MIT instals a professor of rap music
NewsOne of the world’s great scientific institutions has succumbed to dumbdown pressures.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has made appointments for its 2022-23 MLK Visiting Professor program.
The rapper Lupe Fiasco has been appointed professor of music alongside associate professor of theatre Eunice Ferreira and documentary filmmaker Louis Massiah.
“Dumbing down”, really? I get that you don’t like it, but rap is a crucial part of music history of the past 40 years. Ignoring it would be historical malpractice.
I agree with you that rap music is socially, if not necessarily musically, important and merits study — I have said as much on these pages before — but is this the appropriate “professor”? He is semi-literate, if this, the only published instance of his intellectual process I could find, is anything to go by.
https://www.opnlttr.com/letter/lupe-fiasco-pens-open-letter-white-supremacy
I cannot possibly have an opinion about Mr. Fiasco’s qualifications, or draw conclusions based on his last name. The MIT blurb, however, makes a good argument for him. Besides, he will not be a tenured professor. He’ll only be visiting next year.
“Fiasco’s work as a rapper and producer is informed by his interests in cognitive science, linguistics, semiotics, and computing. During his CAST residency, he shared insights from his work as an entrepreneur and community advocate, for instance working with the Society of Spoken Art (SOSA), an educational guild for aspiring and established rappers, of which he is a co-founder. ”
https://mlkscholars.mit.edu/scholars/wasalu-lupe-fiasco-jaco
I am with Emil and V Lind on the merit of discussing rap in academia.
He is one of the more musically sophisticated of the top rap crowd, granted, and he seems to have a positive outlook.
His interest in semiotics. Right.
or promoting it is an historical malpractice
Yes, it is dumbing down – about as low as it’s possible to descend. The only reason it achieves any attention at all is because (mostly) silly middle class white people have lost all confidence in their achievements and feel obliged to fawn over anything black. They think it’s cool and progressive, whatever they mean, and gloss over rap’s clear pathologies.
What is the point in studying something which has no value and is going nowhere? It’s the musical equivalent of a penis drawn on a school blackboard when the teacher is out of the room.
And your understanding of the word “crucial” is clearly different from mine.
It is not “going nowhere,” any more than rock, pop or jazz is. It may offend my ears, but it is an extraordinary phenomenon — when it began I thought it was a passing trend, but it has captured, as has been pointed out, the zeitgeist of black urban youth and now a lot of the early rappers have grown up and become very, very important in the music “industry.”
It looks as if it is here to stay, and the history and sociology of rap, which of course cannot be taught without the records, is a major factor in contemporary society. The “music” may be limited and repetitious, the lyrics may be misogynist and violent and racist, but it reflects a huge segment of society.
As far as I am concerned, it is the music for people who can neither sing nor play an instrument to high standard, and whose literacy and philosophical level is very limited. And it has made a lot of them very, very rich, and opened up another of the very few avenues by which people can get out of a pretty bleak lifestyle. it is the musical equivalent of basketball.
There are so many issues behind its success, and as such have an intellectual interest. The important thing is that it speaks to a sector of society that all too often has been on the short end of the stick — and the hard end of too many sticks — and it tells their stories. Is it “music”? I no longer judge. On the whole I find it tiresome, and I do not tend to think it necessarily uses its influence as well as it could, though there are exceptional efforts by some proponents to do some good.
I tend to think it belongs, as a field of study, in sociology courses, but its very musical limitations speak to a development that has interesting aspects.
It could, conceivably, be worthwhile if the scope of the study included its detrimental effect on less fortunate black youth, but we all know that this won’t happen, don’t we?
Members of my extended family work hard trying to ensure that younger members maintain some distance from it, but the odds are stacked against them. It doesn’t help when supposedly intelligent people, like some here, are afraid to call it out as the cynical, degenerate business that it is.
Isn’t rap in college kind of anti-rap?
Sure, it’s a popular art form. It is a SPOKEN WORD art form. “Music history,” my Aunt Fannie.
When I first entered high school, the term “lab band” was used in order to avoid reference to the degenerate music called “jazz,” itself a word derived from uncouth origins.
Now, jazz is studied much like symphonic art music in universities. I’m not putting rap music on the same artistic level as jazz or classical art music; but I do think rap as a folk musical form deserves study and consideration since it is by far the dominant musical form listened to by younger generations.
His last name is ‚Fiasco‘..
It’s a stage name. Did you write The Master and Margarita?
Care to explain what you mean by ‘succumbed to dumbdown pressures’?
care to explain how you can compare snoopdaddy to Beethoven?
No one is comparing them Helene They are two completely different genres that co-exist alongside each other in the vast realm of music. Don’t need to act so defensive. It’s just another genre of music.
How can rap be called music?
…because lots of different types of music exist Helene You may not like them all and that’s fine. But they exist, and plenty of other people enjoy listening to it. It would be nice if we could just respect the vast array of music on offer, no? Why the need to be so dismissive of it?
Actually that is a very good question to discuss in class, though not necessarily that of Mr. Fiasco.
Why? How idiotic do you have to be to care about such comparences? Do you compare a a boxer to a chess player? Both are sportsmen, but how and why would you compare them? Just to look smart, but actually look idiotic? Care to explain?
Speaking of “dumbing down”, here’s a Wu-Tang Clan member explaining how “rap” “music” is mind control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d4lyPmMEos
You should give a listen to their track “CREAM”.
Of all places, MIT…should be Music In Technology.
Juilliard wasn’t investing in rap studies, neither was Yale or Curtis. Knowing the significance of a degree in music from MIT, someone knows another lecture on Beethoven or Bach would just be overkill…In the second semester they might offer a course on Sexual Validations in the Works of Cardi B. MIT doesn’t have a medical school, but having students study WAP, in depth, might take a bit of the ‘nerdiness’ out of an MIT degree.
In all seriousness, Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer a few years ago, as controversial as it was. Childish Gambino made a strong impact with ‘This is America’ in 2018. Maybe young composers can learn something from rap music.
It’s a step in the right direction.
Agreed. Tho it would’ve been more impactful had they hired Dr. Dre (rap’s most successful exponent) or Snoop Dogg. But agreed, this is a step in the right direction.
I can understand the downvotes. Everyone wants more composers to write pieces that will only be played a couple times and whose creative spirits stem from “tonal illustrations of parabolas in quantified negative space.”
Today a degree “qualifies” someone to be a composer, not demand; the “demand” is artificial. A handful of composers from 1800 are worth listening to today. Write music people want to listen to and you can join the club.
There’s some excellent composing coming straight outta UPenn.
MIT has music professors? I had no idea.
They even offer a music major?
Huh.
It’s been long known that many people who study math, physics, science, engineering (those STEM things) also are very active in the arts – especially music. I have an old set of LPs on the Vox label of Schubert chamber music – by an MIT ensemble. MIT has (or at least used to) a student orchestra of tremendous ability. Maybe not what the nearby NEC could muster, but very fine anyway.
There you go with the trolling again. God forbid a major institution teach students about a music form pioneered by young Black urban men.
I don’t know this particular artist, but rap (aka hip-hop) has become a highly complex and sophisticated musical genre. MIT’s music school is less a conservatory training the next generation of orchestra musicians than in exploring various intellectual corners of music. This is a form of ethnomusicology. Having a rap performer as a visiting instructor for a year seems reasonable enough.
Agree with all you say, but I jib at “a form of ethnomusicology”, unless the study of European art music in an American university is also a form of ethnomusicology! Seriously, perhaps we should stop taking ‘classical music’ as the norm and all other musical styles and genres as the exception — particularly since classical music, in terms of audience numbers, is the exception. There are to date over 160 million views of Wu-Tang Clan’s C.R.E.A.M. on YouTube – a rap song from 1994 (thank you V.Lind for the suggestion), whose lyrics speak against a culture of drugs and violence and greed, and which has a very catchy and melodic refrain and a steady but varied rhythm (not unlike some baroque music).
Thought this was a headline from The Onion…..
“Let’s start from the beginning, class: What are some words that rhyme with ‘buggin’?’ “
muggin’
And huggin’.
Is the School of Humanities at MIT for all those undergrads who found themselves at the lower end of the bell curve in the hard sciences and math courses at MIT?
How cool is that, get a bona fide MIT degree listening to rap for 4 years.
MIT has a pulitzer prize/macarthur genius award composer on its music faculty amongst others of this caliber. careful before you put it down… i have double degree in chemistry and music from this institution and proud of both degrees…
As a professor in MIT, he’ll need to avoid having sex with any of his faculty. David Sabatini was a Nobel prize prospect and he was let go and is now unemployed and unemployable.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/he-was-a-world-renowned-cancer-researcher?s=r
Because if you’re a Nobel Prize prospect (and who isn’t at MIT?), you can sleep with anyone.
“dumbdown”? Have you ever listened to a rap song? Do you need some recommedations? Snobism is the downfall of classical music, and of art in general. Sure, “dumbdown” rap is not as highly intelligent as “obladi oblada”, but still it won some “dombdown” Pulizer. Poetry, rhythm, art. Pick up some recordings and get smarter.
Honoring Dr King with rap is just so cool. Having sat through a number of services in Ebenezer Baptist Church, I can imagine it fitting in to a degree. But it will have a way to go before it matches the power, majesty and raw emotion of gospel singing which literally moves the congregation.
Now back to MIT. Don’t we need to balance the rap with Inuit throat singing? I assume a professor of Lieder is not feasible as the art form is fascist and racist by nature.
My awe of MIT has been a bit diminished today. And I’m not convinced rap adds value to the curricula for which MIT is renowned and needs to remained renowned if its going to justify its tuition.
No professor of country music? Of bluegrass? Of Taylor Swift?
Waste of money. Very common in America just now.
You mean classical music? The one that is supported by almost every government in the world through tax payers’ money but yet appeals to the least amount of tax players? Is this what you mean? Otherwise I see no sense in your words. Let’s see how classical music would do without state support compared to hiphop. Bet you wouldn’t pose so smart after the results come in.
There is more sense in my words, Ionut, than is dreamt of in your philosophy.
Do you select books, newspapers, movies and TV shows by popularity?
If not, why not?
So, based on your logic, McDonald’s offers the best cuisine in the world?
Let’s hope he does not get shot over drug money by other professors in the field. At least not before the end of semester.
Let’s have a “dumbdown” social experiment: how many rappers listen to classical music? How many classical musicians listen to rap? Better yet: how many classical musicians prefer listening to classical music over rap or vice versa? Let’s have this experiment to see which genre is more relevant nowadays.
By the same standard, there should also be a visiting Professor of Barbershop Quartet music. This cloying form of music has been around far longer than rap–likely from the end of the 19th century–and appears likely to persist long into the future. It also has the requisite African American history component, as Black Americans appear to have made an unrecognized contribution to the “art form.” Consideration should also be given to professorships for musical saws and kazoo bands. Of course, given the substantial number of Black engineers, mathematicians and physicists, it might be more appropriate and beneficial for all involved at MIT to pursue professorship tracks for those genuinely talented Black individuals before offering professorships for pop music.
I’ll bet you wouldn’t complain if there were a new professor of poetry, but the moment the poetry is written in a style invented by black people it’s somehow dumbing down. Elitism is classical music’s biggest problem and this article doesn’t help.
By the way, rap is not music.
You should “INSTALL” a journalist that can spell.
First, a disclaimer.
As genre of music I don’t like hip-hop. I’ve tried. The emphasis on wordplay, cleverness and social commentary all lead to the inevitable sacrifice of melodic beauty and expression. It simply doesn’t interest me.
That being said, no one can deny the impact hip hop has had on popular music and the music business. Even country and western singers are dabbling in it. And for that reason alone it deserves to be studied and examined with care at institutions like MIT. This is not a transient, minor subset of popular music like doowop or barbershop quartet. It is huge, and should be studied.
Probably not at conservatories like Juilliard, NEC and Peabody, which are at their essence performance schools. Besides, who would pay $50K a year to study what is learned on the streets?
Looks like we need to roll out the fainting couch for Norman and half his readers, again
and don’t forget the beat poets and guys like Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti…and maybe part of the course will be teaching how to distinguish rap from music…