Week 7- Physical Graffiti: Embodied Histories of Hip-hop Dance

The term "Physical Graffiti" was used by Jorge "Popmaster Fabel" Pabon as an overarching theme to describe how breakers and Hip-hop dancers write the history of Hip-hop with their bodies and movements. Many Hip-hop dancers embody many of the style elements found in MCing( such as battling) and graffiti ("getting fame,") etc. As you define your understanding of EMBODIED HISTORIES and BBOY/BBIRL(S), think about how the gestures used for breaking, popping, locking and other Hip-hop dance practices can be understood as a physical repertoire of Hip-hop history. How are particular moves connected to the history of Hip-hop? How do we identify the origins of particular Hip-hop dance moves? Can gestures be sampled physically in performance? Pabon tells us that we must consider the ways that breaking brings several parts of hip-hop history together through gestures. As we prepare for midterm, think about how the terms connect across the elements.

Week 6- American Graffiti: Claiming Public Space

This week we will discuss the artistic, social and political effects of graffiti in Hip-hop on American popular culture. Informed by our explorations of documentary film, academic writing and artist testimonies concerning graffiti in Hip-hop, how do you define the terms Graffiti and Public Space? In what ways do graffiti artists make claims to public space? It is important to acknowledge the positive aesthetic dimensions of graffiti as an art form as well as the association of graffiti with certain destructive behavior such as vandalism of property. If we think about the ways that Hip-hop's aesthetic is indebted to practices of improvisation (sampling,freestyling, breaking, etc.) how then do these terms allow us to think about the historic and social function graffiti serves? As you think about graffiti and its relationship to public spaces (buildings, subway cars, mailboxes, etc.), how does graffiti speak to power and privilege?

Week 5- Hip-hop's Relationship to Multiculturalism and Polyculturalism

In the case of Hip-hop in the United States, discussions of "race" often conflate African American identity and culture.This week in our readings, Robin D.G. Kelley argues polyculturalism, unlike multiculturalism, recognizes that there are problems with simplistically conflating race and culture. Polyculturalism acknowledges the inter-related connections and fluidity between cultures. Multiculturalism keeps cultures separated and static--allowing them to relate alongside one another. However,the history of Hip-hop culture is often separated from the people that produce it. In defining the keywords of polyculturalism and multiculturalism in relationship to Hip-hop this week,think about the ways that the meaning of Blackness has shifted since Hip-hop's inception.

Week 4- These are The Breaks: Turntabalism and DJ Culture

This week we will use the keywords TURNTABALISM and SAMPLING to guide us through our readings from Robert Karimi, Joe Schloss and Andrew Bartlett on DJ Culture and the foundations of Hip-hop culture. How can you define these terms in ways that illuminate the historical and archival practices of the Hip-hop DJ? How has the sample been used historically to created links between the past and present of African American and other music traditions? If turntabalism is a musical practice, in what way does the ethics of sampling followed by DJs impact how we understand and listen to the foundations of Hip-hop music ?