Papers of the 2012 Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: Hip Hop, Education & Expanding the Archival Imagination

The Papers of the 2012 Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: Hip Hop, Education & Expanding the Archival Imagination has now been published.  The file is available here.  Last Fall the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Atlanta University Center (Clark Atlanta University, Spellman College, Morehouse College, and Interdenominational Theological Center) hosted a conference that brought together scholars from across disciplines and across the world.  This blogs very own, andré douglas pond cummings and Nick J. Sciullo both presented.  Sciullo's paper can be found at pp. 32-37 of the conference proceedings.  

This interdisciplinary exploration of Tupac, hip-hop, and the archival imagination should be of tremendous interest to hip hop, law, criminology, and librarianship scholars.


-- Nick J. Sciullo

New Article: Tryon P. Woods in Social Text on postracialism and punishment

Tryon P. Woods has published "'Beat It like a Cop': The Erotic Cultural Politics of Punishment in the Era of Postracialism" in Social Text (Volume 31, Issue 1, Spring 2013, pp.21-41).  From the beginning of the article:

My concern in this essay is with how those of us involved with problems of black revolution—that is, with the crux of what it means to liberate humanity—can further develop a critical stance that deals honestly with the ethicopolitical context in which black art, black performance, black social movements, and black popular culture find expression.  I am, in  other words, interested in configuring the critical study of hip hop within an accounting of the materiality of antiblack sexual violence in which the  modern world is grounded, especially as hip hop emerges through the transmutation of the state’s terroristic repression of black revolution in the 1960s and 1970s into the sexualized violence of the present prison industrial complex.  My focus, then, is on how the context of a world in which, since the dawn of the African slave trade, black people are structurally positioned outside the human family, and its claims to integrity, honor, and visibility can inform how we read black expressive cultures.  I suggest that rigorous adherence to this context is rare in cultural critique. 

-- Nick J. Sciullo

Will Hip Hop Solve Mass Incarceration?

We've all heard about the evils of mass incarceration, made perhaps most salient by Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  Reactions to the book have largely been positive and you need not look far to find a review of this important text (SocialistAlternative.org, New York Times, Boston Review, International Socialist Review, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Yale Daily News, Washington Lawyer, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, and my own in the Texas Law Review Dicta are but a few of the many reviews).  Savvy Internet searchers that you are, I am sure you've also come across numerous reading groups, discussion board threads, and local meetings organizing people around the important issue of mass incarceration.  These are all great.

But, now what?  Alexander suggests we need a mass movement to end mass incarceration.  Russell Simmons and Dr. Boyce Watkins have joined forces to call on the White House to address mass incarceration.  They remain relatively quite about their plans however.  We do know that several hip-hoppers are involved including Lil' Wayne and Nicki Minaj.  KultureKritic.com and BlackBlueDog.com have both reported this story.

Questions remain... What should we expect from Simmons and Watkins and their associated stars?  Will their work reach the masses who will need to join in the effort to end mass incarceration?  When will we have a better idea what Simmons and Watkins want and what their strategy is for achieving it?  Simmons and Watkins are surely doing important work, but we'll need to wait and see what becomes of their efforts.


-- Nick J. Sciullo

Hip-Hop and the Law Review: The Year in Review

The previous year has seen a number of articles published on hip-hop in the country's law reviews.  The following is a nearly complete list of those articles that consider hip-hop in any number of forms: case study, methodology, theoretical intervention, etc.  One trend is the continued study of hip-hop's relationship to copyright law.  2012 has seen more focus on hip-hop and copyright law than on hip-hop and other sub-disciplines.  Why?  Perhaps the continued evolution of web-based technologies and the increasing ease of sharing information (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) has made issues of copyright law and intellectual property more salient to the average person.  Perhaps the re-appropriation of corporate logos by Occupiers has inspired more inquiry into the ways in which material is used and abused.  No matter the reason, 2013 should see continued work on hip-hop as scholars continue to study the effects of hip-hop on the Arab Spring, further investigate the effects of mass incarceration, become increasingly exposed to students who grew up with hip-hop, and theorize new relationships to the law given our increasingly diverse country. 

In no particular order, here are 2012's hip-hop-related articles:

Andrea M. Ewart with Kimberly R. Villiers, "Dangerous" Dancehall Reggae and Caribbean Treaty Obligations, 27 Connecticut Journal of International Law 321-343 (Spring 2012)

andre douglas pong cummings, Derrick Bell: Godfather Provocateur, 28 Harvard Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice 51-66 (Spring 2012)

andre douglas pond cummings, Symposium: War on...The Fallout of Declaring War on Social Issues: "All Eyez on Me": America's War on Drugs and the Prison-Industrial Complex, 15 Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 417-448 (Spring 2012)

Vera Golosker, Student Note: the transformative tribute: How Mash-Up Music Constitutes Fair Use of Copyrights, 34 Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal 381-401 (Spring 2012)

Lisa T. Alexander, Hip-Hop and Housing: Revisiting Culture, Urban Space, Power, and Law, 63 Hastings Law Journal 803-866 (March 2012)

Unsigned Student Note, Student Note: Not in Court "Cause I Stole a Beat": The Digital Music Sampling Debate's Discourse on Race and Culture, and the Need for Test Case Litigation, 2012 University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy 141-166 (Spring 2012)

Donald F. Tibbs, Symposium: War on...The Fallout of Declaring War on Social Issues: From Black Power to Hip Hop: Discussing Race, Policing, and the Fourth Amendment Through the "War on" Paradigm, 15 Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 47-79 (Winter 2012)

Anna Shapell, Student Note: "Give Me a Beat:" Mixing and Mashing Copyright Law to Encompass Sample-Based Music, 12 Journal of High Technology Law 519-565 (2012)

Kim D. Chanbonpin, Legal Writing: the Remix: Plagiarism and Hip Hop Ethics, 63 Mercer Law Review 597-638 (Winter 2012)

John S. Pelletier, Student Note: Sampling the Circuits: The Case for a New Comprehensive Scheme for Determining Copyright Infringement as a Result of Music Sampling, 89 Washington University Law Review 1161-1202 (2012)

Tracy Reilly, Good Fences Make Good Neighboring Rights: The German Federal Supreme Court Rules on the Digital Sampling of Sound Recordings in Metall auf Metall, 13 Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology 153-209 (Winter 2012)

Caleb Mason, Jay-Z's 99 Problems, Verse 2: A Close Reading with Fourth Amendment Guidance for Cops and Perps, 56 Saint Louis University Law Journal 567-585 (Winter 2012)

Here's to a hip-hop and the law filled new year and more excelleent scholarship. 


-- Nick J. Sciullo

Happy Holidays from DMX

DMX recently stopped by New York City's Power 105, and gave a stirring rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  His new album, Undisputed, is in stores now. 

Video Courtesy of Power 105.


-- Nick J. Sciullo

CFP: Radical Teacher No. 97 - Hip-Hop and Critical Pedagogy

Hip-Hop and Critical Pedagogy

ON-LINE Special Issue of Radical Teacher, No. 97

Call for Submissions

All submissions due no later than February 15, 2013

With this special issue we propose to construct a frame for understanding the place of Hip Hop in classrooms—from K-12 public schools and other youth-based community spaces to college and university courses. With the increasing popularity of what some are calling Hip Hop Studies, it becomes essential to think critically about a range of methodological approaches, innovative instructional strategies and the overall challenges (practical,

political and ethical) of teaching Hip Hop.  Central to our concerns is a focus on critical literacy, defined by Ira Shor as “learning to read and write as part of the process of becoming conscious of one's experience as

historically constructed within specific power relations."  With this special issue of Radical Teacher we plan to consider the function of Hip Hop as a nexus of pedagogical innovation and critical literacy.

We seek contributions from a range of practitioners who are exploring the use of Hip Hop music and related elements of Hip Hop culture in the classroom.  Our definitions (of “Hip Hop,” of “classroom,” and so on) are, necessarily, flexible: our interest is in publishing a diverse range of writings that will help us all think about happens when Hip Hop becomes academic.  In this light we welcome submissions from educators, activists,

and scholars whose experiences have provided interesting data on this subject.  Possible formats include conventional research papers and essays, interviews, annotated lesson plans, syllabi and bibliographies, anthologies of student work, and visual art.  

Among other topics, we can imagine submissions treating:

Hip Hop and social justice teaching

Hip Hop K-12 instruction

Hip Hop at the University and Liberal Arts College

Hip Hop research strategies and agendas

Hip Hop and critical literacy practices

Hip Hop as global consciousness

Hip Hop and the politics of race

Hip Hop, Gender, and Sexuality

Hip Hop Studies and Traditional Fields of Study

Hip Hop Studies Methodologies

Hip Hop and Youth Organizing

Hip Hop and Africanist Aesthetics

Hip Hop and political organizing

Hip Hop, Police Brutality, and the Carceral State

Hip Hop and the Occupy Movement

Hip Hop and alternative media practices

Please send submissions and inquiries to: radicalteachhiphop@gmail.com

Guest Editors: Christopher M. Tinson, Ph.D., Hampshire College and Carlos Rec McBride, M.Ed., University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Radical Teacher is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist journal grounded in radical left politics. We publish articles that focus on education written by educational workers at all levels, in traditional and nontraditional institutions.

CFP: Hip Hop Literacies at OSU

The Ohio State University

February 15-16, 2013

The 2013 Hiphop Literacies conference features keynotes, performances and workshops by leading scholars, educators, and artists and focuses on pedagogies for social change in its attempt to target innovative, critical and activist work that uses Hiphop and popular culture including a wide range of media across geographic and virtual space, diverse populations, and methods for stimulating freedom movement.  We are especially interested in student-centered curriculum, integrating media, arts, community-based projects, progressive learning and teaching that are participatory, inquiry-based and interdisciplinary addressing social issues such as impoverishment, mass incarceration, community re-entry, sexism, human rights, language diversity, literacy, education, and social inequality.  Our goal is to continue to locate and instigate unified critical movement on behalf of critical scholars, researchers, students, teachers, artists, community members and policy makers.

The deadline is October, 30, 2012. 

Check out the webpage here. 


-- Nick J. Sciullo

Lauricella and Alexander on Lil Wayne's Prison Blog

Sharon Lauricella (Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies - University of Ontario Institute of Technology) and Matthew Alexander (University of Ontario Institute of Technology) have published Voice from Rikers: Spirituality in Hip Hop Artist Lil' Wayne's Prison Blog (Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2012, pp. 15-28).  Here is the abstract:


While incarcerated on Rikers Island, Grammy award-winning rapper Lil’ Wayne posted letters to a blog to maintain contact with fans.  The blog entries and comments from fans express gratitude, positivity, encouragement, and a pervasive sense of spirituality and religiousness.  This paper considers the content of Lil’ Wayne’s letters from Rikers, together with posted comments to the blog, in the context of spiritual communication and participatory media.


-- Nick J. Sciullo

Fink on Hip-Hop and Islam

Steven Fink has published an interesting piece in the Journal of Religion and Society entitled, "For the Best of All Listeners: American Islamic Hip Hop as Reminder."  The article is here.  The abstract is below:


This article analyzes lyrics of American Islamic hip hop songs that address views of Muslims as threats to American society as well as negative views of Muslim women.  As an alternative to these views, hip hop artists remind Muslim listeners of the Qur’anic principle that they are the best of all peoples, so listeners will define themselves according to this principle and therefore persevere in Islamic faith.  Musicological analysis follows this lyrical analysis, revealing a shared temporal structure both lyrically and musically, which strengthens these songs’ lyrical reminder.


Photo Credits: UW-Eau Claire.

-- Nick J. Sciullo

CFP: Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: “Hip Hop, Education, and Expanding the Archival Imagination”

Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: “Hip Hop, Education, and Expanding the Archival Imagination”

Submission Deadline: April 23, 2012

Meeting: September 28-29, 2012 Atlanta, GA

The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation (TASF) present the first annual Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection Conference: “Hip Hop, Education, and Expanding the Archival Imagination.” In the fifteen years since Shakur’s passing, the TASF has continued to cultivate the legacy and sociocultural impact of his life and works. As part of this effort, the TASF and Shakur Estate partnered with the AUC Woodruff Library to collect and curate the papers, letters, images, and other archival materials of the hip hop artist. In 2011, The Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection, housed at the Library, was opened to the public to promote scholarship and research of a multi-dimensional artist who helped define a musical genre.

To commemorate the opening of the historic collection, this two-day academic conference will convene scholars, educators, and students to present papers on themes related to the life and works of Tupac Shakur, education, and Hip Hop culture more broadly. The following are some suggested (but not required) sub-topics:

• Tupac and education, pedagogy, and/or epistemology

• Hip Hop in college curriculum

• Hip Hop Studies and authorship (i.e. who counts as an author?)

• What counts as an archive? How do we preserve Hip Hop culture?

• Hip Hop as literary genre (autobiography, drama, poetry, etc).

• Hip Hop as history

• Hip Hop and information literacy

• Scholar Advocacy for Hip Hop archives

• Archivists as partners in teaching, learning, and scholarship of Hip Hop Studies

Submission of paper abstracts should be approximately 300 words. Panel proposals (of either 3 or 4 papers per panel) should be approximately 500 words. All proposals should address the themes of this year’s conference “Hip Hop, Education, and Expanding the Archival Imagination” and include presenters’ institutional affiliations, a 50-word biography, and appropriate email address. Please e-mail all proposals to ShakurConference@auctr.edu by April 23, 2012. Accepted papers and panels will be announced by/on June 15, 2012, and the conference will take place on September 28-29, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Angela M. Nelson on Rap, Percussion, and Theology

From LawRhetoricandDebate.org: 

Angela M. Nelson (Bowling Green State University – Department of Popular Culture) has published “Put Your Hands Together”: The Theological Meaning of Percussion and Percussiveness in Rap Music (Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900 to the present), Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring 2011). Here is a sample:

A framework for studying rap music is related to the social and artistic textures of African-American popular culture. These textures are best understood through the concept of repertoire (Hall 289) and relate to the aesthetic beliefs and values of Africana people. Rap music is a product of popular culture that is drawn from an African-American cultural repertoire, which consists of the specific devices, techniques, ideologies, expressive art forms, or products of people of Africana descent that influence part of their culture (whether as context, texture, or text). Often derived from the folk tradition (see Soitos 37) and dominant culture, these components form a foundation of a black aesthetic and are used to create black popular cultural products. Religion, theology, and spirituality as they relate to beliefs and values lie within the social textures of rap music. Rhythm, percussiveness, and call-response lie within the artistic textures, or cultural repertoire, of rap music as well.

CFP: Rap and Hip Hop Culture SW/TPC & ACA

Call for Papers: RAP AND HIP HOP CULTURE

Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association
February 8-11, 2012
Albuquerque, NM
Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center
Downtown Albuquerque
http://www.swtxpca.org
Proposal submission deadline: December1, 2011
Submit Paper Proposals Here: http://conference2012.swtxpca.org
Proposals for both Panels and Individual Papers are nowbeing accepted for the Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture Area. We had excellent representation in this Arealast year and we are looking to expand in both quantity and complexity for thisyear’s conference. We are particularly interested in proposals that address the following but accept any proposal thatdeals with rap music and hip hop culture:

- Intersections of Hip Hop and Pedagogy

- Rap Music, Hip Hop Culture, and Space/Place

- Theoretical approaches to Hip Hop (i.e., LanguageTheory/Postmodernism/Social Theory)

- Rap, Hip Hop, and Academic Disciplinarity

- Rhetorical Approaches to Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture

- Rap, Hip Hop, and Film/Documentary

- Hip Hop Subjectivities/Agency

- Anthropological/Sociological approaches to Hip Hop Culture

- Economics and Hip Hop Culture

- Discussions of international Hip Hop

- Intersections of Hip Hop and Religion/Theology

- Hip Hop and Technology

- Latino Hip Hop

- Women and Hip Hop

- Hip Hop in the age of Obama

As always, papers and panels that consider the myriad waysthat Rap Music and Hip Hop culture impact and feed upon Popular and Americanculture are encouraged. This Area shouldbe construed broadly, and we seek papers that aren’t afraid to take risks. Proposals from Graduate Students areparticularly welcome, with award opportunities for the best graduate papers.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words withrelevant audio/visual requests by December 1, 2011, to http://conference2012.swtxpca.org. Panel proposals should include one abstractof 200 words describing the panel, accompanied by the underlying abstracts of250 words of the individual papers that comprise the panel.

Mia Moody on hip-hop and the "Independent Woman"

Mia Moody has published, "A rhetorical analysis of the meaning of the "independent woman" in the lyrics and videos of male and female rappers" in the 13.1 American Communication Journal 43-58 (Spring 2011). It's worth a read for those interested in hip-hop and feminism.

The abstract is here:

Using the concept of intersectionality, this rhetorical analysis combines feminist and critical cultural theories to explore the meanings of the ―independent woman‖ in the lyrics and respective videos of male and female rappers. Findings indicate both groups use misogynistic language to describe women and juxtapose images of independence with material wealth. However, male rappers are more likely to include messages of beautiful, overachieving women paired with average men while female rappers focus on their own sexual prowess. Also worth noting is while male rappers highlight domestic skills such as cooking and cleaning, female rappers do not mention them at all. Based on viewer feedback, it appears very few viewers explore the true meaning of independence and relationships. This study is of significance because rap music is a large part of popular culture that scholars must continuously analyze for new messages and meanings.

Giving away music: A Copyright Conundrum

An interesting article recently appeared in Toronto's Globe and Mail, asking an important question: Who really "owns" them [popular music]? The article makes note of several artists claiming to give away the rights to their music, but this seems to be quite the copyright conundrum.

There are no doubt legal issues at play as music artists are under all sorts of contractual language with respect to the rights to their songs. The ownership of music usually involves a number of players from artists to record companies to the song writers that pen our favorites. I'm not an expert on copyright law, so I'll leave the discussion up to those that are.

This article also includes significant coverage of Somali-Canadian hip-hop star K'naan who has made quite a name for himself for his thought-provoking repertoire.

(Photo courtesy of the Globe and Mail)

-- Nick J. Sciullo

Dayvon Love, Baltimore City Council candidate for the 8th District, Talks Hip-Hop, Social Justice, and His Candidacy with Nick J. Sciullo

Council District 8 in Baltimore City just may have a new look. Dayvon Love, a soon to be Towson University graduate and championship debater, is running for the seat. He is the youngest candidate on the slate and HipHopLaw.com decided to sit down with him and ask him about what it means to be young, Black and taking his first dip in the electoral pool. Nick J. Sciullo sat down with him and posed a few questions to Mr. Love. The questions and his responses follow:

NJS: Many folks will be talking about how young you are. The average candidate for public office isn’t in their 20’s, but you’re taking this monumental step in a city you call home. What do you think the advantages of being a young candidate are?

DL: There are two major advantages I have as a young person running for office. The first is that I have not been pigeonholed into a particular clique or group. I am the new kid on the block in many ways and I get to create the image I want to portray without having to wrestle with a lot of excess baggage. The second advantage I have is that I have a strong appeal to those who are young and who are tired of the status quo. My youth brings a substantive youth presence to Baltimore politics that is severely lacking now.

NJS: You’re a founding member of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a Baltimore-based activist group that has been active engaging the political system and asking hard questions of leaders and community members. Until your candidacy, LBS has functioned outside of the political establishment. Why do you feel it’s necessary to fight the system from within?

DL: LBS understands that we need to use every tactic at our disposal in order to effectively address the oppression and suffering of the people of Baltimore. We are focused on developing a fusion of grassroots activism and electoral politics in a way that is not being deployed in this city. Running for office is a natural extension of our focus on public policy and social justice.

NJS: HipHopLaw.com is about engaging the many intersections between the law and all that is hip-hop. As someone who came into hip-hop at the tale end of the hip-hop generation, a generation roughly characterized as those born between the mid-1960’s and the mid-1980’s, what does hip-hop mean to you and how will hip-hop’s influence benefit you and your candidacy?

DL: Hip Hop is an organic expression of the social, political, psychological and existential aspects of subaltern voices. Born out of the womb of Black life during a time of extreme misery brought on by Reaganomics, Hip Hop provides an ear to the lives and the collective consciousness of those who are traditionally excluded by the power structure in Baltimore. Being a person of the Hip Hop generation many of the issues I will address are an outgrowth of the many concerns expressed in Hip Hop.

NJS: Most urban environments are characterized by tense relationships between law enforcement and minority communities. Hip-hop has made much of this tension. Baltimore, like most cities, is not immune from such difficulties. What can you do to help resolve these tensions?

DL: We need a new paradigm of law enforcement that makes substantive community engagement a necessity for those interested in a career in law enforcement. This means that people in uniforms are not merely patrolling their communities, but are involved in other aspects of community life. A policy that demands substantive community engagement of officers with the community would be a policy I would advocate for as a city councilman.

NJS: Debate is a tremendous activity that demands excellent public speaking skills, research skills, and teamwork. Your alma mater, Towson University, is the only intercollegiate policy debate team in Baltimore and one of only two colleges in Maryland, the other being the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. What has debate taught you that will help you work with your potential councilmembers?

DL: Debate has given me skills to rigorously test issues of public policy in a way that no other activity can. It has given me a critical perspective that has a deep intellectual backing. This allows me to be an independent-thinking city councilmember who can exercise leadership on important issues. Debate has also taught me how to effectively refute arguments in a way that is persuasive. Those currently in power provide arguments with a lack of soundness, and debate gives me a unique opportunity to use the skills I’ve learned to challenge councilmembers who are defenders of the status quo.

NJS: What are your policy priorities? Education, crime, access to social services, and (re)development are all issues in Baltimore. What do you plan to do about these issues?

DL: The major issues I want to address are education, criminal and juvenile justice, economic development, housing, and youth development.

On education, I want to focus on 4 major areas:

a) Increased access to Vocation/Industrial education and IT training-

This will allow young people in Baltimore who are not interested in going to college to have real alternatives. Vocational/Industrial education has been mostly abandoned by public schools. Re-integrating this into the education system will allow for young people to have skills that can help them make a living. Also with the rise of Information Technology, there is a huge market for people with skills in this area, and these skills do not require comprehensive academic training. This can provide employment opportunities for many young people in Baltimore who are finding it hard to find employment.

b) Mentorship-

Mentoring needs to be institutionalized into the school system. This is a very basic concept, but also very important.

c) Social Justice-

It should be required that students engage issues of social justice. With so many injustices that confront them everyday, it is a crime not to teach students about the injustices that they see in their own lives.

d) Entrepreneurship-

There is an entrepreneurial spirit amongst the young people in this city, but they are not given the formal skills to start businesses. Schools should provide the opportunity for youth to development businesses so they can be participants in the economic activity of Baltimore.

NJS: And now for a few questions that might be of more direct interest to our readers… Favorite hip-hop artist and album?

DL: Hard question. My answer to this question changes all the time. Right now, it would be Common and his album Like Water for Chocolate.

NJS: What blogs do read regularly?

DL: I don’t read blogs regularly (NJS: Except for HipHopLaw.com of course!).

NJS: Is hip-hop political? If so, how can communities harness this energy?

DL: Hip Hop is political because of it’s ability to capture the attention of the masses. We need the Hip Hop community to take the power that they have and use it to support political candidates that will represent the people in the Hip Hop community.

NJS: Thanks for the time, Dayvon. It's great to see young people taking the opportunity to positively affect their communities and who are willing to advocate for change. Best of luck.

Law Reviews and Hip-Hop; Thoughts on Placing Your Article

A 05/10/11 LexisNexis search with no date restrictions on journals with the most articles containing the word “hip-hop” produced some interesting results. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (24) is by far in the lead, but the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (18), Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal (15), UC-Davis Law Review (15), Howard Law Journal (12), and UCLA Entertainment Law Review (12) round out a strong top 6.

Here we see 3 of the Top 10 Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law journals according to the W&L law review rankings. Not bad it would seem for an area that is relatively new to the legal academy.

The next 5 are also a strong group of journals: Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts (11), DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law (10), Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal (10), Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal (10), and New York University Law Review (10).

Here again are another 4 articles in the Top 16 Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law journals. 7 of the Top 16 of these specialty journals have published 10 or more articles that at least mention “hip-hop.”

Several journals had 9 articles (Cardozo Law Review & de novo and Michigan Journal of Race & Law). Several came in with 8 (Berkeley Technology law Journal, California Law Review & The Circuit, DePaul Law Review, and Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology). Strong showings at 7 as well (American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, Michigan Law Review, and Stanford Law Review).

For the sake of space I only included those journals with 6 (Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review, New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Southern California Law Review, Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, and Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal) and 5 articles (Asian Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, Indiana Law Journal & Supplement, Iowa Law Review, Kentucky Law Journal, Law & Society Review, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law, Tulane Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, University of Richmond Law Review, Villanova Sports & Entertainment Law Journal, Washington & Lee Law Review, and The Yale Law Journal). There are many more journals with fewer articles, but they’d be too cumbersome to mention.

The above list also includes 3 of the Top 8 journals in Minority, Race and Ethnic Issues according to W&L rankings.

Those journals that feature “hip-hop” in the title are much fewer in number. The Michigan Journal of Race & Law and UCLA Entertainment Law Review lead the way with 2 articles each. The 13 other journals that feature an article with “hip-hop” in the title are Michigan Law Review, National Black Law Journal, North Carolina Law Review, Oklahoma City University Law Review, Rutgers Race and the Law Review, Santa Clara Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law, University of Louisville Law Review, Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, and Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal.

A reasonable question for scholars hoping to place their hip-hop article is, “Will I be able to place my article at a reputable journal?” A good question! The evidence looks rewarding. Not only do hip-hop articles place frequently in the highest specialty journals, they also place in perhaps some unexpectedly strong General Law reviews. Looking at those reviews that have published more than 5 articles and again using the W&L General U.S. Law Review list… Articles that contain “hip-hop” appear in the journals ranked 3, 4, 5, 9, 22, 23, 24, and 29. I obviously didn’t go through the whole list, but these are not bad numbers.

Articles that featured “hip-hop” in the title faired well too. They placed in General Law reviews at 4, 9, 24, 75, 101, and 187. Again, not too bad. They also placed in the Arts, Entertainment and Sports Law journals at positions 6, 9, and 12 for those specialty journals.

-- Nick J. Sciullo

Placing your hip-hop scholarship

It occurred to me that there really isn't a list of journals that publish on hip-hop. While, law reviews are increasingly embracing hip-hop as part of the larger critical race theory dialogue, there are also other journals that are actively soliciting hip-hop contributions. I've listed them below, in no particular order. I will follow up this post with some thoughts on law reviews and hip-hop scholarship.

Words. Beats. Life.

http://www.wblinc.org/the-global-journal-of-hip-hop-culture/

Publisher: Words Beats & Life Inc.

Citation: APA

Length: 5,000 for research articles, shorter for other forms

Publication frequency: 2 editions per year

Submission email: submissions@wblic.org

The Journal of African American History

http://www.jaah.org/

Publisher: Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Citation: Chicago Manual of Style

Length: 35 page maximum

Publication frequency: 4 editions per year

Submission email: Hard copy only, in triplicate

Popular Music and Society

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rpms

Publisher: Routledge

Citation: Will review APA, Chicago/Turabian, and MLA; MLA for publication

Length: 4,000-10,000 words

Publication frequency: 5 editions per year

Submission email: TMOGCB1@wpo.cso.niu.edu

American Music

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/am.html

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Citation: Chicago Manual of Style

Length: 25-50 pages

Publication frequency: 4 editions per year

Submission email: nlearner@davidson.edu

Journal of Popular Music Studies

http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=1524-2226

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell/International Association for the Study of Popular Music

Citation: Chicago Manual of Style

Length: 5,000-7,500 words

Publication frequency: 4 editions per year

Submission email: submissions@thejpms.net

Popular Music

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PMU

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Citation: Specified in author guidelines

Length: 10,000 word maximum

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Ethnomusicology

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Publisher: University of Illinois Press/Society for Ethnomusicology

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Callaloo

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Journal of Black Studies

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-- Nick J. Sciullo

Major League teams as Hip-Hop MC's from GossipSports.com

I saw this post over at GossipSports.com and thought it was pretty funny. I'm not so sure all the observations are correct, but some are on point. What do you think of this list?

MLB Teams as MC's...

This started as a joke between my friends and I a while back, trying to match baseball teams to bands. I got through about 14 teams before I said “screw it, I’m sick of pretending like the Washington Nationals and Flaming Lips have anything in common.” Clearly, they don’t. But, I did find this exercise was a ton more fun when I swapped out “bands” for hip-hop acts. Sometimes, the artist reps the city from which the team hails, sometimes they don’t. Ladies and gentlemen, The Source proudly presents: Baseball teams as rappers.

AL EAST

Baltimore Orioles (P-Diddy) – Man, if only it were 1997 again. Does this make the Jeffrey Maier catch the baseball equivalent of when Biggie got shot? I mean, the Orioles could have built an empire, but another legend in the same vein emerged to dominate the East Coast rap landscape in years to come.

Boston Red Sox (Eminem) – Disproportionate percentage of female and white fans. Extremely loud and overbearing, but often with skills and budget to match. Was, at one point, the most outsized and recognizable face in the industry, now settling uneasily back into past-its-prime adequacy.

New York Yankees (Jay-Z) - The Ruler. The HOVA. Bazillions of platinum albums. Media empire. Mogul. Riches. Beyonce. Single after hit single. Empire State of Mind. Emerged in the late 90s to dominate the game for the next decade.

Tampa Bay Rays (Drake) – In the vein of Lil Wayne (see: Twins, Minnesota), protege finds crossover niche with some Young Money. Small market, but big breakout success in 2008.

Toronto Blue Jays (K-Os) – Eclectic skills mixing throwback sensibilities with futuristic production. Canada’s lone recognizable entity, but could leave, relocate, re-distribute and would be infinitely moreso (and, more successful, one would think).

AL CENTRAL

Chicago White Sox (Lil Jon) - Loud, crunk, circus-like atmosphere creates a cacophonous mess of a cottage industry which, despite only ruling the city for a brief period, cranks out hits, though one always gets the feeling the gravy train will end soon. (Ahem, Ozzie.)

Cleveland Indians (Cypress Hill) - Stormed the scene in the early-to-mid-90s with manic, fast energy and quality skills. Since then has vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Detroit Tigers (LL Cool J) - Decent skill, big budget, but still impossible to be taken seriously.

Kansas City Royals (KRS-One) - Awesome in the 80s. Completely irrelevant since.

Minnesota Twins (Lil Wayne) – Critically acclaimed, Minnesota slowly built a staggering, slow-burning empire and became a model for other similarly-styled franchises (see: Rays, Tampa Bay).

AL WEST

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Snoop Dogg) - Gradually overtook LA from Dre (see: Dodgers, Los Angeles), as the lil’ brother eventually became the ruling body. Relaxed pace, quiet excellence, chill as all hell, still delivering the goods year after year.

Oakland Athletics (Common) – So cerebral, sometimes the ambition out-thinks the talent. Small levels of success most of the time, but consistently retooling the sound.

Seattle Mariners (Jurassic 5) - 2001 was a hell of a year, and showed a lot of promise. Team’s been trying the same thing since, and that recipe’s helped them fade into oblivion.

Texas Rangers (Talib Kweli) - Hyped every year as a great force “on paper”, often undone by glaring inconsistencies, distraction or gaping holes in production. Then, last year, they dropped their most consistent and praised work to date, teaming once again with an old friend (DJ Hi-Tek / Nolan Ryan).

NL EAST

Atlanta Braves (Wu-Tang Clan) - At one point in the 90s, was the greatest collection of fire-spittin’ talent the world had yet seen, with three hall-of-famers and several others who’d go on to carve out solid careers. That said, only one incredible peak (Enter the 36 Chambers / 1995 World Series) leads one to label them “underachievers.”

Florida Marlins (Pitbull) – Predominantly Hispanic fan base. By the time most hear the tracks, though, nobody’s really sure who dropped ‘em or when they came out, because every 3-4 years or so, the sound overhauls itself.

New York Mets (Nas) – Jay-Z rules New York. Nas is a distant second, and hasn’t done jack worth writing home about in forever. Still riding cache off one crowning moment (1986 World Series, Illmatic).

Philadelphia Phillies (Kanye West) – Absolutely ruled the last half of the 2000′s, and this year riding a surge in notoriety, following an unthinkable mash-up of skills and craftsmanship that bent the rules of the game, and could wind up changing it forever.

Washington Nationals (Master P and the No Limit All-Stars) - Incredibly, there was once a time when it appeared this team would soar to great heights (1994 strike-shortened year), and then all the talent went elsewhere and the label folded and nobody even remembers them now.

NL CENTRAL

Chicago Cubs (Ludacris) – The de-facto face of the city, and a long-time staple of it. Showed promise at the turn of the millennium, Peaked in 2003 by nearly reaching the very top of the game, but then dissolved and in ill-fated attempts to patch together hasty re-creations of that magic, fans seem to romanticize the idea of each more than either giving the fans something worth savoring.

Cincinnati Reds (Public Enemy) - The OG franchise (baseball’s longest-running current act.) 1990 was an incredible year. Early on in the game, they brought the noise. Then the noise left. Experiencing a current resurgence in popularity (on a smaller scale) by a new generation nostalgic for good ol’ days.

Houston Astros (Mike Jones) - There was once a time a while back when you could say “Mike who?” And everyone knew you meant “The ‘Stros!” Now, there’s simply silence after “Who?”

Milwaukee Brewers (Xzibit) - Had to give it up to the MC who brought us more hot tracks about drinking than anyone, repping the team named after those specialize in making it.

Pittsburgh Pirates (Easy-E) - Both have been dead for the past 17 years.

St. Louis Cardinals (Nelly) - Like Ludacris and ATL, Nelly is the defacto face of STL. Both peaked around the same time, and sustained excellence in the first half of this decade. And, like the Cardinals, nobody really HATES Nelly. This is the team you’d even let your mama like. Even Luda fans, despite the stark contrast between the two MCs, give props in a polite fashion.

NL WEST

Arizona Diamondbacks (DMX) – In jail? Still making records? Still playing? Still traveling the country? Nobody can answer this. But, for one brief shining moment around the turn of the millennium, this was the gold standard. How far the mighty have fallen.

Colorado Rockies (Outkast) – Always a fun place to turn when you want entertainment value, it wasn’t until recently, when the more eccentric aspects of the group (Andre 3000 / BALLS FLYING OUT OF THE PARK ALL THE TIME) were tapered or eliminated, by departure or by humidor, that we realized we longed for them to return and took them for granted.

Los Angeles Dodgers (Dr. Dre) – At one point, the definitive king of the West Coast. Still waiting for that next follow-up to The Chronic, or that 1988 World Series title. Doesn’t look good.

San Diego Padres (Mos Def) – In 1998-99, there was little bigger than “Black on Both Sides” or the Padres wrestling the non-commercial crown away from Wu-Tang and standing nearly equal with Jay-Z. But, long periods of inactivity caused the fans to drift. And, although they’re still respected, there’s just more active, shiny new objects out there to devote attention. Like, you know, the coast.

San Francisco Giants (The Roots) - Hyped group, adored by white people, that did things its own way and was quite successful in their “experimental” phase (Phrenology / 2002 World Series when Bonds, ahem, “experimented” with Steroids), but has quietly settled into a night-in, night-out groove and in 2007 moved from Bonds to Fallon. Last year, with little expected of them, they achieved a new pinnacle of success.