Activities

Awareness

Each section of the resource contains a series of Extend your Thinking questions designed to challenge and extend your thinking on an issue. These questions can be used to focus the areas you might like to explore further, and also to help develop associated activities with your group. The information in each section can form the basis of your discussion, while the activity support and links page provide suggestions for further research and discovery.

You might like to look at how the themes can be expressed through each of the elements of Hip Hop and set practical activities to reinforce these.

For instance, an activity arising from Theme A to define 'unique identity' might encourage each person to develop their own mihi (formal Māori form of introduction) using the addition of Hip Hop elements to express their individual style and cultural background. Ancestors, family ties, place of origin, and symbols that uniquely reveal aspects of each person's background can be identified and introduced through rap, dance and graffiti. A B-boy/B-girl of Māori origin might incorporate the use of haka (Māori dance) into a performance, while someone whose ancestors originated in Austria might use the symbol of the Edelweiss flower within their graffiti piece.

Analysis

These suggestions provide examples of the more detailed research activities you can initiate within your group. They can be undertaken in small groups or as individual projects to be reported back to the group as a whole. They could be researched via the Internet, libraries and other resources, then presented in any chosen form (i.e. poster, mural, seminar, multimedia, dance, oral presentation, or rap). Our extensive links page could be a good place to start further research.

Choose one influential Hip Hop artist. Research and present a report that covers their life, style, and why this artist is important.

Choose one international artist and one local artist. Compare their styles and influences and how these reflect their cultural identity. Compare what they are trying to say (their messages).

Learn the origins of beat-boxing and discover why it plays such an important part in the history of Hip Hop. Host a beat-box battle.

Research the history of B-boying/B-Girling – its origins and influences. Pick out an influential break-dancer and research their background and philosophy. Do the same with one crew, and one local practitioner.

Profile one of the ‘old-school’ DJs', such as Afrika Bambataa or Grandmaster Flash.

  • How did they influence today’s DJs. Research the different techniques DJs use – try mixing your own tape.
  • Think about the samples you could use. What messages or people would you like to promote?
  • How do the particular samples you have chosen reflect your own thinking and identity? That of your group? Your society? What is it you would most like to say?

Research the different graffiti styles – from tags to wildstyle. Produce a sample of each style. Try versions using your own ideas and reflecting your own unique identity.

Map the role women have played in the evolution of Hip Hop.

  • Explore the way women are portrayed in music videos, lyrics, dance and graffiti art.
  • Identify positive female role models in the Hip Hop world and do research into their life and ideas.
  • Create a piece (using one of the elements) to promote more positive body images for women.

Analysing lyrics

Either individually, or in small groups, study the lyrics from a range of rap artists and compare them. Make sure you include local and international artists. Compare what each is trying to say – and how they say it.

  • What images do they use?
  • Do they promote certain companies, products or lifestyles?
  • Are they reinforcing stereotypes?
  • Do they use any poetic devices (rhyme, metaphor, alliteration etc)?
  • Who have they been influenced by? Do they use words specific to their own culture?
  • What style is used (boast raps, insult raps, news raps, identity raps, nonsense raps, party raps, gangsta raps etc)?  
  • What makes a powerful lyric work?

Hip Hop as poetry

Research some of the Hip Hop artists who have also written poetry (i.e. Tupac Shakur, Benjamin Zephaniah, Pacifika Poets) and compare their poetry to their Hip Hop lyrics.

  • What are the differences between them?
  • What makes poetry and musical lyrics so powerful?
  • Find traditional poetry that speaks about the same issues. How are they similar? Different?

Which do you prefer, and why?

  • Try writing your own poem – think about the messages you might like to share in it.
  • Organise a poetry/rap battle.

Make a diary You could use all the advertisements you see or hear over a week-long period.

  • Analyse who the advertiser is trying to target (who would buy the product?) and how they do this.
  • How do they target the youth audience?
  • What are the messages being expressed through the advertisements?
  • How do you feel about these messages?
  • How do they reflect (and affect) your society?

Examine how music videos are filmed Analyse how the filming techniques affect the message, selling-power and success or failure of the product. Produce your own music video, displaying the kinds of messages you would like to see promoted.

Sample Games

These are designed to help emphasise the key concepts of the resource.

Monopoly™

Play as per board game instructions but ‘load’ some players with extra money and the ability to change the rules with the agreement of other ‘loaded’ players. This is designed to illustrate the cycle of poverty and powerlessness often suffered by those who have been colonised or in the lowest stratums of a society (i.e. immigrants; women; children; elderly).

Players could also be given a ‘profile’ that affects their ability to play the game. For instance, an ‘elderly’ player may only be allowed $2000 in their account, after which they have to start paying 20% of everything above that to the ‘bank’ to support their health and welfare requirements; children may not be allowed to own property. gain, the game can be adapted further by giving players an identity (and associated issues), which may or may not help them move towards their goal. Because of the size of the board, players can physically ‘step’ their way through the game – using their own bodies as the markers.

This core activity can be adapted to extend over one, some, or all major thematic areas, in order to ground the resource's concepts in the real world. It is designed to flow from the personal experiences of the group, through to their wider society and out to provide a global perspective on each issue. The activity can be undertaken in small 'chunks', with additional aspects able to be added as each new section is undertaken. Each requires some initial research, plus exploration of each of the Hip Hop elements.

Global Hip Hop (1)

Use a website (i.e. Wikipedia on ‘Hip Hop’ or hiphop.directory.com or eagleson.com) to compile a list of countries where Hip Hop has developed its own unique style. Set individuals the task of researching one of these. Find examples of the music and play to the group – trying to guess where each piece of music originates. Create a large wall map or mural to illustrate these discoveries.

Discuss and explore such issues

  • The differences and similarities between the examples

  • Whether practitioners (artists, MCs, etc.) are ‘importing’ and mimicking American culture or have transformed Hip Hop to reflect their own country

  • The political and cultural background of each country, in order to more fully understand the place of Hip Hop within each culture

  • Whether Hip Hop is mainstream or underground in each country

  • How developed the ‘business’ of Hip Hop is in each country (and whether global corporations are holding the power)

The results from these exercises can be exhibited in a number of ways. As well as the wall map/mural, different aspects can be incorporated into dance routines, sample tapes, graffiti art, and lyrics that celebrate the global diversity of Hip Hop.

This same exercise can be repeated using break-dance and graffiti styles from different cultures – adding each new discovery to the wall map as more knowledge builds up. It can also be used to explore the different styles within each country – i.e. ‘Americanised’ Hip Hop vs. Indigenous Hip Hop.

Activity Support music samples, activity sheet and artist information

Hip Hop Timeline

The creation of timelines provides a huge range of possibilities to research and examine different aspects of global Hip Hop culture. Just type ‘Hip Hop Timelines’ into a search engine and you will find a wealth of places to start your research. sheet, images and artist information.

Additional ideas for timelines

As well as a basic timeline that marks the evolution of Hip Hop from the Bronx to present day, additional timelines and markers can be added that include:

  • timelines specific to each element – B-boying/B-girling, DJing, MCing, Graffiti/Aerosol art, and Fashion (i.e. the first graffiti appearing back in Roman times)
  • Hip Hop’s rise from underground movement to global mainstream industry
  • country specific timelines – your own country’s Hip Hop evolution (including dominant, indigenous, and immigrant cultures); other countrie's Hip Hop evolution (link to Global Hip Hop activity); the timing of Hip Hop’s spread around the globe
  • corresponding political and civil rights timelines that might have influenced Hip Hop’s evolution
  • focus on women in Hip Hop – when they first broke into the scene; arrival of specific artists or styles
  • the rise of the music industry – MTV, music videos, audience sizes, dollar value, etc.
  • the rise of product promotion and corporate control in Hip Hop
  • the evolution of Fashion within Hip Hop culture
  • the evolution of protest songs – international movements and/or country specific
  • the important cultural and social trends that have influenced a particular society’s Hip Hop culture (i.e. the ‘dawn raids’ of the 1970s in Aotearoa influencing the naming of ‘Dawn Raid Entertainment’)
  • Predictions about the future shape of Hip Hop (in timeline form).

Extending and expanding the timeline concept

This activity can be spread over its own timeline – building on each of the previous timelines to develop a comprehensive exploration that includes Hip Hop culture, geography, politics, economics, social studies, cultural perspectives… the scope is virtually limitless.

As well as depicting these timelines by mapping, writing and drawing, you can also encourage groups to take aspects of their discoveries and interpret them through the four elements of Hip Hop. These performances could take the form of group ‘battles’ and/or public performances or exhibitions (which have the added bonus of providing community education of the issues, and creating successful learning, self-esteem, and peer mentoring situations for those involved).

Quizzes could also be used as a learning tool. For example, a range of historical clips are played/viewed and the group has to guess where they would fit within the timeline.