BETWEEN THE LINES: HIP HOP AS ENGLISH CURRICULUM A THESIS Presented to the University Honors Program California State University, Long Beach In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the University Honors Program Certificate William Godbey Spring 2018 1 2 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the help and guidance of my advisor, Professor David Hernandez. This was a somewhat unorthodox topic, yet he not only took it in stride, he believed in my ability to continue the conversation on this topic in a new and insightful way. I owe him great thanks for this. I would also like to thank my family for their never-ending support and love not only through this process, but through the entirety of my college experience. Especially to my mother, who was always a phone call away if I ever needed assistance or to touch base back home. I owe you all so much for your encouragement and belief in me. and to Breanika Schwenkler, for always having my back. 3 ABSTRACT Between the Lines: Hip Hop as English Curriculum By William Godbey Spring 2018 This thesis examines the effectiveness of introducing hip hop into English curriculum at a high school level. To showcase this, this thesis presents a framework, broken up into three sections, that highlight the ways hip hop lyrics can be used to teach a variety of different literary devices, historical contexts, and how to analyze a text beyond its surface value. The three sections include Simple Literary Devices, Complex Literary Devices, and Contexts. Each section is demonstrated with a unique song and artists, to show how this framework could function as well as the versatility of talent in hip hop. This thesis also discusses the various challenges that arise when attempting hip hop education integration, including the barriers of language “appropriateness”, song selection, and potential racial bias. This thesis aims to break down misconceptions about hip hop as both literature and culture and establish a foundation that high school teachers would be able to utilize to teach hip hop lyrics in a manner that is both applicable and insightful. 4 Between the Lines: Hip Hop as English Curriculum Introduction To integrate hip hop into current English curriculum, there must be enough proof that these songs and lyrics can be effective in engaging student learning and critical analysis. To show how this could be done, this thesis will attempt to provide a framework for how such elements could be incorporated into already available curriculum. This framework will be made up of three sections, each deepening in analysis and content. The first will focus on the syntax and technical aspects of the lyrics, to teach students about different simple literary devices. The second will focus on more complex literary devices, such a metaphors and analogies, to teach students how to provide deeper analysis into their critiques. The final section will center on the larger histories and themes of the lyrics, to teach students how to study overarching ideas and historical contexts on literary works. It is the belief of this author that if such frameworks and curriculum prove effective, there could easily be a new unit introduced into most English curriculums that would focus solely on hip hop. To further explain the reasoning behind the desire to integrate hip hop into English curriculum, hip hop is a culture of language and creativity that is relevant to the modern student. In the simplest of terms, hip hop is poetry and should be treated as such by academia. This is not to say that every song and lyric merits analysis, but in the same way that certain poems become a part of literary canons, hip hop songs should be subjected to the same critique and standards to select which ones deserve a place in curriculum. There is not a wide enough range of scholars determining these qualifications at this point, so in its place this author suggest a much less 5 rigorous process. In its place, it would be teachers that would select the songs and lyrics that they believe could be useful in teaching a selected lesson or unit. Using the framework provided in this thesis, teachers could select lyrics based on any of the qualifying three sections, to make sure that what they want to teach would be of benefit and accessible to students. This will be discussed more in length further on in this thesis. For each section, this thesis will provide an example of how one can use a selected set of lines/lyrics to pull out the bits and pieces that fit into each framework. This is to say that a teacher could use one song and use it for all three sections, but for this thesis we will be looking at three separate songs and artists to emphasize the wide range of talented writers in this genre. In terms of where this curriculum and framework would be targeted, it is this author’s belief that this kind of work and discussion would be best suited for upper level high school students, as certain themes and language in selected songs may not be appropriate for younger students. This is not to say that the language is “inappropriate” only that the language and choice may need to be discussed at a deeper level with students that may need to be more mature to understand the usage. This is only an estimate and if the framework appears to be better suited for higher or lower grade levels than it could easily be adjusted to provide for potential grade changes. Section I For the first section, simple literary devices and technical structure, we will be looking at MF Doom’s song “Accordion.” Renowned for his lyrical ability and relentless delivery, MF Doom has often been cited as the inspiration for many artists in the genre. At a young age, he was a part of the hip hop group KMD with his brother Subroc. Barely a few days after their album Black Bastards was released, MF Doom’s brother was killed in a freak accident. Doom 6 disappeared for several years after this, and when he reappeared his style and abilities had become honed and extraordinary. His most acclaimed album produced by the prominent Madlib was entitled Madvillain, which the song we will examine comes from. This analysis comes from the first 12 lines of the song: Accordion by MF Doom The rest is empty with no brain but the clever nerd (A) The best emcee with no chain ya ever heard (A) Take it from the Tec-9 holder (B) They've bit but don't know their neck shine from Shinola (B) Everything that glitters ain't fishscale (C) Lemme think, don't let her faint get Ishmael (C) A shot of Jack got her back it's not an act stack (D) Forgot about the cackalack, holla back, clack clack blocka (E) Villainy, feel him in ya heart chakra, chart toppa (E) Start shit stoppa be a smart shoppa(E) Shot a cop day around the way 'bout to stay (F) But who'd a know there's two mo' (G) that wonder where the shooter go (G) 7 Highlighting the lyrics above, we can begin to discuss one of the basic aspects of how poetry and hip hop functions: rhyming. Above we can see multiple examples of this, broken up into two separate categories. The first being the end rhyme, or what the last word of the line is, and how it rhymes with the following or previous end word. This is done to create rhythm, one that travels from line to line to continuously engage the audience. The end rhyme scheme is roughly approximated above by the parenthesized letters. We can see that Doom is basically keeping his rhyme scheme in couplets, or two-line segments that rhyme with each other. In hip hop culture, one couplet is also referred to as a bar, hence when someone can deliver particularly clever wordplay or rhyming they have “bars.” He only steers away from this rhyme pattern in the third stanza, where his rhyme scheme begins to advance in complexity. This is where we see the second category come into play: internal rhyme. This is where writers will rhyme words at any point in a string of lines, sometimes right next to each other or several words apart. This is done to further entrance the audience, and in hip hop is often done to highlight technical ability. This song could be considered an outlier from most other songs, as Doom uses internal rhyme with almost every single line and word, creating a technical masterpiece, yet also works as a great jumping off point when in need of examples of rhyme schemes and wordplay. Doom also relies on what is called assonance in these lines. Assonance is when one uses words that all have similar sounds. We can see this in strong fashion again in the third stanza of this song, where Doom is flexing his lyrical abilities. He also uses onomatopoeia, when a word mimics a sound, in the second line of the third stanza, perhaps to emphasize the notorious style of his word choice, although this section is far more about the technical structure of the lines, not so much the interpretation. We are also able to see alliteration, where the same word or letter appears multiple times in a line or stanza, especially in line one of stanza two and line four of 8 stanza three. An important aspect to consider when discussing hip hop in the classroom is that while it is easy to point out these devices on paper, there is an advantage to having these literary techniques recorded, so that if needed a teacher would be able to play this song in order to show how these devices are used in real time, in a way that may help enhance a student’s comprehension of the material.