160006 VO Hip Hop: Politics, Culture, Aesthetics (2025S)

Hip Hop is more than just a musical genre—it is a global cultural movement encompassing art, dance, fashion, literature, identity, and politics. While this course focuses on music, it situates Hip Hop within its broader cultural and historical contexts, exploring how its aesthetic forms articulate and shape political, racial, economic, and social concerns.

Through a combination of academic and journalistic readings, artist interviews, audio and video recordings, films, television series, lectures, and class discussions, we will critically examine the history and contemporary state of Hip Hop culture. The course is organized into four key areas:

Roots – Tracing Hip Hop’s emergence in the Bronx during the 1970s, we will explore its historical antecedents and its evolution into a global phenomenon. This section covers major artists, movements, and the cultural forces that shaped Hip Hop’s expansion.

Aesthetics – We will analyze how the core elements of Hip Hop—MCing, DJing, B-boying/B-girling, graffiti, and knowledge—function as artistic and communicative practices. Special attention will be given to sampling, rhythmic and poetic structures, and how remix culture has influenced broader artistic and media landscapes.

Culture – Examining Hip Hop’s impact on black identity, as well as its intersections with Latino/a, Asian, and other diasporic cultures, we will consider how Hip Hop generates a shared global language while also navigating tensions around authenticity, commercialization, and cultural hybridity.

Politics – Does Hip Hop provide a genuine platform for marginalized voices, or has it been co-opted by commercial forces? We will interrogate the genre’s treatment of race, gender, sexuality, violence, and capitalism, considering its role as both an oppositional and mainstream cultural force.

By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of Hip Hop’s artistic, social, and political dimensions, as well as its continuing evolution in the 21st century.