The Art of Hip Hop

Overview

In this multimedia exploration, students in grades 9-12 can examine the multifaceted art of Hip Hop by exploring its main elements: DJing, rapping, beatboxing, dancing, graffiti, and knowledge.

Suggested Use

Hip Hop's rich tradition of dance, music, and visual arts have spoken to individuals across all ages and cultures. Hip Hop—with its vibrant art forms and cross-curricular connections to language arts, media literacy, and social studies—can be a powerful teaching tool.

The Art of Hip Hop provides informative text, videos, and audio clips that shed light on Hip Hop's main elements: DJing, rapping, beatboxing, dancing, graffiti, and knowledge. You may wish to have your students explore the Web site independently and come up with their own creative work based on their explorations. Or guide students through the site in conjunction with any of the following activities:

• Ask students to define Hip Hop. Explain that Hip Hop is not only comprised of music, dance, and visual art—it is a culture. Lead a discussion on the definition of culture.
• Instruct students to compare the elements of Hip Hop explored on the Web site with the ways Hip Hop is represented in the media today. How has Hip Hop changed? Are stereotypes perpetuated in movies? Are images in music videos positive or negative?
• Lead students in a group research project. Tell each group to pick one of the elements of Hip Hop on the Web site. They should research their element on the site and then read additional resources about their element online or in print. Each group will also research one or two important artists that represent the art form and complete a creative project that incorporates or highlights their element. Students will then present their findings and creative projects to the class.
• Have students read "Lifted from the Cracks: The Culture of Hip Hop" on page 8 the ARTSEDGE Hip Hop to Da Head Cuesheet in conjunction with The Art of Hi p Hop Web site. The Hip Hop to Da Head Cuesheet provides additional background information about the history of Hip Hop. Discuss with students how economic and social conditions affected Hip Hop. Can students think of other examples of artworks or art forms that were influenced by economic or social conditions?
• Lead students in discussing Hip Hop today. Are there any elements of contemporary Hip Hop that are missing from the site? Are there elements on the site that are no longer associated with Hip Hop today? If they were to create a site on Hip Hop which elements would they add to or delete from the site and why? Discuss how all art forms evolve over time.

You may also wish to lead students through specific sections of the site as they pertain to any of the following activities:

• Teach students about various percussion instruments from around the world. Have them mimic the sounds of each of the instruments using only their voice. Tell students to listen to the videos in the Beatboxing section of the site and encourage them to create a musical piece using sounds from percussion instruments in the style of beatboxers.
• Introduce students to poetic techniques such as alliteration, internal rhyme, end rhyme, assonance, and consonance. Skilled rappers have a keen understanding of the sound of language. Have students find examples of poetic techniques in audio clips of raps and spoken word poems in the Rapping section of The Art of Hip Hop. Then students will incorporate poetic elements in their own spoken word poems or raps.
• Instruct students to listen to audio clips in the Rapping section and discuss the main themes explored in each of the works. Rap artists confront issues affecting contemporary society. Encourage students to write a rap about one challenge facing American society today.
• Encourage students to examine graffiti pieces in The Art of Hip Hop and compare and contrast these pieces with works by artists Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.
• Tell students to watch the videos in the Dance section of the site and put together various moves in an original dance routine
• Discuss the role of technology in the performance and creation of Hip Hop music. Read the DJing section of the site as a class. To what extent is the invention of turntables responsible for the invention of Hip Hop music? How will the use of CDs in DJ sets affect the music?
• Have students watch the video in the Knowledge section and discuss the questions posed below the video screen: How can self-expression lead to self-empowerment? What ways can you share your knowledge and wisdom through art?

Technical Requirements

This multimedia site is bandwidth-intensive, requiring a high-speed Internet connection. Users should be equipped with speakers (or headphones in a lab or classroom setting) and will need the Flash 7 player. It is highly recommended that users set their monitor display to 1024 x 768 (or 800 x 600) for the best viewing experience.