• Adam Bradley, ‘Rhyme’, Ch. 2 in Book of Rhymes (2009)
• Audio: Adam Bradley, ‘American Poets on the Hip-Hop Songs That Most Inspire Them’, New York Times (4 March 2021). To complement T’s recent feature on how the barrier between rap and poetry is becoming increasingly porous thanks to a new generation of practitioners in both art forms, we asked a number of poets mentioned in the piece about the hip-hop songs they return to again and again. (These excerpts from interviews with various poets shouldn’t be read apart from the embedded Spotify playlist, ‘A Playlist from the Poets’.)
• Video: ‘Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time’, Vox (19 May 2016)
• Due BEFORE Class: What’s your favourite rap song? Identify all the techniques from ‘Rapping Deconstructed’ (e.g., crossing the bar line, motifs, daisy-chaining, etc.) or Bradley, ‘Rhyme’ (e.g., assonance, consonance, epistrophe) that occur in this song.  (Note: Using one of the verses discussed in the videoessay is cheating, obviously.) Post a link to the song (YouTube or Whosampled, ideally), along with a brief explanation as to how one of these techniques is illustrated in the verse you’ve selected (define the technique and cite the page[s] where it’s discussed in the reading), in the #discography channel on our Discord server before our next class.

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Q&A: What can the study of poetics teach us about rap lyricism?
   3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Murray S. Davis, ‘That’s Interesting! Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences (1971)
• Audio: TBD
• Re-View: Robert Glasper: “Jazz is the mother of hip-hop” | JAZZ NIGHT IN AMERICA (19 April 2017). An example of a clearly stated, interesting thesis—and one that’s EXTREMELY debatable.

• H. Samy Alim, ‘“Bring It to the Cypher”: Hip-Hop Nation Language’, in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Audio: Chief Rocker Busy Bee Starski vs. Kool Moe Dee of The Treacherous Three (Harlem World, 1981)
• Video: The Art of Diss: The History of Battle Rap (2023)

We spent much of the class huddled up in group work. So we still need to discuss the assigned texts from last Wednesday.

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Q&A: What can the study of linguistics teach us about the language of hip-hop?
   3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Adam Bradley, ‘Rhyme’, Ch. 2 in Book of Rhymes (2009)
• Audio: Adam Bradley, ‘American Poets on the Hip-Hop Songs That Most Inspire Them’, New York Times (4 March 2021). To complement T’s recent feature on how the barrier between rap and poetry is becoming increasingly porous thanks to a new generation of practitioners in both art forms, we asked a number of poets mentioned in the piece about the hip-hop songs they return to again and again. (These excerpts from interviews with various poets shouldn’t be read apart from the embedded Spotify playlist, ‘A Playlist from the Poets’.)
• Video: ‘Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time’, Vox (19 May 2016)

• H. Samy Alim, ‘“Bring It to the Cypher”: Hip-Hop Nation Language’, in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Audio: Chief Rocker Busy Bee Starski vs. Kool Moe Dee of The Treacherous Three (Harlem World, 1981)
• Video: The Art of Diss: The History of Battle Rap (2023)

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Q&A: What can the study of linguistics teach us about the language of hip-hop?
   3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Adam Bradley, ‘Rhyme’, Ch. 2 in Book of Rhymes (2009)
• Audio: Adam Bradley, ‘American Poets on the Hip-Hop Songs That Most Inspire Them’, New York Times (4 March 2021). To complement T’s recent feature on how the barrier between rap and poetry is becoming increasingly porous thanks to a new generation of practitioners in both art forms, we asked a number of poets mentioned in the piece about the hip-hop songs they return to again and again. (These excerpts from interviews with various poets shouldn’t be read apart from the embedded Spotify playlist, ‘A Playlist from the Poets’.) 
• Video: ‘Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time’, Vox (19 May 2016)

• Andrew Nosnitsky, ‘Classic Material’, Pitchfork (19 November 2012)
• Audio: This should go without saying, but you need to listen to Nas’s Illmatic (1993) album if you don’t already know it. Even if you do know it, you should revisit it.
• Video: Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid, m.A.A.d. Classic (21 October 2017).

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Q&A: What defines a hip-hop classic?
   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)
• Audio: Chief Rocker Busy Bee Starski vs. Kool Moe Dee of The Treacherous Three (Harlem World, 1981)
• Video: The Art of Diss: The History of Battle Rap (2023)

• Nelson George, ‘Hip-Hop’s Founding Fathers Speak the Truth’, in Forman and Neal (2012); also available in Forman and Neal (2004)
• Video: Founding Fathers: The Untold Story of Hip-Hop (Ron Lawrence and Hassan Pore, 2009). Watch this before class; we’ll review a few scenes during class as they become relevant to our discussion.

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Q&A: Did hip-hop really begin in the Bronx?
   3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Andrew Nosnitsky, ‘Classic Material’, Pitchfork (19 November 2012)
• Audio: This should go without saying, but you need to listen to Nas’s Illmatic (1993) album if you don’t already know it. Even if you do know it, you should revisit it.
• Video: Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid, m.A.A.d. Classic (21 October 2017)

Recap: We continued our discussion of the Wild Style era and then watched the movie right up to just before the first party scene.

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: Founding Fathers: The Untold Story of Hip-Hop (Ron Lawrence and Hassan Pore, 2009). Watch this before class; we’ll review a few scenes during class as they become relevant to our discussion.

Prep

• • Alex Gale, The Oral History of “Wild Style”, Complex (2013). Note: I advise watching the movie to the end before reading this.
  • Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Q&A: How do we separate history from mythology?
   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)
• Video: Founding Fathers: The Untold Story of Hip-Hop (Ron Lawrence and Hassan Pore, 2009). Watch this before class; we’ll review a few scenes during class as they become relevant to our discussion. 

Prep

• • Jeff Chang, ‘Zulus on a Time Bomb: Hip-Hop Meets the Rockers Downtown’, in Forman and Neal (2012). I’ll drop the PDF on the Discord server. This time, we’ll focus on the sections having to do with graffiti. 
  • Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982). We’ll watch important chunks in class, but please watch the movie in its entirety before class.

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Story Maps Group Huddles
   3. Q&A: Did street art survive its move to the galleries?
   4. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time]

• Alex Gale, The Oral History of “Wild Style”, Complex (2013). Note: I advise watching the movie to the end before reading this.
• Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)

Prep

• • Sally Banes, ‘Physical Graffiti: Breaking Is Hard to Do’, Village Voice, 
  • Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982). We’ll watch this movie in class, but I encourage you to look at it a few times. You can view this movie for free using the hyperlink in the title.

In Class

1. 1. Attendance
   2. Q&A: How have various kinds of mass media influenced the evolution of hip-hop dance?
   3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time]

• Jeff Chang, ‘Zulus on a Time Bomb: Hip-Hop Meets the Rockers Downtown’, in Forman and Neal (2012). We’ll focus on the sections concerning graffiti.
• Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982)

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)
• Video: DJ Jazzy Jay | Crate Diggers | Fuse (10 October 2012). Jazzy Jay was one of Zulu Nation’s main DJs, was the co-founder of Def Jam Records, and is one of hip-hop’s great storytellers. keywords: crate digging; sacred crates.

In Class

1. Attendance
2. A Moment of Silence
3. Q&A: Is hip-hop inherently political?
4. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time]

• Sally Banes, ‘Breaking’, in Forman and Neal (2004:13-20)
• Video: Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn, 1982). We’ll watch this movie in class, but I encourage you to look at it a few times. You can view this movie for free using the hyperlink in the title.