Journals
Online Resources
- Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute (Opens in new window)Since the early 1970s, Hiphop has become the most influential artistic, educational and social movement for youth and young adults. From The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute's inception in 2002 under the direction of Professor Marcyliena Morgan, students, faculty, artists, staff and other participants in Hiphop culture have been committed to supporting and establishing a new type of research and scholarship devoted to the knowledge, art, culture, materials, organizations, movements and institutions of Hiphop. In response to this exciting and growing intellectual movement The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute serves to organize and develop collections, initiate and participate in research activities, sponsor events and acquire material culture associated with Hiphop in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Documentaries
- Blacking up hip-hop's remix of race and identityPublication Date: 2010"Hip-Hop was created by urban youth of color more than 30 years ago amid racial oppression and economic marginalization. It has moved beyond that specific community and been embraced by young people worldwide, elevating it to a global youth culture. The ambitious and hard-hitting documentary Blacking Up: hip-hop's remix of race and identity looks at the popularity of hip-hop among America's white youth. It asks whether white identification is rooted in admiration and a desire to transcend race or if it is merely a new chapter in the long continuum of stereotyping, mimicry and cultural appropriation?
- Hip hop : beyond beats & rhymesPublication Date: 2014A riveting examination of masculinity, sexism, and homophobia in hop-hop culture. Delivering a self-described "loving critique" of rap music, director Byron Hurt - a former star college quarterback, longtime hip-hop fan, and now gender violence prevention educator - pays tribute to the power and creativity of hip-hop while challenging the rap industry to take responsibility for glamorizing destructive, deeply conservative sterotypes of manhood.
- Say my namePublication Date: 2009"In a hip-hop and r&b world dominated by men and noted for misogyny, the unstoppable female lyricists of SAY MY NAME speak candidly about class, race, and gender in pursuing their passions as female emcees. This worldwide documentary takes viewers on [a] vibrant tour of urban culture[s] and musical movement[s], from hip hop's birthplace in the Bronx, to grime on London's Eastside and all points Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, and L.A. in between ... Delves into the amazing personal stories of women balancing professional dreams with the stark realities of poor urban communities, race, sexism, and motherhood, as the more than 18 artist featured in [the film] battle for a place in a society that creates few chances for women.
Select Books
The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture by
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Black Church stood as the stronghold of the Black Community, fighting for equality and economic self-sufficiency and challenging its body to be self-determined and self-aware. Hip Hop Culture grew from disenfranchised urban youth who felt that they had no support system or resources. Impassioned with the same urgent desires for survival and hope that their parents and grandparents had carried, these youth forged their way from the bottom of America's belly one rhyme at a time. For many young people, Hip Hop Culture is a supplement, or even an alternative, to the weekly dose of Sunday-morning faith. In this collection of provocative essays, leading thinkers, preachers, and scholars from around the country confront both the Black Church and the Hip Hop Generation to realize their shared responsibilities to one another and the greater society. Arranged into three sections, this volume addresses key issues in the debate between two of the most significant institutions of Black Culture. The first part, "From Civil Rights to Hip Hop," explores the transition from one generation to another through the transmission--or lack thereof--of legacy and heritage. Part II, "Hip Hop Culture and the Black Church in Dialogue," explores the numerous ways in which the conversation is already occurring--from sermons to theoretical examinations and spiritual ponderings. Part III, "Gospel Rap, Holy Hip Hop, and the Hip Hop Matrix," clarifies the perspectives and insights of practitioners, scholars, and activists who explore various expressions of faith and the diversity of locations where these expressions take place. In The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture, pastors, ministers, theologians, educators, and laypersons wrestle with the duties of providing timely commentary, critical analysis, and in some cases practical strategies toward forgiveness, healing, restoration, and reconciliation. With inspiring reflections and empowering discourse, this collection demonstrates why and how the Black Church must re-engage in the lives of those who comprise the Hip Hop Generation.
ISBN: 9780810882362Publication Date: 2011-11-10
Hip hop beats, indigenous rhymes : modernity and hip hop in indigenous North America by ISBN: 9781438469478Publication Date: Creation Date 2018
The Hip Hop Wars by
How hip hop shapes our conversations about race -- and how race influences our consideration of hip hop Hip hop is a distinctive form of black art in America-from Tupac to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kendrick Lamar, hip hop has long given voice to the African American experience. As scholar and cultural critic Tricia Rose argues, hip hop, in fact, has become one of the primary ways we talk about race in the United States. But hip hop is in crisis. For years, the most commercially successful hip hop has become increasingly saturated with caricatures of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and hos. This both represents and feeds a problem in black American culture. Or does it? In The Hip-Hop Wars, Rose explores the most crucial issues underlying the polarized claims on each side of the debate: Does hip hop cause violence, or merely reflect a violent ghetto culture? Is hip hop sexist, or are its detractors simply anti-sex? Does the portrayal of black culture in hip hop undermine black advancement? A potent exploration of a divisive and important subject, The Hip Hop Wars concludes with a call for the regalvanization of the progressive and creative heart of hip hop. What Rose calls for is not a sanitized vision of the form, but one that more accurately reflects a much richer space of culture, politics, anger, and yes, sex, than the current ubiquitous images in sound and video currently provide.
ISBN: 9780465008971Publication Date: 2008-12-02
In Search of Soul: Hip Hop, Literature and Religion by
In Search of Soul explores the meaning of "soul" in sacred and profane incarnations, from its biblical origins to its central place in the rich traditions of black and Latin history. Surveying the work of writers, artists, poets, musicians, philosophers and theologians, Alejandro Nava shows how their understandings of the "soul" revolve around narratives of justice, liberation, and spiritual redemption. He contends that biblical traditions and hip-hop emerged out of experiences of dispossession and oppression. Whether born in the ghettos of America or of the Roman Empire, hip-hop and Christianity have endured by giving voice to the persecuted. This book offers a view of soul in living color, as a breathing, suffering, dreaming thing.
ISBN: 9780520966758Publication Date: 2017-09-12
The Rap Year Book by
The Rap Year Book takes readers on a journey that begins in 1979, widely regarded as the moment rap as a genre became recognised as part of music's landscape and comes right up to the present. Shea Serrano deftly pays homage to the most important song of each year. Serrano also examines the most important moments that surround the history and culture of rap music-from artists' backgrounds, to issues of race and safety, to the rise of hip-hop and the struggles among its major players-both personal and professional. Covering East Coast and West Coast, famous rapper feuds, chart toppers and show stoppers, The Rap Year Book takes an in-depth look at the last thirty-five years of the most influential genre of music to come out of the last generation. Complete with quizzes, infographics, lyric maps, hilarious and informative footnotes, portraits of the artists, and the occasional rebuttal essay by other prominent music writers, The Rap Year Book is both a narrative and illustrated guide to some of the most iconic and influential songs ever created under the umbrella of rap music. Serrano cites a variety of sources to form his arguments including biographies, magazines and documentaries, as well as his own experiences growing up at a time when hip-hop was becoming a prevalent force in the music industry. With its all-encompassing look at the ups and downs of rap music, and the landmark songs that are its tent-poles, this book will be perfect for anyone who is a fan of the genre.
ISBN: 1419718185Publication Date: 2015-10-13
That's the Joint! by
That's the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader brings together the best-known and most influential writings on rap and hip-hop from its beginnings to today. Spanning nearly 25 years of scholarship, criticism, and journalism, this unprecedented anthology showcases the evolution and continuing influence of one of the most creative and contested elements of global popular culture since its advent in the late 1970s. That's the Joint presents the most important hip-hop scholarship in one comprehensive volume, addressing hip-hop as both a musical and a cultural practice. Think of it as "Hip-Hop 101."
ISBN: 0415969182Publication Date: 2004-09-18
Digital Repository Service
- Messages in Hip-Hop: the Social Context and Content Evolution of One of Music's Most Dynamic Genres.Poster originally presented at RISE:2019, hosted by the Center for Research Innovation.
- Red ShaydezAn Emerald Session, Green Line Records Performance in the Northeastern University Library Recording Studio. March 12, 2020