DANCE AND HIP HALL HOP CONNECTED TO ACADEMIA
Columbia University professor shares recipe
DURING THE launch of Science Genius Jamaica at the Knutsford Court Hotel on February 22, Professor Christopher Emdin, author of Urban Science Education for the Hip-hop Generation and founder of the Science Genius project, was able to fully express his passion of, and the motivation behind using music, particularly hip-hop and now dancehall, as a tool for scientific learning.
In an effort to bridge the gap between dancehall and academia, Emdin has adjusted his Science Genius US, a programme that challenges grade nine students to express scientific theories, practise and understanding through writing hiphop songs, but for Jamaican receptors.
After numerous visits to Jamaica, Emdin told The Sunday Gleaner, that he became acutely aware of parallels in the socio-economic issues in the inner cities of New York and those on the island.
NATURAL SENSE
“The same issues around underachievement and struggling in schools with the young people who connect to dancehall that you can connect to hip-hop, it makes natural sense that you use this tool to connect them back to their education,” he said.
“In fact, I have Jamaican lineage and roots on my mother’s side. My family is in Port Antonio. The connection to dancehall and to Jamaican runs really deep for me,” Emdin told The Sunday Gleaner.
“It’s an island that really has the potential to transform the globe, in creating a musical artefact. I’m a dancehall fan. It’s not just an arbitrary connection.”
He continued, “I am a student of it as well.
“If you look at the history of hip-hop, you have to know dancehall as well. As a person who has used hip-hop successfully, I want to trace back the lineage of hip-hop, and the origins always come back to Jamaica, through Kool Herc.”
DJ Kool Herc, real name Clive Campbell, is called the founding father of hip hop. He is said to have developed a technique in mixing records that became the blueprint for hip hop music. Born in Kingston, Campbell emigrated to the Bronx.
SALE PREVENTED
In 2008, New York state officials prevented the sale of the apartment building where DJ Kool Herc developed his sound in the summer of 1973. Now, 1520 Sedgewick Avenue is declared the “birthplace of hip hop”, and has been nominated to US, national and state historic registers.
“So to be able to do hip hop justice, you have to understand where hip hop came from,” Emdin said.
Science Genius began four years ago, the brainchild of Professor Emdin, and with his recognition of the origins of hiphop, believes he can make a similar impact with the project in Jamaica.
“We are going to reclaim our education by using a culture that is ours, that you told us has no value,” he said during the launch.
“It’s like my dream has come true,” Donna Hope told The Sunday Gleaner, “because a lot of the work that I’ve been talking about is advocating for us to see the value in dancehall, value for the young people. I’m very excited by the Jamaica National initiative.
“I’m sure it will only have positive results and can only be seen as a positive move in terms of how dancehall can be used for the young people, who are very excited and very connected to this tone of popular culture.”