B-Boy Baccalaureate

Imagine that it’s the fall 2009 semester in college, and you finally have room in your schedule to take one of the classes on hip-hop that your university offers. Since over 100 universities now offer classes on hip-hop in various academic departments, there are many different classes you might take. It could be History 210: Hip-Hop and Black Culture in the 20th Century; Music 121: Contemporary African American Music; or even English 205: The Poetry and Poetics of Tupac Shakur.

A normal photo from a normal Hip-Hop 101 class.The question is this: when you walk into class on the first day, who are you likely to find standing at the lectern ready to pontificate on hip-hop? Will it be Professor Cornbeil in his crooked bowtie who feels the need to start every other sentence by saying, “Well, as The Notorious B.I.G. once said…”? Will it be Dr. Stangledorf who wears a new pair of shelltoes with his suit and tells you while passing out the course syllabus that “it’s gonna be the bomb!”? Or will it be Professor Duperstank who, upon hearing you ask if she is going to cover breaking in class says, “Yes, we’ll take a 15-minute break halfway through each class.”

Chances are, the person you see at the front of your hip-hop studies class won’t be one of these caricatures, but it also won’t be the same person stepping to you on Saturday in the cipher. Most likely, it will be someone who has a deep knowledge of a topic that is closely related to hip-hop such as African American history, Black music, or African American literature. If you’re lucky, it might be Tricia Rose, whose Black Noise established hip-hop as a viable topic of academic study in 1994. Or it might be Joe Schloss, who just published Foundation: B-boys, B-girls, and Hip-Hop Culture in New York through the prestigious Oxford University Press. In a few cases, you might have a younger professor in his or her 30s or 40s who grew up participating in and creating hip-hop and could actually step to you in the cipher. Overall, if you’re a b-boy or b-girl and you take a course in hip-hop, you’ll probably have a different experience in it than your professor and many other people in the class.

So what should be the position you play in class if both your professor and classmates have very different experiences and ideas about what hip-hop is? Basically, you have three options, each with their own consequences:

Option 1: Serve them all! Class is your cipher and you chop more heads than Alien Ness at a park jam. You look for every chance to correct your professor and classmates and point them to your path of hip-hop truth. You quote Afrika Bambaataa at least once every class. You throw burns as the professor whenever he or she says the word “breakdance.” And you diss other students when they wear scuffed sneakers or brand clash. Class is a battle and you’re taking out the suckers.

While this may your first reaction, taking this approach has some negative consequences. Your disagreeable attitude will probably give the professor good reason to give you a C- in the class, and chopping heads on the daily will have the rest of the class wondering at the end of the semester, “Why are breakdancers are so angry all the time?”

Option 2: Keep to yourself. Despite all the misinformation in the class, you avoid the wackness completely and don’t say a word. You figure you’ll just come to class, assume your sitting b-boy stance at a desk, do all of your work well, turn it in on time, and keep your hip-hop to yourself. This way, by the end of the semester, you’ll have a decent grade and not have absorbed any of the wackness around you.

While this option may help out your GPA and keep you from making enemies, it certainly won’t help you to enjoy the class, let alone learn anything. In fact, you’ll probably hate the class by the end of the semester, and you’ll have done nothing to help educate those around you.

Option 3: Each One Teach One. Yes, one of the timeless hip-hop mantras (which comes from the African proverb “Each One Teach Three”) applies to your university hip-hop class too. Think back to when you first started breaking and were sock-rocking and doing L-kicks. Someone was kind and patient enough to not just diss you but to take you aside and show you how to lace up a pair of Pro-Keds and rock right. And this is what you should do in your class.
“Even though your professor might not be a hip-hop head, he or she can still teach you something you can apply to hip-hop to better overstand it.”
When the time is right early in the semester, let people in class know what hip-hop and breaking mean to you. Ask them honestly what hip-hop means to them in return. Take stupid questions seriously, as it gives you a chance to educate them and better express yourself. Give them a flyer for a jam so they can come and see for themselves. Give them a CD of music you dance to in practice. Explain terminology such as “breaks,” “foundation,” “character,” and “style” as you understand them. Make it clear that there are different opinions, even within breaking and hip-hop communities. Realize that your perspective is limited and point them to better sources (such as interviews with older heads) than yourself.

As you educate those in the class, you should also be humble enough to learn something from the professor and his or her formal academic training. No, they might not have over 500 posts on Bboyworld, but they have knowledge that can enhance your dance. For example, seeing parallels between the African American literary practice of signifyin’ will help you understand why b-boys appropriate and mime moves from other dances (peep Henry Louis Gates, Jr.). Understanding the African Diaspora/Black Atlantic as a symbol for cultural hybridity will help you understand how hip-hop is composed of numerous fractured cultural traditions (check Paul Gilroy). In essence, even though your professor might not be a hip-hop head, he or she can still teach you something you can apply to hip-hop to better overstand it.

Overall, if you take this final option, not only will you enjoy the class, make a decent grade, and help your peers to respect breaking, but you’ll get your money’s worth and become a better b-boy or b-girl in the process.

Bustopher Jonez is the pen name for DJ Ill-Literate who, when not posing as a college professor, can be found at your local record store buying all the records you slept on.