Sexual Politics of the Hip Hop Generation

Hey all, this event does not pertain quite to the topic of our class, but does involve activism.
This Friday the 13th,
MPIRG will be hosting an event called the Honduran Workers Tour, including
two workers from a Russell clothing factory in Honduras that was recently
shut down. Russell closed the factory because the employees tried to form a
union, and this is not only illegal, but it is also a violation of the
University of Minnesota’s code of conduct signed with Russell. The two
Honduran workers and the International Campaign Coordinator for the
Designated Suppliers Program will be speaking to students about these labor
practices and what can be done to help the factory employees. The event
will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in room 100 of the Bell Museum of Natural
History. Bring your Friends!

It will be an awesome event and you can learn more about what groups like MPIRG and United Students Against Sweatshops are doing. Free Peace Coffee to enjoy at the event :).

Posted by katy at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a sort of epiphany in regards to what makes hip hop authentic after class on Thursday. I was listening to my I-pod on shuffle and Atmosphere’s “Summer Song� came on. Now, as most of you know, Atmosphere originated out of the Twin Cities and I’ve listened to this song on numerous occasions before I heard it on Thursday, but something about the song struck me this time. consider Atmosphere to be real hip-hop, but I'm not really part of the hip hop generation, so in theory, would my opinion even be relevant in the world of "real" hip-hop? Authenticity has been the biggest issue for me to wrap my head around in class because it seems like the message behind the music should be what determines whether hip-hop is authentic or not, not the color of the artist’s skin or what neighborhood they grew up in.

Continue reading "Is Atmoshpere "real" hip-hop?" »

Posted by mcdon462 at 3:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tonight I went and saw Tricia Rose speak at Gordon Parks School and I thought she was brilliant. She outlined a lot of what she wrote about in "Hip Hop Wars," but kept it real (not to be cliche). She related to the Hip Hop culture and the audience in a way that just made sense.

One thing that she talked about that I knew little about was the Telecommunications Act in 1996 that basically let two huge corporations buy up almost all of the radio stations across the nation- Radio One and Clear Channel.

Continue reading "Tricia Rose at Gordan Parks High School" »

Posted by katy at 5:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)