1. List the four core elements of hip-hop culture, which Edward’s book tells us Fab Five Freddy and Charlie Ahearn claim to have brought together for the first time in Wild Style, and Afrika Bambaataa claims to have brought together first with the Universal Zulu Nation:
2. What song is considered the first conscious hip-hop song, and what is problematic about the way that song was created and produced?
3. What specific musical technique did Kool Herc invent and debut at a block party in 1973, thus earning himself the title of “father of hip-hop”?
4. True or False: Michael Eric Dyson argues that, because hip hop is an African-American form, only black folks are entitled to interpret or write about hip hop culture: __

Short Essay Question: 60 points
Roughly 2 paragraphs, double-spaced

Michael Eric Dyson’s chapter one, “How Real is This,” described a series of “divides” (_ vs. __), or “fights over authenticity” that exist in hip hop culture today. Dyson suggests that these divides are really debates over “what is best seen as black.” That debate is most obvious in the divide between geocentric black culture vs. bourgeois Negro expression, which Dyson describes as “… representing the authentic character of black people as noble and edifying and enlightened – versus the streets that expressed the ‘basest’ element of African American culture” (7).

Pointing to specific sections in Dyson (via quoting and paraphrasing), discuss this comedy sketch from Key and Peele, which parodies this divide between the “noble and edifying” rappers and the “street” rappers: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/5a1dsd/key-and-peele-bling-benzy—da-struggle—uncensored