Prep
- Alex Gale, The Oral History of “Wild Style”, Complex (2013). Note: I advise watching the movie to the end before reading this.
- Audio: Sugar Hill Gang, ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (1979). In many ways, we can interpret Wild Style as an attempt to correct the historical record: ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was seen by hip-hop insiders as a cooptation from outside ‘the culture’; the filmmakers sought to show its audience what ‘authentic’ hip-hop was all about. It hardly seems accidental, for example, that Grandmaster Flash caps the climactic bandshell party jam by cutting up Chic’s ‘Good Times’, which was interpolated for the beat to ‘Rapper’s Delight’.
- Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982). We’ll watch this movie in class, but I encourage you to look at it in advance. You can view this movie for free using the hyperlink in the title.
In Class
- Attendance
- Review: Story Maps
- Screening: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)
- Reading Notes for Next Time
- Nelson George, ‘Hip-Hop’s Founding Fathers Speak the Truth’, in Forman and Neal (2012); also available in Forman and Neal (2004)
- Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982), cont’d
