United Students of African Descent (USAD) celebrated its first ever hip-hop forum on February 21, 2008 at Peace and a Cup of Joe, a few blocks from campus. The entire evening was organized as an informal discussion between UMB students and Eric Durham, Ph.D., a communications expert currently serving as a faculty member at Morgan State University.
Durham commenced the evening’s discussion by tracing the evolution of hip-hop as an expression of angst by impoverished African-American youth in the urban landscape. The urban milieu which gave birth to hip-hop is what contrasts this genre of music from other traditional African-American music such as the Blues, which primarily evolved in an agricultural southern countryside. Hip-hop was a means of communicating germane and pressing problems of poor African-American youngsters such as racism, degrading inner city neighborhoods, crime, violence and lack of opportunities in the language they understood.
In a lively tête-à-tête, the audience interposed Durham’s discussion with comments on the excessive use of profanity and rampant sexism in hip-hop. Durham explained that titillation in music was not confined to hip-hop but spread over other genres of music too, with the sole aim of earning wider popularity. Several hip-hop artists made political and social commentaries, he pointed out, but they did not necessarily receive the same publicity and airtime than the ones containing “profanity.” Durham refuted the notion that hip-hop is directly responsible for increasing violence and sexism, on the contrary, in many cases it actually served to expose existing violence, racial discrimination and sexism in society.
A vibrant speaker, Durham managed to elucidate active audience participation throughout the evening. USAD president Maria Okafor said she was very excited at the turnout and participation the evening saw from different schools across campus. Being the first discussion of its kind, she hoped it set a positive precedent for future discussions like this. The discussion was accompanied by a light dinner and refreshments for the participants.
2008 Woodie Awards
