Review Sheet
CES 209
- What is a hip-hop collegian? How does this person differ from a fan of hip-hop
- Be able to identity and explain any of the following: blood diamond, ghosts (from Lupe), ghostwriting, scratching, hip hop
- Name the 4 elements of hip-hop culture
- What is dysconscious racism and how does it relate to hip-hop
- What is bombing and what does it tell us about hip-hop
- What is eductainment and what does this tell us about hip-hop
- What is “sample consciousness” and what is significance of this term
- In what ways does hip-hop foster and encourage critical thought?
- How did the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway impact the Bronx and how did it impact the emergence of hip-hop
10. Describe the study that found black youth who listened to certain rap artists were more knowledgeable about STD’s and discuss its significance
11. What is dead presidents and what are multiple meanings described by James Peterson
12. What are structural adjustment programs and how did it impact development of hip-hop
13. What is deindustrialization and how did it impact development of hip-hop
14. Define griot
15. Name three aesthetic qualities of hip-hop (those that continue black literary traditions) and provide an example of each
16. What does Imani Perry mean by “incomprehensibility” and provide an example
17. Define the “crossroads of lack and desire”
18. What is Du Bois’s idea of double consciousness and its relationship to hip-hop
19. What was the first rap song put on record and how it happen
20. Name three rules of sampling and discuss what these reveal about hip-hop culture
- How did both rap and graffiti afford “assert the right to write”? Why is this important?
- What do the varied experiences, backgrounds, and contributions of DJ Cool Herc and Africa Bambata reveal about the history of hip-hop?
- What is graffiti about? What is its purpose? What is its function and how does it fit within mission and trends within hip-hop?
- Hip hop get so closely associated with the diamond conflict, but the diamond industry itself (engagement rings, ear rings, etc) faces no such scrutiny. Why is this? Give a few reasons using the history of hip hop and social issues to support your argument.
25. Is there a “real” hip hop/rap/blackness? Why or why not? Use examples to support your argument.
26. What does it mean to say that hip-hop offers a powerful counter narrative; provide an example
27. How do dominant media and political discourses depict the underclass?
28. Name 4 thematic qualities and characteristics of hip-hop, providing an example and discussion of each – (a) signifyin; (b) counter narratives; (c) folklore; (d) visibility; (e) escape; (f) validation; (g) nostalgia
29. Provide explanation of following quotes
- Bakari Kitwana: “Against all odds we must organize across race. Hip-hop is the last home for this generation and arguably the last hope for America. The political elite has done an exceptional job of polarizing the county – liberal versus conservative, Blacks versus whites, underclass versus elite, heterosexual versus homosexual. On every issue, mainstream electoral politics follows a strategy of divide and conquer. This is what allows our electoral system to function unchallenged as a private piggy bank for the rich” (210)
- “I met this girl, when I was 10 years old
And what I loved most, she had so much soul
She was old school, when I was just a shorty
Never knew throughout my life she would be there for me
On the regular, not a church girl, she was secular
Not about the money, no studs was mic checkin her
But I respected her, she hit me in the heart” - Emery Petchauer: “Hip-hop both produces and is produced by a cultural context that often thinks differently about questions of language, writing, identity, and ownership from the mainstream discourses of the academy”
- Greg Tate: “twenty years from now we’ll be able to tell our grandchildren and great grandchildren how we witnessed cultural genocide: the systematic destruction of a people and a people’s folkways” (p 67)
CES 209 Fall 2012 