Welcome

This site is designed by teachers for teachers. It supplies a selection of Songs, Interviews, Videos, Lesson Plans, Poems, and Links to like-minded sites which facilitate using Hip-hop as a teaching tool and cultural lens to connect with modern-day students.

In the RESOURCES Tab you can use the search function to filter resources using the following key words:

Format	Language Features (Cont)	Language features	Social Issues	Social Issues (Cont)
Song	Allusion	Imagery	Race/Racist	Domestic violence
Website	Colloquial Language	Simile	Culture	Community
Interview	Emotive Language	Metaphor	Feminist	Education
Lesson plan	Bildungsroman	Slang	Masculinity	Stereotypes
Video	Contrast	Irony / Sarcasm	Misogyny	Role Model
Resource	Rhyme	Pun	Sexism	Status
Speech	Rhythm	Symbolism	Mental Health	History / Black History
Poem	Alliteration	Euphemism	Drugs	Critical
Links	Assonance	Rhetoric	Alcohol	African
	Realist	Wordplay	Depression	Institutional violence
	Allegory	Identity	Anxiety	Discrimination
	Personification	Euphemisms	Crime	Youth
	Hyperbole		Consumerism/ist	Social Media
			Poverty	Police Brutality
			Colonial	American Dream
			Migration	Injustice
			Women	Politics/Politician
			Exploitation	Cultural Appropriation
			Prison	Power
			Equality	Freedom
			Identity	Human Rights
			Relationships	Gender
			Materialism	Addiction
			Peer Pressure	Stress

Each resource has:

1. An offence rating which gives a broad indication of what to expect, however, teachers should appraise each before sharing with their students.
2. A link to Genius.com which is a fantastic interactive tool for studying lyrics – click on the highlighted text for explanations or add your own!
3. An embed video/song which will play with one click.
4. A blurb describing what the resource can be used for.
5. A comment section in which you can share what you found useful or challenging regarding a particular resource. If applicable, these comments will be added to the page periodically so that they too can be located by the search function.

In the LESSON TEMPLATES Tab you will find transferable Lesson Templates which demonstrate different ways that Hip-Hop Resources can be used.

Note: These are separate from the lesson plans which can be found (and searched for) in the RESOURCES Tab. These will focus on one topic or language feature. The LESSON TEMPLATES are designed to be transferable to various forms of lessons and topics.

In the FURTHER READING Tab is a collection of Peer Reviewed Articles, Books, Videos, Interviews, Films, and Websites which outline the pedagogical benefits and applications of Hip-Hop.

In the SUBMISSIONS / LICENCE Tab you can submit Resources which will beshared on the site, contact the site administrator, and view our Licencing Rules.

Lastly, here is a link to a highly sensible and well-grounded discussion on how to approach the challenging language and themes which Hip-Hop often presents in a classroom setting:

https://www.facinghistory.org/mockingbird/discussing-sensitive-topics-classroom

Hip-Hop’s Pedagogical Utility

Any good teacher wants their students to think critically, to doubt the world around them and desire to know more, to doubt their own beliefs and desire to know them better. Yet to this end, we bombard them with our knowledge and tell them to care enough to critique it. But in doing so we serve them the ultimate injustice, for we are indifferent to their knowledge. In doing so we allow them to become complacent with their own value’s, their own world view’s, and their own media literacy.

If we want students to be truly critical – not only of the world they have inherited, but also of the world in which they live – we must first acknowledge the validity of their world. In doing so we can begin a genuine dialog about the topics which they feel most deeply about. It is these topics which will draw student to class early. It is their topics which will deliver the ever-sought-after ‘by-in’. It is their views and beliefs which they were born to hold, remold, defend and abandon – not those of a past which they do not share; taught at the expense of their own present.

Within this site there are resources which may aid you in attempting to reach out to your own students; however, they cannot make up for poor relationships and must be taught in a respectful and honest way. If the idea of teaching through Hip-Hop scares you because the culture is foreign, seemingly-expansive, and wildly daunting – welcome to how your struggling students feel each day. But just like those students; you are not alone! Every morning when the bell rings millions of teachers around the world walk into a room alone and try and achieve the same goal – student engagement!

Please share your experiences and resources with us here so that we may teach and reach-out together.