City Hall Rapper Fixes Potholes, Kills Rats and Geeks Out on Infrastructure

“Society makes it seem that engineering is so unattainable. My main goal is to tell children, especially minority children, that someone who dresses like them or looks like them can be someone who designs skyscrapers and bridge,” she said. “It’s not unattainable and all you have to do is try.”

Laws, however, did have enough free time to cut her very first rap video — an ode to her hometown that premiered at the WTS conference in Portland, Ore.

“They asked to interview me and said, ‘Why don’t you do one of your raps,’ Laws said. “It was like they thought I had a roster of raps just chillin’ in my desk drawer. So, I wrote a rap, and no one ever notices, but every line starts with a letter and it spells out Chicago.”

And, like a real rapper should, Laws isn’t afraid to brag that her skills outshine her contemporaries.

“I was the illest* rapper …,” Laws said.

“Of the engineering convention,” I said, finishing her sentence.

“Hey,” she said, stopping to laugh. “If I’m gonna rap, I gotta be the illest rapper of something.”

And it’s pretty safe to say Laws runs the City Hall rap game — unless the mayor secretly can beatbox, that is.

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