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February 01, 2005
hip-hop means...
i themed my wrt 205 course around hip-hop. the text, that's the joint: the hip-hop studies reader (routledge, 2004), is a collection of essays that range in topics from hip-hop and gender to politics and resistance. i think the students are feelin the subject matter, and so far, class discussions have been engaging. i do have those students who claim that they know nothing about hip-hop. i tell them that if they've seen a recent sprite or mickey d's commercial, they've had a limited exposure to hip-hop. a surface kind of exposure, but an exposure nonetheless. they say that they can't even understand the lyrics. instead, they listen to hip-hop because of the beats, and "it's easy to dance to." and even those students are willing to take a ride to the black side...
reading essays along with the students has made me really explore what hip-hop means to me. the question is different than the one posed in the movie, brown sugar. sidney, the female lead, asks: "when did you first fall in love with hip-hop?" that's easy: my undergrad years at univ of maryland college park. certainly i had heard of hip-hop before that time but did not become a connoisseur until my junior year. i fell in love with a tribe called quest and brand nubians and de la soul and epmd and the jungle brothers and biggie and pac and dr. dre and lyte and eric b. and rakim. they sometimes whispered and sometimes shouted about the lives and loves of pigmented people. and i listened to and believed their love songs. but now, years removed from that first kiss on the dancefloor, i'm tryin to figure out what does hip-hop mean to me. i think i'm feelin a particular urgency because i'm finishing up my coursework and will soon begin defining my exam areas. and then the diss..beyond graduate work and diss writing, determining what hip-hop means to me, what hip-hop is will be the first step. right now, i'm satisfied to say that hip-hop, even in its current manifestations, is firmly rooted in the experiences of african-american/negro/black people. i'll figure out the rest as i go along.
Posted by emnorris at February 1, 2005 12:12 PM