Learning Resource Pack Beatboxing, rap, and spoken word Creating contemporary music and lyrics inspired by culture and heritage. Contents 03 Introduction 04 Using collections and heritage to inspire contemporary artwork 06 About contemporary beatbox, rap and spoken word 08 Planning your project 14 Methods — Method 1: Creating rap lyrics — Method 2: Beatboxing techniques — Method 3: Creating spoken word and poetry 18 Casestudies — Case study 1: Welsh language with key stage 2 — Ysgol Pentraeth, National Slate Museum, Mr Phormula, and Bari Gwilliam — Case study 2: Beatboxing and rap, English language with key stage 3 — Lewis School Pengam, Big Pit and Beat Technique — Case study 3: Bilingual with key stage 3 — Tredegar Park School, Tredegar House (National Trust), and Rufus Mufasa 25 Extending the learning and facilitating curriculum learning 26 Nextsteps 26 Digital resources 27 Abouttheauthors Arts & Education Network; South East Wales 2 Beatboxing, rap, and spoken word Introduction This creative lyric and music project has The projects in this resource can be been tried and tested with schools by the simplified, adapted or further developed authors Rufus Mufasa, Beat Technique and to suit your needs. There are plenty of Mr Phormula. The project is designed to be opportunities for filmmaking, recording pupil-centred, fun, engaging, relevant and and performing, all of which help to in-line with the Welsh Government Digital develop wider creative attributes Competence Framework, while exploring including resilience, presentation skills, pupil’s individual creativity through the communication skills, and collaboration Expressive Arts Curriculum framework, and that are so important to equip learners facilitating the curriculum’s Four Purposes. to thrive in our ever-changing world. The projects have been designed specifically to enable a focus on the creative process, The resource includes curriculum guidance, as well as the creative output. ideas to adapt and vary the project, as well as methods of facilitating cross-curricular Beatboxing, rap, and spoken word will links including literacy and/or numeracy. develop pupils’ skills and confidence in music, performance, digital music production, and poetry while engaging them with the reading of objects and exploration of both historic and contemporary heritage for learning. The course, and this accompanying resource have been developed to support learning together in partnership with artists, cultural organisations and schools. © Arts and Education Network:South East Wales Arts & Education Network; South East Wales 3 Beatboxing, rap, and spoken word Using collections and heritage to inspire contemporary artwork Artists often find inspiration from objects, stories and places when creating new work, whether they are working with music, visual arts, poetry, literature, dance and performance, drama, digital, or a mix of these disciplines. The studio of an artist often resembles a cabinet of curiosity, echoing early private collections known as cabinets that usually contained collections of natural curios and objects of artistic endeavour. As cabinets and collections grew, so the large public Pupils exploring collections at the museums full of objects of wonder emerged. National Roman Legion Museum Today, museums and galleries in the Objects help us to make sense of the UK have an objective of supporting and world. They provide opportunities to make enabling study or research of arts and connections and learn about different sciences disciplines, as well as tracking the cultures, personal identity, history, history of human progress through heritage science, society, art and the making process. collections. Museum collections are often All objects, or heritage sites, were indeed established with learning and education as once new. They were made using natural a core purpose, to explore the past but also processes by an artist, craftsperson or to inspire the future. The new curriculum for maker, or for more recent objects, produced Wales presents an opportunity to embrace in a factory or by digital means. Objects go the potential for creative, cross-curricular on to have their own lives in connection to learning using museums, galleries, heritage humans, and so we can learn a lot about sites and collections of objects as a starting human history, culture, technology, science, point to inspire creative learning, and the environment and creativity from objects, meaningfully engage pupils in their culture making a great starting point for inspiring from a young age. the expressive arts. Bringing historic collections and sites together with contemporary arts will almost certainly make for a fun and unexpectedly creative project with pupils. Creating a long- term, contemporary arts based experience will help bring objects and heritage sites to life, and really engage pupils with collections. This in turn facilitates deeper and more meaningful learning. Arts & Education Network; South East Wales 4 Beatboxing, rap, and spoken word Using collections and heritage to inspire contemporary artwork Engaging with an arts or What kind of places could you visit? cultural organisation Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum A project developed within the frameworks Wales (www.museum.wales) presented in this resource can enable Other national museums, collections a whole term’s work if well planned, and galleries (eg Tate, Museum of incorporating a visit or experience with Science and Industry, National Archives), objects, heritage sites or collections to visit www.nationalmuseums.org.uk a inspire the creative process. Forging full list of national museums a partnership with an arts, heritage or in the UK. cultural organisation can also present the Local museums, libraries, galleries opportunity to take work created by pupils Historic houses and parks back into the organisation, to be performed National parks or made available on digital platforms. CADW sites This approach enables even wider Local built environment or community engagement with a project, areas of interest ensuring this more contemporary art Collections online practice is represented within the Handling collections that can be organisation’s public programme. borrowed by a school University and college collections Local historic sites such as monuments, natural landscapes, bronze age sites, public art exhibits People’s Collection Wales (www.peoplescollection.wales) Kids in Museums (www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk) Literature Wales (www.literaturewales.org) Urdd Gobaith Cymru (www.urdd.cymru) Regional Music Education Services The possibilities are endless. Arts & Education Network; South East Wales 5 Beatboxing, rap, and spoken word About contemporary beatbox, rap and spoken word Beatbox Rap and hip hop Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion Hip hop music, also called rap music, where the artist imitates electronic drum is a genre of popular music developed by sounds – creating a beat box. inner-city African Americans and Latino Americans, in the Bronx borough of New York Modern beatboxing has its roots in street City in the 1970s. It consists of a stylised corner hip hop popular in the Bronx, Chicago rhythmic music that commonly accompanies and Los Angeles (USA). Evidence exists, rapping: a rhythmic and rhyming speech however, that forms of what we recognise as that is chanted. (Source: Wikipedia) beatboxing or vocal percussive music span millennia and cultures across the globe. Notable hip hop and rap artists that are (Source: ourpastimes.com/history-of- good examples to use in a school setting: beatboxing) Akala (UK) Baba Brinkman (Canada) Some notable beatboxers that are good Lauren Hill (USA) examples to use in a school setting: Little Simz (UK) Alem (France) Lizzo (UK) Alexihno (France) Logic (USA) Beardyman (UK) Lowkey (UK) Beatbox Fozzy (Wales) Testament (UK) Beatbox Hann (Wales) Token (UK) Beat Technique (Wales) Bellatrix (UK) Spoken word poetry Bigman (South Korea) Though some spoken word poetry may also Codfish (Australia) be published on the page, the genre has its D Low (UK) roots in oral traditions and performance. Grace Savage (UK) Spoken word can encompass or contain Inertia (USA) elements of rap, hip hop, storytelling, Kaila Mullady (USA) theatre, and jazz, rock, blues, and folk Mr Phormula (Wales) music. Characterised by rhyme, repetition, Napom (USA) improvisation, and word play, spoken word Piratheeban (Singapore) poems frequently refer to issues of social Reeps One (UK) justice, politics, race, and community. The Singh Thing (UK) Related to slam poetry, spoken word may draw on music, sound, dance, or other kinds Here’s an example of French beatboxer, of performance to connect with audiences. Alem, that could be shared with pupils: https://www.youtube.com/ Notable spoken word artists: watch?v=rsDTZilEP3c&t=85s Benjamin Zephaniah (UK) Candy Royalle (Australia) Clare e potter (Wales) Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz (USA) Arts & Education Network; South East Wales 6 Beatboxing, rap, and spoken word Deanna Roger (UK) use of local cultural resources, a quality, Elizabeth Torres (Columbia/Denmark) best practice project can be designed, George the Poet (UK) providing an opportunity to invite parents Hanan Issa (Wales) or the wider school community to take part Joelle Taylor (UK) in a performance or presentation of the art Kate Tempest (UK) produced to celebrate the achievement Kevin Coval (USA, but educated and creativity of the pupils. at University of Wales) Mab Jones (Wales) Following the authentic creative process that Mahogany L Brown