In recent years, there has been a pronounced growth in scholarship which advocates for the use of... more In recent years, there has been a pronounced growth in scholarship which advocates for the use of hip hop in school instruction. In spite of significant concern over the negative messaging associated with hip hop, advocates of hip hop based pedagogy have persisted. One of the contentions made by advocates of hip hop based pedagogy is that “negative” lyrics represents a small portion of hip hop. This contention lacks face validity. It contradicts the lived experience of the authors and scholars advocating this position do so without empirical support. The aim of this article is to report findings of a study intended to determine the degree to which negative lyrics represents a small portion of hip hop. To evaluate this claim, 49 hip hop songs were randomly selected from the Billboard 100 Hot Rap Chart. The population database represented the top songs listed each week from January 2003 through June 2012. Selected songs were read and coded by six raters representing diverse ages, races, genders and socioeconomic statuses. Results indicated that across all raters, the lyrical content of the sample songs were overwhelming characterized as negative. The article concludes with implications for future research.
In recent years, there has been a pronounced growth in scholarship which advocates for the use of... more In recent years, there has been a pronounced growth in scholarship which advocates for the use of hip hop in school instruction. In spite of significant concern over the negative messaging associated with hip hop, advocates of hip hop based pedagogy have persisted. One of the contentions made by advocates of hip hop based pedagogy is that “negative” lyrics represents a small portion of hip hop. This contention lacks face validity. It contradicts the lived experience of the authors and scholars advocating this position do so without empirical support. The aim of this article is to report findings of a study intended to determine the degree to which negative lyrics represents a small portion of hip hop. To evaluate this claim, 49 hip hop songs were randomly selected from the Billboard 100 Hot Rap Chart. The population database represented the top songs listed each week from January 2003 through June 2012. Selected songs were read and coded by six raters representing diverse ages, races, genders and socioeconomic statuses. Results indicated that across all raters, the lyrical content of the sample songs were overwhelming characterized as negative. The article concludes with implications for future research.
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Papers by Jomo Mutegi