Global Noise - Appropriation, Localization, and Racial Identification

of World Hip Hop

Angela Steele, Instructor

“Hip Hop is the voice of this generation. It has become a powerful force. Hip-Hop binds all of these nationalities, all over the world.” – DJ Kool Herc Can’t Stop Won’t Stop

Born in the embattled streets of New York City in the 1970s, Hip Hop culture has grown into a powerful artistic, cultural, and political movement. From Shanghai to San Juan youth around the world are now using Hip Hop culture to express the realities of their lives. This course will examine Hip Hop cultures in Japan, China, France, Italy, Kenya, and the Philippines. Students will use written texts, films, and music to explore issues of authenticity, identity formation, and processes of appropriation, localization, race, and resistance.

http://hiphoparchive.stanford.edu/

Grading Policy:

Midterm Paper 25%

Final Project 40%

Class Participation 25%

Attendance 10%

September 27

Week 1: Introduction

Introduction

Review Syllabus

Brief History of Hip Hop

October 4

Week 2: The Hip Hop Movement

Readings -

“Another Root: Hip Hop Outside the USA”. Tony Mitchell in Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the United States. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.

“Funk the World”. Nelson George in Hip Hop America. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1998

Guest Lecture: Dr. Marcyliena Morgan

October 11

Week 3: Hip Hop in China

Readings -

“China's Hip-Hop Dance Craze” Jaime Florcruz. CNN. January 6, 2004

< http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/01/05/trends.chinahiphop/>

“Cultural Synchronization: Hip Hop with Chinese Characteristics?” Jeroen de Kloet for International Association for the Study of Popular Music (2005) , pp. 1-11.

<http://www.iaspm.nl/inhoud/IASPM_2005_dekloet.pdf#search=%22Cultural%20Synchronization%3A%20Hip%20Hop%20with%20Chinese%20Characteristics%22>

“Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” Arjun Appadurai in Modernity at Large. Twin Cities: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Theme: Appropriation

October 18

Week 4: Hip Hop in Japan

Readings -

“A History of Japanese Rap Music: Street Dance, Club Music, Pop Market.” Ian Condry. In Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the United States ed. Tony Mitchell. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.

“Japan Grows its Own Hip-Hop” Yo Takatsuki. BBC News. December 13, 2003.

< http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3324409.stm>

“Fetishized Blackness: Hip Hop and Racial Desire in Contemporary Japan” Nina Cornyetz in Social Text, No. 41 (Winter, 1994), pp. 113-139

“Paradigms of Race: Ethnicity, Class, and Nation.” Michael Omi & Howard Winant in Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (1994), pp. 9-47.

Film: Struggle and Success: The African American Experience in Japan

Theme: Racialization

October 25

Week 5: Hip Hop in France

**Midterm Papers Due**

Readings –

“Postcolonial Popular Music in France.” Andre J.M. Prevos in Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the United States ed. Tony Mitchell. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.

“French rappers' prophecies come true” Nov. 16, 2005 BBC News

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4440422.stm>

“French MP blames riots on rappers” Nov. 24, 2005 BBC News

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4467068.stm>

“Capitalist Tool”. Nelson George in Hip Hop America. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1998

Video: La Haine

Theme: Political Organization

November 1

Week 6: Hip Hop in Italy

**Final Project Proposals Due**

“Fightin’ the Faida: The Italian Posses and Hip Hop in Italy.” Tony Mitchell in Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the United States ed. Tony Mitchell. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002.

“The Free Trade Art Agreement.” Guillermo Gomez-Pena in The New World Border: Prophecies, Poems & Loqueras for the End of the Century (1996) pp. 5-18.

Themes: Transnationality/Hybridity

November 8

Week 7

Guest Speaker

November 15

Week 8

Guest Speaker

November 29

Week 9

Presentation of Final Projects, Day 1

December 6

Week 10

Presentation of Final Projects, Day 2

Date	Country	Topic	Film(s)
4-Oct	XXX	The Hip Hop Movement	Inventos
11-Oct	China	Appropriation	Amis Hip Hop, No Sleep Till Shanghai
18-Oct	Japan	Racialization	Nihon Style, Struggle and Success
25-Oct	France	Political Organization	La Haine, Resistencia
1-Nov	Italy	Transnationality/Hybridity	Pass the Mic
8-Nov	Guests		Desde el Principio
15-Nov	Guests		Hip Hop Colony, Hali Halisi