Who's playin' whom? Overwhelming influence of hip-hop culture, rap music on HBCU campuses concerns students, faculty

Black Issues in Higher Education, April 22, 2004 by Pearl Stewart

As a young journalist who has already been offered a newspaper job after she graduates this spring, Maple says she is concerned about the all-encompassing influence of hip-hop. "At The Digest, when we ask students about world issues, their answers show how disconnected they are from current events and politics. What really concerns me is that we have a presidential election coming up, and young African Americans need to know what the issues me. That really concerns me."

LIMITED FOCUS, MISGUIDED PRIORITIES

Several faculty members complain that students only want to write papers or work on projects about the entertainment industry. "I always have at least three guys in my classes who are going to be the next big rapper," says Reginald Franklin, associate professor of broadcast journalism at Savannah State University, "and that's all they're interested in."

The limited focus also bothers Thomas Rasheed, associate professor of graphic design at Florida A&M University. "When I see female students coming to class unprepared, when they obviously spent hours getting all that hair on their heads and their nails done. They have their priorities all wrong," Rasheed says. Even more troubling are the implications of their clothing, he says. "Some of the skirts are so short you can see their panties. I have had to tell students not to come into my classes dressed that way."

Rasheed sees a difference between appreciating the music "and letting it control you. Some of these students have become materialistic slaves to the hip-hop industry."

Rasheed, 51, also acknowledges the culture isn't unlike previous youth obsessions, but the difference, he says, is the pervasiveness of hip-hop culture due to communication technology. "We didn't have all the TV channels and music videos--and the cell phones. There are so many distractions that the students aren't able to focus on anything else."

But Lauren Paulwell, a graduating senior and student council president at Howard University's School of Communications, believes some students can appreciate the music--and other aspects of the culture--without letting it consume them. "Balancing academics with extracurricular (activities) is always a problem, especially on a campus where there are so many activities," Paulwell says. "Every student attending the university has to make a decision about what they intend to focus on. Some students don't intend to focus on academics."

She also suggests that hip-hop is not the culprit. "If it wasn't hip-hop, it would be something else. Some students are using the music and the clothes as a way to slack off, not because of hip-hop, but because they are slackers."

She acknowledges, however, that hip-hop culture "plays an extremely large role" in campus life.

Some professors caution their colleagues not to judge students by their appearance. Franklin says he sees "some good students who feel they have to dress like the people in the music videos. We have students working in our offices who have the body piercings and tattoos, and they are fairly good students."