The University of Wisconsin kicked off its fall lecture series “Getting Real: The Future of Hip-Hop Studies Scholarship” Monday with a seminar discussing the relevance of hip-hop in academia.
Headlined by keynote speakers Jeff Chang, American Book Award-winning author of “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation,” and Mark Anthony Neal, Brooklyn native and Duke University professor of African and African American studies, the lectures outlined hip-hop as a musical movement and explained that it expands further than our car radios and iPods.
The ripples extend further than the restrictive borders musical genre labels have the tendency to create, Neal said.
Neal added the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign, Barack Obama’s historic presidential victory and many other key events in the history of the modern world were due in large part to hip-hop and its unseen elements.
According to Neal, hip-hop is not only a genre of music or even a movement but also a subject that can be studied academically.
“Hip-hop studies did not just begin recently,” Neal said. “It started back in 1993 with Tricia Rose’s ‘Black Noise’ and in 1994 with Jonathan Stone’s ‘Reflecting Black.'”
Chang also said the borders of hip-hop go beyond what most people readily recognize and is more universal than most people could imagine.
“Hip-hop changes the way you think,” Chang added.
Other cultures around the world have realized this and capitalized on its study from a sociological point of view, according to Chang.
“The governments of Cuba and Brazil are funding hip-hop studies courses because it is important to their nation’s development,” Chang said.
Both Neal and Chang stressed the need for hip-hop courses within universities to uncover the unseen elements hip-hop bears and also to expose hip-hop as a tool not only spiritually but also politically.
UW is making strides to become one of the first universities in the country to incorporate hip-hop studies into its curriculum with the lecture series.
“Hopefully, this will lead to the hiring of faculty members specialized in hip-hop study areas,” said Willie Ney, director of the UW Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives. “Students will then have more culturally relevant courses and get cutting-edge knowledge that affects the changing demographics of the country.”
Students who attended the lectures said they were moved by the speakers and also felt they would benefit from hip-hop-generated courses.
“Hip-hop is not only motivating musically, but it can also open other doors once it is looked at from other angles,” UW senior Desiree Smith said.
Organized by the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, the Havens Center, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Equality and Diversity, the series will host speakers every Monday night throughout the semester.
“I’m hoping that these lectures show that hip-hop is a broad-ranging form that has many different elements and can teach us a lot about people,” Ney said. “We should all be able to celebrate its excellence.”
