Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:07:18.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The formation of ‘Hip-Hop Academicus’ – how American scholars talk about the academisation of hip-hop

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2013

Johan Söderman*
Affiliation:
Amiralsgatan 46A, 211 55 Malmö, [email protected]

Abstract

Social activism and education have been associated with hip-hop since it emerged in New York City 38 years ago. Therefore, it might not be surprising that universities have become interested in hip-hop. This article aims to highlight this ‘hip-hop academisation’ and analyse the discursive mechanisms that manifest in these academisation processes. The guiding research question explores how hip-hop scholars talk about this academisation. The theoretical framework is informed by the scholarship of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Hip-hop scholars were interviewed in New York City during 2010. The results demonstrate themes of hip-hop as an attractive label, a door opener, a form of ‘low-culture’, a trap and an educational tool.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

AMBJÖRNSSON, F. (2004) I en klass för sig: genus, klass, sexualitet bland gymnasietjejer. Stockholm: Ordfront.Google Scholar
BACK, L. (1996) New Ethnicities and Urban Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
BECKER, H. S. (1963) Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
BOURDIEU, P. (1988) Homo Academicus. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
BOURDIEU, P. (1991) Kultur och kritik. Göteborg: Daidalos.Google Scholar
BOURDIEU, P. (2000) Konstens regler. Det litterära fältets uppkomst och struktur. Stehag: Brutus Östlings Bokförlag Symposion.Google Scholar
BOURGOIS, P. (2003) In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
BRÄNDSTRÖM, S., SÖDERMAN, J. & THORGERSEN, K. (2012) The double feature of musical folkbildning: three Swedish examples. British Journal of Music Education, 29, 6574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CHANG, J. (2005) Can't Stop, Won't Stop. A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: St Martin's Press.Google Scholar
DARDER, D., BALTODANO, M. & TORRES, R.D. (2003) The Critical Pedagogy Reader. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
DEWEY, J. (1916/1999) Demokrati och utbildning. Göteborg: Bokförlaget Daidalos.Google Scholar
DIMITRIARDIS, G. (2001) Performing Identity/Performing Culture: Hip Hop as Text, Pedagogy and Lived Practice. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
DU BOIS, W. E. B. (1903/1999) The Souls of Black Folks. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DU BOIS, W. E. B. (1973/2001) The Education of Black People. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
DYSON, M. E. (2007) Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip-hop. New York: Basic Civitas.Google Scholar
EMDIN, C. (2010) Urban Science Education for the Hip-hop Generation. Essential Tools for the Urban Science Educator and Researcher. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.Google Scholar
EHN, B. & LÖFGREN, O. (2001) Kulturanalyser. Ett etnologiskt perspektiv. Lund: Gleerups.Google Scholar
FAIRCLOUGH, M. (2003) Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. Bodmin: Routledge.Google Scholar
FORMAN, M. & NEAL, M. A. (2004) That's the joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
FORNÄS, J. (1996) Rockens pedagogiseringsproblem. In Brändström, S. (Ed.) Rockmusik och skola. Reports from Conference 29–30 March 1996 in Piteå. Musikhögskolan I Piteå, rapportserie nr 1996:2.Google Scholar
FORNÄS, J., LINDBERG, U. & SERNHEDE, O. (1995) In Garageland. Rock, Youth and Modernity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
GILROY, P. (1993) The Black Atlantic. Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
GILROY, P. (2010) Darker Than Blue. On the Morality Economies of Black Atlantic Culture. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
GOSA, T. & FIELDS, T. (2012) Is hip-hop education another hustle? The (ir)responsible use of hip-hop as pedagogy. In Porfilio, B. & Viola, M. (Eds.), Hip-Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop, pp. 195210. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
GULLBERG, A. (1999) Formspråk och spelregler. En studie i rockmusicerande inom och utanför Musikhögskolan. Luleå: Musikhögskolan i Piteå, Luleå tekniska universitet.Google Scholar
HALL, S. (1996) Who needs ‘identity’? In du Gay, P. (Ed.), Questions of Cultural Identity, pp. 117. London: Sage.Google Scholar
HARMANCI, R. (2007) Academic Hip-Hop? Yes, Yes Y'all. SF Gate (www.sfgate.com), 3 March 2007.Google Scholar
HILL, M. L. (2009) Beats Rhymes +Classroom Life. Hip-hop Pedagogy + The Politics of Identity. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
JOHANSSON, T. (2010) Etnografi som teori, metod och livsstil. Educare, 1, 729.Google Scholar
KVALE, S. (1997) Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
KOZOL, J. (2005) The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. New York: Crown Publishers.Google Scholar
LADSON-BILLINGS, G. (1994) The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children. San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.Google Scholar
LALANDER, P. (2009) Respekt – Gatukultur, ny etnicitet och droger. Malmö: Liber.Google Scholar
NERLAND, M. (2004) Instrumentalundervisning som kulturell praksis. En diskursorientert studie av hovedinstrument-undervisning i høyere musikkutdanning. Oslo: Gunnarshaug Trykkeri AS.Google Scholar
OLSSON, B. (1993) Sämus – en musikutbildning i kulturpolitikens tjänst? En studie om musikutbildning på 1970-talet. Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet.Google Scholar
PETCHAUER, E. (2009) Framing and reviewing hip-hop educational research. Review of Educational Research, 79, 946978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PETCHAUER, E. (2012) Hip-Hop Culture in College Students’ Lives. Elements, Embodiment, and Higher Edutainment. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
POTTER, J. (1996) Representing Reality. Discourse, Rhetoric and Social Construction. London: Sage.Google Scholar
POUGH, G. D. (2001) Seeds and legacies. Tapping the potential in hip-hop. Doula: The Journal of Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture, 1, 2, 926.Google Scholar
ROSE, T. (1994) Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
ROSE, T. (2008) Hip Hop Wars. What We talk about When We talk about Hip Hop – And Why it Matters. New York: Basic Civitas Books.Google Scholar
RUNELL, M. & DIAZ, M. (2007) The Hip-hop Education Guide Book. Vol. 1. New York: Hip-hop Association Inc.Google Scholar
SANDBERG, S. & PEDERSEN, W. (2007) Gatekapital. Oslo: Universitetsförlaget.Google Scholar
SERNHEDE, O. (2002) Alienation is my Nation. Hiphop unga mäns utanförskap i det nya Sverige. Stockholm: Ordfront.Google Scholar
SINGH, M., KENWAY, J. & APPLE, M. W. (2005) Globalizing education: perspectives from above and below. In Apple, M. W., Kenway, J. & Singh, M. (Eds.) Globalizing Education. Policies, Pedagogies & Politics, pp. 130. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
SÖDERMAN, J. (2010) The formation of a professional hip-hop identity: a presentation of six Swedish rappers. In Horgby, B. & Nilsson, F. (Eds.), Rockin’ the Borders: Rock Music and Social, Cultural and Political Change, pp. 139155. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
SÖDERMAN, J. (2011a) Folkbildning through hip-hop. How the ideals of three rappers parallel a Scandinavian educational tradition. Music Education Research, 13, 211225.Google Scholar
SÖDERMAN, J. (2011b) Vem är egentligen expert? Hiphop som utbildningspolitik och progressiv pedagogik i USA. I Educare 2011: 2, Tema: Välfärdstat i omvandling: reglerad barndom – oregerlig ungdom? pp. 123–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SÖDERMAN, J. (2012) Gatan möter universitetet. Symboliska insatser under akademiska arrangemang kring hiphop. I J. Lundin Intro- En antologi om musik och samhälle, pp. 255269. Riga: Malmö.Google Scholar
SÖDERMAN, J. & FOLKESTAD, G. (2004) How hip hop musicians learn: strategies in informal creative music making. Music Education Research, 6, 313326.Google Scholar
STOUGAARD PEDERSEN, B. (2011) Hvor blev beatet af?Centrale positioner inden for akademisk hiphoplitteratur. Danish Musicology online. http://www.danishmusicologyonline.dk/arkiv/arkiv_dmo/dmo_03/dmo_03_artikel_01.pdfGoogle Scholar
THORNTON, S. (1995) Club Cultures. Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Bodmin: PolityPress.Google Scholar
TOOP, D. (1984/2000) Rap Attack. London: Serpent's Tail.Google Scholar
WATKINS, C. (2005) Hip-hop Matters. Politics, Pop Culture & the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
WACQUANT, L. J. D. (2009) Punishing the Poor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
WILLIS, P. (1977) Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids get Working Class Jobs. Aldershot: Gower Publishing.Google Scholar