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So often our students are being taught content that feels far removed from the realities of their lives. Not all urban youth identify with hip-hop but a significant majority do. With this understanding, the opportunity to challenge our youth academically and expand their ability to think critically, while learning about the history of hip-hop is an exciting prospect. “Hip Hop is culture, Hip Hop is politics, Hip Hop is economics; And it is something additional and unnamed,” Pre-eminent Hip-Hop scholar William Jelani Cobb described the power and reach of hip-hop perfectly. In addition to learning the history of a genre that has transcended racial, ethnic, linguistic and socioeconomic barriers, students will also examine issues of oppression, violence, identity, culture, joy and power. In the first semester, students will be introduced to the major eras and gain an understanding of how hip-hop emerged in the east and the west and everywhere in between. Students will be using Shea Cerrano's "The Rap Year Book" to debate the most important rap songs from each year, 1979-2014, but also to gain a better understanding of the genius contained in the lyrics of rap music over the last 50 years. In the second semester, we will be reading Jeff Chang's "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" as a backdrop to discuss the issues and contexts that incubated a genre that has become the most popular music worldwide.

About my class

So often our students are being taught content that feels far removed from the realities of their lives. Not all urban youth identify with hip-hop but a significant majority do. With this understanding, the opportunity to challenge our youth academically and expand their ability to think critically, while learning about the history of hip-hop is an exciting prospect. “Hip Hop is culture, Hip Hop is politics, Hip Hop is economics; And it is something additional and unnamed,” Pre-eminent Hip-Hop scholar William Jelani Cobb described the power and reach of hip-hop perfectly. In addition to learning the history of a genre that has transcended racial, ethnic, linguistic and socioeconomic barriers, students will also examine issues of oppression, violence, identity, culture, joy and power. In the first semester, students will be introduced to the major eras and gain an understanding of how hip-hop emerged in the east and the west and everywhere in between. Students will be using Shea Cerrano's "The Rap Year Book" to debate the most important rap songs from each year, 1979-2014, but also to gain a better understanding of the genius contained in the lyrics of rap music over the last 50 years. In the second semester, we will be reading Jeff Chang's "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" as a backdrop to discuss the issues and contexts that incubated a genre that has become the most popular music worldwide.

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About my class

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