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Hip-Hop Students Learn to Think to the Beat

Photo credit: The Daily Orange/David J. Murphy Lil' Kim visiting a Syracuse University class studying her music in 2004. Only a handful of historically black colleges and universities carry courses on hip-hop.

By Anthony Anamelechi
Black College Wire

Once the beat drops, many listeners snap their fingers or twist their bodies from side to side. But whether they’re shaking their tail feathers, shoulder leaning or going dumb, even fans of the music don't understand how much it relates to the black experience.

Bryon D. Turman, lecturer of composition, humanities and hip-hop, is trying to remedy that at North Carolina A&T State University, where he teaches about hip-hop for the English Department.

“These courses reveal the black creativity link from the beginning until now — making the connection from the African griot to the MC,” said Turman.

The course, "Topics in Literature: The History, Literary Connections, and Social Relevance of Hip Hop," is designed to give students an understanding of the place of hip-hop in the oral tradition, which originated in Africa. Hip-hop "is not just what developed in the Bronx in 1972,” said Turman, 37, who is also the father of an 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son.

Turman said such elements as call and response, drums and hip-hop's polyrhythms can be found in African folk, jazz, blues and gospel music.

"We are able to see the origins of hip hop . . . it's Western European, West African, and African American all culminating to a certain base of hip-hop," Matthew Melvin, a senior psychology major last year, said in the A&T Register.

The hip-hop course was developed by Turman last year as an answer to a university-wide initiative to improve the writing and critical-thinking skills of A&T students. Turman said students and faculty initially believed the course would be nothing more than a listener appreciation course.

Although the lessons do discuss “who’s the best rapper: Biggie, Tupac or Nas?” Turman said hip-hop covers so much more that it should be taught at all historically black colleges and universities. In addition to asking students to critique rap songs, the survey course teaches students to study art and sharpen their thinking through writing.

Students must write critical essays, reviewing songs heard in class. Turman said the students learn literary terminology while doing these exercises.

“Hip-hop has many similarities to poetry,” said Turman. Rap music has as much figurative language “as a Shakespearian sonnet or William Blake poem,” he said. Students are taught to identify literary devices within the lyrics, from similes — comparisons between two or more things — to alliteration, a string of words that all begin with same sound.

"Topics in Literature: The History, Literary Connections, and Social Relevance of Hip Hop" is taught in five separate units.

• "Black Expression" touches on the legacy of the oral tradition from Africa to the post-slavery period.

• "The Black Aesthetic and the Birth of Hip-Hop" discusses such endeavors as the Black Arts Movement and the Harlem Renaissance. It also discusses hip-hop and its political ties and explores hip-hop as a form of resistance.

• "The Big Bang - Hip-Hop as Social Commentary" takes up Afrocentrism in hip-hop. This unit explores the beginning of “gangsta rap,” what makes for commercial appeal in the hip-hop world and the emergence of BET, MTV and music videos.

• "Hip-Hop in the 21st Century" recognizes the use of technology in hip-hop along with the influence of women and the globalization of the culture. It poses the question, “Whose culture is it?”

• "Hip-Hop Discourse" wraps up the course with discussion of hip-hop in the academy and hip-hop in the mainstream. It concludes with a discussion on the future of the form.

North Carolina A&T is not the only school that deems hip-hop a worthy classroom subject. Hip-hop courses are taught on such campuses as Penn State, Temple University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Indiana State University and Syracuse University. Syracuse has a course based solely on Lil’ Kim.

"In the last 30 years, I can't think of too many institutions that have had the same impact on black consciousness as hip-hop," Greg Thomas, who teaches the Lil' Kim course at Syracuse, told the Syracuse Post-Standard. "Who has done more to teach people and to iconize, for example, Malcolm X, black power and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa? Hip-hop has taught and disseminated black messages and black history to the masses in a way that other institutions didn't."

However, only a handful of HBCUs carry such courses. They include Morgan State and North Carolina Central universities. Central's hip-hop course has been taught not only by university faculty, but by producer Patrick Douthit, known as 9th Wonder, and Christopher “Play” Martin from the group Kid 'n Play.

In Washington, Howard University has been involved with a program with neighboring Banneker Senior High School, promoting discussions on hip-hop and its influence on the current and future generations. Howard is discussing adding a course on the subject, the purpose of a symposium held in March.

At that symposium, Joshua Kondwani Wright, a Ph.D. student who chaired the event, said, “Hip-hop has increasing political, economic, spiritual and cultural influence on youth. Unfortunately, it is currently receiving more attention for its association with violence, materialism and misogyny.”

Hip-hop courses "warrant critical analysis at Howard University just as it is being analyzed at other institutions,” Wright said.

Anthony Anamelechi, a Black College Wire intern, is a student at Florida A&M University.

Posted Aug. 27, 2006