The Social Constuction of Hip-Hop and Rap Music is a writing course wherein we use hip-hop and rap as a frame for a critical analysis of contemporary social, cultural, and political forces. We will look at the effect of racial and gender stratification on artists and artistic production in hip-hop.  We'll delve into the organization of prestige, meaning, history, and the international production of rap music. The course will utilize various sources for analysis and information including movies and music.

What is hip hop?  We'll read many accounts of hip hop and rap's meaning or significance.  Track changes using this.

Perkins, William Eric.  1996.  Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop.  Temple University Press.

Dyson, Michael Eric.  2001.  Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur.  Basic Books/Perseus.

Simmons, Russell.  2002.  Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money + God.  Three Rivers Press.

Hacker, Diana.  2000.  Fourth Edition.  Rules for Writers.  New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

1. Musical autobiography.  5 pages. 15% of final grade.  Due September 10.
The musical autobiography will offer you an opportunity to write a personal reflection and critical inquiry into your standpoint when entering the class.  Each student will select 3-6 songs from your musical collection or knowledge and describe how the content or significance of these songs mark turning points in your lives.  This assignment emphasizes the use of the first-person voice, and initiates your thinking about the relationship between music and social life.  I will use it as a diagnosic tool to assess your general writing competancy.

2. Writing Tutorial.  5% of final grade.  Due September 15/17.
Each student will meet with me to discuss the feedback they have received on their Musical Autobiography.  We will identify the strengths and weaknesses in your writing, and construct a roadmap for your improvement.  Correspondingly, we will identify the sections of Hacker's writing guide that can be of assistance to you.  I may require that you complete several on-line modules, supported by Hacker's text. 

3. Position paper.  5 pages.  15% of final grade.  Due October 1.  Due October 3.

You will answer I question I pose in a position paper.  The grading of this assignment will stress proper essay, paragraph and sentence structure, rhetorical effectiveness and the use of evidence.

Assignment (.pdf)

Writing Guide (.pdf)

4. Writing Tutorial. 5% of final grade.  Due October 8.13.  No Class October 18.
    Self assessment (as .pdf)

5. Project Proposal.  Complete hand-out.  5% of final grade.  Due Friday, November 5th.

Hand out.

The following is still germaine to this exercise & upcoming paper assignments:
 This assignment requires that you research expert, academic opinion; you must develop research skills, learn how to parse sources based on their relevance, the bredth and depth of their analysis, and the reliability of their conclusions.  This assignment combines features of the previous two, requiring that you use proper essay form, effective evidence and rhetoric, and social observation.

6. Paper outline (as .pdf).  Complete hand-out.  Due Friday, November 12th.  5% of your grade.


7. Rough Draft of Final Paper.  Min. 5 Pages.  Due Wednesday, November 24th.  10% of your grade.


8. Peer Review.  2 pages.  5% of final grade.  Due November 29.
You will exchange your Rough Draft with another student in the class, of my choosing.  Each student will be responsible for reading their peer's paper twice.  After reading the first time, you will draft at least two pages of organized, informed comments for your peer.  These are to be informed and constructive; therefore, you may need to draw specific theoretical concepts or empirical examples from the course reading(s), additional academic scholarship, and your own experience and knowledge.  During the second reading, you will copy-edit your peer's paper, noting or correcting problems with structure, style, and substance.  I will provide you with guidelines for your review, which you are expect to address in your written comments, and utilize in your copy editing.  The grading of this assignment will reflect the throughness and constructiveness of your review.

9. Final Paper.  Minimum 10 pages.  25% of final grade.  Due NO LATER THAN Monday, December 13. 
For this paper, you will rewrite your Rough Draft, in light of the copyediting and substantive suggestions from your peer review, in addition to my feedback.  The grading of this assignment will emphasize mastery of the writing and reasoning skills taught throughout the semester.

10. Discussion Questions.  10% of final grade.  Due at the start of every class where reading assignments are due.
After the first week of class, every student will be responsible for submitting discussion questions to the instructor.  These will be handed in at the beginning of every class.  As noted above, these discussion questions will feed into the construction of other course assignments, thus reflecting students' interests in the material.  These will be graded pass/fail.    

{N.B.: Those students who require or prefer an inflexible, dated syllabus may find this is not the best class for them.  In establishing due dates for these readings, I will be responsive to the abilities and personalities of the class.  I reserve the right to reorder, eliminate, or add readings at any time.  Similarly, the written assignments have been given dates, however, I reserve the right to adjust these dates as I see fit, and with due notice to the students.}

Thompson, Robert Farris.  «Hip Hop 101» Pp. 211-219 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

«Style Wars.»  PBS Documentary.  Viewing guide (.pdf)

Perkins, William Eric.  "The Rap Attack: An Introduction."  Pp. 1-45 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

Guevara, Nancy.  "Women Writin' Rappin' Breakin'."  Pages 49-62 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

George, Nelson.  Assorted Reviews of Old School Rap albums and concerts.  Text provided by Instructor.

"Krush Groove."  Movie.

Selections from: Nelson George, Hip Hop America; Nelson George, Buppies, Baps, Bohos & B-Boys; S. H. Fernando, The New Beats.

Simmons, Russell.  2002.  Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money + God.  Three Rivers Press.

Fricke, Jim & Charlie Ahearn.  2002.  Yes, Yes, Y'all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop's First Decade.  Pages: 181-190 on Rapper's Delight controversy.

Grazian, David.  2003.  Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs.  U of Chicago Press.  Pages 6-28.

An authentic rapper is one
who talks about struggle/process of becoming successful
who is a drug user/dealer
who is urban/poor
who talks about where they’re from and how they want it to change
who has a posse
who is loyal to their place and friends
who uses non-standard English (Ebonics)
who comes from a broken family
who raps about the death of a loved one
who has a specific way of talking, dressing, acting
who has an aggressive self-image
who objectify women and commercialize the notion of “pimp”
who has freestyle skills and participates in battles
who is a proponent of black power and black nationalism
who is explicit in their masculinity/sexuality/heterosexuality
who has youthful demeanor/actual young age
who is actively participating in gang violence/culture
who is black
who has a rivalry with someone else and is oriented towards competition
who views rap as an alternative to violence
who has autobiographical raps
who is sincere
who is complex/contradictory
whose raps are allegorical/journalistic

October 20:
Tate, Greg.  «Introduction: Nigs R Us, or How Blackfolk Became Fetish Objects.»  Pg. 1-14 in Everything But the Burden: What White People are Taking from Black Culture.»


Get readings here.


October 25:
White, Armond.  «Who Wants to See Ten Niggers Play Basketball?»  Pg. 159-191 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

Rux, Carl Hancock.  «Eminem: The New White Negro.»  Pg. 15-38 in Everything But the Burden: What White People are Taking from Black Culture.»

October 27 & 29
Kelley, Robin D.G.  "Kickin' Reality, Kickin' Ballistics: 'Gangsta Rap' and Postindustrial Los Angeles."  Pp. 117-158 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

November 1
Allen, Jr., Ernest.  "Making the Strong Survive: The Contours and Contradictions of Message Rap."  Pp. 159-191 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

November 3, 5, 8 & 10
Dyson, Michael Eric.  2001.  Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur.  Basic Books/Perseus.

ALSO: November 3rd: Library Session.  Meet in front of Central Library at 2:05 PM.

ALSO: November 5th: Project Proposal due.

Movie:
Biggie and Tupac (Nick Broomfield documentary)
    Collection of Reviews

Right, right.  New Eminem Album.  I know.
Greg Tate.


The Rap Against Rockism
by Kelefa Sanneh
New York Times
October 31, 2004

"The C-Word: Rapper's ambivalence about fame and fortune hits a peak"
Review of Talib Kweli "The Beautiful Struggle"
by Irin Carmon
Village Voice
October 29, 2004

A Norwegian rap group may face criminal charges after they set up a parody
website critical of George W. Bush. The U.S Embassy in Oslo filed a police
complaint against the group Gatas Parlament for their site www.killhim.nu,
which called for Bush's murder. The .nu extension also means "now" in
Norwegian.

For the full story log on: http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/

               Breaking Hip Hop News:

    Eminem's video for "Mosh." (realplayer)

    Eminem's video for "Mosh." (quicktime)

1.)  Do you think the interviews would have been better conducted with blacks
who knew more about the rap and hip-hop realm, or did it actually help them to
be more honest with people who didn't know as much about the situation as they
did?

2.)  Were you convinced that A,B,C, and D are true?  If not what do you
believe to be true?  i.e. Was the LAPD involved, was Suge Knight behind it
all, etc...

     -"(A) Tupac was murdered not only because Suge and Death Row owe him
millions of dollars, but because he was soon gonna leave them, taking his
unreleased recordings (worth multi-millions more) with him.  (B) Biggie smalls
was murdered by Suge and Death Row as a red herring of sorts, idea being to
deflect the momentary attention away from the Tupac investigation (the T/B
slayings occurred during fall 1996/spring 1997, respectively) and push the
convenient East/West Coast-gang/recording label-rivalry-was-the-cause-of-both-
deaths-theory into the national limelight. (C) Many corrupt, Death Row-
payrolled members of the LAPD were heavily involved in all of the above, which
is why the case is still unsolved.  (D) The FBI, who had Tupac and Smalls
under surveillance at the time of their deaths was also somehow involved (and
an FBI agent is suspiciously cagey when Broomfield attempts to question him).

3.) Aside from the deaths of the two men, they seemed like 2 completely
different individuals.  Biggie had an alter-persona of "rags to riches" when
really he was always middle-class.  Tupac literally grew up on the streets. 
With all the talk of authenticity in this class, I have somewhat lost respect
for Biggie because it seems like he had to lie to succeed, whereas in a sense
I have gained respect for Tupac even though I saw him spitting on reporters. 
What are your thoughts on this?

5.)  Tupac's brother is quoted as saying, "To judge the character of a man,
you judge how he rebounds from hardship."  Is this also used to judge the
authenticity of rappers?


- Niki, Jason and Wendy

Peer review, in-class reading exercise


Peer review, in-class feedback exercise

Music Criticism: "Encore" (Eminem)

"All the Time in the World, Slim Shady? That's Scary."  By KELEFA SANNEH
November 15, 2004
New York Times


Eminem, "Encore."  By ROBERT CHRISTGAU
December 9, 2004
Rolling Stone

"White Freedom: The angstiest wigga alive exercises privilege, bears cross, rallies flock, begs forgiveness."  By GREG TATE
November 16th, 2004
Village Voice

If we have additional time during the semester, we will do the following units:


Macdonald, Nancy.  Introduction and Chapter 5 from The Graffiti Subculture. Pp. 1-9; 63-93.


Rose, Tricia.  Chapter 3.  «Soul Sonic Forces: Technology, Orality, and Black Cultural Practice in Rap Music.» Pages 62-98 from Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America.

George, Nelson.  "Sample This."  Pp. 89-96 in Hip Hop America.  1998.  NY: Penguin.

Fernando, Jr., S.H.  "In the Mix."  Pp. 219-252 in The New Beats: Exploring the Music, Culture and Attitudes of Hip-Hop.  1994.  NY: Anchor.

Rose, Tricia.  Chapter 5.  «Bad Sistas: Black Women Rappers and Sexual Politics in Rap Music.» Pages 146-182 from Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America.

Lena, Jennifer C.  2004. "Lessons on Innovation."

Rose, Tricia.  "Contracting Rap: An Interview with Carmen Ashhurst-Watson."  From Microphone Fiends: Youth Music and Youth Culture.  Edited by Andrew Ross and Tricia Rose.  New York: Routledge.

Kelley, Norman.  "Rhythm Nation: The Political Economy of Black Music."  Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire.  Summer 1999 (Vol. 2, No. 2).

Rose, Tricia.  "Hidden Politics: Discursive and Institutional Policing of Rap Music."  Pp. 236-257 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

Perkins, William Eric.  "Youth's Global Village: An Epilogue."  Pp. 258-274 in William Eric Perkins, Droppin' Science.

Neal, Mark Anthony.  «A Soul Baby in Real Time: Encountering Generation Hip-Hop on Campus.»  Pgs. 175-194 in Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic, by Mark Anthony Neal.

Osumare, Halifu.  "Beat Streets in the global hood: Connective marginalities of the hip hop globe."  Journal of American and Comparative Cultures.  Spring-Summer 2001.

Re-read Perkins Introduction.

Rose, Tricia.  Chapter 1.  «Voices from the Margins: Rap Music and Contemporary Black Cultural Production.» Pages 1-20 from Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America.

"Grey Tuesday, online cultural activism and the mash-up of music and politics," by Sam Howard-Spink.  First Monday: Peer Reviewed Journal on the Internet.

Abstract:

In 2003, a little–known DJ by the name of Danger Mouse created a "mash–up" album that remixed the music of the Beatles’ White Album and hiphop star Jay–Z’s Black Album to produce a new record called The Grey Album. The swift and draconian legal reaction to the online dissemination of this technically illegal but culturally fascinating artifact gave rise to a "day of digital civil disobedience," organized by music activism group Downhill Battle. Grey Tuesday, as the day of action was known, marks a potentially new site for a blend of online political and cultural activism in the highly charged realm of intellectual property expansionism. This paper examines emergent examples of musical and Internet activism including a detailed look at Grey Tuesday itself; considers the cultural significance of the mash–up genre and the value of the musical "amateur;" and concludes with a brief consideration of "semiotic democracy" and the new mix — or, if you will, mash–up — of culture and politics that has emerged as a consequence of the rise of digital networks.

Painting the Town (Again)
New York Times
October 3, 2004
 By ROB WALKER





Some say that the artists have been shut out of SoHo, but
it isn't true. At least not in the view of Marc Schiller,
who lives in the neighborhood and who, with his wife, Sara
Beard, runs a Web site, woostercollective.com. The site is
a showcase for ''street art,'' which some people think of
as graffiti and other people think of as blight and many
people do not really think about at all. The building above
happens to be on the southern end of Wooster Street, but
anyone who has lived for long in New York has walked past
variations on this wall a hundred times. If the words and
images sprayed, wheat-pasted or glued on the surfaces of
the city are an institution of a sort, it's the sort that
the hardened New Yorker hardly even notices anymore.

According to the book ''Subway Art,'' by Martha Cooper and
Henry Chalfant, New York teenagers in the 1960's were the
key players in modern graffiti history, scrawling their
names on buildings like territorial markers. Scrawls
evolved into baroque ''tags,'' some of which (Futura 2000,
Revs) gained notoriety. Subway cars became a popular
canvas, and so did the walls of SoHo, where Keith Haring
and Jean-Michel Basquiat straddled the line between fine
art and street art.

Graffiti never went away, but in the last two years or so,
there has been a new wave, Schiller says, partly because of
the Internet. Through sites like his, as well as
stencilrevolution.com, ekosystem.org and stickernation.com,
people working in a variety of media on public surfaces all
over the world can see, and show, their work in a new way.
A result is a global community, linking the form's biggest
icons with the newest up-and-comers, from the Lower East
Side to Latvia. ''Even if you're in a small town,''
Schiller says, ''you're connected.''

Even so, some surfaces count more than others. This site,
referred to as the Candy Factory, is one of several
street-art landmarks in the city. Such buildings are
increasingly rare because owners are becoming more
aggressive about ''buffing'' away marks and posters. That
has turned spots like this one into ''outdoor galleries,''
as Schiller sees it -- places to see how street art has
evolved to include not just spray-painted names and symbols
but also elaborate mixed-media works, even sculpture. The
Candy Factory, then, can be seen as an eyesore, but it is
also an ever-changing group show. There is no catalog, but
a brief guide to some of the work recently on display can
be pieced together with help from the Web, from the recent
photo books ''Street Logos'' and ''I NY'' and from
Schiller. Around the corner is what appears to be a
video-game character made of tile -- the work of the French
street artist known as Space Invader. Buried under other
images is an old piece by Akay from Sweden. Some of the
more clearly visible pieces are explained on these pages
and include images by street artists from New York,
California, London, Amsterdam -- more proof that everyone
wants to make a mark on New York City.

Israeli Hip Hop

Israeli Hip Hop Takes US
Rolling Stone

Progressive Poetry in the Form of Hebrew Hip Hop
San Francisco Chronicle

Take Back the Mike
Jerusalem Post

Israeli Rappers Prove Hip Hop Will Translate
Boston Globe

Hip Hop Thrives in Israel
Rolling Stone

Yo! Or Is It Oy? Cultures Blend in Dance Clubs"
 By DIANE CARDWELL

 tupac biggie gta
by kid oakland
 Sat Dec 18th, 2004 at 20:18:36 PST