"I'm Teaching This for the Culture!”

Hip-hop–based education, the usage of hip-hop practices and pedagogy in urban classrooms, has been
argued by many researchers as very beneficial to understanding how to improve the educational disparities of urban youth in low-income environments. However, if public school systems are unaccepting of the “organic” and unstructured nature of hip-hop culture (language, style, dress, and its resistance to the status quo), how can hip-hop practices be used substantially within the classroom? This paper examines the constraints and ideological conflict when teaching hip-hop music production in the formal music classroom. Focusing on pedagogical work of the teaching artists within a school-based hip-hop music program in an urban school district, this article uses in-depth interviews with five teaching artists/facilitators working within a hip-hop–based music education program in Chicago. By using the narratives of these teachers as units of analysis, qualitative methods were used to examine how teaching artists overcame the ideological conflicts of their host institutions during the implementation of the program’s curriculum. Overall, this case study reveals how administrative expectations (or lack thereof) for hip-hop’s utility in the classroom greatly influences how the learning in hip-hop programs is, or is not, taking place. The findings suggest that school administrators,
teachers, and other staff members could stand to take a more concerted interest in understanding the
complexity of the artistic processes involved in rap music making as well as the culture attached to it if they
sincerely want hip-hop pedagogy to be effective in their schools.