He's no gangsta; he's a scholar

The few curse words in his songs were mild compared with the obscenity-filled lyrics of other rappers. A 1994 Times review called his first album "mostly upbeat, always insightful and sometimes very funny." One of the album's cuts offered a cautionary tale about a wannabe gangbanger who tries to impress his crew by planning to rob and shoot a shop owner:

"But I didn't do it quick enough, or he thought

of it first

Cause he blasted to the chest, and now I'm restin yellin, "Nurse!"

And holdin on to life, or at least tryin to hold on

In a jailward wearin cuffs

Cause I had to be rough

Cause you gotta be tough"

Lewis admits he wasn't an angel. He smoked pot, drank and partied during his concert tours. He earned enough to buy a car and a house in Long Beach.

But he was also denouncing "gangsta" rap's influence on black children. "We're destroying ourselves, teaching our kids low self-esteem," he said in an interview with The Times when he was 18. And he tangled with music executives who wanted a tougher edge to his unreleased second album and rejected its religious overtones, he said.

The subsequent 4th Avenue Jones group had some success, opening shows for big names such as Sheryl Crow and the Black Eyed Peas. The group then had contract troubles and Lewis became disillusioned with life on the road.

"I got to the point: 'What's this all about? Am I really having a significant impact on people's lives, just showing up in a city for an hour and doing a show and then leaving?" Lewis recalls. "I thought stardom and fame would bring me a kind of a joy. When I attained that, it was empty."

The big money was gone and the house had to be sold. After nine years of marriage, Lewis and Jones divorced, sharing custody of their son, Yeshuwa. The personal crisis led Lewis to community college.

Byron Clift Breland, Long Beach City College's dean of student affairs, interviewed Lewis during valedictorian selection and learned how he had joined a trip to help orphans in Zimbabwe, but had no idea about his music career. Later, Breland's wife realized that Lewis was the author of "Back in the Day," a song she liked so much that she had it included on their wedding video.

"I was shocked and excited," Breland said of learning Lewis' identity. "To see Ahmad break down a lot of stereotypes of folks who go into the music industry in general, let alone hip-hop or rap, and then return to higher education and go to Stanford is a remarkable story."