Week 10-Media, Commodification and Hip-hop

This week's lecture and readings discuss Hip-hop's commodification in the media. How do you see Hip-hop's influence in popular media such as commercials, television, film and journalism (print media)? How is Hip-hop commodified by artists, corporations and/or the media? Think broadly about the different elements of Hip-hop. Do you see Hip-hop music and culture as a product that the media often disassociates from the artists that produce it? Why or why not? Where does the notion of "blackness" figure into this equation? Try to remember to give specific examples in your responses.

Week 9- Hip-hop and Race in American Film

How has Hip-hop's aesthetic shaped American film? In what ways do we see race articulated through a Hip-hop aesthetic? As you explore the readings, audio and visual references, think about the ways in which Hip-hop has influenced the cinematic and storytelling styles. How do you see particular elements of Hip-hop translated into film? How does the race of a filmmaker impact his/her vision if at all? As you watch the films Do the Right Thing, 8 Mile and Hustle and Flow, think about the ways that diverse racial and ethnic groups use Hip-hop as a platform to tell stories.

Week 8- Women, Gender and Sexuality in Hip-Hop

This week, we watched the film Say My Name by Nirit Peled. This documentary presents the voices of many female MCs, past and present, who have contributed to Hip-hop culture. How are particular stereotypes of does gender and sexuality sampled in Hip-Hop? What stereotypes of men and women circulate in Hip-hop culture and how do female MCs manipulate them? As you blog on the key words GENDER and SEXUALITY, think broadly about the ways that Hip-hop culture has the potential to marginalize and liberate men and women from seemingly fixed categories of representation.

Week 7- Hip-hop's Urban Griots

MC's in Hip-hop music are storytellers that follow in the tradition of West African griots. Whether MCs write their rhymes or improvise them on the spot, they become living archives of history that connect the past to the present. As you blog on the key words FLOW and BATTLE, think about the ways that Hip-hop MCs use their storytelling to describe lived and imagined experiences. How does an MCs environment shape his/her style? How does the battle in MCing relate to artistic expression in the other elements of Hip-hop?

Week 6- Physical Graffiti

The term "Physical Graffiti" was used by Sally Banes to describe how breakers and Hip-hop dancers embody many of same style elements of battling such as braggadocio, "getting fame," etc. that are part of Graffiti and MCing. She argues "breaking is a way of claiming the streets with physical presence, using your body to publicly inscribe your identity on the surface of the city..." (Banes 14). This week you will read articles and view films that speak to the history and progression of breaking and its evolution into a global Hip-hop dance practice. As you define key terms this week, EMBODIED HISTORIES and BBOY/BBIRL, think about how gestures of breaking and Hip-hop dance practices can be understood as a physical repertoire of Hip-hop history. As we prepare for midterm, think about how the terms connect to one another as well as other elements in Hip-hop such as graffiti and MCings.

Week 5- Graffiti

This week, freestyle blog about GRAFFITI. Think about its profound influence on Hip-Hop culture.

Week 4- Hip-Hop's Multiculturalism and Polyculturalism

This week in our readings, Robin D.G. Kelley argues polyculturalism, unlike multiculturalism, recognizes that there are problems with simplistically conflating race and culture. Polyculturalism acknowledges the inter-related connections and fluidity between cultures and their intersections. Multiculturalism keeps cultures separated and static--allowing them to relate alongside one another. In the case of Hip-hop in the United States, discussions of "race" often conflate African American identity and culture. However,the history of culture of Hip-hop is often separated from the people that produce it. In defining the keywords of polyculturalism and multiculturalism in relationship to Hip-hop this week,think about the ways that Hip-Hop and Blackness engage these terms.