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By Jennifer Whetham
Rationale and Brief Overview
Rap music and hip hop culture have a specific use
in the classroom as primary sources to encourage critical thinking and
writing. In addition, there are many excellent academic secondary
sources to supplement discussion and show students the political,
economic, social, and theoretical implications of both kinds of texts.
This module takes primary texts (movies, lyrics, videos, audio
recordings) and secondary texts (scholarly essays) to help students
read, annotate, discuss, and write critically and analytically about rap
music both in an academic and social context.
Unfortunately, students
who come from a background of privilege and power often misinterpret the
power of such speech. Studying rap music as literature not only helps
students analyze and understand the literature of the traditional canon,
it can serve as a living, oral history to help students realize the
subordination of black culture. As bell hooks says, “In
contemporary black popular culture, rap music has become one of the
spaces where black vernacular speech is used in a manner that invites
dominant mainstream culture to listen—to hear—and, to some extent, to be
transformed.”
Using rap lyrics, rap music, and other hip hop
texts (books and movies) to analyze not only African-American culture,
but also how power and privilege empower some members of society while
marginalizing and disenfranchising others can show students the
relationship between race and power. A discussion of rap music in the
context of an art form in the college classroom can transform student
readings of a group traditionally marginalized. This module
accomplishes two major goals:
Content of Module
In addition to teaching crucial scholarly skills
and helping students meet the learning outcomes of the “Examining
Diversity” Learning Outcomes, this module will empower students to
critically read cultural texts. This particular module takes its title
from an essay by Tricia Rose. In her examination of texts from a
feminist perspective, she provides a new and exciting reading of black
women rappers. When speaking of feminism, sexuality, and rap music,
conversation is usually focused around the sexism of rap music. Rather
than blaming black male rappers for creating and reinforcing sexism and
gynophobia, students will discuss the sexual politics black women
rappers create and discuss in their music. The module focuses
specifically on feminist issues in rap music and hip hop culture: the
module takes its structure from the three central themes Rose claims are
predominant in the works of black female rappers:
1) Heterosexual courtship
2) The importance of the black female voice
3)
Mastery in women’s rap and black female public displays of
physical and sexual expression.
As a class, students will analyze the ways black
women rappers work within and against the dominant sexual and racial
narratives in American culture. Through the work done in this module,
students will not only have a more sophisticated reading of rap music
and hip hop culture, but also come to understand more about patriarchy,
racism, and sexism in American culture. Most importantly, students will
come to a deeper understanding of feminism—particularly black feminists
and the struggles they experience.
Classes Suitable
The materials this module provides could be used in
an English course, a philosophy course, or a sociology course. The
content of the course involves feminist readings of hip hop texts
(movies, music videos, and rap songs) through scholarly texts, informal
student writing, and class discussions. The capstone of the three week
module is a presentation by each student: either a formal essay or a
creative project designed by the students, either alone or in groups.
The three week module will lead students to discover and investigate the
patriarchal discourses female and male rappers operate in—and
specifically focus on how female rappers both enter into conversation
with and against male rappers.
The texts I have gathered for this three week
course would lend themselves to a number of disciplines: communications,
psychology, anthropology, literature, and/or music. The particular
slant of the following texts, however, will help students learn three
basic skills: discussion, writing, and speaking, using primary texts
taken from hip hop culture and rap music, and scholarly sources written
by history and literature instructors.
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