Kid 'n' Play alum now teaches history of hiphop

Christopher Martin — formerly "Play" of the '80s hiphop duo Kid 'n Play — is now teaching a class called "Hip Hop in Context" at North Carolina Central University. ABC News posted a video essay by Martin about his history, and the class, here. The university hosted a HipHop Summit earlier this year, "[offering] a scholarly approach to the music form that university officials believe could provide new opportunities to at risk males, better prepare students for industry careers and serve as a vehicle for creating successful experiences in educating youth." (Thanks, Zach Fanning)

Reader comment: Colleen Muldoon says,

I just read the post, "Kid 'n' Play alum now teaches history of hiphop", and read "the music form that university officials believe could provide new opportunities to at risk males." At risk males? Isn't that just reincforcing the concept that hiphop is only for black gangsters in ghettos, or as put, "at risk males"? I'm sorry I couldn't phrase it better, but I hope you get what I mean.

Robert Gale says,

I don't see the problem with the university's word choice. The view
that hip-hop is only for gangsters is not problematic because it
exclusively connects the two, but because it puts hip-hop in a
negative light. This program, and the university's phrasing, doesn't
negate the connection between "at risk youth" and hip-hop, but rather
redefines that connection. The program and its publicity allows
people to see how hip-hop can be a positive force in violent,
low-income neighborhoods. Even better, this class will most certainly
teach how hip-hop historically has been a positive force in low-income
neighborhoods: no history of hip-hop is complete without stories of
Afrika Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation's efforts for "at risk youth."

Strand says,

The Sound of Young America, mentioned in a recent Hodgmania post has an excellent podcast episode with Killer Mike, a rapper and entrepeneur who has toured with Outkast. He was an at risk male. In the podcast he talks extensively about how rap gave him an out when life had given him few options.

[at 27:10 in the podcast]
"Well The only people that seemed to care about the world to me were rappers. Public Enemy, NWA with "F the Police," Ice T with Power and later on The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech…Just watch What You Say So if it wasn't for these revolutionary teenagers at the time being willing to simply say "Hey, the emperor has on no clothes," to be like that little boy in that play they take you to when your a kid. If rap hadn't had the courage to do that, I don't know where I'd be today. So rap was my friend."

While it would be absurd to say that rap and hip-hop is only for black males, it would be hard to deny how powerfully it speaks to "at risk males," black or otherwise.

Tinyfrogs says,

I've lived in Chapel Hill, next door to Durham, for 6 years. NCCU (it's an HMU) serves the large black community in Durham, and though most of the town is middle-class, there are some poor areas with significant gang violence (that spills over to clubs in Chapel Hill a couple of times a year). Durham also has a small but vibrant and growing rap scene. I think it's fantastic that NCCU is doing something to serve the poorest communities of Durham in a culturally relevant way, which is a lot more than Duke has been willing to do. That class alone could give a lot of gangsters a reason to enroll at Central, and thus, a means of escaping the gang life.