Keepin It Real cyber-post and critique

Today we finished reading the second chapter in the handout given to students Tuesday, October 28, from The Message. This second chapter, a continuation of the theme, "The Meaning of the Name," the second chapter, "Me, Myself and I." The freewrite was to develop thesis sentences using the invention strategies noted in the handout most students received. If you missed class, pick up a copy at my office (L-236).

I wanted students to develop three sentences using the 3-part thesis form, and 3-4 others using the questioning strategy to develop: definitions, analogies, consequences and testimony. You can post those sentences here, then take one of the sentences, yours or another students and write an introductory paragraph.

Students presented today on hip hop in France. Please post your comments at the link below. I'd also like all students to post a reflection on the process, what worked well and places where their is room for improvement.

I would like students to send me their research essays via email. They are due once you've completed the presentation. The essays I received today are not complete. Only one student had a works cited page, they are all too short, lack scholarly research and don't site Jeff Chang at all. Chang is useful given the completeness of his analysis of hip hop origins and its place in America and by extension global youth culture. There are too many grammatical errors in all the essays. At this level the writing shouldn't have any sentence fragments, run-on-sentences, or confusion with words like "their and they're."

Students don't have grammar/style books, which are not optional. All a student has to do is visit the local library and borrow one, yet, only one student brings hers to class. How can we have a discussion about slang, cliches, Standard vs. Nonstandard forms of the language when scholars refuse to bring their materials to class?

The excessive amount of errors shows that either the student didn't know there was a problem in sentax or that the paper wasn't critiqued. Since students were presenting as a group, I would have thought each student would have read the other students' papers. I also mistakenly thought (?) students would rehearse.

Students did not submit their outlines, essay plans or bibliography with the completed essays. I suggested all students use Chang as a resource, yet as I said, no one cited Can't Stop, Won't Stop, or Michael Eric Dyson's Know What I Mean, for that matter. I left the essays students gave me today in an envelop outside my office for pick up. All need revision.

Feedback on the presentation:

Let me preface this with an acknowledgement and appreciation for the students who presented this week their research projects. That said, students should make an appointment if unable to come to my office hours and talk to me about your progress in the class.

What worked best in the French Hip Hop presentation today was the way the team divided the discussion into the various aspects of the genre. Where it fell down was the presenters' lack of cohesion, and the shallowness of certain aspects of the research evident in presenters inability to answer questions about the topic they covered such as location, laws, time lines. Absent also was the breath of hip hop culture. For instance, examples of early hip hop artists were of one group, which though called political, had a name that implied otherwise.

It was a plus that Loren could translate the lyrics of songs, but as I said, given the historic origin of hip hop culture, I don't know why other key figures in the French hip hop architecture were not shared along with their music. I know of many hip hop artists from formerly colonized African nations, who live in France, who are popular and rap in French and in Bambara, Arabic, and other indigenous languages. The Algerians are a huge presence in France. James Baldwin, in Notes of a Native Son, called them the "niggers" of France. Today if you've watched the news France has bee challenged by its non-white citizens on the absence of equal rights and equal access, the same could be said in the UK. So who are the hip hop artists in this segment of French society who use cultural expression like hip hop to speak their truth to power? In your research you probably noticed certain voices absent from the discourse. This is precisely why or how hip hop was born in the Aouth Bronx.

France is equally racist, some people who live there say it is more so (than America). I'm certain hip hop culture is used as a vehicle of expression there, yet this was not addressed. Hop Hop culture is political, yet, from the presentation, and from what I read, hip hop culture in France doesn't reflect the reality.

Is there an underground scene there? Where are these artists played, where are they marking the walls, dancing, rallying? Where are the parties, clubs, etc. where one can hear the music that reflects the roots of the genre given its historic orgins?

Paris is only one city and a county of how many regions? Which area is the hot bed of activism or music production? of course, Paris would have the most commercial
music. Paris is like San Francisco, and like San Francisco there are areas that are not as affluent, such as Bayview Hunters Point and the Fillmore, parts of the Mission, etc. It would have helped to have a map. The Brazilian presenters were as good as they were precisely because they were rehearsed gave us the historic, political and social context of the people and region where hip hop was born. They shared maps, and flags and books. So far, their presentation was the best, followed by Venezuela which was similar to today's, weak in certain areas because it was investigated in depth.

The presentations, skimmed the surface, so I was expecting a lot more from the writing. I haven't read the essays from the Brazil or Venezuela group, so I hope so. Have you emailed me?

Today in class, it would have been better to read the lyrics to us in both French and English, than to share examples of the genre that did not further the argument which seemed from what was presented and what I read, that hip hop in France, located in Paris and its outskirts is an off-shoot of its popular American cultural expression: misogynistic, violent, homophobic and sexist or frivolous non-political party music.

If this is not the case, then the writing nor the presentation addresses this and this is what commercial hip hop in America looks like.