Miriam: Can you talk about how the production component melds in with the idea of general literacy and media literacy in your program?

Lynn:

Production as in outcome, or production as --

Miriam: Just working with beats and rhymes, going more into the aspect of making hip-hop as well as understanding it.

Lynn:

The important part of producing is that it makes something tangible. The information that we’re giving to these kids is not only an abstract form or dialogue, or just a relationship or a warm feeling inside – they can actually go home and show this product that they did; whether it’s beat making, or whether it’s a performance or something, or a video. They have a chance to see – I guess, ‘taste the fruits’ of the work that they’ve put in. I’ve had kids from our first run when we had a partnership with a digital literacy product, and I had a girl who came up to me after – she had a big smile and she goes, “I go around and I show everyone my beat that I did!” For them to take ownership and to know that they had an outcome of the project – a physical that they can show, and they were part of that process, and they created their beats instead of someone else doing it. It’s much more important to teach kids how to do that for themselves.

Miriam: Does making the beats help them to gain another deconstructing insight into hip-hop culture on the whole?

Lynn:

Yes. The music component and production – there’s a lot of sampling that happens in hip-hop music, and what is so interesting about that is it’s essentially an audio lesson of history. It’s like a music history in music! It’s really cool. I know more about Motown and even disco. Normally I know about it because I heard it in a hip-hop song first, and then I hear the original component. Referencing other previous music is really interesting. It kind of also plays a fine line of copyright – how much do you take from another song, and make it into your own. That’s also important for them to know about.

Another part of the beat creation that they should also know: I think rhythm – I’m really into rhythm. I think out of everything, I’ve kind of always moved with the beat in my head. When you teach kids the importance of a beat and rhythm, it’s kind of the notion of their life – they can speak with that beat, or they can walk to that beat, and it’s just something that you can put inside, and also use outside. They might have it, or they might develop it, or maybe they just want to know more about it.