Hip Hop Archaeology (MS2105.01)

Brian Michael Murphy

Hip hop music producers have long practiced “diggin’ in the crates”—a phrase that denotes searching through record collections to find material to sample. In this course, we will examine the material and technological history of hip hop culture, with particular attention to hip hop’s tendency to sample, remix, mash-up, and repurpose existing media artifacts to create new works of art. We will use a media archaeological approach to examine the precise material conditions that first gave rise to graffiti art, deejaying, rapping, and breakdancing, and to analyze hip hop songs, videos, and films. Hip hop archaeology is a critical and artistic practice that seeks to interpret the layers of significance embedded in the artifacts of hip hop culture. How does hip hop archaeology remix the past, the present, and the future? How do the historical, political, and cultural coding of hip hop artifacts change as they increasingly become part of institutional collections, from newly established hip hop archives at Cornell and Harvard to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture?

Prerequisites: None.
Credits: 4
W 12:10pm - 2:00pm; F 12:10pm - 2:00pm
Maximum Enrollment: 20
Course Frequency:
This course is categorized as 2000, All courses, Brian Michael Murphy, CAPA, Four Credit, Media Studies, Music, Tuesday and/or Friday Afternoons, Wednesday Afternoons.