It's Hard out here for a Summer School Teacher

So the Hip-Hop Matter's "Interpreting Hip-Hop" Summer camp is in year 2. We meet with the kids everyday (Mon-Fri) from 1-5. I'm gonna start blogging exclusively about that as we use the Journal of Hip-Hop there to help educate on Hip-Hop culture.

It's been a lotof fun so far as we have a great group. Size has fluctuated between 15 and 11 (last year we had a max of 25 and ended with about 21). We don't really tolerate too any immature behavior and have already escorted two kids out.

More soon . . .

Hip-Hop Matters . . even MTV thinks so!

Jay Woodsen is good people and this article bears the name of our non-profit . . . Hip-Hop DOES matter.

http://www.mtv.com/thinkmtv/features/hip_hop_week/

[Intro ]

WASHINGTON - Hip hop may have been born in the mean streets of the south Bronx, but nearly three decades later you're just as likely to find it in Hanoi as Hollis. The music and culture have permeated not only the globe, but class and education barriers as well. And with hip-hop becoming a world wide phenomenon and multi-billion dollar industry, how has the game changed?

"Hip hop came from conditions of working-class black and Puerto Rican youth that were marginalized from mainstream American culture, disco clubs and decent job opportunities," said Jay Woodson, an organizer with the National Hip Hop Convention, a group which lobbies and plans political events around hip-hop interests.

Friday JoHH Update

Wow. It is June 30th. The Journal of Hip-Hop is moving forward with issue 2 and 3. I'm looking to spend the weekend updating the website and getting all of the permission sheets out. At present, issue 2: Hip-Hop and Education (cover is on the right) will be out for September 1. Issue 3: Hip-Hop and Education will be later 06 or early 07 . . . we may have some good news on issue 3 as we seek larger distribution.

Personally, as Editor in Chief, this has been a real tough year as things didn't come to gether as quickly as I would have liked. I'm an ultra-optomist when it comes to ability and I've learned that while it's fine to have absolute belief in YOUR abilities, not everyone has that same faith in THEIR abilities.

It's cool though . . . everything is a growing process and as Rev Yearwood says: "We don't need revolutionaries, we need SOLUTION-aries." JoHH is just part of the solution . . . more to come soon . . . KEEP THE FAITH!

Dru

When was the first time you experienced Hip-Hop?

So we started the Interpreting Hip-Hop Summer Camp yesterday and one question I like to use during introductions is to answer the question: "When did you first experience Hip-Hop?"

.. for me it was 1985/1986 in the Bronx listening to KRS-One. I don't remember where I got the tape, but that was my ish. Now the ? allows for a response like : Seeing the movie "Breakin" (which I guess I had done b4 hearing KRS, but I wasn't into getting dirty . . . I didn't really have clothes like that. But KRS . . . that was dope.

In any case, the kids in the camp are age 15-17 and only 2 of them could identify a distinct point in time where they first experienced HH.

I think this is interesting as we are well into the generation that never knew of a time BEFORE Hip-Hop. While older heads have seen how the game has changed and watched HH morph into the 2006 money-grab, most kids under 18 are totally blind to this.

I've often said one of the most damaging aspects about Hip-Hop, for the Black/Brown community is that is is the first time where child, parent, and sometime even grandparent are listening to the same thing. The traditional familial roles are lost as there is no continuum in terms of music, but a convergence.

Me, Jeff and Helena are running the camp this year. There is no greater feeling than to be in the classroom and teaching kids. It's going to be fun!

[All kids get a copy of the Journal of Hip-Hop . . . how cool is that?]

Lyrics Wednesday -- Blackalicious

"Brainwashers" by Blackalicious

1. It's when you think how they wanna think
2. Speak how they wanna speak, Livin' in defeat
3. When you don't wanna question what they teach, as the truth
4. With no proof, with the fear of burnin' in eternal heat
5. When your programmed not to be your own man, but a sheep
6. Bein' heared as they word it, so you think it ain't free
7. When you sleep in a deep sleep standin' on your feet

I must admit, Black' really opened my eyes to West Coast lyricists. So much of the West Coast is about the sound, Black really rips it here, speaking on some issues that more people need to be passionate about.

30 years ago, Steve Biko said: "The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." When I think of Hip-Hop as a teacher, it's lyrics like this I speak of.

Just like there are some movies which educate, and others which entertain. Not all Hip-Hop is redemptive (I've used this line b4 so don't be stealing it) . . . but I thank Black' for being an exception.

I'm not a big fan of pronouns as I never know who 'they' are. This is a difficulty when using lyrics with kids as the immature should not be taught 'they' until the student fully understand 'the system'. I'm abut to get on my urban policy tip so I'll stop here.

Our Interpreting Hip-Hop Summer camp (see our scrapbook from last year) in DC starts today. Expect the next month of blogs to be dedicated to that topic. We use the Journal of Hip-Hop in the class for this . . . DOPE! Imagine learning about Hip-Hop in high school? We go til Aug 2.

Hip-Hop Art?

Everyone knows graffiti (street art) is a part of Hip-Hop. What is interesting is that many early graf writers will openly tell you that what they were doing was not Hip-Hop, but art.

The notion of the four elements of Hip-Hop all emerging together in the Bronx is .. well .. not true. There was definitely a relationship there (mostly based on age and locality), but the film Wildstyle shows all of them together and that's what most people go by.

OK, so why does this matter to me? When the Journal of Hip-Hop was still a seed back in late 2003/early 2004, a former student asked if he could do some art (computer based) for the Journal. I told him to send something.

Now this is a student of the Pharell-era of Hip-Hop. Really into the music of Hip-Hop and then brings his culture to the table and creates a unique blend of Hip-Hop based on experience. I try not to critique how other people enjoy Hip-Hop . . . if you like the Game, so be it. Or is D4L makes you smile . . cool. All I ask is that you show love for Hip-Hop . . . don't abuse it.

This (right) is what he sent. The editor's at the Journal voted it down and it's been sitting on the server ever since. So I ask, is this Hip-Hop art?

The Academicization of Hip-Hop . . .

I got on this rant a few weeks back when some folks on a listserv started beating up HH. I'm really scared of the academicization of Hip-Hop:

I'm convinced the word 'Hip-Hop', one day, will be in the list of most used words in the English language.. Seems like everything is Hip-Hop . . . or is caused by Hip-Hop. I can't think of an issue in the last 5 years which has not been linked to Hip-Hop. I nearly fell over when I was asked on a radio show if Hip-Hop played a role in the Duke lacrosse case.

That said, I think most would agree that there is a 'neighborhood' familiarity involved with the youth movement (of the 70s/80s and 90s) which led to the global market that corporations now capitalize on. I know there are academics who would consider themselves as practitioners of Hip-Hop . . . though we need more. BUT, I feel uneasy when academics bring their theories to the table, but only deal with Hip-Hop through Plexiglass or cathode ray tubes (i.e. removed).

At 29 and raised in the Bronx, I know I have an east coast bias, BUT I love Hip-Hop and am leery of its academicization (borrowed from bell hooks as she commented on what happened to the activist part of feminist studies once it entered the halls of academia).

The best discussions I have had on Hip-Hop are with deejays . . . folks who are around the music and more importantly the people (within HH). I'm not going to say that you need 1000 cds and have attended 10 shows a year to be knowledgeable, but I cringe when people start uplifting Hip-Hop books as ground truth.

My interest has to do with the youth culture of Hip-Hop. Ask a high school, middle, or even elementary school teacher about Hip-Hop, the youth perspective is very different from what many of these books discuss. I remember being 12 and playing Ice Cube's Death Certificate on full blast and my neighbor calling my mom saying it was devil music. At 29, I am careful not to do the same to the music the youth are listening to now.

In closing, the intended goal of this note was to bring awareness to the hackneying Hip-Hop. Specificity is important!