Hiphop Pedagogy

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

What is Hip-Hop Pedagogy?

Hip-Hop Pedagogy is the authentic and practical incorporation of hip-hop’s creative elements and sensibilities into teaching and learning. This approach to teaching and learning allows students opportunities to make connections between their culture and content and caters to all learners’ multiple intelligences.

Hip-Hop’s Creative Elements

MC

Since the 1970s, the MC (or emcee) has been associated with hip-hop culture as a vocalist who rhymes over a beat. In hip-hop, MC is the artist who is responsible for delivering musical content to an audience. All MCs approach the role of MCing differently through their unique style and flow. Often, when an MC is performing to an audience, they are accompanied by a fellow MC whose essential role is to be a professional in knowing and understanding the musical content to provide support to showcase a meaningful performance for the audience successfully.

Breakdancing

In the early days of the formation of hip-hop, breakdancing began as a direct response to the negative social factors that youth experienced in the South Bronx in the late 1960s and during the 1970s. Breakdancers would dance to the rhythm of the breakbeat played by the DJ. The Rock Steady Crew, who were members of Africa Bambaataa’s Zulu nation, are arguably the most important breakdancing collective in hip-hop history. The Rock Steady Crew was known for innovating breakdancing by translating innovative acrobatic moves to the art of breakdancing.

Graffiti

The graffiti movement found its way to New York City during the 1970s. Youth who participated in tagging their street alias on the walls of urban neighborhoods, train cars, etc. enjoyed the attention their art received because it made them feel like neighborhood celebrities (Chang, 2007). Graffiti artists find it liberating to climb tall gates and slip under fences to create murals representing them and, in turn, their community. Gregory Tate identified this as reverse colonization. Graffiti artists created murals of their street names across New York City to reclaim their communities when they have been taken away from them due to gentrification and New York City’s development and planning efforts led by Robert Moses that displaced tens of thousands of Black and Brown families and community members. Graffiti art provided urban youth an opportunity to be expressive within their communities and spaces that they occupy, this is the visual arts aspect of hip-hop.

DJ

The DJ is arguably the most important creative element of hip-hop culture. At its core, the DJ is responsible for supporting other creative elements. The DJs primary duty is to play and control the music, the rhythm, and the beat to which the MC adds their lyrical content to produce a completed song. The DJ is also responsible for finding the break in the beat, the moment in the music where only the drums are present, to provide an optimal rhythm for the breakdancers to showcase their best dance moves. Furthermore, the DJ is responsible for reading a crowd’s mood and playing the perfect arrangement of songs to harness a crowd’s energy. Jeff Chang’s (2007) depiction of the conception of Hip-Hop describes DJ Kool Herc, “[L]ike any proud DJ, he wanted to stamp his personality onto his playlist.

Knowledge of Self

Knowledge of self is a central component of hip-hop culture. In support of knowledge of self, Afrika Bambaataa, commonly referred to as the grandfather of hip-hop, argues that the Hip-Hop generation has been overly consumed in rap music and is not engaging in Hip-Hop as a culture. Rap music is a small fraction of Hip-Hop culture, which is known to have been commercialized and, therefore, slightly removed from being nested in hip-hop culture’s authenticity. Bambaataa, along with many hip-hop purists, believes that knowledge of self is central because participants of hip-hop culture must remember that hip-hop was created as a social-political movement. Essentially, knowledge of self is central to HipHop as it encourages participants to be aware of who they are, be authentic to themselves, and be confident in making a positive social-political change for their communities. At its core, hip-hop culture was birthed to push back against the existing systemic inequalities in the 1970’s post-industrialized South Bronx community to provide an outlet and voice for urban youth. Knowledge of self exemplifies hip-hop’s ability to highlight and address social justice issues.