Enrolling In Hip-Hop 101
Increasingly, institutions are turning to the musical genre to grab students’ attention.
By Marlon A. Walker
After all the students make their way into the lecture hall, the professor slips the audio CD into the stereo system. Sounds of “U.N.I.T.Y.” by Queen Latifah emote through the lecture hall. Class has just begun.
Colleges and universities across the country have turned to hip-hop to educate the masses. Many say it’s the newest way to get the younger generation to learn: by talking their language. Others say hip-hop as an academic discipline allows for the teaching of the genre’s beginnings without getting sidetracked by its current negative connotations.
“Part of it is to get folks to go back to the early hip-hop,” says Yumy Odom, director of Temple University’s Pan-African Studies Community Education Program. “They’re too caught up in the images that have
been co-opted.”
More than 85 hip-hop courses were being taught in American universities during the 2005-2006 academic year, according to a census conducted by the Hip Hop Archive, which was recently moved to Stanford University.
“Hip-hop has reached well beyond its urban roots to diverse national dimensions and has been an integral part of American culture for almost 30 years,” says Dr. Brent D. Glass, director of the National Museum of American History, which recently announced the development of a comprehensive exhibit on hip-hop culture.
