Students from other countries continue to pass us by while we debate over reactionary solutions to the problems in America’s education system. Instead of destroying collective bargaining rights or converting schools into test-based business models, we should use revolutionary methods to relate material to the youth. Using music — specifically, hip-hop — would help expose students to new ideas and provide another avenue to engage students with curriculum.
Hip-hop has elements of poetry, journalism and education, yet its role has been limited to an abstract art form. Originally, the music was used to tell someone in a different neighborhood or city what was going on in your area. Oftentimes, emcees tell stories from a different perspective than you would get on the evening news and give voice to people who are marginalized by mainstream media.
For example, Ras Kass rhyming, “51 percent of the World Bank is owned by the U.S. treasury / Robbing third-world countries out all their resources and equity,” is more engaging than reading about it in a social studies textbook.
Hip-hop has roots in Negro spirituals, which used coded language to inform slaves when mainstream avenues were too risky. Politically conscious hip-hop is still blackballed in the industry, and most mainstream artists have to bury enlightening lines in club-friendly records to get the message out.
This persistence to relegate hip-hop to parties is preventing many people from being exposed to knowledge they won’t get or internalize in school.
Major moneymakers in the industry have no incentive to use hip-hop in any way besides entertainment. This is because these people had nothing to do with the culture and don’t care about the welfare of it and its fans. According to a 2006 article in the Australian publication Undercover, the big four record companies — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Group — accounted for 81.87 percent of the U.S. music market in 2005. All of these companies make huge profits off of hip-hop.
In contrast, DJ Kool Herc, a hip-hop pioneer whom many credit as the godfather of the art form, couldn’t have surgery for kidney stones because he couldn’t afford health insurance, according to a February ABC News article.
Using hip-hop in education is one way to put its power in the hands of the people and counter the disposable nature of the music that turns its legends into casualties.
The university system offers a number of opportunities to incorporate hip-hop into curriculum. For example, statistics and literature on people struggling with racial identity tend to go over many students’ heads. Hearing Ras Kass rhyme, “In ’81, I remember the night / I covered myself with baby powder so my black ass could be light / Because God is white and Bo Derek is a 10 / I hate my black skin, it’s just a sin to be a nigga,” would help give a human face to the experience.
Hip-hop can also serve as a gateway to reading. Many artists, such as Tupac and Mos Def, were prolific readers. These emcees use constant allusions to literature and movements in their lyrics.
While textbooks and nightly news pundits tend to ignore political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal and demonize groups like the American Indian Movement and the Brown Berets, hip-hop artists offer counter perspectives.
Similarly, emcees discuss issues like gang violence and address them from multiple perspectives. In contrast, the news and the general mainstream narratives only give voice to one side of the story.
Exposure to other perspectives gives students context for understanding complex issues. The nature of the media is to frame every story in an easy-to-understand narrative, and hip-hop’s propensity for addressing a breadth of topics gives students a wide variety of sources to enhance research and class discussions.
Hip-hop also has the capability of helping students better understand language. I’ve taken poetry classes offered by the University’s Creative Writing program, and everything we discussed in CRWR 435/535 — Advanced Poetry Writing — whether it be allusions, metaphors or imagery, could apply to analyzing hip-hop lyrics.
We could discuss E-40’s use of slang and how it paints a picture of his surroundings in the same way we dissect the figurative language and scenery of William Wordsworth.
Analyzing the music would also help students better understand the nature of sampling. Because artists often sample clips of famous speeches by the likes of Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, the samples would serve as both primary source material and additional layers to understanding the meaning of songs.
Lastly, incorporating hip-hop literacy courses would give an opportunity for local artists to come work with students in the way that local poets currently do. This would both provide exposure to local hip-hop to boost the local economy and engage students with artists so they’re less likely to see them as disposable.
While hip-hop is here to stay, it can only remain fresh if we diversify its use. American students are in desperate need for the wealth of knowledge embedded in the music. It’s time to expand and use hip-hop in the classroom.
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