Teaching Rap in English Class:
A Gold Mine in Form and Content
Mike Segal
Rap and Hip Hop carry strong connotations, for fans and detractors
alike. Stigmatized for violent, misogynistic, homophobic lyrics
that extol a street life of crass materialism and thuggish contempt for
the law, this music has launched endless debates about whether it
actually causes these behaviors or just reflects life on “the streets”
in deprived communities. Some teachers feel it is too risky, if
not counterproductive, to bring this popular music genre into the
classroom.
Of course, misunderstandings of this form abound, the first being that
rap and hip hop are the same thing. Although used
interchangeably, hip hop generally refers to an entire culture, social,
artistic, political, material, that produced new music; “rapping” is
more the manner of rhythmic speech (Richardson & Scott, 2002, p.
176). ya Salaam (1995) discusses rapping as “programmed rhythm
and syncopated chant” (p. 306). Perhaps more significant is that
rap music is not monolithic, and comes in many incarnations, such as
the six described by Rebecca Brodegard (2011): old school, playa,
message, gangsta, battle and alternative (p. 46). Most of the
controversy surrounds gangsta rap, whereas “message rap” delivers
political and social messages more palatable to teachers. There
seems to be a consensus that commercial pressures of big recording
labels led gangsta rap down a path of excessive glamorization of
violence and nihilistic indulgence in the early 1990’s (Baker, 2011;
Melo, 2009; ya Salaam, 1995). So, why include it?
At the broadest level, integrating music is a way of honoring the
passions as well as the home language and culture of many
students. Lisa Delpit (2006) and Shirley Bryce Heath (1986) each
discuss the dangers of conflict when home culture and school culture
are at odds; introduction of rap music as a teaching tool can be one
way of bridging that cultural divide, as one of a range of possible
“pedagogies that value and affirm the cultural practices of urban
students and members of urban communities” (Morrell &
Duncan-Andrade, 2002, p. 88). It is also important to recognize
that while rap originated in African American culture, the authors note
that 70% of its followers are now white, and these students also stand
to gain motivation and enfranchisement when their cultural artifacts
and practices are brought into academic settings.
Rap would serve several purposes in an English classroom. Perhaps
the most obvious of these would be as a form of poetry. The
rhythmic elements and standard devices of poetry – rhyme and slant
rhyme, assonance, alliteration, metrical forms – figure heavily in rap
music. ya Salaam refers to “flow” as the rhythmic properties of
rappers, and “style” as their tone (p. 88), and close analysis of these
features feeds understanding of poetry and of works that are not
strictly poetry. Rap is also rich in its use of evocative
metaphor, metonymy and imagery (Crossley, 2005), which further its
value as poetry and also as social and political commentary.
Rap offers abundant commentary on American culture, and thus could
complement any thematic unit blending diverse genres for a study of
essential questions. Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” (1982) is
broadly recognized as a seminal work in message rap, born out of Reagan
era politics and economics, and declining quality of life in the inner
city; KRS One is also highly regarded for his constructive political
themes, developed through his music from the mid 1980’s to the
present. Even some of the rappers known more for vulgarity and
violence do bring out political messages to their work. In
“AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted,” Ice Cube raps, “I think back when I was
robbin’ my own kind / The police didn’t pay it no mind / But when I
started robbin’ the white folks / Now I’m in the pen wit the
soap-on-a-rope” (1995). From the American Dream, to racial
identity, to social justice, to war, to the individual vs. society,
many “staple” themes of high school English classes show up in rap.
Rap is also intrinsically interesting as a form of rhetoric and
literary genre. Baker (2011) identifies two main types of message
in rap, “blunt reportage” and “op-ed exhortations” (p. 233).
Indeed, he argues that even some of the supposed apolitical gangsta
rappers are tacitly offering social criticism, a form of “antiauthority
resistance” that shares “social marginalization” with the more
explicitly political rappers, whom he describes as “preachers” (p.
235). Clearly, these types of rap use different rhetorical
strategies at the service of argumentation. At times rap operates
in a satiric, even a parodic mode. Rosen and Marks (1999) point
out that some of the more offensive rap classics are actually satires,
whose ironic voice is missed by listeners not part of “a private,
sophisticated audience” (p. 907). When you mix in the language
and poetic devices, the possibilities for study of author intent,
message, genre, and technique are limitless.
For the truly adventurous teacher, rap can be an expressive medium for
students as well. Mark Naison (2008), a professor at Fordham
University, citing Jay Z’s “December 4”, explains how raps can be used
to write memoir and rediscover family history. Bruce and Davis
(2000) use rap poetry slams to address and ultimately head off violence
among their students. And Melo (2009) discusses an Iraq War vet
who uses a personal rap on the stage to lend an immediacy and personal
urgency to his political statement about that war. There’s a
special power in the oral expression of rapping, perhaps because of its
rhythmic qualities, perhaps because of its blunt “in-your-face”
character, perhaps because of the transgressive and non-restrictive
nature of its language and structures – all of which allow it to be an
effective vehicle for expressing ideas with strong personal voice,
especially a voice of resistance.
A range of reading materials, mostly for high school, can complement
the study of rap. World-newspapers.com (2010) offers an index of
links to the most popular electronic magazines addressing developments
in rap music and hip hop culture. VIBE magazine and The Source get the most hits. Winner of a YALSA Teen’s Top 10 Award in 2005, Benjamin Zephaniah’s Gangsta Rap
(2004) is a novel that traces the life of a band of aspiring rap
artists in East London and looks at everything from violent culture to
exploitative production agents. There are too many biographies of
rappers to mention. More scholarly nonfiction studies on rap can
be used if students explore the history and controversy surrounding rap
in a research project. Kate Burns’ Rap Music and Culture: Current Controversies (2008) is one such book.
No question, rap music has to be screened carefully for its language
and themes, with any decisions mediated by the teacher’s knowledge of
the students and community. And there may well be legitimate
concerns when students are immersed in an artistic world filled with
violence and social destruction, often glamorized. But as
Richardson and Scott (2002) observe:
The pivotal hypocrisy is that this art form is disparaged without a
critical evaluation of society's role in creating this level of
hopelessness. Amidst the despair, gangsta rap breathes life into the
inequities substantiated in statistical data and perpetrated against
Black urban youth. Within this framework, gangsta rap does not initiate
violence. Instead, the verbalizations of violence call attention to
structural and cultural injustices of the larger social system in
America. (p. 188)
Through systematic study of the genre by classroom teachers, some of
its potentially harmful influence might be contained, as students
situate it culturally and analyze it – learning as much from what it
has to say, as how it delivers the message.
References:
Baker G. (2011). Preachers, gangsters, pranksters: MC Solaar and hip hop as overt and covert revolt. Journal of Popular Culture, 44(2), 233-255. Retrieved from Wilson Web.
Brodegard, R. (2011). Rap and hip-hop. In Harlan, M.A., Loertscher, D. & McElmeel, S. (2011). Young Adult Literature and Multimedia: A Quick Guide 2012. Salt Lake City, UT: Learning Commons Press.
Bruce, H. E. & Davis, B.D. (2000). Slam: Hip-hop meets poetry – A strategy for violence intervention. English Journal, 89(5), 119-127.
Crossley, S. (2005). Metaphorical conceptions in hip-hop music. African American Review, 39(4), 501 – 512. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Delpit, L. (2006). Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. 2nd ed. New York, NY: The New Press.
Heath, S. B. (1986). Sociocultural contexts of language
development: Implications for the classroom. In
Richard-Amato, P. A. & Snow, M. A., Eds. (1992). The Multicultural Classroom: Readings for Content-Area Teachers. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Ice Cube. (1990). Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. Amerikkka’s Most Wanted [CD]. New York, NY: The Bomb Squad.
Jay Z. (2003). December 4th [Produced by Just Blaze]. The Black Album [CD]. New York, NY: Roc-a-Fella.
Melo, C. (2009). Live from the front: a poetics of slamming the truth. TDR: The Drama Review, 53(3). 84 – 97. Retrieved from ProjectMUSE.
Morrell, E. & Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R. (2002). Promoting
academic literacy with urban youth through engaging hip hop culture. English Journal, 91(6), 88-92.
Naison, M. (2008). Hip hop and oral history: Turning students into "Griots for a New Age". OAH Magazine of History, 22(3), 46. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Richardson J. and Scott, K. (2002). Rap music and its
violent progeny: America’s culture of violence in context. The Journal of Negro Education, 71(3), 175-192. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Rosen, R. & Marks, D. (1999). Comedies of transgression in gangsta rap and ancient classical poetry. New Literary History, 30(4), 897 – 928. Retrieved from ProjectMUSE.
ya Salaam, M. (1995). The aesthetics of rap. African American Review, 29(2), 303 – 315. Retrieved from JSTOR.
Resources for classroom or library:
Burns, K. (2008). Rap Music and Culture: Current Controversies. New York, NY: Greenhaven Press.
Hip hop and rap magazines online. (2010). World-newspapers.com
(Website). Retrieved on October 5, 2011 from
http://www.world-newspapers.com/rap.html.
Zephaniah, Benjamin. (2004). Gangsta Rap. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA Children’s.