For your final exam, you will write an essay that engages some of the most pressing questions about Hip Hop
culture since its inception in the 1970s. Choosing one of the questions or prompts below, you will write a 1000-1200-word
(4-5-page) essay response. Assume your audience is vastly diverse and write as a creative scholar. Achieving this requires
you to engage Hip Hop ’s material culture, and the evidence you use to make assertions must come from it’s imagery,
sound, fashion, language, and literature. Your work must also contextualize the material evidence you use, so that you are
not simply asserting your opinion on the topics you explore. This will mean that you must discuss the influence of
historical forces on Hip Hop ’s intellectual expressions and introduce peer-reviewed scholarship into your essay. In this
way, you will be thinking more deeply about the topics of our class lectures, readings, and discussions.
Although there is no limit to the number of sources you can use, please be reasonable in your selection. My
general suggestion is not to exceed seven sources. You may draw from any combination of 2-3 primary sources AND 2-3
secondary sources – totaling 4-6. You can also send attachments of sound clips and video with your paper when you
submit it. Finally, your
essay must include a full bibliography and the honor pledge at the beginning or end of your paper. The following are the essay prompts you get to choose from which can be any of the one below. YOU ARE ONLY CHOOSING ONE ESSAY TOPIC
ESSAY PROMPTS –
1) Hip Hop’s cultural responses to the “crack epidemic” and “War on Drugs” shaped its formative years during
the 1980s, and its dependence on drug references continue to scaffold the culture. Write an essay in which
you make an argument about the ways in which one pillar in Hip Hop culture (rapping, break dancing,
graffiti, DJ-ing, or knowledge of self) has evolved since the 1980s in response to the “War on Drugs.”
2) Although it remains overlooked, the relationship between Hip Hop culture and Black and Brown LGBTQ+
communities is longstanding. Write an essay in which you make an argument about how the existing gender norms in Hip Hop culture have helped and hindered LGBTQ+ creators in Hip Hop. In your essay, you must
point to AT LEAST TWO Hip Hop creators whose work in Hip Hop supports your main assertion.
3) Write an essay in which you discuss the historical relationship between Hip Hop and a religious/spiritual
belief of your choice. How have Hip Hop creators complicated traditional faith practices and belief by
infusing it with political meaning? Be sure to discuss AT LEAST TWO Hip Hop creators whose work
supports your argument.
4) Write an essay in which you discuss representations of men and women in Hip Hop. What are some of the
reasons for the gaps in the representation of both genders? Why has this gap grown over time? How have Hip
Hop content creators contributed to or challenged this gap? What are some of the complications embedded in
making women more visible in Hip Hop culture?
5) Write an essay in which you discuss the rise of Hip Hop in the “dirty South” and its impacts on national trends in
Hip Hop culture? How have rappers in other parts of the country absorbed the look and sound of the
“dirty South”? What are some of the impacts of spreading southern culture outside of its political boundaries?
6) In the mid-1990s, state and federal government officials initiated a series of poverty de-concentration
programs. Write an essay in which you discuss these efforts in the state of your choice, then make an
argument for the ways in which community development and redevelopment realities prompted new shifts or
deeper convictions in the Hip Hop scene there.
7) For some in the United States, the presidency of Donald Trump signaled the resurgence of the type of White
supremacist rhetoric and racial violence presumed to have been eradicated with the rise of former President
Barack Obama. For others, the rise of former President Donald Trump was a sign that our nation still values
the traditions, discourse, and leadership that have long supported our economic strengths, resilient federal
government, and civic industry. This divide in popular opinion has, in the last four years, split families and
friends along rigid ideological lines. Write an essay in which you make an argument about the ways in which
these ideological divides have emerged in Hip Hop culture. Who are the leading voices in Hip Hop’s latest
political debates? What do the opposing sides in Hip Hop indicate about the culture at large?
