Hip-Hop As A Verb

We need brave new words to birth a brand-new
world. Hip-hop is turning 50 this year and it is
clear that it is beyond music and is a unifying
cultural vehicle. Hip-Hop is also an embodied
practice. In Hip-Hop as a Verb, we will dive into
the doing of Hip-Hop, connecting students from
their dreams and ambitions into community actions
and sharpening performance skills. Each
participant in this course is preparing to be a
part of a collaborative Hip Hop Festival that
makes space and platforms for Hip-Hop artists at
CalArts. Students who take the course should be
prepared to fulfill some role, whether as a
performance artist, creative director, poster
designer or volunteer to help put on the event.
Hip-Hop as a Verb will explore the process of
making the medium of Hip-Hop: the first 4 meetings
will cover recording, publishing, song to
distribution, roll out, making merch, and all the
steps in between. Students will be introduced to
systems of reciprocity meant to subvert within an
industry built on exploitation. The 5th and final
meeting of the course will conclude with a
performance at Leimert Park's KAOS Network, home
of Project Blowed and where so many local legends
have come through, from Open Mike Eagle and
Kendrick Lamar to Dojacat.
Hip-hop is not something that happens privately.
You're not just nodding your head to a beat: it is
a communal head nod, a collective "go ahead."
You're agreeing with your body that this voice and
this beat should be in existence. In the course,
we will practice performance and everything needed
up until the time we hit the stage.
Driven by the students' questions, the course aims
to answer "How does one hip-hop?": We verb.