 "Photo: Jay Jung")
Experts stressed the importance of hip-hop studies in a collegiate setting Monday as part of a lecture series aimed at outlining the future of hip-hop education.
According to Willie Ney, executive director of the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiative, the series is a movement to encourage the development of a hip-hop studies program at UW-Madison and make it more relevant to a diverse group of students.
Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture at Duke University, offered a brief history of hip-hop emphasizing the need for persistent curiosity of the field.
“Hip-hop studies is about asking the questions,” he said.
According to Neal, discussing various aspects of hip-hop leads to a range of far-reaching, yet relevant topics such as politics or sociology.
He praised the abilities of hip-hop to “open up the imaginations of everyone.”
“[Hip-hop] is more than a culture, but a generationally specific movement that engages in politics, culture, music and history,” Neal said.
Jeff Chang, author of “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop,” an award-winning book outlining the history of hip-hop, echoed Neal’s sentiments. He focused on the potential for future agendas in hip hop studies.
According to Chang, hip-hop holds more depth than most people realize and is responsible for significant movements such as the desegregation of the U.S.
Hip-hop is comprised of “generational ideas from around the globe that support deep social inquiry and can yield fresh insights,” Chang said.
Both Neal and Chang agree that hip-hop studies belong in universities.
According to Neal, “great intellectual and scholarly scrutiny” must be placed upon hip-hop in the future.
Upcoming lectures will feature various hip-hop scholars and will be held at 7 p.m. on Mondays in Grainger Hall. The series, “Getting Real: The Future of Hip-hop Studies Scholarship,” is sponsored in part by OMAI, the Havens Center and The Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate.
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