Adding to a discussion on Hiphop Literacies
I love serendipity!
While I was skimming through recent tweets last night after class, I came across what I thought is a great addition to the conversation we were having on Hiphop Literacies by Elaine Richardson. Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) is a pretty impressive person. After graduating from NYU, he was a writer for 30 Rock (when he was only 23) where he won an Emmy and was given the Writers Guild of America Award. A lot of people know him for his role as Troy on Community, but he is also a master of stand up. In addition to all of this, he is also Childish Gambino - his rapper stage name, who has written, recorded, and produced several self-released albums and signed to Glassnote Records in 2011. His most recent albumen was the fourth highest selling hiphop album this year. He is only 31 years old. <He makes me feel lazy…>
Getting to the point: On Twitter, he shared a link to an amazing blog entry (the graphics and design on this are some of the coolest I've seen) that included some links to interviews. As you can see in the screenshot from his blog (the green picture), the text around the links indicates that there was some kind of controversy surrounding something he said in the interviews.
So, of course, I watched the interviews, and a lot of what was discussed aligns with our conversation last night. In this "controversial" discussion, Donald and the radio DJs talk about what they perceive to be the original goal of hip hip (around minute 3:25 in the video below), how different bodies are perceived in our culture (9:30), Twitter activism (17:00), the possible conspiracy of white privilege (18:10), the role of rappers in our culture and the "real" audience of hiphop (22:00), the term "new black" and using capitalism against dominant culture (28:00), and more.
While I was skimming through recent tweets last night after class, I came across what I thought is a great addition to the conversation we were having on Hiphop Literacies by Elaine Richardson. Donald Glover (AKA Childish Gambino) is a pretty impressive person. After graduating from NYU, he was a writer for 30 Rock (when he was only 23) where he won an Emmy and was given the Writers Guild of America Award. A lot of people know him for his role as Troy on Community, but he is also a master of stand up. In addition to all of this, he is also Childish Gambino - his rapper stage name, who has written, recorded, and produced several self-released albums and signed to Glassnote Records in 2011. His most recent albumen was the fourth highest selling hiphop album this year. He is only 31 years old. <He makes me feel lazy…>
Getting to the point: On Twitter, he shared a link to an amazing blog entry (the graphics and design on this are some of the coolest I've seen) that included some links to interviews. As you can see in the screenshot from his blog (the green picture), the text around the links indicates that there was some kind of controversy surrounding something he said in the interviews.
So, of course, I watched the interviews, and a lot of what was discussed aligns with our conversation last night. In this "controversial" discussion, Donald and the radio DJs talk about what they perceive to be the original goal of hip hip (around minute 3:25 in the video below), how different bodies are perceived in our culture (9:30), Twitter activism (17:00), the possible conspiracy of white privilege (18:10), the role of rappers in our culture and the "real" audience of hiphop (22:00), the term "new black" and using capitalism against dominant culture (28:00), and more.
The reading, class discussion, interview, and my own reflections are creating some meaningful connections that I am pretty excited about.