AFST220

In this course, students will examine the grassroots artistic and cultural movement known as Hip Hop. Students will examine the origins of Hip Hop in Working-class African-American and Caribbean communities in the South Bronx in the 1970s. Students will explore the various artistic elements of Hip Hop and its expansion to communities around the country and world.
Students will pay close attention to the relationship between Black Power, immigration, and urban decline and the early development of Hip Hop. Students will also seek to understand why and how Hip Hop became a big business with global reach and popularity by the 1990s. Students
will pay close attention to the relationship between Hip Hop and globalization and its social, cultural, political, and economic impact on the United States and around the world. Students will seek to understand how the commercialization and globalization of Hip Hop destabilized and reconfigured racial, gender, ethnic, and sexual identities, and fueled social and political movements in the U.S. and around the world.