This course explores hip hop aesthetics, techniques, and history by focusing on the music and discourse of those who are engaged in hip hop culture, including (but not limited to) emceeing, deejaying, graffiti writing, and breaking. The focus of the course is on elements of musical style, such as rhythm, form, stress and rhyme patterns, and sampling. Other topics include politics, issues of authenticity, and the connections between hip hop and African diasporic practices. The course offers opportunities for performance and composition. Familiarity with Western music notation is not required. This course counts toward the Ethnicities and Race minor.