{"id":51148,"date":"2018-04-19T10:58:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T17:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=51148"},"modified":"2018-04-19T15:15:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T22:15:20","slug":"hip-hop-appreciation-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/hip-hop-appreciation-week\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A very powerful, poignant and poetic impulse:’ NAU, Flagstaff communities invited to fifth annual Hip Hop Appreciation Week (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Heidi Toth<\/strong>
\nNAU Communications<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Damian Purdy<\/strong>\u00a0was in eighth grade when he made a life-altering choice.<\/p>\n

The teenager had suffered a series of challenges and setbacks; he was hurting and alone. He couldn\u2019t take it anymore. It was too hard. He was going to kill himself.<\/p>\n

Switching on his music one day was an easy choice\u2014an insignificant action he barely considered. The opening chords of Kid Cudi\u2019s \u201cHeart of a Lion\u201d filled his ears, followed by the opening line: \u201cPlease save a kid that needs some help.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that moment, Purdy made another life-altering choice: He was the kid in pain who needed some help, but he wasn\u2019t going to take his own life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHip hop\u00a0has literally saved my life, and I don\u2019t mean that in a dramatic way,\u201d Purdy said.<\/p>\n

Next week, he\u2019s sharing that love with the world\u2014or anyone in the Flagstaff and Northern Arizona University communities interested in learning more about this musical genre or watching some top-notch artists dance, freestyle and produce street art. The junior fitness\/wellness major is one of\u00a0dozens\u00a0of students in the Genius of Hip Hop class who will put on the fifth annual Hip Hop Appreciation Week from April 23-27, led by Ethnic Studies professor\u00a0Frederick Gooding Jr<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Gooding, known to his students as Dr. G, researches African-American history and critical race theory in movies, media\u00a0and\u00a0sports. He and fellow ethnic studies professor T. Mark Montoya started Hip Hop Appreciation Week five years ago. The project serves a few purposes: offering leadership, organizational and public speaking opportunities to students; providing education about\u00a0hip hop\u00a0music\u2014starting with the lesson that\u00a0hip hop\u00a0is not rap\u2014and introducing different kinds of art and culture to NAU and Flagstaff.<\/p>\n

The week is the culmination of almost a semester of work for his Genius of Hip Hop students, who have spent countless hours studying history, inviting artists, comparing different styles of music and in some cases, practicing their own talents to share.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to share something very sacred to us,\u201d said\u00a0Destiney Waddy<\/strong>, a sophomore studying criminology\u00a0and\u00a0criminal justice.<\/p>\n

\"Hip<\/a>
Street artists at Hip Hop Appreciation Week 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The need for appreciation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hip hop began in communities like the Bronx decades ago\u2014communities that to a visitor looked like a bombed-out Beirut. Early\u00a0hip hop\u00a0artists put their fears, hopes, worries and\u00a0loves\u00a0into verse, sharing their stories with a world that wasn\u2019t entirely ready to hear them yet. Even today, despite Kendrick\u00a0Lamar\u00a0winning a Pulitzer Prize\u2014the first musician who\u2019s not classical or jazz to do so\u2014hip hop\u00a0is a misunderstood, misrepresented genre.<\/p>\n

The dozens of\u00a0hip hop\u00a0denizens in Gooding\u2019s class are out to change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHip hop\u00a0is a very powerful, poignant and poetic impulse that speaks to people\u2019s desire for dignity, humanity\u00a0and\u00a0respect,\u201d Gooding said.<\/p>\n

Purdy and Waddell aren\u2019t the only listeners with an appreciation that runs deeper than\u00a0hip hop\u00a0being good music. It is, they all say, but there\u2019s so much more to it than that. For\u00a0Lissette Flores<\/strong>, it was finding a community. The third-year criminal justice student isn\u2019t even in the Genius of Hip Hop class. She took it last year, loving both the class and Hip Hop Appreciation Week enough that she continues coming to the class and is participating in the week\u2019s activities. She\u2019ll be MCing every day.<\/p>\n

Considering how, prior to Hip Hop Week, she had no interest in being involved with any school-related activities, that\u2019s a big deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like home,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just goes. It flows.\u201d<\/p>\n

For\u00a0Ian Thompson<\/strong>,\u00a0hip hop\u00a0is just a part of who he is. He doesn\u2019t really separate himself from the music. Thompson, a third-year exercise science student, has been break-dancing since middle school and has loved\u00a0hip hop\u2014and felt it was underrepresented and overlooked\u2014for as long as he can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we analyze songs in this class is the same way I did it in my head,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the fuel, it is the soul\u00a0for\u00a0my life. Everything I do is because of\u00a0hip hop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week, that\u2019ll be true of all the students. The week\u2019s events are about more than introducing people to the facets of\u00a0hip hop\u00a0music. Gooding and his students want to educate people about the messages, the stories, the history\u00a0behind\u00a0this genre. They discuss the differences between rap and\u00a0hip hop; rap is a genre regularly, and sometimes fairly, derided for its materialism, misogyny\u00a0and\u00a0mayhem, Gooding notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHip hop\u00a0is something that you feel, rap is just something that you do,\u201d said\u00a0Aashli Morgan<\/strong>, a senior communications studies student and a third-time volunteer for Hip Hop Appreciation Week.<\/p>\n

As a sophomore, she attended the\u00a0hip hop\u00a0class because it was fun and her friends were enrolled in it, as a junior she enrolled<\/p>\n

\"Dancing<\/a>
Hip Hop Appreciation Week 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and now she\u2019s back for round three as Gooding\u2019s teaching assistant.<\/p>\n

To be clear, they have nothing against rap, Gooding said. But Hip Hop Appreciation Week is all about\u00a0hip hop. They talk about how artists write songs that celebrate the humanity of everyone, including loved ones behind bars or those facing an early death; they analyze the symbolism behind words in much the same way English students analyze Emily Dickinson\u2019s poetry; they glean life lessons from the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Nas and debate where Tupac belongs in the conversation. (It\u2019s controversial.)\u00a0Hip hop\u00a0is not merely a form of entertainment, either for the artists or for their engaged audience. It is a way, Gooding said, for people whose voices have historically been silenced to stand up and say, \u201cThis is me. This is who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five elements of\u00a0hip hop<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hip hop\u00a0is comprised of five elements, all of which will be present on at least one day of Hip Hop Appreciation Week. Taken together, Gooding said, they offer hope and encouragement as well tell the stories of the artists and the origins of their communities. Each of them also showcases a kind of intelligence that isn\u2019t always noted in traditional circles.<\/p>\n

DJing<\/strong>: Some songs have 10-20 seconds of really great dance music\u2014music that was more animating, more instrumentation and really got people out on the dance floor. But traditionally, by the time the partygoers started dancing, that stretch of\u00a0song\u00a0was over. However, Gooding said\u00a0hip hop\u00a0DJs decided to put two record players together, playing 20 seconds on one, then switching over to the other while rewinding the first one. That 20 seconds of great dance music was suddenly two and a half minutes long. It seems simple, he said, but no one else had done it and it changed the face of party music.<\/p>\n

\"Freestyling<\/a>
Freestyling at Hip Hop Appreciation Week 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MCing<\/strong>: MC Supernatural once freestyled for nine hours and 15 minutes. All he had was a beat, and the world record-holder freestyle MC put together word combinations that rhymed, made sense and stayed on beat.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a different way of thinking about genius, Gooding said. The ability to freestyle isn\u2019t a typical measure of intellect, but a performer who can think up word combinations that make sense and rhyme and stick with a beat with no rehearsing beforehand\u2014and do it for nine hours\u2014is undeniably smart.<\/p>\n

Break dancing<\/strong>: Remember that part of a song that an innovative DJ figured out how to keep looping? That break period is when people were most stimulated by the sound and pulled out all their funky dance moves. Thus break dancing, or\u00a0bboying\u00a0and\u00a0bgirling,\u00a0were born.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not something that I just want to sit in my chair and tap my toe to,\u201d Gooding said. \u201cI want to get up and start spinning on my head. That\u2019s how energized the music makes them feel, and I think we should recognize the profound power of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Street art:<\/strong>\u00a0On Monday, dozens of artists will create beautiful images that describe themselves and their lives using only spray paint on canvas. Street or graffiti art is the outlet many inner-city artists found for their art. Gooding acknowledged graffiti can be destructive while asking another question:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you do when you are trapped in a concrete jungle and you don\u2019t have\u00a0canvas\u00a0to work with? What do you with when there\u2019s art inside of you?\u201d Gooding asked. \u201cPeople who reside in inner cities claim the place as their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowledge of self<\/strong>: The world can be confusing and difficult to navigate. This is especially true for people of color, Gooding said, who often find themselves in environments that in theory are just and fair but in practice often fall short of that. Pain, disappointment, grief\u00a0and\u00a0frustration can follow that cognitive dissonance.\u00a0Hip hop\u00a0music is full of positive and affirming messages\u2014You can do it. Somebody loves you. I remember you. The music often derided and stigmatized is actually providing hope to generations of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s one of the reasons it resonates with so many people all around the world,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the only way we can express ourselves fully and truly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an event worth attending, students said\u2014good enough that last year, after a nasty bout of stomach illness, Waddy went straight from the hospital just to watch a performance; good enough that Thompson, who has injured himself from the stress of break dancing, is willing to put his body through more to share his love of the art; good enough that Flores, despite her devotion to Hip Hop Appreciation Week, doesn\u2019t have the words to describe how good it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way to contextualize that kind of energy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For details about all the events, visit the\u00a0NAU Hip Hop Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0or follow the group on Twitter @NAUHipHop.<\/a><\/p>\n