Unlisted
hip-hop course captures big interest
By
Monica Levette Clark
Daily Forty Niner
One
flip through the 2002 schedule of classes
catalog, and students searching for the
call number to the black studies, introduction
to hip-hop course could not find it. The
special topic course was not listed. Yet,
over 30 Cal State Long Beach students are
enrolled in the course.
Reiland Rabaka, who received his Ph.D. at
Temple University before being hired by
Cal State Long Beach last fall, teaches
the new hip-hop culture course. The
classroom is set for round table discussions
and the desks are arranged in a large circle
so students are able to face and interact
with each other.
“My style of teaching is one of dialogue,”
Rabaka said. “I like having conversations
with my students. I learn so much from them,
just as they learn from me.”
Outlined in its syllabus, the 16-week course
focuses on the impact hip-hop culture has
had nationally and internationally.
“Hip-hop has had an impact on music, film,
fashion, language, dance, visual arts, literature,
beauty, you name it,” Rabaka said.
He said he believes in the relevance of
hip-hop as an intellectual study because
after decades have passed, historians will
look back on hip-hop and parallel it to
the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and
the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s.
“This course will challenge a lot of people’s
conceptions about hip-hop and teach them
to be critical spectators of the culture,”
Rabaka said.
The course will include an in-depth study
of hip-hop culture and its use as a medium
for young African-American, and later, Latin-American,
men and women, for raising social, political,
historical, cultural and feminist consciousness.
“Whether we like it or not some of our lives
have been touched by this culture, especially
by its music,” Rabaka said.
During the course students will view selected
music videos, movies and documentaries,
and read certain books, essays and articles
devoted to the history of hip-hop. Rabaka
said he hopes students will develop a distinct,
critical awareness of hip-hop culture, and
will be able to distinguish the difference
between hip-pop and hip-hop.
“Unfortunately, the conscious hip-hop shows
are usually played on the radio after midnight,”
Rabaka said. “So people have a better chance
of hearing hip-pop, than they do hip-hop,”
CSULB student Latifah Muhammad enrolled
in the class this semester after taking
the black studies course 155, which is also
taught by Rabaka.
“What I wanted to learn was more solid,
historical information about hip-hop,” Muhammad
said. “Hip-hop is getting older and I want
to learn about it as I am living it.”
Senior Mike Fisher, a psychology major at
CSULB, said he did not take much interest
in the course at first, but was instantly
motivated to learning about hip-hop culture
after Rabaka showed him that there was true
meaning behind rap lyrics.
“Rabaka pointed out songs by Grand Master
Flash, Tupac and Biggie, and showed how
they were revolutionary at the time,” Fisher
said. “Rabaka opens our noses to the
many aromas that comes from the pot of hip-hop
music, and the messages that it cooks up.”
Following this semester, the special topic
course will only be offered in spring.
The course is currently an elective
in the black studies department, but Rabaka
said he will submit a proposal to offer
the course as an option for students who
wish to take it for credit towards their
general education requirements.
The course is open to students from all
majors, of any gender, and all cultural
and racial backgrounds.
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