Making a Connection:
Employing Modern Culture to
Engage Students
June 23rd 2009, Northwest HS, MCPS
Prof Dru Ryan
hiphopprof@gmail.com
Slides available at: tinyurl.com/mchh23

OVerview
• Hip-Hop and Academia
• What is Hip-Hop
• Rap as Message Music
• The Cool in Hip-Hop . . More than just
music
• Hip-Hop in the Classroom
• Questions?

Hip-Hop at GMU
• Black Voices in Hip-Hop
– Explores the first 10 years of Hip-Hop, before the
explosion of rap music. Focuses in on the external
forces which pushed Hip-Hop into existence.
• Hip-Hop Literacies
– Looks into the written communication of HH -- graf,
rap and spoken word. Will be taught 50% online.
Writing intensive.
• Hip-Hop and Public Policy
– Starts in the 1970's with AFDC (TANF), look at crack/
cocaine in the 80s, minimum sentencing, rent control
laws . . . and use the music as a means to show how
Hip-Hop coped with policy

Hip-Hop at GMU
• Beats, Rhyme, and Life will examine the history of Hip-hop
and the effect it has had on our society. The primary focus
of this course is to engage Hip-Hop not as a mode of
entertainment, but as a medium of communication which
impacts, represents, and misrepresents the life experiences
of youth (especially inner-city youth) in the United States.
• Hip-Hop and the Black Experience will investigate the
Black community and Hip-Hop. Focuses on the more
social aspects . . where did emcees get their philosophies/
styles.
– Uses film (blaxploitation, sitcoms of the 70s), the
gangster movies of the late 1980s and 1990s and then
ties in some of the socio-economic realities which
were depicted (mocked) in these programs.

Common Hip-Hop Definitions
• Rap music is a Black cultural expression that prioritizes
Black voices from the margins of urban America. Rap
music is a form of rhymed storytelling accompanied by
highly rhythmic, electronically-based music. [Rose]
• Hip Hop means the whole culture of the movement..
when you talk about rap..Rap is part of the hip hop culture
[Bambaataa]
• Rap is Black CNN -- Chuck D

Afrika Bambaataa's Definition Of Hip
Hop . . .
Hip Hop means the whole culture of the movement..
when you talk about rap..Rap is part of the hip hop
culture..The emceeing..The djaying is part of the hip hop
culture. The dressing, the languages are all part of the
hip hop culture.The break dancing the b-boys, b-
girls ..how you act, walk, look, talk are all part of hip hop
culture.. and the music is colorless.. Hip Hop music is
made from Black, brown, yellow, red, white.. whatever
music that gives you the grunt.. that funk.. that groove or
that beat.. It's all part of hip hop....

Elements of Hip-Hop
1. B-Boyin (Breakin)
2. Rap (Emceeing)
3. Graffiti Art
4. Deejaying
5. Street Knowledge
6. Beatboxin
7. Street Fashion
8. Street Language
9. Street
Entrepreneurialism

CAPS -- Washington DC Achievers Program

OVerview
• Hip-Hop and Academia
• What is Hip-Hop
• Rap as Message Music
• The Cool in Hip-Hop . . More than just
music
• Hip-Hop in the Classroom
• Questions?

Rap as Message Music
I curated an exhibit in DC where rap album covers were used as a means
of introducing novice Hip-Hop fans to the notion of rap as message
music
While the language of rap may not be that of the New York Times, people
often overlook the message contained in the music once they hear
the first ‘bad’ word or watch a video which they may deem
inappropriate.
My goal was to use the album covers as a window to the content on each
album. For the exhibit, I also created short synopses on each album
to provide further background. The following slides are a subset of
the larger exhibit.

Brief History of Hip-Hop
The following slides will provide a brief
overview on the history of Hip-Hop..

graffiti

Back in the Day

Fashion

Urban myth
Introduction to Hip-Hop

Introduction to Hip-Hop

Introduction to Hip-Hop

INTERPRETING HIP-HOP
SUMMER PROGRAM
DOCUMENTARY
A PEEK INTO OUR SUMMER EXPERIENCE
Introduction to Hip-Hop

Literacy Program
• STUDENTS READ ONE OF TWO BOOKS
» No Disrespect, Sistah Souljah
• Makes Me Wanna Holler, Nathan McCall

Literacy Components
• Lyrical Analysis -- Interpreting rap lyrics
• Daily Reading -- Journal of Hip-Hop
• Notebooks for daily writing
• Poetry Workshops
• Medial Literacy -- Understanding Messages
on TV and in music

Using Music as A Learning Tool
• Use music to set the historical backdrop for a lesson
• Blues (1940s/1950s)
• R&B/Motown (1960s)
• Disco (1970s)
• Various phases of rap
• Analyze song lyrics and tie in factual information to support/
supplement lyrics.

Using Music as A Learning Tool
• Use newspaper articles about music . . . Especially from
progressive publications
• Village Voice (ghost-writing, marketing, women and
rap)
• Have a lyric of the day
• “In the hood we do worse for less” – Jay-Z
• “It’s hard being young/ from the slums/ eating five
cent gums/ not knowing where you’re next meal is
coming from

Making a Connection:
Employing Modern Culture to
Engage Students
June 23rd 2009
Prof Dru Ryan
hiphopprof@gmail.com