ST. PAUL, Minn. — Dupree Edwards has quite the story to tell, but he’d prefer to rap it.
With a beat and a smile he raps for WCCO, “My testimony is all about me, Dupree will set you free.”
Edwards is a performer and always has been.
“A girl’s best friend is diamonds, my best friend is a microphone,” he rapped.
His smiles are big and his pain is too. Edwards got lead poisoning as a child, which damaged the frontal lobe of his brain.
“I think I have been called when I get on the yellow bus or you’re on the short yellow bus,” Edwards said.
But that was a long time ago. Edwards has developed computer skills, and a career at the U of M as a self-advocate. He goes on podcasts and makes speeches about what it’s like to live with a disability.
“They don’t think that we can work a job, they don’t think we can live on our own and here you are, and here I am,” Edwards said.
When he’s not performing, he’s advocating, working hard to try and get personal care assistants in Minnesota higher wages.