Week 8: Hip hop is more than music thou it a social culture that millions of people around the world can relate to in some form or fashion. When you think of hip hop, there are two general consensuses, you either love it or you hate it. Most parents tend to dislike hip hop for its racial slurs, womanizing and how it can glamorize theft, drugs and alcohol, murder and criminal activity. Adolescence and young adults generally relate to hip-hop culture because their parents see it as a negative; they enjoy the artists’ sound, style, and message. For many youths, hip hop is inspiring, for if those artists can make a name for themselves coming from nothing, then anyone can. It opens up avenues for freedom of speech and community with a movement. Hip hop in the form of music allows an artist to spread his or her message, usually on social and racial injustice, on a platform that millions of people listen to as a form of entertainment. The hip hop artist allows their audience to be submersed into the world in which their lyrics originate.

Hip hop is embraced by youth worldwide for decades now; hip hop has been a voice for the injustice of intergenerational trauma, racism and social and economic inequity. In the early late 1900’s hip hop was idolized by the youth of all cultures. Using this platform to create awareness of social injustice, teachers can use this as a tool in the classroom to discuss social and economic issues. By helping our students become personally responsible citizens, we can teach them to understand the lyrics’ meaning. Helping them achieve an in-depth understanding of hip hop’s socially glamorized world allows them to perceive society and the double standards to be a lesson of contradictions. By suggesting that the students think critically about the context in which the artists are writing their lyrics allows them to take action against oppression, asking them why they feel oppressed as a culture? Are the crimes and substance abuse a product of their environment? How does racial discrimination perpetuate this stereotype? More importantly, though, how we work to change these social injustices? Hip hop is also a platform for the classroom. A teacher can discuss the problematic issues that affect inner-city communities and those that do not fit into the dominant narrative. Teaching the students to be critical consciousness thinkers is beneficial to the student and the classroom because it allows teachers to teach about social issues in a fun and catchy way. It will be necessary for an educator to be cautious not to appropriate the hip-hop culture but to appreciate its cultural diversity and message. I know for my I first started listening to hip hop in the late 1990’s, I still enjoy listening to it 20 years later in my library of music, but it does make me giggle to think their music is considered oldies my children. I wonder how long they embrace the hip hop world, but who knows; maybe because their parents enjoy it, they will dislike it.

Works Cited

Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis.pdf – Google Drive

Learning Theories Simplified – Behaviourism.pdf – Google Drive