Unit 1. Thinking Sociologically about Hip Hop

Week 1

1/28: Course Introduction

• No Readings

1/30: What is Hip Hop?

• Hebdige – Rap and Hip-Hop: The New York Connection

Week 2

2/4-2/6: Thinking Sociologically

• The Conservative War on Hip Hop
• Gould & Lewis – The Sociological Imagination (password-protected)
• In Class Film: Fear of A Black Hat

Week 3

2/11-2/13: Researching Hip Hop: Breaking down Billboard

• How The Hot 100 Became America’s Hit Barometer
• Lewis- Theory & Methods (password-protected)

Week 4

2/18-2/20: Hip Hop: The Culture

• Johnson – Culture, Symbols, Ideas and the Stuff of Life (password-protected)
• Berlinger- How Hip-Hop Fashion Went from the Streets to High Fashion (password-protected)

Week 5

2/25-2/27: Hip Hop: The Organizational Field

• The Year That Changed Hip Hop Forever
• Negus – The Business of Rap (password-protected)

Week 6

3/3-3/5: Hip-Hop: The Institution

• Johnson – The Structures of Social Life (password-protected)
• Braine – Social Institutions (password-protected)

Unit 2. Capitalizing on Hip-Hop Culture

Week 7

3/10-3/12: Capitalism & Commodification

• Watkins – Black Youth & the Ironies of Capitalism (password-protected)
• Marx – Fetishism of Commodities (password-protected)
  • Read pages 1-4 stopping before paragraph on Robinson Crusoe

Week 8

3/17-3/19: Commercialization

• Blair – Commercialization of the Rap Music Youth Subculture (password-protected) 

Week 9

3/24-3/26: Authenticity & Identity

• Samuels- The Rap on Rap: The Black Music That Isn’t Either (password-protected)
• Broadcasting Badness: Violence, Identity, and Performance in the Online Gang Rap Scene (password-protected)
• Assignment: Slack Check #1- 3/27

Unit 3. Power in Representation: Identity, Space, Place

Week 10

3/31-4/2: Spatialization

• Cottom- Reading Hick Hop (password-protected)
• Trap Music in Atlanta

Week 11-12

SPRING BREAK (4/7-4/16)

Week 13

4/21-4/23: The Politics of Identity

• Fink – Negotiating Authenticity & Ethnicity in Tokyo’s Club Harlem (password-protected)
• Perullo – Hooligans and Heroes: Youth Identity & Hip-Hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (password-protected)
• Assignment: Slack Check#2- 4/24

Week 14

11/18-11/20: Gender & Sexuality

• “Trappin’ Ain’t Shit to Me”: How Undergraduate Students Construct Meaning Around Race, Gender, and Sexuality within Hip-Hop (password-protected)
• Morgan- Hip Hop Feminist (password-protected)

Week 15

5/5-5/7: 

Week 16

5/12-5/14: In Class Exam Review

FINAL EXAM (5/19)