A harsh reality that has crippled the United States over the past couple of decades is student loans. With millions of Americans dealing with the arduous task of tackling their hefty educational debt, hope is nowhere in sight.  

One rapper has taken on the lofty responsibility of grappling with the hideous monster with no fear head-on. Louisiana-bred emcee Dee-1 skillfully penned a poignant banger in the form of "Sallie Mae Back," which detailed his lengthy bout with student loans. Luckily, the former math teacher and Louisiana State alum was able to nab a deal and used a chunk of it to pay off his debt. 

With his video amassing over a million on Facebook and YouTube combined in just a matter of two weeks, people are quickly gravitating to the meaningful record. Myspace spoke with the rapper, as he gave his 5 best tips for paying off student loans in a timely matter. Grab you pen and paper folks, you're going to need it. 

Be Smart with How Much You Take Out 

You have to be logical with the amount that you take out. You can easily find yourself in debt up to $100,000, but the career that you're going to school for will only pay you $40,000-$50,000 a year. That doesn't add up. That's not a good investment. You shouldn't go into debt in a way that's out of proportion to what you plan on making.

Cut Out Unnecessary Spending

What helped me was that I had to figure out what things I could cut out of my life that aren't necessities. I had to look at my spending habits. There were just certain things that I gotta cut like wifi or a new car. I don't need a new car. I don't automatically just have to buy a new car because that's what rappers do. I can only pay for the necessities, and use the rest to help me get out of debt.

Private Loans Are a No-No!

I would try to stay away from the private loan companies. If you could stick with federal loans, that's better as far as interest rates. As far as the private companies, they do some shady, shady stuff. With federal loans, there's a cap on them a lot of times.

Pay More Than the Minimum

You have to have a strategy for how you plan on paying it off. You have to ask yourself, "Do I want to make these minimal payments?" I used to compute it, and I used to say that if I make the minimum payments, that's still good every month, but in the long run, how much am I paying compared to how much I borrowed? Whenever I got some extra money, I had to have that on my mind. I told myself when I got some extra money, my strategy became that I was going to pay more than the minimum payment this month.

Go to School with a Purpose in Mind to Finish

Make sure that you are going to school because you plan on using your degree. The best way to get out of debt is to not get in debt. There's a lot of people who are just accumulating this debt, and they either don't finish school, or they're not really driven by whatever career they said that they were pursuing while in school. It's a matter of making sure everything is what I call "purpose driven." Making sure that being in school is a "purpose-driven" endeavor. I'm in school for a reason. That makes it to where taking out that money doesn't feel like debt, it feels like an investment into your future.