Keepin’ It Real: Writing In and About Hip-Hop Culture

In this course we will explore, compare, and contrast the critical and creative literature that derives from rap music and Hip Hop Culture. We will take up the debates of authenticity and Blackness and through close readings, hearings, and viewings of the texts of Hip Hop we will construct well-informed positions on how writers, rappers, and regular folks use texts and contexts to achieve authenticity. The main goal of the course is to explore and develop various ways of writing in and about Hip Hop culture.