MCCCD Program Description

Hip Hop: Arts, Aesthetic and Culture

Course: DAH255

First Term: 2015 Fall

Lecture 3 Credit(s) 3 Period(s) 3 Load
Subject Type: Academic
Load Formula: S- Standard

Description: Selective survey and historico-cultural analysis of hip hop arts, aesthetics and culture organized around the founding elements of DJing, MCing, B-boy and B-girling, graffiti arts and knowledge.

MCCCD Official Course Competencies
1. Identify diverse aesthetic-cultural heritages that shaped the origins and continued iterations in hip hop arts and culture. (I, II) 2. List and describe the elements of hip hop. (I, II, III, IV) 3. Demonstrate and analyze how the aesthetics of hip hop negotiate, mark, produce, and contest cultural norms and power. (I, II, III, IV) 4. Describe and demonstrate through select examples how the historical, cultural and aesthetic roots and foundational elements of hip hop and urban arts articulate within their wider social, political, cultural and economic contexts, including class, race, ethnicity and gender. (I, II, III, IV) 5. Describe and analyze how the aesthetics of hip hop and urban arts shape and are shaped by diverse aspects of U.S. and global society, such as politics, economics, social justice, technology, access to resources, marketing/business, cultural values, fashion, music, popular culture, civic pride and education. (I, II, III, IV) 6. Question, debate and critically analyze the aesthetico-artistic, cultural, social, and political significance of hip hop and urban art forms. (I, II, III, IV) 7. Creatively and critically engage one or more of the elements and or aesthetics of hip hop to explore a societal issue. (III, IV)
MCCCD Official Course Competencies must be coordinated with the content outline so that each major point in the outline serves one or more competencies. MCCCD faculty retains authority in determining the pedagogical approach, methodology, content sequencing, and assessment metrics for student work. Please see individual course syllabi for additional information, including specific course requirements.

MCCCD Official Course Outline
I. Introduction: Critical historiographies A. Foundational elements B. Social, political and cultural legacies impacting the "birth" of U.S. hip hop 1. Post-Civil Rights, 1970`s nationalism and Reagonomics 2. Afro-Carribean and Afro-Diasporic performance practices 3. Lack of resources and access 4. Criminalization of poverty and culture 5. Re-appropriation of materials, technology, and culture C. Hip hop culture and art today D. Hip hop culture vs. hip hop art E. Polyculturalism, globalism, transnationalism II. Cultural citizenship: Space, place and power A. From moral panic to mainstream B. Cultural hegemony and cultural appropriation C. Authenticity, identity construction and negotiation D. Hip hop vs. Urban E. Hip hop activism and hip hop activists F. Paradoxes between hip hop art and culture and the study thereof G. Beyond the foundational elements toward fusionism and future aesthetic practices III. Hip hop arts and culture: Foundational elements A. MCing/Rhyming 1. Social justice, politics and free speech 2. Nommo and cultural perspectives on language 3. Freestyling vs. rapping 4. Form vs. content 5. Poetics and performance of the MC B. DJing/Turntablisim 1. Politics and aesthetics of rupture 2. Sampling 3. The breakbeat 4. Technology, entrepreneurship and communication C. Dance/Breakin` 1. Cultural historiographies of select dance forms a. B-boying/b-girling b. Locking c. Popping d. Krump e. Others 2. Aesthetics and politics of select dances 3. The cipher 4. Dance aesthetics and cultural citizenship D. Aerosol arts/Graffiti writing 1. Aesthetics of transgression 2. Visibility/invisibility and public vs. private space 3. Paradox of destruction and re-creation 4. Art making and community building as a political tool 5. Politics and process of aerosol arts from street to museum E. Knowledge 1. Afrika Bambaataa and the history of hip hop`s 5th element 2. Cultivation of knowledge through art 3. Hip hop aesthetics and counterhegemonic knowledge as politico-cultural resistance 4. Interrogating the roles of privilege in knowledge production 5. Hip hop and the academy IV. Hip hop arts and culture: Critical aesthetics A. Versioning B. Battling/competition C. Break/rupture D. Call and response E. Illusion/magic F. Metaphor and simile G. Codification of language, dress, gestures, images, etc. H. Re-appropriation

MCCCD Governing Board Approval Date: February 24, 2015

All information published is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information presented, but based on the dynamic nature of the curricular process, course and program information is subject to change in order to reflect the most current information available.