Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education
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0:11 - 0:15When I was 20 years old, i started teaching at a juvenile prison.
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0:15 - 0:17While there were many things that separated us,
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0:17 - 0:21I quickly discovered my students and I had one big thing in common:
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0:21 - 0:23our love of hip hop.
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0:23 - 0:28For the next few years, rap music became the main content for the classes I taught,
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0:28 - 0:31and I saw disengaged students emerge as leaders and experts.
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0:31 - 0:34Through engaging elements of hiphop culture together,
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0:34 - 0:35students and I learned language arts, life skills,
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0:35 - 0:39and to love each other and ourselves more.
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0:39 - 0:43As I continued to observed the ways in which our education system is rigged
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0:43 - 0:46against black and latino students and students from low income communities,
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0:46 - 0:49I asked myself what else we as educators could learn from hiphop,
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0:49 - 0:52the insanely innovative and influential global phenomenon
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0:52 - 0:55that has emerged from these very same communities.
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0:55 - 0:57When I say hiphop, I'm not just talking about music
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0:57 - 1:00or music xxx dance, which are considered central elements.
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1:00 - 1:03I'm referring to the blend of instincts, confidence, and ingenuity
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1:03 - 1:05that develops in oppressed communities
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1:05 - 1:08as has been demonstrated through the evolution of hiphop culture.
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1:08 - 1:11I'm talking about the Jamaican teenager in the South Bronx
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1:11 - 1:12taking two records of the same song
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1:12 - 1:14and fading back and forth between them
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1:14 - 1:16to create a new musical composition
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1:16 - 1:19by playing the most danceable segment over and over.
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1:19 - 1:21I'm talking about the inspiring visual artists
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1:21 - 1:23realizing they didn't need galleries to represent them
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1:23 - 1:26for their work to be seen, and instead painting on train cars
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1:26 - 1:28and instantly having an audience of hundreds of thousands.
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1:28 - 1:31I'm talking about a highschool dropout from the projects of mercy
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1:31 - 1:34using his entrepeneurial hassle and rap skills
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1:34 - 1:37to go from selling drugs, to selling CDs out of the trunk of his car,
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1:37 - 1:39to selling products at Macy's.
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1:39 - 1:42This is what my colleagues and I call hiphop genius,
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1:42 - 1:45creative resourcefulnes in the face of limited resources,
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1:45 - 1:48or as it's often said in the hiphop community:
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1:48 - 1:51flipping something outta nothing.
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1:51 - 1:54How could this audacious approach impact our education system?
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1:54 - 1:57For starters, we need to exhibit the brush creativity of hiphop pioneers,
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1:57 - 2:00just as hiphop producers sample songs
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2:00 - 2:02from other genres creating unique new sounds to please
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2:02 - 2:05audience's ears, hiphop educators can borrow from diverse models
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2:05 - 2:08and improvise xxx blends of educational practices customised
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2:08 - 2:10to meet students needs.
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2:10 - 2:12If that sounds to abstract, take a look at the highschool
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2:12 - 2:15for recording arts in Minnesota, where they mix project based learning
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2:15 - 2:20and competency based assesment with artistic, vocational, and business training
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2:20 - 2:23with xxxx and xxx at local colleges, with a heavy dose of student leadership.
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2:23 - 2:26We don't have to do the same thing that's been done before or follow one model.
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2:26 - 2:29We can sample and mix multiple teaching techniques
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2:29 - 2:32and school designs to find the blends that best serve our students.
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2:32 - 2:35We also need to adapt the value hiphop places on staying fresh:
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2:35 - 2:38a hot beat yesterday ... was a hot beat yesterday.
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2:38 - 2:40Whoever sends out to make a hot beat today
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2:40 - 2:44has to do something new and different to remain relevant.
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2:44 - 2:46The world is changing rapidly around us.
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2:46 - 2:49The top ten jobs in 2010 didn't exist six years earlier.
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2:49 - 2:53Hiphop's premium on freshness must permeate our schools.
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2:53 - 2:54And we need to be resourceful.
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2:54 - 2:57In the 1970s, thousands of families chose to replace their
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2:57 - 2:58linoleum floors.
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2:58 - 3:01In poor neighbourhoods, the old linoleum was left in piles on the street.
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3:01 - 3:05Young people, without access to playgrounds or dance classes,
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3:05 - 3:06turned their parent's trash into dancefloors
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3:06 - 3:10and invented new moves like the windmill and the headspin
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3:10 - 3:12to maximize its potential.
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3:12 - 3:14Faced with our own resource constraints,
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3:14 - 3:15educators need to find new platforms,
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3:15 - 3:17what refuges could we be dancing on,
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3:17 - 3:19and what are our new moves.
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3:19 - 3:23Behind the mike, spray cans, turn tables and when it comes to their educations,
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3:23 - 3:26students have brilliant ideas and instincts.
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3:26 - 3:29Hiphop genius is not just about teachers using hiphop songs
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3:29 - 3:32to get kids to succeed in traditional schools.
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3:32 - 3:36It's about changing education to respect and build
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3:36 - 3:37from young people's brilliance.
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3:37 - 3:38It's about the incredible possibilities that occur
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3:38 - 3:40when students are engaged,
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3:40 - 3:42not just as consumers, but as creators.
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3:42 - 3:46We don't need to twig the content inside existing traditional academic structures.
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3:46 - 3:48We need to think outside the classroom and build
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3:48 - 3:50the institutions that are fundamentally more responsive
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3:50 - 3:53to young people's interest and ingenuity.
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3:53 - 3:55We need to create schools and school systems
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3:55 - 3:59that not only teach hiphop, they are hiphop.
- Title:
- Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education
- Description:
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learn more and get the book at http://www.hiphopgenius.org
follow on twitter at http://twitter.com/husslingtonthis video illustrates (literally!) the concept of Hip Hop Genius. these ideas are explored more fully in sam seidel's book, Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education (hiphopgenius.org)
the drawings were done by Mike McCarthy, a student at College Unbound (collegeunbound.org), a school that exemplifies many of the values espoused in the film. the entire video was shot in College Unbound's seminar space, where Mike has built a studio for his company Drawn Along (drawnalong.com).
the end sequence was shot by Graham Wheeler, a recent graduate of the East Bay Met (eastbaymet.org), a high school that also embodies many of the principles of Hip Hop Genius. Graham and Mike edited the whole video as well.
the beat at the end was made by DJ Tek, who worked with sam at the AS220 Broad Street Studio (as220.org/youth)... their work there was the genesis of much of the thinking about Hip Hop Genius. several of the young people in the video are or have been affiliated with that program.
Tim Natividad collaborated with sam on the ideation and writing.
big shouts to everyone who appears in the video and to everyone who came through, but didn't make it in; big shouts to David "TC" Ellis, Tony Simmons, and everyone at the High School for Recording Arts (hsra.org); and big shouts to the whole Hip Hop Genius crew. check us out at HIPHOPGENIUS.org
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Volunteer
- Duration:
- 04:23