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Artist Brings LeBron Likeness and Lessons to I Promise School Students

THE LEBRON JAMES FAMILY FOUNDATION
Artist Kris Rhymes with students from LeBron James' I Promise School. The LeBron James Family Foundation says Rhymes donated this work to the school.

A new depiction of LeBron James hangs in the basketball star's I Promise School in Akron. According to LeBron James Family Foundation, Phoenix-based artist Kris Rhymes created the piece, called "Kings Music" and brought it to the school where he also shared  a lesson on art with the students. “I hope 'Kings Music' will serve as a source of inspiration to the students of the I Promise School,” Rhymes says.

To create "Kings Music" Rhymes cut pieces of famous Ohio artists' 12-inch vinyl album covers. He composed the pieces into an image of LeBron as part of his "Cover to Cover" collection. The artists whose albums make up the work include Dean Martin, John Legend, The O'Jays, Macy Gray, The Isley Brothers, Ohio Players, Kid Cudi, Bootsy Collins, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Nine Inch Nails, Art Tatum and Tracy Champan. 

Rhymes donated the piece to the I Promise School, which is a partnership between the LeBron James Family Foundation and Akron Public Schools. It opened this school year.  

A Northeast Ohio native, Sarah Taylor graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she worked at her first NPR station, WMUB. She began her professional career at WCKY-AM in Cincinnati and spent two decades in television news, the bulk of them at WKBN in Youngstown (as Sarah Eisler). For the past three years, Sarah has taught a variety of courses in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State, where she is also pursuing a Master’s degree. Sarah and her husband Scott, have two children. They live in Tallmadge.