Hip-hop popularity has grown in college communities in today’s generation and perhaps not only on iPods. Hip-hop is presently taught in universities all over the nation from a range of backgrounds, including cultural, sociological, and corporate.

However, for certain students, the link between their musical tastes and their educational ambitions stretches well beyond attending a couple of lessons or majoring in hip-hop. Hip-hop culture and fashion can be integral parts of such students’ personalities, influencing anything including how they communicate with their classmates to just how they handle their homework tasks.

The role of the teacher

Not every teacher has approved the use of hip hop in the classroom. For some, hip hop has for long been used to water down the efforts of gender equality activists who have wholeheartedly fought for the rights of women and total inclusivity. They could be right in their own view, but some teachers have embraced hip-hop culture and music in the classroom and have reported tremendous results.

One of the teachers is Cassie Crim of Joliet School, Illinois. When it was time to introduce Algebra to her math class, she played a stanza from the album Codack Yellow by Cardi B. The stanza was strategically relevant to the topic of the day because Cardi sang about ratios, algebra rules, choosing, and not getting comfortable. It was a strong base that helped her introduce her day’s topic.

Research paper writing assistance

Hip hop is one of the most researched music genres. Having been embraced by most university students, no wonder many find it easy to research the topic. The use of hip-hop in college has been embraced by some teachers as a tool in college teaching and learning.

However, most of them do not see the idea as fitting in a learning institution. If you want your hip-hop research to be perfect, get writing help from a research paper writing service. I often visit the Study Clerk website and request them to write my research paper – the process of buying research paper is intuitive and quite simple. This unburdens me of the rigorous work assignments from college and I use that time to focus on extra-curriculars that I love.

Rapping to learn

As per Nielsen Music’s recent survey, hip hop remained America’s dominant and influential music genre. It creates a reason for teachers to include hip hop to target students who may not possibly find a topic interesting. Many teachers are currently following this route.

According to the survey, students will understand better when they rap the concepts, formulas, and vocabularies.

A major in hip hop?

Some universities are already offering degree programs in Hip-hop culture. A student can take the degree as a major. Some other colleges are offering certificate or diploma courses in hip-hop music and culture. They learn the history of hip-hop, its culture, its influence in the entertainment industry, and composition.

Hip-hop collegians 

Hip-hop collegians form a community of students who write and produce hip-hop music in their unique way and use its influences and tunes as a learning tool. The collegians are changing other student’s mindsets on how they view rap and hip-hop culture. As they dance their cool rap, play the beats, and rhyme, the influence is helping students positively embrace the music.

Improved student engagement 

By applying some of hip-hop’s aesthetics and concepts, students report improved classroom engagement, better concentration during study and assignment time. Some of the aesthetics engaged are sampling, where they selectively pick the useful content like sounds, movements, and ideas and use it to aid learning.

Kinetic consumption is another aesthetic where the student is required to feel the power/effect of the music and flow with it as they study. The final one is the hip-hop academic skills set which is a belief that when a student is committed to hip-hop, they develop other skills like fluency of speech, good memory, better performance in technical subjects, and perfection in learning.

The sampling effect

Hip-hop sampling by the collegians has had its good and bad side. By sampling, students use several sources of knowledge and compare them against each other. In one way, it helps them comprehend learning better. On the other hand, it has a negative effect when they compare the system of education with other ‘natural systems. In this case, they find the formal education lacking vigor and become skeptical about it.

Conclusion

The roots of hip-hop culture and music are deep in American society, especially among the youth. The music genre has continually taken a top position in almost every annual survey on music. Its use in the learning institutions is evidence of the importance of the genre to the students and the educationists.

Author’s Bio:

Vendy Adams works for an online marketing agency where she heads the SEO campaigns and content writing division for Fortune 500 companies. As a side gig, she freelances as an academic writer and editor for students who need help in their college education. In her free time, she loves to shoot cooking videos for YouTube, read finance magazines and play lawn tennis.