Hiphop as Critical Pedagogy

Article by Dawn-Elissa Fischer Banks

I believe that as an educator, it is necessary to teach students how to think about their lives and schooling from a critical perspective. Long before I ever read the works of academics who write about education, power, knowledge and freedom, I was exposed to liberation ideologies through Hiphop. Listening to selections by artists such as Eric B. & Rakim, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, KRS-ONE, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah--for example--supplied me with a foundation that helped me to formulate a conceptual framework. This enabled me to create a critical theory regarding my particular position in the academy where I am at once an outsider, insider, student and critic. I am not alone in this experience. Many people who identify with the Hiphop generation received ‘funkin’’ lessons from these artists who act as teachers. KRS-ONE explains:

“Boogie Down Productions is made up of teachers/ the lecture is conducted from the mic into the speaker/ Who gets weaker? The king or the teacher/ It's not about a salary it's all about reality/ Teachers teach and do the world good/ kings just rule and most are never understood/ If you were to rule or govern a certain industry/ All inside this room right now would be in misery/ No one would get along nor sing a song/ 'cause everyone'd be singing for the king, am I wrong?!” (Boogie Down Productions 1988)

As a “student” of the artist, I interpret this verse as a lesson extolling a critical pedagogy. A critical pedagogy is education that includes the relationship between knowledge, power and authority, and gives voice to all aspects of experience. Thus, the verse is at once applied and theoretical. Hiphop, in all its variations, maintains its cultural relevance and continues to encourage critical pedagogy that picks up where our nation's public schools and politicians fail. As Special Ed explains, the Hiphop generation is in need of “special education ‘cause [we] can't learn from the system of [our] nation” (Special Ed 1990). There is no division between theory and practice in Hiphop. Each Hiphop scholar represents her or his community and theorizes while activating social change among her or his friends, family and neighbors. Indeed, there are numerous references throughout the canon of Hiphop that illuminate education as a means of procuring power.

Academic theorists and educators like Lisa Delpit, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux and Antonio Gramsci promote concepts of power and knowledge that are analogous in Hiphop. Through critical pedagogy, teaching and learning can override the status quo and knowledge itself can be king.


References

Boogie Down Productions. 1988. "My Philosophy." By All Means Necessary. Jive.

Special Ed. 1990. “Come On, Let’s Move.” Legal. Profile


Contact: D. Fischer Banks banks@hiphoparchive.org