The Black Arts Movement

Hip-hop has become a mainstream culture in youth today. It is a classic of music that contains both rap and break dancing. Hip-hop culture, originally from African Americans in the United States, has influenced many young generations. For example, there are many famous hip-hop artists who are supported by new generations, such as Jay-z, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem. However, there are some controversial arguments with hip-hop culture that has influenced youth culture by reinforcing bad behaviors, such as academic performance in school and drug use. Since hip-hop culture adopted the idea of subversion, an idea in popular culture, which is defined as a counter-culture attempt to change the status quo. The attempt of subversion makes many people seem

Larry Neal, the author of The Black Arts Movement in 1968, described the black arts movement as an aesthetic and spiritual sister of the black power concept. In the other words, he described that the black art movement should be a radical re-ordering of western cultural aesthetic which propose with separate symbolism, mythology, critique, and iconology. However, hip-hop was not the cultural counterpart to a larger of both political and economic movements of black people yet. Hip-hop as part of the African American history, it began in the early of the 1970s. Errol A. Henderson, the writer of Black Nationalism and Rap Music, has defined that hip-hop in the beginning as a synthesis of self-conscious poetry and music which direct to the Black Nationalist Last Poets, the albums called The Last Poets, Chastisement, This is Madness as a part of classics in the African American community. Before it has become a mainstream culture, hip-hop was known as underground movement which develop in the South Bronx in New York. It was also known as a subculture, or street culture. Later on, with the contribution from DL, J. Saddler who later known as Grand Master Flash, originated the “clock method” which refined and developed the breakbeats. With the continual development of street culture until today, hip-hop has become

Based from the stereotype of African Americans and their humble lyrics of hip-hop music, many families in the United States usually have the great concern of their children’s cognitive would be shaped by hip-hop culture. In the book, Balancing Acts: Youth Culture in the Global City, written by Natasha Kumar Warikii, a Harvard Professor, she reports that hip-hop culture has become “a global currency for status among urban youth.” She determined that she found no probable cause of hip-hop music with low academic performance. In other words, listening to hip-hop music would not degrade student’s performance in school. Also, in the article, Is Hip Hop Education Another Hustle? The (Ir)Responsible Use of Hip Hop as Pedagogy, it describes how hip-hop based education can be engaged with youth and increase their academic achievement. Author claims that hip-hop program of education is not a new phenomenon. During 1980s to 1990s, hip-hop has been used as a platform for instruction in history and the black power politics. Recently, hip-hop based education appears to be more formalized and structured. It used the rap songs and lyrics as curricular resources. One of the successful component of hip-hop based education is “Hip-Hop Saves Lives”, which let student write and record a song about any humanitarian or “hero”.