Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Systems Analysis to Incorperate Chief Keef
I am (as many of you know by now) interpreting the material we are consuming in this class through a lens of applicability to urban education on Chicago's south and west sides. Though I agree with the position mentioned in class that such a lens requires more complex processing than simply throwing out a book like The Wednesday Wars in favor of a book about gangs (a decision which may oversimplify student experience and may or may not optimize student academic achievement, depending on context and process), I think student interest can be best channeled into academic achievement by dialogue with students about student interests (and determining reading content based on those interests). How this theory holds in practice will be tested shortly; for my lesson for ED432 I distributed student information sheets about the pop culture they consume and, after receiving overwhelming interest in Chief Keef and Lil Wayne, designed a reading about Lil Wayne's use of similes, metaphors and allusions in his rapping. Chief Keef has thus far been much more difficult to appropriate into academia. He seems uninterested in the word play that Lil Wayne (and many other lyrical performers across genres) engage in. This is understandable: he's still a teenager (many of his most famous songs were written when he was sixteen) and (at least to my current understanding of the two) has had less formal education than Lil Wayne (the latter was in a gifted program before dropping out to pursue a career in entertainment). All this left me with two tiered problem. One: despite the strong popularity of Lil Wayne in this class, Chief Keef was listed more often in student information sheets as their favorite singer/rapper, and his songs were more often listed as their favorite songs. Two: even if I can get through my one lesson for ED432 (or even a number more in the future) I'll eventually run out of Lil Wayne material, and Lil Wayne will eventually begin feeling monotonous to myself and the class.
This is where the article comes in. It seems to me that Chief Keef could be an engaging tie in to inquiries regarding systems analysis touched on in the book.
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I didn't know we were suppose to do a response post last week, so I hope you don't mind if I do the response, to your post, now.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty fascinating to me. I feel like when I imagine doing something like that, I would be apprehensive and fear that I would be thought of as "the nice white guy trying to connect with his poor, black students." I'm curious as to how you approached this. Did you have any hesitation in this regard? Yet it also seems like a necessary bridge that we must cross, especially the more disconnect we have with the socio-economic backgrounds of our students. In other words, this kind of "please, I'm legitimately trying to connect with you" is just something that we have to do.
However, I think the problem you are having with the notable differences in Lil Wayne's and Chief Keef's stylistics can actually be used to your advantage. On the one hand, you have a plentitude of opportunities to discuss the techniques you mentioned like word-play, metaphor, and rhyme. This can then lead into an exploration of how those techniques strengthen his flow and impact. With this sort of model, you can then encourage the students to take a critical lens toward their more favored artist, Chief Keef. Where are his clever rhymes and innuendos? If it is not the word play that you like about Chief Keef, then what is it? This can then finally lead into an interesting compare and contrast activity. Maybe they like Chief Keef not because of his rapping skills (just like Kanye, who sucks at rapping but is brilliant in his own way) Chief is able to express and re-enact an identity of the Chicago streets that many students may have an authentic relationship too and, thus, connect with.
Or they just think he has good beats.