Editor’s Note: FCHS has 135 years of history. While we hear about the tower, and our one-of-a-kind Lambkin mascot, we seldom hear about the tens of thousands of students who attended the school before us. In this series of profiles, we hope to bring visibility to FCHS alumni, who they were then and what they are now. In this installment, we ask the question: Whatever happened to that kid who wanted to be a rapper?

Jordan Curci, better known by his artist name Curci, attended FCHS from 2009 to 2013. Since then, he has gained a large number of followers and listeners on platforms like Spotify, Instagram, and YouTube.

“I started writing music when I was, like, eight; and then I took a class in middle school that taught me how to write rhymes, count bars, and make beats. That’s where I learned how to record myself,” he explained. “Then when I got to high school, I met other kids who rapped and they had, like, recording studios at their house. And I didn’t know that you could do that.” 

Curci began writing, recording, and creating music on a regular basis, and his hard work paid off when he was given the opportunity to go and perform live in Miami.

“It was a hotel, actually, which is kind of crazy, but it was a really fancy hotel ’cause it’s Miami,” he said.

After his Miami gig, Curci received public attention.

“In high school I was getting record deal offers, and I just told everybody no. I started my own record label, Conscious Minds, with my best friend who’s also my DJ, and through that I’ve released stuff for myself and other notable names,” he said. “I just released something for Jurassic Five and I’ve also released some stuff for people in Pharcyde.” 

Curci takes great pride in his career and the fact that he has built his success from the ground up. Now with over 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and work with his idols Mike Summers and Grieves under his belt, Curci has had a taste of the fame he believed he deserved from the beginning, but he is not yet satisfied.

“It’s like a snake eating its tail,” he said. “I’m where I wanted to be in high school and I don’t think that’s enough right now.”

Before Curci was all that he is today, he was a regular high school student with big dreams for the future. He was a skater kid who worked in a coffee shop inside a music store. He was a Lambkin.

“I hung out in M hall. I remember that all of the sports kids hung out in P hall, M hall was like, the gangbanging kids, no one really hung out in L hall, but basically from L to the end was where the music and theater kids would be,” he said. “So I would rap battle with the M hall kids, and it was really funny because I was like, the funny kid; so I could say very offensive things to them and they wouldn’t be mad because they knew I was just joking.” 

Though loved by his peers and teachers, Curci was not exactly a model student. He did not have straight As and was not a part of any clubs or school sponsored activities. 

To him, that did not matter, because he knew what he wanted to do, what he needed to do to achieve it, and he was not going to stop short or let anyone get in the way of that goal.

“By the time I got to be a senior, I remember talking to my counselor, and he was like: ‘So you only need two more credits to graduate, but I can’t let you graduate early, and I can’t let you take just one class’ because I only needed to take one class in order to graduate,” Curci said. “So he was like: ‘I have to give you six classes’ and I was like: ‘OK, so I can fail all of those classes? And as long as I get this one class done and get this credit, I can graduate, right?’ 

And he said yeah, so I was like: ‘Cool, I’m not going to any of those (other) classes.”

And he did not.

“It’s really crazy because I never got called for truancy,” he added. “Like, my mom got a call every day, but she didn’t care because I told her and I told the counselor, like: ‘I’m making music. I’m not going to college.’ Like, I only graduated because she (my mom) wanted me to. But, you know, I graduated.”

Immediately following his graduation, Curci went on to make songs that hit the charts overseas, get millions of streams, create merch, run a record label, and tour across the country. No manager, no crew, no nothing—Curci had nothing handed to him, and everything he has now he has earned.

Because Curci is self made, he is a huge advocate for individuality, and he always has been.

“I know in high school, for me, there were so many cliques and stuff like that, and everybody just wanted to fit in so they wouldn’t be themselves. And I want to tell people, current Lambkins, my followers, young people, just everybody that it’s cool to be themselves and just really promote individuality, you know? Just don’t be fake,” he said.

“I actually remember that, in high school, I thought the letterman jackets were cool, but I couldn’t have one because I wasn’t a part of anything. So I bought a letterman jacket from this, like, streetwear company, and it had a hood on it and it was gray and white. And then I took it to Gojo’s (Print Shop) and I had them put my last name on the back of it. I was a club of my own.” 

These days, Curci spends most of his time in the studio, and right now, he is working on a full album with producer Mike Summers. In the future, he hopes to collaborate with Tyler, the Creator and eventually win a Grammy.

So whatever happened to that kid who wanted to be a rapper? Curci’s response is simple:
“I did it. That’s the end of that story.”