Hip Hop

 

I started attending the statewide music conference in 1995.

I’ve watched it change quite a bit over the years,

and I’ve seen lots of people come and go. Some years have been full of workshops I’ve wanted to attend.

Other years have been void.

This year’s line up, for me, was the latter.

 

Not overly excited about many of the elementary sessions,

I decided to step out on a limb.

I went to a three-hour popular session called “Teaching and Creating Hip Hop,”

because, well,

Deanna and hip hop are synonymous said no one ever.

 

To say that I was out of my content comfort zone is an understatement.

I quickly realized that I know very little about modern popular music,

and yet I walked away from the session inspired and encouraged,

knowing that I would remember the session and apply its learning

unlike so many of the sessions I have attended in the past.

 

Among other things,

I learned that hip hop is a counterculture that is very complex.

It has been influenced by all different genres of music,

and rap is just one expression of the larger culture.

There are MCs, who are the rhyme makers and the voices.

There are producers, who put together the beats.

There are dancers and fashion designers who influence the look.

And there is a double standard between men and women on what is acceptable to speak about.

 

Hip hop has historically been heavily judged by the white, evangelical world

Because it unashamedly gives voice to issues of violence, drugs, oppression, inequality, politics, and sexuality,

And the language and content is often jarring to those who stay in a Christian bubble.

However, hip hop is a culture of freedom,

Of protest,

Of giving a voice to those who haven’t always had a voice,

Of the young, the poor, and the outcast of mainstream white culture.

 

 

I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing to do with the information that I’ve learned,

Yet I feel compelled to do something.

To put it simply,

My students are listening to hip hop.

They probably don’t understand its content or even think about the words.

They just like how it sounds.

 

They like the music.

They like the beat.

And maybe I can honor that in someway.

I want to honor it in someway…