Prep

• Adam Bradley, ‘The Artists Dismantling the Barriers Between Rap and Poetry’, The New York Times Style Magazine (4 March 2021). Hip-hop MCs embracing poetry, hip-hop generation poets influenced by hip-hop. Plus the Third Way of spoken-word poetry, or poetry as live performance. And the role of women of colour in creating all this synergy
• Video: ‘Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time’, Vox (19 May 2016)

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: TBA
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• H. Samy Alim, ‘“Bring It to the Cypher”: Hip-Hop Nation Language’, in Forman and Neal (2012)

Prep

• Andrew Nosnitsky, ‘Classic Material’, Pitchfork (19 November 2012)
• Audio: Nas, Illmatic (1994). The link takes you to YouTube. Try to listen to this on vinyl, CD, or high-quality WAV/AIFF/FLAC files, if at all possible
• Audio: Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City (2012). Try to listen to this on vinyl, CD, or high-quality WAV/AIFF/FLAC files, if at all possible.

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: TBA
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Adam Bradley, ‘The Artists Dismantling the Barriers Between Rap and Poetry’, The New York Times Style Magazine (4 March 2021). Hip-hop MCs embracing poetry, hip-hop generation poets influenced by hip-hop. Plus the Third Way of spoken-word poetry, or poetry as live performance. And the role of women of colour in creating all this synergy.

• Video: ‘Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time’, Vox (19 May 2016)

Prep

• Tricia Rose, ‘Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile’, in Forman and Neal (2004)
• Audio: ‘Women’s Rap Renaissance’, Switched on Pop 198 (8 December 2020)

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Overview: Story Maps Proposal Outline
3. Formulating a Research Question
4. Q&A: Big Butts, Smiles
5. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Andrew Nosnitsky, ‘Classic Material’, Pitchfork (19 November 2012)

Prep

• Nelson George, ‘Hip-Hop’s Founding Fathers Speak the Truth’, in Forman and Neal (2012); also available in Forman and Neal (2004)

• Video: DJ Jazzy Jay | Crate Diggers | Fuse (10 October 2012)

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: Crate Digging, cont’d
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Tricia Rose, ‘Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile’, in Forman and Neal (2004)
• Audio: ‘Women’s Rap Renaissance’, Switched on Pop 198 (8 December 2020)

Prep

• Jennifer Lynn Stoever, ‘Crate Digging Begins at Home: Black and Latinx Women Collecting and Selecting Records in the 1960s and 1970s Bronx’, in Justin D. Burton and Jason Lee Oakes, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Hip-Hop Music (2018)

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: Crate Digging
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

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)

Prep

• Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, ‘Hip-Hop: Planet Rock’, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (Grove Press, 2006)

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Story Maps, cont’d
3. Q&A: Planet Rock
4. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Jennifer Lynn Stoever, ‘Crate Digging Begins at Home: Black and Latinx Women Collecting and Selecting Records in the 1960s and 1970s Bronx’, in Justin D. Burton and Jason Lee Oakes, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Hip-Hop Music (2018)

Prep

• Recommended: Jorge ‘Popmaster Fabel’ Pabon, ‘Physical Graffiti: The History of Hip-Hop Dance’, in Forman and Neal (2012)

Zoom Session

Once again: there is no class on Monday! The above reading is merely recommended.

For Next Time

• Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, ‘Hip-Hop Roots: Adventures on the Wheels of Steel’, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (Grove Press, 2006)
• Audio: Rich Nice, Merry Go Round Mix (11 August 2020)

Prep

• Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, ‘Hip-Hop Roots: Adventures on the Wheels of Steel’, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (Grove Press, 2006)
• Audio: Rich Nice, Merry Go Round Mix (11 August 2020)

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: TBA
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, ‘Hip-Hop: Planet Rock’, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (Grove Press, 2006)

Prep

• Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)

Zoom Session

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: Wild Style Wars
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, ‘Hip-Hop Roots: Adventures on the Wheels of Steel’, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey (Grove Press, 2006)

• Ground Rules for the Classroom. The penalties for in-class smartphone use are pretty toothless in a remote learning environment, obvs.
• Video: Style Wars (Henry Chalfant and Tony Silver, 1983). The seminal documentary of graffiti and b-boying’, writes Jeff Chang in one of our upcoming texts (‘Zulus on a Time Bomb’). You should be able to view this film for free on vudu.com, but if there’s a problem, here’s a link that’s currently working on YouTube. 

Zoom Session

1. Attendance/Introductions, cont’d
2. Course Overview (Syllabus, Slack, Story Maps, etc.), cont’d
3. Q&A: Style Wars
4. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982). Either DJ Jazzy Jay or DJ Tony Tone (I can’t remember which) tells Rob Swift that, of the three classic early hip-hop films (Style Wars, Wild Style, and Beat Street), Wild Style was actually the most faithful representation of early hip-hop culture, despite being fictional!