This workshop explores the function of hip-hop as part of a larger mass media structure. The presentation involves an investigation of hip-hop history, inner-workings of the music industry, hip-hop as media and cultural expression, the historical legacy of Black image and the hip-hop underground. Much of this is done via the particular history and contemporary use of the mixtape as this original mass medium has gone from an underground phenomenon to a popular corporate conduit, as well as, becoming a potential source of emancipatory journalism and free space for ingenuity.

Led by Dr. Jared Ball, professor of African American and Media Studies at Morgan State University. He is managing editor of the first hip-hop academic journal Words, Beats and Life, and hosts the show “Jazz & Justice” on DC’s WPFW 89.3 FM, on Mondays from 1-3pm. Dr. Ball is also the founder and creator of “FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show,” a rap music mixtape committed to the practice of underground emancipatory journalism. He and his work can be found online at VOXUNION.COM.

Please register here for this workshop.