As a social worker in a public elementary school, I see how deeply hip-hop is embedded in my students’ interactions and culture. I see it when they’re dancing or reciting lyrics to a hip-hop song, when they give each other a fist bump, when they use slang, and when they think of something on the fly or outside the box. Even in moments when students roast each other, it demonstrates their cleverness and knowledge of each other. Since hip-hop is infused in the way my students communicate, I saw an opportunity to build literacy and social-emotional growth through a hip-hop program. In my experience as a student and social worker, hip-hop has been used to transcend racial and ethnic boundaries and can bridge students’ lived realities with their classroom learning. Literacies are embedded in our culture and the way students choose to express themselves is a way of asserting and representing their identities. It’s important that we honor and celebrate the diverse ways students communicate. When we bring hip-hop culture into students’ learning, they don’t have to change their style or where they come from. Students can use their language, invent their own words, and be who they want to be. Hip-hop pedagogy can keep students enthused and engaged in their learning and is an accessible way for them to feel deeply and begin to play with language.
In our common schooling philosophy we start from what we are told to think rather than what we feel from our experience. Hip-hop pedagogy shifts the approach from simply reciting the correct answer to fundamentally connecting students to their life experience and what they know and can talk about. In this way, hip-hop pedagogy extends students’ experience-based knowledge to life skills, academic skills, and the development of symbolic language. Music connects both sides of the brain, bringing together our intuitive and nonverbal abilities with our logic and language-based skills. When students experience positive emotions such as joy and confidence, it enhances memory, cognition, and learning.[i] Music makes emotion tangible and can foster emotional awareness in students who may struggle to identify or express what they’re feeling. As students simultaneously listen to and read the words of a song, they understand the meaning and themselves in new ways. Music gives us common ground and common language. It helps motivate us, helps us celebrate our wins, and comforts us in difficult times. It helps us define who we are and tell our life stories. It provides perspective when life gets hard.
In our traditional education system, we wait until middle and high school for electives, student choice, and feedback. Instead of protecting and fostering children’s innate creativity, passion, and opinions, we suppress their brilliance and enthusiasm, and then expect students later in their education to imagine other possibilities, argue their viewpoints, and direct the course of their education. Students become empowered to make responsible decisions when they’re challenged to navigate problems through experimentation and practice. Hip-hop in early education is one way to prioritize creative, dynamic, culturally responsive teaching and cultivate students’ natural curiosity through collaboration, movement, and play.
There is growing use of hip-hop based programs in secondary education like that by We Do It 4 the Culture; however, there is a notable absence of these methods in early childhood education.[ii] Research indicates that establishing a strong literacy foundation prior to 4th grade is crucial for life-long success, making culturally relevant material at the start of students’ literacy development essential. Failure to read proficiently by the end of 3rd grade is linked to long-term adverse health outcomes, higher rates of school dropout, underemployment, lower earning potential, incarceration, and continued cycles of poverty.[iii][iv] Hip-hop pedagogy can play a pivotal role in fostering the early literacy and social-emotional skills students need for success.
For students of color living in poverty especially, there is a mismatch between the cultural environment of school and what they experience at home and in the wider world. In many ways, students are expected to leave part of their identities at the door, including the way they speak, dress, express themselves, relate to one another, generate ideas, and learn. Students learn best when they feel respected and understood and can be themselves. Young students in particular need trusting and safe relationships to thrive and learn. When elementary school students have space to share their voice and know it’s valued in the classroom, they feel more connected to the teacher and content.[v][vi][vii] Hip-hop pedagogy recognizes the educator and students as learning from each other and connecting across their cultural experiences. Hip-hop pedagogy allows teachers to consider and respond to students’ perspectives and give students agency to shape their learning. This in turn develops trust and confidence for students to take risks, not be afraid to make mistakes, and share their unique knowledge.
Hip-hop pedagogy recognizes that all learning occurs relationally, and invites deep, impactful relationships by centering students as collaborating in their education. In this model, students aren’t just imparted with knowledge, but teachers are also changed and gain knowledge from their students. Educators may find at times that they know less than their students and have to be open to students’ perspectives and what’s happening in their cultural environments. In this way, learning occurs from student to teacher as well as teacher to student and between students. Hip-hop pedagogy requires teachers to be open to grow, adapt, and change based on students’ learning styles, needs, and knowledge. It recognizes that students are experts in their own culture and are participants in cultural change as they bring new language, styles, and ways of communicating into being. This process of reinvention and experimentation is representative of hip-hop creation at its core.
Hip-hop is often critiqued because of inappropriate language and topics, and while some artists promote violence and harmful speech, many more use lyrics to name and resist the systemic and interpersonal harm they experience. These topics are not unknown to our students: they see them every day in their own lives and communities. Bringing powerful songs into the classroom offers students the opportunity to wrestle with these same issues and become empowered to make change and speak out against injustice. Hip-hop can develop self and community awareness through the three guiding principles of checkin’ yo self, flipping the script, and testifyin.[viii] Through checkin’ yo self, students become more mindful, think before speaking and acting, and see themselves as connected to a larger community; through flipping the script, students look beyond dominant narratives and discover new insights; and in testifyin’, students develop the ability to respond to and address forms of oppression through their experiences and perspectives[ix].
Using hip-hop lyrics in the classroom can also model and inform students’ writing.[x][xi] Through analyzing lyrics, students can develop an understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in meaning. The literary elements of hip-hop are unique because the genre is dynamic, fast, and more packed with lyrics than any other musical genre. In a single song, the artist may take the same theme and apply it to different contexts, adding layers of meaning and interpretation. In well-written songs, there’s a mix between double entendres, simple lines, and repetition.
In one lesson from my program, students explore how imagination shapes our communities by creating a lyric-based Mad Lib that draws on their experiences and ideas. The activity uses lyrics from the song “Imagine” by Common, but students replace key sections with their own words. In the process, they express themselves and build knowledge of parts of speech and rhetorical devices like similes and allusions.
Imagine layers in the game where we all players
No more ___________ or police car chasing
(verb ending in -ing)
Imagine life that bring us ____________ type of singers
(a singer you like)
Life is greener on this side, the beauty that we see
Be coming from inside, imagine if
You a _______ and she a ________
(dream job) (dream job)
We no longer __________ or ____________
(forms of oppression or racism)
Clean water coming out of Flint’s faucets, it’s awesome
Not being ___________ but got ____________
(negative adj.) (same adj. with a positive spin)
Original line: Not being petty but got petty cash
Hip-hop is a form that is constantly evolving with the culture, reinventing language, and finding new ways for stories to be crafted, felt, and understood. Hip-hop can help students push beyond the limits of their comprehension because they understand words and meanings within the context of rhythm and beat. Hip-hop can be complex, filled with metaphor and stories, while single lines may be more logical and straightforward, combining higher level thinking with familiar concepts. Hip-hop is a rich source of learning that can support students’ insight, encourage their excitement, and welcome the genuineness that they bring to their values, preferences, and interests.
Hip-hop also has a long legacy of celebrating students’ cultural heritage. Hip-hop pays homage to earlier musicians, makes use of cultural references, and comments on historical and current events. Students can explore these aspects when they create their own beats through sampling.
For example, Rapsody’s “Laila’s Wisdom” samples Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted and Black,” while Joey Bada$$’s “Brooklyn’s Own” is an ode to Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace. This track evokes “One More Chance,” with a hook that re-imagines Mary Jane’s “Girls All Night Long,” one of the most sampled songs in ‘90s hip-hop. Students can analyze the lyrics in “Laila’s Wisdom” and “Brooklyn’s Own” while also learning that sampling is one way artists honor earlier musicians. Students can also dive deeply into sound production by manipulating rhythm and melody through Nas’s “Made You Look (Instrumental),” a song which draws from history by sampling both the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache” and Fat Joe and Big Pun’s “John Blaze.” Students can see how genres like R&B also use elements and samples from hip-hop. For instance, The Honey Drippers’ “Impeach The President” uses the beat from MC Shan’s classic hip-hop track “The Bridge.”
The transformative power of hip-hop lies in its potential to create original and vibrant forms of knowledge. Hip-hop pedagogy honors students’ unique identities and perspectives and can foster learning and engagement in the classroom. Hip-hop helps students communicate across experiences and speak out against injustice. Hip-hop has the ability to build literacy, help students gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others, and facilitate self and community expression. Hip-hop can serve as a foundational tool in early education because it connects students’ learning to what they’re feeling and experiencing. Hip-hop says I’m speaking my truth and generating knowledge from my experience. Hip-hop recognizes us in our full humanity by seeing us as imperfect and flawed, passionate and radiant, and allowing us to tell our stories.
[i] Immordino‐Yang, Mary Helen, and Antonio Damasio. “We Feel, Therefore We Learn: The Relevance of Affective and Social Neuroscience to Education.” Mind, brain, and education 1, no. 1 (2007): 3-10.
[ii] Love, Bettina L. “What is Hip-Hop-Based Education Doing in Nice Fields such as Early Childhood and Elementary Education?.” Urban Education 50, no. 1 (2015): 106-131.
[iii] Hernandez, Donald J. “Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation.” Annie E. Casey Foundation (2011).
[iv] Fiester, Leila. “Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters. KIDS COUNT Special Report.” Annie E. Casey Foundation (2010).
[v] Hains, Bryan J., Janela Salazar, Kristina D. Hains, and John C. Hill. “If You Don’t Know, Now You Know: Utilizing Hip-Hop Pedagogy as a Tool for Promoting Change in Students and Community.” Journal of Education 201, no. 2 (2021): 116-125.
[vi] Immordino‐Yang, Mary Helen, and Antonio Damasio. “We Feel, Therefore We Learn: The Relevance of Affective and Social Neuroscience to Education.” Mind, brain, and education 1, no. 1 (2007): 3-10.
[vii] Tyng, Chai M., Hafeez U. Amin, Mohamad NM Saad, and Aamir S. Malik. The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, (2017): 1454–1454.
[viii] Okello, Wilson. “‘Who’s Got Bars?’: Remixing Intergroup Dialogue Pedagogy through Hip-Hop Feminism.” Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity (JCSCORE) 6, no. 2 (2020): 61–93.
[ix] Okello, Wilson. “‘Who’s Got Bars?’: Remixing Intergroup Dialogue Pedagogy through Hip-Hop Feminism.” p. 85–89.
[x] Hall, H. Bernard. “Deeper than Rap: Expanding Conceptions of Hip-Hop Culture and Pedagogy in the English Language Arts Classroom.” Research in the Teaching of English51, no. 3 (2017): 341-350.
[xi] McLaurin, Trent, and Kimberly E. Lewinski. “Departments: Perspectives on Practice: Bringing Hip Hop Culture into the Classroom: Hip Hop Lyrics as Mentor Text.” Language Arts, 101(1), (2023): 53–57.
Bibliography
Fiester, Leila. “Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters. KIDS COUNT Special Report.” Annie E. Casey Foundation (2010). https://assets.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/AECF-Early_Warning_Full_Report-2010.pdf
Hains, Bryan J., Janela Salazar, Kristina D. Hains, and John C. Hill. “If You Don’t Know, Now You Know: Utilizing Hip-Hop Pedagogy as a Tool for Promoting Change in Students and Community.” Journal of Education 201, no. 2 (2021): 116-125. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022057420904368
Hall, H. Bernard. “Deeper than Rap: Expanding Conceptions of Hip-Hop Culture and Pedagogy in the English Language Arts Classroom.” Research in the Teaching of English 51, no. 3 (2017): 341-350. https://doi.org/10.58680/rte201728979
Hernandez, Donald J. “Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation.” Annie E. Casey Foundation (2011). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED518818.pdf
Immordino‐Yang, Mary Helen, and Antonio Damasio. “We Feel, Therefore We Learn: The Relevance of Affective and Social Neuroscience to Education.” Mind, brain, and education 1, no. 1 (2007): 3-10. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-228X.2007.00004.x
Love, Bettina L. “What is Hip-Hop-Based Education Doing in Nice Fields such as Early Childhood and Elementary Education?.” Urban Education 50, no. 1 (2015): 106-131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085914563182
McLaurin, Trent, and Kimberly E. Lewinski. “Departments: Perspectives on Practice: Bringing Hip Hop Culture into the Classroom: Hip Hop Lyrics as Mentor Text.” Language Arts, 101(1), (2023): 53–57. https://doi.org/10.58680/la202332601
Okello, Wilson. “‘Who’s Got Bars?’: Remixing Intergroup Dialogue Pedagogy through Hip-Hop Feminism.” Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity (JCSCORE) 6, no. 2 (2020): 61–93. https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2642-2387.2020.6.2.60-93
Tyng, Chai M., Hafeez U. Amin, Mohamad NM Saad, and Aamir S. Malik. The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, (2017): 1454–1454. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01454