Hip Hop and Education

Hip hop and education have had a long, enduring, and complex relationship in the United States. As with all complex relationships, this one has not been without its share of conflict, controversy, and confusion. The main source of confusion has been due to a lack of cultural awareness on the part of educational institutions, which often do not possess the cultural framework and necessary background knowledge to interpret the complex verbal and artistic creativity that emanates from this diverse community of youth. As hip hop has spread from the largely Afrodiasporic, postindustrial urban ghettos of the United States to nearly every corner of the globe—in the process becoming a globally diverse youth social movement as well as a multibillion dollar industry—there is an ever-increasing need for U.S. citizens to understand what many scholars are now referring to as both the most profound and the most perplexing cultural, musical, social, literary, and linguistic youth movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This entry provides a brief definition of terms, followed by an introduction to the field of [Page 1063]hip hop and education, with a focus on language and literacy education through hip hop.

Before moving further, a distinction needs to be made between “hip hop” and “rap.” Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, hip hop practitioners use hip hop to refer to a wide-ranging set of cultural practices including MCing (rappin or emceeing), DJing (spinnin or turntablism), writing (graffiti art and poetics), and various forms of street dancing, as well as cultural domains such as language, style, fashion, politics, and knowledge—all of which constitute hip hop culture. As hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa and others claim, rap, or the aesthetic placement of verbal rhymes over musical beats, is but one practice within the vast array of cultural practices that compose hip hop. To the most devoted youth, hip hop is often described as a “way of life,” a “lifestyle,” or a “worldview.” As part of this worldview, hip hop pioneers and practitioners often construct hip hop culture as a pedagogical form. As such, hip hop requires youth to gain knowledge of their communities, histories, and cultural practices, as well as to “overstand” (have a deeper understanding than most) the current social, economic, and political contexts within which they live. It comes as no surprise, then, that as hip hop practitioners have also now become members of the academy, that hip hop and education have become a burgeoning area of scholarship in the 21st century.