The Real Hiphop: Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the LA Underground
the real hiphopProject Blowed is a legendary hiphop workshop based in Los Angeles. It began in 1994 when a group of youths moved their already renowned open-mic nights from the Good Life, a Crenshaw district health food store, to the KAOS Network, an arts center in Leimert Park. The local freestyle of articulate, rapid-fire, extemporaneous delivery, the juxtaposition of meaningful words and sounds, and the way that MCs followed one another without missing a beat, quickly became known throughout the LA underground.

"In The Real Hiphop, Marcyliena Morgan has written a brilliant account of the origins of hiphop and the process through which it is created and evolves, from its most elemental and raw forms into the highly processed and polished versions that have become the lingua franca of popular American culture over the past few decades... It is a must read for any student or scholar seeking to understand what is arguably the most important popular cultural phenomenon in the past thirty years."- Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

marcyliena morgan I grew up in a working class black community where everyone's mother, father, aunt and uncle read books (or wanted to read), talked to each other about what was happening in the world and cared about their community. I'm not talking about an ideal neighborhood - far from it. Most of the those adults worked hard for little or no pay, struggled to support their families, were poorly educated and dealt with the meanest forms of racism everyday. It affected them. As hard as it was, they weren't weak, but strong. And no matter what was happening to them, the thing that my community never forgave was 'not knowing.'


Because He Could
To everyone who has contacted me about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home, I share your outrage. A 58-year-old man, who walks with a cane, was denied the right to be in his house after showing ID. He was also denied the right to be outraged that proof of residence, and corroboration from Harvard police, was not enough for the police officer to thank him for his cooperation and leave his home. I was at the police station after his arrest (with my husband) and had dinner with him later that evening. I am proud to have been with a friend dealing with police harassment. The only conclusion that I can come to about the incident is that the white sergeant’s response to the situation was racist. Nothing else fits the unfolding of events. When Harvard police further confirmed Skip Gate’s identity - that was not enough for the officer.
 
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The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics and The Center for The Study of Urban Poverty Presents:

Author Meets the Critics Session

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010, 2:00-4:00PM, Royce 362

with Marcyliena Morgan
Professor of African and African American Studies and Executive Director of the Hiphop Archive at Harvard University

Discussing her book
 THE REAL HIPHOP: BATTLING FOR KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND RESPECT IN THE LA UNDERGROUND
 w/ Samy Alim Stanford University

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Hiphop LX (linguistics)
In Hiphop the WORD is the message. Language is a system of sounds and symbols and communication in any language is based on how to use that system. Whoever knows the system has power over ideas and imagination. You can build, change, plan, play and destroy. Many words and expressions in hiphop represent regions, neighborhoods and cities. Hiphop Lx is dedicated to discovering and representing the words and expressions that serve as a symbol for a region and area. It explores the language system of hiphop and how the WORD came into being, meanings and the overall development of the word and expression.
hiphop linguistics

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