Hip-Hop Theory and Praxis

Hip-Hop music and culture is fundamentally Black
work. Hip Hop is Black work created in response to
a set of conditions. In the words of Lupe Fiasco
the question is always "Did you improve on the
design? Did you do something new?" That's the
question you can't know the answer to without
understanding the initial design before you. In
this course we are developing the capacity to
access fundamentally Black work. We need a
theoretical foundation to do so. We do this work
together. This course will utilize film, video,
documentary and music to explore the ways
in which hip-hop culture has become a powerful
tool to probe and challenge the larger global
consciousness. The goal of this class is to share
a better understanding of the ancestral metadata
present in the music we are consuming and engaging
with. This class is focused on getting to the root
of what we are listening to. This course is an
invitation to explore the nuances in what else is
being communicated beyond beats and rhymes. We
will produce an understanding to engage with the
hyper-commodification of the culture, questions
around gender and sexuality, art and aesthetics,
and also hip-hop's enduring ability to speak truth
to power.