Hip Hop
My first rap that I knew by heart was the theme song from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. “From West Philadelphia born and raised, on a playground is where I spend most of my days.� Give me the beginning beats and I could probably still go though all of the words. Hip hop to me was not used to tell about racial difference, a sexual position or social injustice. It was a catchy tune that signaled to me that one of my favorite sitcoms was about to start. Little did I know that soon my experience would blossom to Salt N’ Pepa’s “Short Dick Man� which was played on the bus to volleyball games, Sir Mixalot’s “Baby Got Back� which was played at dances and Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice, Baby� which was played by everyone. Looking back though, I didn’t actually listen to the songs. I bobbed my head to them, sung along to the words but didn’t really understand what it all meant. To quote a memorable line from White Men Can’t Jump, Wesley Snipes said to Woody Harrelson “you can listen to Jimi but you can't hear him. There's a difference man. Just because you're listening to him doesn't mean you're hearing him�. I wasn’t hearing anything other than something catchy.
With that also on my mind, I’m sitting outside on my porch, listening to the sounds of cars as they go by. Where my road turns, I live in a predominately white area of the city and as I look at the people inside the cars, I can’t help but notice the teenagers listening to loud hip hop. I wonder if they understand what they are listening to and are asking themselves whether the lyrics that they are singing along to are fostering hate, a higher social consciousness or are strictly for entertainment value.
After reading the different articles about the beginnings of hip hop, I was impressed by the way Ice Cube described “the purpose of his music in terms of helping whites to better understand the historical and ongoing dimensions of racism directed at blacks. He alludes directly to the educational purpose of his music-that he is not only trying to entertain but to inform.� (Morrell and Duncan-Andrade). After reading that quote I wondered where the direction of hip hop is now going. For example, listening to the song by Lil’ Kim from the last posting, I fail to find the educational benefits of “How Many Licks.� The same goes for the two current recognizable names in rap, Eminem and 50 Cent. Both sing about homophobia, yet claim that they are not homophobic. The educational and entertainment value of those songs is severly limited and yet are top ten sellers.
I also took from these articles that the one source of music that every culture, every socioeconomic level and every person knows about is hip hop. In some areas, the term that is used may not be hip hop exactly, but the music most definitely ties into that genre. I also took away from the articles that if everybody knows of this music in some form, then everybody can break it apart. Whether textually (Morrell and Duncan-Andrade), digitally (Mahiri) or through the actually language (Richardson) hip hop is a connecting factor that can be used in classrooms across the nation. In the article The ABCs of HIP HOP, a quote form Michael Barnes said it best “Nothing else, currently, allows for you to talk about race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, politics and the economy like hip hop music and culture.� (http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=815) Since I do believe this to be true, every subject can be looked at with hip hop favorably. I was especially impressed with the makers of Flocabulary and was glad to see that someone took the idea of music and memorization applied it to hip hop. Looking through the Flocabulary website (http://www.flocabulary.com/) I thought it was a great way to teach students the vocabulary needed for college prep tests as well the other options of Shakespeare and US History. Even the website, http://www.tolerance.org/teach/activities/activity.jsp?ar=815, I thought was great because it gave teachers who may be starting out and wanting to use Hip Hop, a first step and good ideas.