to a lost love. After a little live entertainment, Jinsu, whose real name is Jah-Youth Lopez, launched into his spiel, a talk he has perfected during his many visits to high schools in New York City, where he lives with his manager.

“I just turned 16,” he told the crowd, “Dreams do come true if you stay focused. Make sure you get a good education and you’ll be good for life. The best deal is to stay in school. Love y’all, man.”

Afterward, Jinsu’s family — his father, grandmother and aunt — talked about how they knew that this child had something special.

“He was born with it,” his aunt, Joanna Lopez, said. “He thought he was R. Kelly.”

As a preteen, Jinsu was so talented that club owners snuck him onto their stages. Now, he has an album coming out next month and his rap videos are all over Youtube.com.

After his mother abandoned him, Jinsu was raised by his father, Jose Lopez, who gave him the nickname Jinsu, because he was as sharp as the proverbial knife. Lopez, who now lives in Pennsylvania, constantly reminds Jinsu that he can be a successful rapper without resorting to profanity. Following his dad’s lead, Jinsu doesn’t swear and avoids making derogatory comments about women. That’s not how he was raised.

In an interview on Youtube, Jinsu, who was then 14, said, “My music is different. I have a message that relates to people and life. I’m a lyrical artist.”

When the interviewer asked what a 14-year-old from Rhode Island knows about life, Jinsu shot back with this: “Every place has a ghetto, man. I’ve been through a lot. I rap about my hometown. Most people come from a struggle and what I sing is the truth.”

Jinsu said he knows the hard luck of the ’hood. One of his uncles was murdered in 2005.

After Jinsu’s performance, Principal Robbie Torchon explained why a rap star belongs in a public high school.

“This is about building relationships,” he said, “and what better way to do that than by speaking through the students’ music.”

Torchon, who is known for being a strict disciplinarian, said he wanted to give his juniors a little boost before taking the state assessments, which begin next week.

“I wanted to do something nice for them before the New England Common Assessment Program. I wanted to show them that we love them and we wish for their success.”

When Alvarez High School opened last fall, it wasn’t a school, it was a loose conglomeration of students plucked from all over the city. Because it was new, Torchon realized that he had to imbue the building with meaning, to create a sense of community where there was none.

Torchon began asking his faculty to think of rituals that would make the school feel more welcoming to students, teachers and parents. His mantra, repeated at staff meetings and at school events, went something like: “This is your building. You are no longer guests here, you are hosts.”

As the year progressed, Alvarez, formerly Adelaide High School, began to create its own traditions. On “Super Fridays,” the Alvarez students invite teenagers from another high school to play basketball or volleyball for a couple of hours. Nothing breaks down barriers between rival groups more effectively than sports, Torchon said.

Alvarez also holds an academic celebration every quarter to recognize honor students. The event, which is based around eating a meal together, is so successful that upwards of 200 parents show up. At each gathering, parents receive a mini-lesson on topics ranging from the new state tests to senior projects that are required to graduate.

“We want to make sure that we don’t lose them,” Torchon said.

“We want them to know that we are building a school with a tradition of excellence.”

lborg@projo.com