Educators use hip-hop as bridge to learning

Nielsen Music has long been at the forefront of tracking musical success, and its annual reports make waves in the industry. The 2017 year-end review was especially significant, finding that rap had surpassed rock as the most popular music genre in the United States.

The news was relevant for record labels, as well as corporations that utilize hiphop culture to market their products. The implications can also reach into the classroom, where many students are engrossed in the music scene.

At least, that was the thinking of educators and music producers John Robinson and Jason Rawls (who goes by “J. Rawls” professionally), whose new book, “Youth Culture Power: A #Hiphoped Guide to Building Teacher-student Relationships and Increasing Student Engagement,” was released last month.

“Taking kids’ youth culture, taking what they love and using that to help foster education, is an important milestone,” said Rawls, who works in Columbus City Schools as an internship coordinator and is known for his musical work with acts such as Mos Def and Talib Kweli. “It’s not a new concept, but it’s new to education because education is very slow to embrace change.”

To help spread their message in another way, Rawls, 45, of Pickerington, and Robinson — a 43-year-old emcee and teaching artist in

New York City Public Schools — also created a “Youth Culture Power” companion album under JAYARE, the hip-hop group they founded in 2009.

The artists will perform selections from the album and previous projects on Saturday at 2X2 Fest, a hip-hop festival in the Hilltop. The next day, they will give a music-industry lecture as part of the new 2x2 E.D.U. event at Close Quarters Social Gaming Club.

The book is a combination of Rawls’ scholarly research — he holds a doctorate in educational administration from Ohio University — and the pair’s personal experience in the classroom.

Teachers who are versed in the culture can apply that knowledge to their lessons plans. For example, Robinson recalled using modern “rap beefs” in a history lecture about world wars. He also encourages students to create songs and other cultural art forms around the educational material to help with retention.

Teachers can facilitate hip-hop-based education even if they are new to the culture — no rapping required. Instead, they can encourage students to exercise their analytical skills by breaking down lyrics.

“It’s us trying to get to that point where students have a voice,” said Rawls, who emphasized that coaches and community leaders also can benefit from the methodology. “This is not just for teachers; it’s for anybody who deals with young people.”

Many of the concepts of youth culture pedagogy boil down to just building caring relationships with students and drawing on their experiences and knowledge. For example, the book includes a chapter about encouraging and actively listening to “classroom chatter.”

“That was something that I did regularly,” Robinson said. “Instead Jason Rawls is co-author of “Youth Culture Power”

of saying, ‘Quiet down,’ I would just let them talk and listen and actually pull from that. If someone wasn’t having such a great day, if someone’s watching the NBA Finals, if someone’s interested in the new movie … allow them to see, ‘He’s on the same page as us, but not only that, he actually values and cares about the things that we’re into.’”

Rawls said the book is especially useful for serving black and brown youth, who are often the most marginalized.

“But it applies to everybody,” he said. “We had somebody say, ‘Well, my kids aren’t into hip-hop. I can't use this.’ Yes, you can. Do they play video games? Do they skateboard? Reach into their culture. What do the kids in that room do?”

To invest in youth culture is to recognize that young people are often the drivers of innovation in the world, Robinson added.

“A lot of you are ignoring them because they don’t look the way that you think they should or they don’t translate the way that you think they should,” Robinson said. “When

you hear the word hiphop, don’t just think about young people making music, jumping around, being irresponsible. Think about the cultural connections and currency that (have) taken the world by storm.”

Instructors and other adults can learn these same concepts from the “Youth Culture Power” album, with tracks corresponding to chapters of the book and featuring sound bites from educators and scholars.

Rawls likens it, in a way, to his own experience growing up listening to pioneering hip-hop groups such as Public Enemy.

“They had sound bites from black revolutionary leaders,” he said. “That was the first time I even heard of some of these people because I’m sitting in school in Columbus, Ohio. They’re not giving you a class on Malcolm X (here). He’s not even mentioned.”

But listeners should not expect a dull lecture over hip-hop beats; it’s still a rap album that is meant to be appreciated on a purely musical level.

“We wanted this music to sound as if we were sharing this with our audience of listeners over the last two decades,” Robinson said, emphasizing the duo’s signature, jazzinfused sound. “They can enjoy it as just an album. … We wanted it to feel good.”