10/26/06 Artist-Teacher-Scholars in Pop Culture
I’m watching a show on VH1 called “Ice-T’s Rap School” and its premise parallels the mission of Music-in-Education in many ways. The show puts rapper Ice-T in a New York school, where he acts essentially as a MIE Teaching Artist: he designs his own curriculum, teaches regular classes, does some performing, and also attempts to integrate his lessons with material that students are already learning in other classes. Even in a 30 minute episode, I saw Ice-T work with students on many different levels: In one-on-one sessions to improve on the literary/rhyme elements of each student’s self-written lyrics; talking with students in a class setting about the moral and social implications of hip-hop & rap; modeling performance techniques; and working on the integration of rhyming and dance (and choreographing dance moves), just to name a few.
What’s most interesting to me about this show is that it seems to set itself aside from the whole “reality TV” thing by showing the entire learning process that Ice-T’s students have to go through. Whereas other shows might be content to focus their airtime on catfights between contestants, “Ice-T’s Rap School” stayed true to the educational aspect of the program. Furthermore, the popularity of the program, and its prominent place during weekday primetime (Thursday at 8:30pm) with a very famous artist, goes to show that Artist-Teacher-Scholars are indeed a part of the mainstream culture, whether we call them that or not.
As MIE Program Coordinator, I find myself explaining the merits of teaching artists and the Artist-Teacher-Scholar framework to many inquiring minds. And, until now, I often considered teaching artists to be on the fringe of the traditional model of what’s acceptable in public education. Seeing “Ice-T’s Rap School” has changed my mind: Clearly, Artist-Teacher-Scholars/Teaching Artists are not only acceptable for public education, but they are also at the forefront of interdisciplinary teaching and learning. I will be keeping an eye out for more examples of this in pop culture, and hopefully am also priming the pump for MIE to go primetime.
-Randy
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:52 pm
I think it is great to see things like this happening. The culture of Hip-Hop has always held high standards for language literacy. While the typical retirement from the microphone often sends veterans of this scene into the studio I think Ice-T is paving an important path into the classroom as an equally and possibly more enriching alternative.
I am currently working as a volunteer with The Home for Little Wanderers. We go once a month and do music with the kids there. Last time I went I spent the whole time with several teenagers teaching them about phrase structure, variation, hooks, etc. in the context of hip-hop.
I think that it would be an interesting exercise to move more into the rhyming/literacy element with them next time I go. I might have to check out an episode of “Ice-T’s Rap School” before going to get some ideas.
Great post Randy! I think one of the great things about the Artist-Teacher-Scholar model is that it really is something that we can see across genres/disciplines and more importantly across cultures.
If I come across any more content like this I will be sure to post it up!
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:42 am
Yeah, in fact, we have had MIE courses at NEC that deal specifically with cross-genre entry-points into music education. For example, jazz pianist Michael Cain is highly regarded for his work with Jack DeJohnette (and, more recently, Me’shell Ndegeocello) but he can also be heard on hip-hop albums like those by Mya and Noreaga.
When not touring or performing, Cain’s teaching at NEC includes an MIE course called “Digital Playgrounds for Music-in-Education,” which itself is based on a pilot program Cain started at the Hoboken Charter School in Hoboken, NJ. In the “Digital Playgrounds” class and at the Hoboken School, students explore the intricacies of hip-hop/R&B beat making by learning what makes rhythms “dance,” finding combinations of instruments that work well together, and matching student-written poetry or lyrics to the beats they compose and record.
Yeah, truly exciting stuff!
November 6th, 2006 at 3:30 am
[...] I’m watching “Ice-T’s Rap School” on VH1 again. This time, the episode is putting its emphasis on the business/entrepreneurship aspects of being a hip-hop artist: show promoting, making business decisions, deciding what kind of music/rhymes are appropriate for a show, and also the social pressures that come with being an artist. Ice-T is confronting the students and trying to reinforce that he thinks that the quality of the music should reinforce how much effort the students put into their work. [...]