Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Hip-Hop "University"
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Fade Up//Studio Music.
9th: Okay, so what that does is, like its on track 6 7 8 so the full, if we leave it on top of each other, it kinda sounds cluttered, but if we? (Studio music starts playing)
Post at ?if we?
Fade music under following.
Jose: 9th Wonder is an acclaimed hip-hop producer, and a master at his craft.
You might think that we?re in a million dollar studio, but we?re actually in the old Biology building at North Carolina Central University. That?s where 9th has set up the student studio facility of the NCCU hip-hop initiative.
Fade in
9th:: that?s one of the first things I learned when I started recording....
Fade out
Jose: 9th collaborates with Kawachi Clemons, the founder of the hip hop initiative, the first program of its kind combining hip-hop and academia.
Clemons: (#11)We?re looking at creating an interdisciplinary program, is really what the hip hop initiative is where students from various majors can interact on a number of levels.
Jose: One key part of this is the student run record label, Eagle Records, a venture in which students are able to develop and produce hip-hop albums of their own. Like Clemons, 9th values the opportunity to pass on the legacy of hip-hop to a younger generation, an exchange he says his college experience lacked.
9th: 51 I would?ve loved to work with a producer that was actually in the game. Who gets that chance?
Jose: 9th Wonder received mainstream recognition after Jay-Z selected him to produce a track off The Black album. He then went on to produce tracks for artists like Destiny?s Child, Beyonce, and Mary J Blige. His work with Mary J on her album, The Breakthrough, has earned him a Grammy.
(Up/ Mary J song ?Good Woman Down,? at ?on her album?? Then under the following, out at ?Christopher Martin?:)
Jose: Mallison is a student in 9th?s Hip Hop in Context class, which 9th co-teaches with Kid & Play?s Christopher Martin.
Daniel: 41 I look forward to the Tuesday Thursday 1 o?clock class, come in there see 9th on the tables.
Jose: Imagine coming to class one day and interacting with a musical legend and superstar.
Daniel 33: and next thing you know, they were like well you know Run DMC, we were like yeah yeah, next thing you know they were like we?d like to welcome DMC, and dmc came walking right down the aisle in the auditorium and everybody jumped up in applause, and was like oh my god I can?t believe DMC is in the building.
Jose: The hip-hop initiative does more than dazzle its students with appearances from world-famous artists. Kawachi Clemons and his associates are also trying to use hip-hop as a tool to educate. Students complete courses on topics like music production, business, contracts, and copyright. They are expected to know the history of the music genre, and its cultural and economic significance. Clemons says the curriculum is guided by textbooks such as the Vibe History of Hip-Hop.
Kawachi 1: People have a tendency to think hip hop is what they see in commercials, MTV, BET. Hip hop started out as a means for children to get off the street.
Jose: Clemons says a rise in unemployment due to the national decline in the industrial trades caused many urban youth to turn to hip-hop as an artistic outlet. Students like Daniel are taught to recognize the roots of the art form.
Daniel 42: You?ll hear from where everybody started from, the beginning of def jam, Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons came together from NYU, making a studio in the college dorms... You have everything you need if you just use your head and make it happen, you can make it happen.
Jose: This year, the program has helped Mallison to get a summer internship with Def Jam Records, a major hip-hop label that is home to artists such as Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Daniel 44: And I feel like I have some valuable role models out here and I feel like its going to take me a long way.
Jose: Mallison also says that his ideas about hip-hop?s place in the world have changed.
Daniel (34): You see well, its not all about being in the street, some people have that mentality you have to be in the street slinging, you can also go the academic route and come out on top, you have to have your mind right.
Jose: For 9th the satisfaction comes from seeing students take these lessons to heart.
9th (53): We don?t need TV to tell us what hip-hop is. Hip-hop is 34 years old, anything that?s that old, well there?s a positive and negative history to it.
Jose: 9th and Clemons hope to see hip-hop initiatives start up at universities across the country. For next Generation Radio, I?m Jose Ho-Guanipa.
Fade in 9th Wonder produced song, Little Brother?s ?Haddizzle?
Post at ?For next generation radio?.
