DECONSTRUCTING RAP Experimental College / EXP F Tuesdays, 6:00 8:30

Transcription

1 INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Andrew Shryock CONTACT: DECONSTRUCTING RAP Experimental College / EXP F Tuesdays, 6:00 8:30 DESCRIPTION: While rap challenges listeners with explicit content and potentially offensive subject matter, this course encourages students to listen past the hardened surface. It emphasizes methodologies and analytical tools that permit rigorous thinking, writing, and (most importantly) listening. Students will examine lyrical content, sampled and borrowed material, text-music relations, rhetorical gestures, and other devices that distinguish rap as a sophisticated mode of literary and musical expression. The course spans rap s origins to the present, and considers artists such as Public Enemy, Common, 2Pac, Eminem, and Jay-Z. The perspectives of critics and scholars including Jeff Chang, Henry Louis Gates, David Foster Wallace, and others complement listening assignments and writing exercises. The image that emerges reveals rap unfit to be characterized reductively as throbbing beats underlying juvenile and vulgar rhymes. COURSE TEXT: [AoR] Bradley, Adam, and Andrew DuBois, eds. The Anthology of Rap. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, Supplemental readings will be available in class. The discography will be placed on reserve in the library. Also, many online services (e.g., Spotify) permit downloading or streaming tracks and albums at little or no cost. COURSE GRADE: 10% Annotation assignment 15% Wikipedia article 25% Midterm essay ANNOTATION ASSIGNMENT: 40% Final essay 10% Attendance and participation Transcribe and annotate two rap songs containing no fewer than 20 lines. It will be useful to review principles of annotation as well as examples from other genres (e.g., poetry, drama, literature, etc.). Include 250 words detailing the principles motivating your work. WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE: ESSAYS: Create a Wikipedia article. There are three criteria. First, the article choose any figure, track, album, concept, or topic related to the course material must be entirely new or the expansion of a stub (i.e., a generic placeholder). Second, the article must conform to Wikipedia s guidelines for notability, style, and content. (Consult the Wikipedia Manual of Style.) Third, the new entry or expanded stub must be no shorter than 800 words. Write two essays on topics of your choice. You are encouraged to incorporate primary sources and engage with academic literature and criticism. The Hip Hop Archive at Harvard University may be helpful in this respect. The first paper (due in Week 6) should contain no fewer than 1500 words. The topic for the final paper (due in Week 13) must be pre-approved to ensure an appropriate scope for your project. Please arrange to meet with me early in the semester. The final paper should contain no fewer than 2500 words.

2 SHRYOCK / DECONSTRUCTING RAP - 2 Week 1: The Origins of Rap Course Text: AoR, Forward, Introduction, 1 14, , Week 2: The Women of Rap / Sylvia Robinson & MC Lyte *** ANNOTATION ASSIGNMENT DUE (10%) *** Course Text: AoR, , Week 3: Rap s Golden Age / Run-D.M.C. *** WIKIPEDIA ASSIGNMENT DUE (15%) *** Course Text: AoR, Supplemental: Gates, Signifying Monkey, Chapter 2 Run-D.M.C., Raising Hell Week 4: Rap s Golden Age / Eric B. and Rakim Course Text: AoR, Supplemental: Gates, Signifying Monkey, Chapter 3 Eric B. & Rakim, Paid in Full Week 5: A Biography in Rap / Nas Course Text: AoR, , Supplemental: Smith, Black Talk Nas, Illmatic Week 6: Rap and Literature / Common *** ESSAY #1 DUE (25%) *** Course Text: AoR, , Supplemental: Edwards, How to Rap, Chapters 1 3 Common, Resurrection Week 7: Gangsta Rap / Dr. Dre & Notorious B.I.G. Course Text: AoR, Supplemental: Chang, Can t Stop Won t Stop, Chapter 14 Edwards, How to Rap, Chapters 4 5 Dr. Dre, The Chronic

3 SHRYOCK / DECONSTRUCTING RAP - 3 Week 8: East Coast-West Coast / 2Pac Course Text: AoR, Supplemental: Edwards, How to Rap, Chapters Wallace, Signifying Rappers, excerpt 2Pac, All Eyez on Me Week 9: Racial Tension / Eminem Course Text: AoR, Supplemental: Eminem. The Way I Am, Forman, Represent Rodman, Race Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP Week 10: Empire Building / Jay-Z Course Text: AoR, Supplemental: Jay-Z, Decoded, 1 19, 50 63, Negus, Business of Rap Smith, Dream about Getting Paid Jay-Z, The Black Album Week 11: The Dirty South / Lil Wayne Course Text: AoR, , Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III Week 12: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS Week 13: Studio Sorcery / T-Pain *** ESSAY #2 DUE (40%) *** Course Text: Frere-Jones, The Gerbil s Revenge T-Pain, Thr33 Ringz

4 SHRYOCK / DECONSTRUCTING RAP - 4 READING LIST Bradley, Adam, and Andrew DuBois, eds. The Anthology of Rap. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, Chang, Jeff. Can t Stop Won t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin s, Edwards, Paul. How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc Eminem. The Way I Am. New York: Plume, Forman, Murray. Represent : Race, Space, and Place in Rap Music. In That s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, nd edition. New York: Routledge, Frere-Jones, Sasha. The Gerbil s Revenge. New Yorker. June 9, arts/critics/musical/2008/06/09/080609crmu_music_frerejones. Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Jay-Z. Decoded. New York: Spiegel & Grau, Negus, Keith. The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite. In That s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, nd edition. New York: Routledge, Rodman, Gilbert B. Race and Other Four-Letter Words: Eminem and the Cultural Politics of Authenticity. In That s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, nd edition. New York: Routledge, Schloss, Joe. The Art of Battling: An Interview with Zulu King Alien Ness. In Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, edited by Jeff Chang, New York: BasicCivitas, Smith, Christopher Holmes. I Don t Like to Dream about Getting Paid : Representations of Social Mobility and the Emergence of the Hip-Hop Mogul. In That s the Joint!: The Hip- Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, nd edition. New York: Routledge, Smith, Danyel. Black Talk and Hot Sex: Why Street Lit Is Literature. In Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, edited by Jeff Chang, New York: BasicCivitas, Wallace, David Foster, and Mark Costello. Signifying Rappers. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco, 1990.

5 SHRYOCK / DECONSTRUCTING RAP - 5 COURSE DISCOGRAPHY 2Pac. All Eyez on Me. Death Row Records, Common. Resurrection. Relativity Records, Dr. Dre. The Chronic. Death Row Records, Eminem. The Marshall Mathers LP. Aftermath Entertainment, Eric B. & Rakim. Paid in Full. 4 th & B way Records, Jay-Z. The Black Album. Roc-A-Fella Records, 2003 Lil Wayne. Tha Carter III. Cash Money Records, Nas. Illmatic. Columbia Records, Run-D.M.C. Raising Hell. Profile Records, T-Pain. Thr33 Ringz. Nappy Boy Entertainment, 2008.