Hip Hop Studies Commons^™

Digital Griots Playing Lottery Tickets: A Study Of Hip Hop And Social Transformation In Ghana's #Fixthecountry Movement, Jaime M. Kowlessar

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

On June 28, 2021, activist Ibrahim Mohammed (Macho Kaaka) was murdered in Ejura, Ghana, after using social media to criticize government failures. When protesters demanding justice were shot by security forces, politically engaged Ghanaian hip hop artists refused silence, contributing to Ghana’s #FixTheCountry movement—the nation’s largest youth mobilization in a generation. Yet scholarly debates about how hip hop contributes to social change remain unresolved, divided between those celebrating its activist potential and those critiquing its limitations. This dissertation introduces the lottery ticket theory as an alternative framework for understanding cultural activism’s relationship to political transformation. Rather than asking whether hip …

Tailoring Black Style And Its Powerful Pieces: From West Africa To The U.S. West Coast And Everything In-Between, Gabriel Capellan

Occasional Essays

Introduction:

On September 19, 2025, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum (MET) with some of the Bronx African American History Project team. The people in attendance were Graduate Assistant, Anthony Rosado, and Undergraduate Assistants, Serena Velasquez and Emma Garr, wonderful people, I tell you. After the tour, we ended up at the American art exhibit and had podcast conversations about history for what felt like both hours and very brief minutes... We went to the MET to see a particular piece that was in the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibit curated by Barnard professor, Monica L. Miller …

Heartbeat Of The Heartland: Sonic Engagement With Hip-Hop In The American Midwest, Lauren R. Millhorn

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project analyzes Hip-Hop artists from the American Midwest through the context of the Midwest’s construction as a nostalgic, peaceful area where conflict seems nonexistent. This study applies Adam Ochonicky’s concept of nostalgic spatiality, or “instances in which nostalgia is projected onto a physical environment, thereby altering the perception, understanding, and/or experience of that space and its accompanying cultural sphere” (Ochonicky 29) to close readings on Midwest Hip-Hop texts. In the case of the Midwest, projected nostalgia is rooted in whiteness and propels the narrative that the Midwest is predominantly occupied by white people who maintain its peace and serenity …

Connections And Contrasts Between “Enactments Of Power: The Politics Of Performance Space” By Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, Kendrick Lamar’S 2025 Superbowl Performance, And Sunni Patterson’S “We Made It.”, Crystal Endsley Taylor

Open Educational Resources

This assignment by Dr. Crystal Endsley Taylor uses all Open, "low-tech" solutions to create an active learning module that prompts students to pause, retrieve, re-state and reconsider several texts, including The Politics of Performance Space” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Superbowl performance, and Sunni Patterson’s “We Made It.” It was made as part of a workshop on OER-based Active Learning at John Jay College in 2025.

In The Mix: Hip Hop's Impact On Genre Development And Cultural Influence In African And Jamaican Music, Kinzi Kabadeh

Postgraduate

In this exegesis, I contend that certain compositional elements and production methods of dancehall, amapiano, and afrobeats demonstrate hip hop’s influence on contemporary Jamaican and African electronic music. In particular, the drum programming, track mixing, and use of sampling demonstrate a cross-pollination and cultural transfer between the two forms of music (on one hand, the African and Jamaican genres of dancehall, amapiano, and afrobeats, and on the other, the African American music of hip hop). These genres are fundamental to contemporary Black culture and share origins as vehicles for resistance to oppressive forces.

The Breakbeat Poets: Translocal Placemaking In The Contemporary Midwestern Lyric, Andy Oler

Publications

In the introduction to the Haymarket Books collection The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (2015), co-editor Kevin Coval asserts that the anthologized poems are not simply influenced by hip-hop; “these poems are hip-hop.”¹ The anthology’s focus on a genre, a cultural phenomenon, might seem like an odd fit for a special issue on placemaking. Its national frame might seem too expansive for the study of regionalism (though there is a history, established by James Shortridge, of conflating the Midwest with the nation).² But The BreakBeat Poets is also attentive to more precise versions …

(Transforme Des Mines De Plomb En Or): Webster Et L'Alchimie Du Nous (En Rap), Peter Schulman

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Auteur de plusieurs disques et de nombreux ateliers d'écriture internationaux, d'un livre pour enfants et d'une d'exposition sur des escclaves fugitifs au Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec¹, le rappeur <> Webster (de son vrai nom Aly Ndiaye) est connu pour la profondeur de ses chansons, nourries d'Histoire (fidèle à sa formation d'historien), mais surtout d'un humanisme qui fait face non seulement aux attitudes racistes qu'il a dû affronter pendant sa jeunesse, et aussi à l'isolement créé par des barrières artificielles imposées par la société québecoise dont il fait partie.

“How Eve Saved My Soul”: Sonic Lineage As The Prequel To The Playlist Project, Todd Craig

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Tell Virgil Write Brick On My Brick’: Doctoral Bashments, (Re)Visiting Hiphopography And The Digital Discursivity Of The Dj - A Mixed Down Methods Movement, Todd Craig

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Hip-Hop History: Grades 9-12 Local History Curriculum, Sivia K. Malloy

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

As the founders and trailblazers mature, and sadly depart this life, a new generation is left behind with limited to no knowledge of the influence hip-hop has on current popular culture locally, nationally, or internationally. Research for this learning intervention determines what and how local hip-hop history incorporates into a social studies/history course with high school (9-12 grade) students, bridging local stories to the national and international trends and events of the past. Informal discussions took place with local hip-hop subject-matter experts throughout the northeast region of New England with ties to Massachusetts. Their recommendations were to wrestle with the …

Black Sound Matter(S): The Sonic Soundscape Of Black Auditory Liberation, Todd Craig

Publications and Research

In an attempt to embody the practices of DJ rhetoric as it relates to sound studies as well as sonic composing, Todd Craig will not speak with his own voice. Instead, this entire SonicText will serve as documentation of a live composition that engages with the theme of "Black Sound Matter(s)." Deploying the concept of sonic lineage (Craig, forthcoming; Polson, 2019), this piece aims to radically transform this intellectual space through sonic and DJ rhetorical practices. Thus, Todd Craig's voice is inconsequential; instead, what is most critical is his collaborators: historical scholars and organic intellectual-musicologists starring as Black Musician-Griots. The …

Hip Hop Urbanist Reconstructions: Strategies & Tactics For Spatial Reparations, Isaac Howland

Architecture Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Basics Of Stepping Club, Hana Pham, Yara Madit

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

Originating in West Africa in the 1500s, step has since evolved into a form of dancing that places emphasis on rhythmic movements and high energy. It is commonly used amongst greek organizations and within schools. This club introduces stepping to older children through activities such as stamina, focus, teamwork, and problem solving.

Black Female Artists Reclaiming Their Sexual Power, Nicole E. Heller

Student Publications

The emergence of hip hop in the 1980s and 90s is representative of the struggle that Black men and women face in modern society. As a result of a New York City housing crisis, crime, and poverty, hip hop arose as a coping mechanism, as many art forms do; hip hop provided a way for Black men to express their experiences and struggles. Hip hop has been used as a vehicle for self- expression, social views and political views among disadvantaged urban groups (White, 2013). However, it was and still is common for male hip hop artists to sexualize and …

Holding Allies Accountable, Gisselle Flores

Student Publications

Artists, including Rihanna, Cardi B, and Jay-Z, have turned down the NFL’s offer to perform in the halftime show out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick , but it was recently announced that Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will be performing in 2020. This has sparked controversy because some are celebrating that there are two Latinas headlining the Super Bowl halftime show for the first time while others do not view this event as a cause for celebration because they believe that J. Lo and Shakira should have boycotted like other artists have. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira have given no prior indications …

Break Beats In The Bronx: Rediscovering Hip-Hop’S Early Years (Book Review), Matthew Oware

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Review of the book, Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip-Hop’s Early Years, by Joseph C. Ewoodzie, University of North Carolina Press, 2017, https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469632759/break-beats-in-the-bronx/.

Hip Hop Pedagogy As Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Melanie L. Buffington, Jolie Day

The Melanie Buffington Papers

This paper argues that Hip Hop Pedagogy is a version of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and should be a part of art education. Further, we believe that when exploring Hip Hop Pedagogy, teachers need to reference the work of Black female and non-binary artists. After an overview of Hip Hop Pedagogy and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, we argue that these approaches should be a consistent part of art education. Through the work of contemporary visual artist and DJ, Rozeal, we offer suggestions for art educators about how they might transition their practice to embrace some aspects of Hip Hop Pedagogy. Specifically, through …

"'Jackin’ For Beats'": Djing For Citation Critique, Todd Craig

Publications and Research

A challenge in teaching English composition is helping students envision plagiarism as “borrowing” – showing love to author(s) and/or text(s) that further their argument(s), versus “stealing” – biting someone’s style and words. Alastair Pennycook (1996) and Sarah Wakefield (2006) have contributed pieces to the elaborate plagiarism/citation puzzle, while Houston Baker situated the hip-hop DJ in seminal text Black Studies, Rap and the Academy (1993). Merging these moments introduces critical questions: Did Diddy invent “the remix” or become the illest beat-biter ever? How did DJ/Producers Pete Rock and Large Professor pay homage to previous musical genres to further hip-hop remix production …

Negrocity: An Interview With Greg Tate, Camille Goodison

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.