2008 Woodie Awards
Hip-hop as a political tool
Chris Curtis
Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: News
Forget the more common associations like bling and scantily clad women - hip-hop is the language of political change.
More than 60 people crowded into a small computer classroom on the bottom floor of the Multicultural Center today for a workshop titled "Can't Truss It: Hip Hop as a Political Tool."
Those who arrived early enough sat in the seats provided; others leaned against walls or sat on the floor. Overflow from the event extended into the hallway, where students watched through the room's glass partition.
Communication studies graduate student Kalyana Champlain gave the presentation.
With the help of frequent video excerpts of performances by well-known rap artists and clips of social commentators, Champlain examined the history and potential of hip-hop as a political tool.
She began with a look at hip-hop's roots as a social movement, citing various theorists.
"Hip-hop made it so that people of color, African-Americans, could identify with one another at a time when the system was making them feel like they weren't worth anything," Champlain said, referring to the rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke's theory of identification.
She went on to discuss the idea that power goes to those who control the language.
"It's very important that we understand that rhetoric is this energy, language is this energy, and everything we say has power," she said. "Understand that when hip-hop first began it wasn't what you hear on HOT 106 now, it wasn't just a bunch of people spinning over the beat just to hear themselves talk."
Champlain said it is important to approach hip-hop from the angle of African-American rhetoric.
In this context, she introduced the idea of "nommo," or the word, which presents language as a powerful tool for humans to improve society and the world.
"It's telling us that these are all the wonderful things that words can do, like these words were given to us for me to connect to you, for me to understand who you are," she said. "Because it inherently brings out the good of people, it sends threads to all disenfranchised people."
More than 60 people crowded into a small computer classroom on the bottom floor of the Multicultural Center today for a workshop titled "Can't Truss It: Hip Hop as a Political Tool."
Those who arrived early enough sat in the seats provided; others leaned against walls or sat on the floor. Overflow from the event extended into the hallway, where students watched through the room's glass partition.
Communication studies graduate student Kalyana Champlain gave the presentation.
With the help of frequent video excerpts of performances by well-known rap artists and clips of social commentators, Champlain examined the history and potential of hip-hop as a political tool.
She began with a look at hip-hop's roots as a social movement, citing various theorists.
"Hip-hop made it so that people of color, African-Americans, could identify with one another at a time when the system was making them feel like they weren't worth anything," Champlain said, referring to the rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke's theory of identification.
She went on to discuss the idea that power goes to those who control the language.
"It's very important that we understand that rhetoric is this energy, language is this energy, and everything we say has power," she said. "Understand that when hip-hop first began it wasn't what you hear on HOT 106 now, it wasn't just a bunch of people spinning over the beat just to hear themselves talk."
Champlain said it is important to approach hip-hop from the angle of African-American rhetoric.
In this context, she introduced the idea of "nommo," or the word, which presents language as a powerful tool for humans to improve society and the world.
"It's telling us that these are all the wonderful things that words can do, like these words were given to us for me to connect to you, for me to understand who you are," she said. "Because it inherently brings out the good of people, it sends threads to all disenfranchised people."