Hip-Hop is Folk Music

Hip-Hop is Folk Music is an initiative of The Freight Education Department designed to illuminate connections between hip-hop and related folk music forms, uncover lost or hidden narratives, expand the ears of young musicians, and inspire exploration of the music traditions from earlier times and various cultures.

History of the Banjo:

• That Half Barbaric Twang, by Karen Linn
• Banjo Roots and Branches, edited by Robert Winans
• African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, by Cecelia Conway
• Black String Band Resource page compiled by Jake Blount
• “Historical Narratives of the Akonting and Banjo” by Scott V Linford, published in Ethnomusicology Review
• “The Banjo’s Roots, Reconsidered,” by Greg Allen for All Things Considered
• Excerpts from Rhiannon Giddens’ Keynote Address at the International Bluegrass Music Association Awards in 2017
• Resources for Learning the Banjo
• Banjo Hangout: an online forum for all things banjo

History of Hip Hop:

• Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, by Jeff Chang
• The Dozens: A History of Rap’s Mama, by Elijah Wald
• Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur, by Michael Eric Dyson
• The Tao of Wu, by The RZA
• “Hip Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice” by Sean McCollum for the Kennedy Center
• “The Birth of Hip Hop” Black History in Two Minutes (https://blackhistoryintwominutes.com/the-birth-of-hip-hop/)
• Hip Hop History: From the Streets to the Mainstream by Rory PQ for Icon Collective
• Linton Kwesi Johnson (UK pioneer): “‘Bass Culture’ And ‘In Dub’: Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Dub Poetry” by Reggie Mint
• “Gil Scott-Heron: Forefather of Rap” by Claudia Marshall
• “The Peerless Imagination of Greg Tate” by Jon Caramanica
• Cindy Campbell’s Back to School Party Birthed Hip Hop by Nadirah Simmons for The Gumbo 

Beatmaking Resources:

• BandLab, a free beatmaking site
• BandLab Tutorial by LiL MC
• Drum programming tutorial on Ableton

Other Relevant links:

• RAP is FOLK Music: The Duality of Identity by Justin Harrington
• “Muhammad Ali: The World’s Greatest Boxer Was Also a Hip Hop Pioneer” by Mosi Reeves for Rolling Stone. Need proof? Check this out: Ali Rap
• When Folk Music Speaks: Ben Hunter
• Sankofa: Reclaiming Histories, The Carolina Chocolate Drops
• “From folk to hip-hop: protest music through the years” by Cathleen Weng
• 7 Essential Apps for Making Music on the Go

Presenters:
Megan Correa: lilmcmusic.com

Evie Ladin: evieladin.com

Golden State of Song:

Golden State of Song is The Freight’s flagship arts integration program designed to enhance and enrich 4th grade California history studies through songs and stories from a multiplicity of traditions. 

 

 

Japanese American World War II Concentration Camps Module Resources

Music In Japanese American Concentration Camps:

• “Extraordinary Circumstances, Exceptional Practices: Music in Japanese American Concentration Camps” Waseda, Minako. Journal of Asian-American Studies, Volume 8, Number 2, June 2005, Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press

• Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the WWII Internment Camps Produced and directed by Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto Wong, 2014 Murasaki Productions LLC.
• This site has a list of concentration camp Big Bands, as well as some great images of musicians and dances in the camps: http://www.amyuyeki.com/Site_1/Big_Bands_in_the_Camps.html
• Campu Podcast Episode 3: Fences WARNING: this episode contains explicit language and discussions of state violence, murder, and suicide. All musical discussion happens at the beginning of the episode before any of the aforementioned content. 
• Reminiscence in Swingtime , Yoshida, George.
  Book about swing music in Japanese American communities.

General Japanese-American Concentration Camp resources:

• Japanese American National Museum
• Densho Encyclopedia 
• Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houson’s brother founded the Jive Bombers, a big band from Manzanar.

Relevant Song Lyrics, Poems, and Books:

• Camp Songs: According to Minako Waseda’s “Extraordinary Circumstances, Exceptional Practices” article, “Singing particular songs together further strengthened their sense of shared experience and community. The Issei, who subscribed to the Japanese practice of collective singing as a means of building group identity, created camp songs to enhance fellowship among the internees and to inspire them to overcome shared hardships.” These three camps songs survive:
  

   

  • Song of Topaz 
  • Song of Tule Lake
  • Song of Gila River
• “Don’t Fence Me In,” a popular song by Cole Porter, was popular within the camps both because it was a national hit and because it had special meaning for the incarcerated Japanese Americans.
• “That Damned Fence,” poem anonymously circulated in several camps, later attributed to Minoru Yasui.
• Sensational Knowledge, Embodying Culture through Japanese Dance, Hahn, Tomie  Wesleyan University Press, 2007 A compelling ethnography of traditional dance and bodily knowledge. How do music and dance reveal the ways in which a community interacts with the world? How are the senses used in communicating cultural knowledge?
• PDF of 20th Century koto/shakuhachi piece “Haru no Umi” (“The Sea in Spring”), scored for Western instruments
• “Sakura,” Japanese folk Song
  
  
  • Score and lyrics
  • Recording/Backing Track
  • Video

ACTIVITY

Musicians in the camps had limited options in terms of instruments and often had to make their own (you were only allowed to take what you could carry) — what was that experience like?

 

Activity: what instruments students make with what they have around at home/school?

Example: A koto can be made with empty shoeboxes, rubber bands wrapped around them, and a “tuning bridge” made of rocks, lego, etc. A “flute” can be made by straw and poking holes in a straw.

Example: Make drum sticks out of objects at hand — chopsticks, strips of cardboard, etc.

The teaching artists for the Spring 2022 implementation of this module are:

Shirley Muramoto

Ray Furuta