Visual Culture and Hip Hop/VCDM408 with Professor Tewodross Melchishua Williams: Media

Looks at the history and phenomenon of b-boys. Talks about the originators and the innovators, what the forces were that inspired break dancing and made it into the art form of today. Includes segments of many performances by a variety of performers and interviews.

Two generations of pioneering Hispanic American hip hop artists converse about the history, struggles and successes of their art. The interviews, exclusive backstage footage and performances give a taste of Latin Hip Hop and a background in its roots.

A documentary exploration of the subculture of New York’s young graffiti writers and break dancers, showing their activities and aspirations and the social and aesthetic controversies surrounding New York graffiti. Dramatizes conflicts between graffiti artists and the city, as well as among the graffiti artists themselves.

Wild Style tells the story of street artists in the South Bronx who put on a large outdoor performance to showcase their unique talents: graffiti, hip hop, and break dancing. The plot concerns the tension between graffiti artist Zoro’s passion for his art, and his personal life, particularly his strained relationship with fellow graffiti artist, Rose.

A look at the conceptualization of masculinity in hip-hop culture. Includes interviews with prominent rappers, music industry executives, and social critics.

Explores the beginnings of hip-hop music with interviews from artists and video clips of performances.

Robert MacNeil canvasses the North to learn firsthand about linguistic dialect zones, the tension between prescriptivism and descriptivism, the impact on dialect on grapholect, the northern cities vowel shift, the roots of African-American English, minority dialects and linguistic profiling, biases against nonstandard speech, and the general perception of the U.S. Midland dialect as ’normal American.’ Hip-hop street talk, IM slang, Pittsburghese, and Gullah and Geechee are sampled, and Bill Labov, the dean of American linguists; Jesse Sheidlower, American editor of the august OED; and New York magazine’s John Simon are featured. Web links are included. A computer with a DVD-ROM drive is required to access them.

Scarface, Lil’ Jon, David Banner, Killer Mike, Juvenile, 8Ball, Lil’ Flip, Bun B, Big Gipp, Cee-Lo, Willie D, T.I., Fiend, Pitbull, Khia, Jazze Pha, Chyna White, Devin the Dude, Big B of Nappy Roots, JT Money, Slim Thug and E.S.G., Petey Pablo, Paul Wall and Chamillionaire, Bubba Sparxxx, and many more.

Features crack dealers, addicts, and former addicts, as well as law enforcement officers, talking about the harsh reality of the crack game in the inner city of Newburgh, N.Y. Presents honest portrayals of the hustling, chaos, misery, crime, and death that takes place.

Los Angeles graffiti artists discuss the themes and motivations of their work and how they evolved from taggers to artists. Several are shown at work on projects, indoors as well as outside. The history and significance of graffiti is addressed, as is its role in the Hip Hop culture.