As Hip Hop culture expands into new arenas there will always be tensions as established institutions mold parts of the culture to fit into practices ideologies that have long existed and work for them which may be in sharp contrast to the practices and ideology of its practitioners. To the chagrin of those who feel closer to the culture they see Hip Hop being compromised and diluted. Others see it as par for the course. Hip Hop is like any other tool. It reflects mores and mindset of the people who use it.
This essay below was featured on the website Rise Up Hip Hop Nation where guest blogger Dr Travis Gosa of Cornell University raises an important issue about Hip Hop and education..Is it a hustle or something that is breaking new ground and causing tensions among those who feel left behind?
-Davey D-
Is Hip-Hop Education A Hustle? Getting Serious About Rap Pedagogy
Written by Dr. Travis Gosa
Dr Travis Gosa
Sorry for the hate, but I feel obligated to ether Mr. Duey, the rapping math teacher who’s been “putting some flow to STEM subjects.” At the end of August, the white middle-school-teacher-slash-rapper-slash-party-entertainer (I can’t knock the hustle) dropped his second educational rap CD entitled “Class Dis-Missed 2.”The tracklist features 18 educational rap songs including “Big Ballin’ Planets” (an astronomy tune) and “Dewey Decimal System” (reppin’ library science ya’ll).
My beef is not with Mr. Duey’s flow on “Plate Tectonics” or “Long Division.” In fact, I would compare Mr. Duey’s lyrical ability to be similar to that of Mase, Silk da Shocker, or Sudanese-Australian rapper Bangs (“Take U To Da Movies”). Mr. Duey is no Rakim, and I’ve heard worse.
No, I’m ridin’ on Mr. Duey for doing what has become popular of late: the complete bastardization and misappropriation of hip-hop education for profit. Too often, what is packaged as “hip-hop education” and “rap pedagogy” is nothing more than what Greg Tate calls “the marriage of heaven and hell, of New World African ingenuity and that trick of the devil known as global hyper-capitalism.”
continue reading this column at Rise Up Hip Hop Nation
While reading this column I was reminded of a speech KRS-One gave a few years ago about education and the many flaws we find within the system.. I thought I’d post up this speech to add to the discussion.. You can peep this excellent speech HERE.
-Davey D-
http://www.swift.fm/mrdaveyd/song/63404/
Click HERE to peep KRS's Speech on Education
Hip Hop “education” is a HUGE hustle… there you go, I said it!
Education in the U.S. is a huge “hustle” across the board.
That’s why projects like khanacademy.org should be supported.
It takes the “hard” sciences and makes them attainable with clarity.
Bill Gates enrolls his kid in that website btw … and it’s all completely free.
Formal educational in the U.S. is a complete disaster (at the non college level) and a debt racket and a joke at the college level.
I have a (formally) close friend that now has a PHD in education from Berkeley, is a “HipHop head” & a DJ – and is literally nothing but a clueless dumb stoner . The guy seems to have been rewarded with social accolades from various “cultural” organizations all these years while his common sense has been rotting and chipped away like plaque on teeth. It’s truly unbelievable
^^^ BUMP ^^^
Some more “Beastie Boys” jewish propaganda. If its white, it must be alright in America. Some more crap. “Hip-hop” has been hustling our youth since 1989; since the jews took it over, with crips and bloods, gang violence, minstrel, prison, drugs, and bling, ect. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT THE WORD “HIP-HOP” IS THE EUROPEAN TERM FOR NURSERY RHYMES THAT JEWS USED TO SELL BLACK “MINSTREL” TO WHITE KIDS IN AMERICA AND GLOBALLY. “Hip-hop” is a hustle – which is the mis-education of the young Black race. Follow the “money trail” on who is benefiting the most from the Black youth “not” being educated and hustled into America’s prison system. “They know how many prison cells to build based on the number of kids that can’t read by the third grade” – Dwight Evans, Philadelphia Rep.
The same people that started “minstrel” in America took over Rap, that”s the “hustle”. Thanks to the assistance of –
Russell Simmons, Davey D Hip-hop Corner, Dr. Dre and Ed Lover, Def Jam South “Geechies”, West Coast, Michael Eric Dyson…
sounds like someone could use some hip-hop education… (cough-robert-)