• Matt Miller, ‘Rap’s Dirty South: From Subculture to Pop Culture’, (password-protected PDF) in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Video: ‘How the triplet flow took over rap’, Vox (15 September 2017)

In Class

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

For Next Time

• Andrew Nosnitsky, ‘Gray Matters’, Pitchfork (4 March 2013). On the legacy of Houston’s DJ Screw—possibly the most influential hip-hop DJ of this century—and how his impact goes way beyond simply slowing things down.
• Audio: ‘Big Floyd and the Rise of Houston Chopped N Screwed Music’, Switched on Pop (9 June 2020)

• Gilbert B. Rodman, ‘Race … and Other Four-Letter Words: Eminem and the Cultural Politics of Authenticity’ (password-protected PDF), in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Video: Adam Neely, ‘Scotch Snaps in Hip-Hop’ (11 March 2019)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Review: Story Maps Final Project
   • Examples
3. Q&A: Is cultural appropriation always a bad thing?
4. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Matt Miller, ‘Rap’s Dirty South: From Subculture to Pop Culture’, (password-protected PDF) in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Video: ‘How the triplet flow took over rap’, Vox (15 September 2017)

• Mychal Denzel Smith, ‘Confessions of a Conscious Rap Fan’, Pitchfork (28 June 2022)
• Audio: ‘Kendrick Lamar’s Anxiety Era’, Popcast (24 May 2022)
• Video: ‘Do the Knowledge’, Hip-Hop Evolution S2E3 (2018)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Small Group Huddles
3. Q&A: If hip-hop is protest music, why is there so much gaybashing?
4. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Murray Forman, ‘Represent: Race, Space, and Place in Rap Music’, (password-protected PDF) in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Audio: TBA
• Video: TBA

• Paul Gilroy, ‘It’s a Family Affair’ (password-protected PDF), in Neal and Forman (2012)
• Audio: ‘Allah B of the Nation of Gods and Earths’, The Cipher Show 151 (18 April 2016). Peace! We trace the history of the Nation of Gods and Earths – and its influence on hip-hop – with one of its earliest members.
• Video: ‘Molefi Kete Asante – Afrocentric Education’ (12 April 2016)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: If hip-hop is protest music, why did so many conscious rappers support the patriarchy?
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Mychal Denzel Smith, ‘Confessions of a Conscious Rap Fan’, Pitchfork (28 June 2022)
• Audio: ‘Kendrick Lamar’s Anxiety Era’, Popcast (24 May 2022)
• Video: ‘Do the Knowledge’, Hip-Hop Evolution S2E3 (2018)

Prep

• Kembrew McLeod, ‘Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened With Assimilation’ (password-protected PDF), in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Audio: TBD
• Video: Adam Neely, ‘Why Are There So Few Cover Rap Songs?’ (22 September 2022)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: How can we come up with a thesis, and what is the mark of a good one?
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Paul Gilroy, ‘It’s a Family Affair’ (password-protected PDF), in Neal and Forman (2012)
• Audio: TBD
• Video: TBD

Prep

• Joan Morgan, ‘Hip-Hop Feminist’, in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Audio: ‘Women’s Rap Renaissance’, Switched on Pop 198 (8 December 2020)
• Video: What Makes The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill So Special?, Sound Field (2 March 2023). I’m not endorsing any of the claims made here, necessarily, but the producers offer some useful background–and I’m sure our guest speaker might have an interesting perspective here…

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: What do feminists hear when they listen to hip-hop?
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Kembrew McLeod, ‘Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened With Assimilation’ (password-protected PDF), in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Audio: TBD
• Video: Adam Neely, ‘Why Are There So Few Cover Rap Songs?’ (22 September 2022)

Prep

• Tricia Rose, ‘Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile’, in Forman and Neal (2004)
• Audio: ‘Saweetie, City Girls, and the Female Rapper Renaissance’, Popcast (29 November 2020)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: How can we come up with a thesis, and what is the mark of a good one?
3. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Joan Morgan, ‘Hip-Hop Feminist’, in Forman and Neal (2012)
• Audio: ‘Women’s Rap Renaissance’, Switched on Pop 198 (8 December 2020)
• Video: What Makes The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill So Special?, Sound Field (2 March 2023)

Prep

• Murray S. Davis, ‘That’s Interesting! Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences (1971). What makes an interesting claim about the world interesting?
• Video: 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.

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: How can we come up with a thesis, and what is the mark of a good one?
3. Small Group Exercise: Formulate Your Story Maps Research Question Exercise
4. Reading Notes for Next Time

For Next Time

• Tricia Rose, ‘Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile’, in Forman and Neal (2004)
• Audio: ‘Saweetie, City Girls, and the Female Rapper Renaissance’, Popcast (29 November 2020)

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.
• 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)
• Homework: What’s your favourite hip-hop verse of all time? Identify one technique from ‘Rapping Deconstructed’ (e.g., crossing the bar line, motifs, daisy-chaining, etc.) or Bradley (2021; e.g., assonance, consonance, epistrophe) used in this verse.  (Note: Using one of the verses discussed in the videoessay is cheating, obviously.) Post a link to the song, along with a brief explanation as to how this technique is illustrated in the verse you’ve selected, in the #discography channel on our Slack webspace before our next class. 

In Class

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)
• Video: 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.

Prep

• 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. Attendance
2. Q&A: What can the study of literature teach us about hip-hop lyricism?
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)
• Audio: Adam Bradley, ‘American Poets on the Hip-Hop Songs That Most Inspire Them’, New York Times (4 March 2021). 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)
• Homework: What’s your favourite hip-hop verse of all time? Identify one technique from ‘Rapping Deconstructed’ (e.g., crossing the bar line, motifs, daisy-chaining, etc.) or Bradley (2021; e.g., assonance, consonance, epistrophe) used in this verse.  (Note: Using one of the verses discussed in the videoessay is cheating, obviously.)