In my senior year of college, I had to submit my honors’ thesis at California University of Pennsylvania. I titled the project “The United Eras of Hip-Hop”. This was way back in 2008-2009, and it will always be one of my proudest achievements. My thesis has never really come up since graduating from Cal U in 2009, and I haven’t been invested in the music or hip-hop scene nearly as much as I was when I was in college. However, hip-hop will always be a part of me, and it will always serve as a reflection of America’s culture and society.
For the first time on #TheNU, I am posting the abstract as an excerpt, the raw elements of the PowerPoint from April 2009, and my entire thesis (view entire PDF here: The United Eras of Hip-Hop (1984-2008))
MADDSKILLZ Update (April 09) -> – A funny thing happened this past month in regards to my thesis project. I wrote a 90 page rough draft on my thesis entitled “The United Eras of Hip-Hop.” And I wrote it all in eight days really (the last five days of Spring Broke, and the 3 days the following weekend). In the process, I won at least one procrastination-related bet with Merissa. I would be proud of my work, but I’m not done yet. I still have to finalize the project and present it here at Cal U during the 11AM common hours of April 14th and April 16th (that one is for the Hip-Hop Conference – Common and Chuck D are coming here!); if anybody at Cal U is interested in catching a show from the 1 with the SKILLZ on those dates and times, hit me up for more information. Not to give too much away, but I examined the media perception of hip-hop over the last quarter century – from Run-DMC’s 1984 debut to the end of 2008. I also defined 5 concrete 5-year eras in hip-hop while loosely using terms that usually come up in American History: The Revolution Era (1984-1988), The Golden Age Era (1989-1993), The Civil War and Reconstruction Era (1994-1998), The Beef Era (1999-2003), and The Panic Era (2004-2008). Okay I’m done talking about that, if you want more than show up to my thesis defense!
MADDSKILLZ Update (May 09) -> “The United Eras of Hip-Hop.” Now I’ve been talking about my thesis for months, but the truth is that I only had an idea, not a lot of substance. The substance came when I went from 0 to 90 pages over Spring Broke. My thesis wound up being over 100 pages! 25 chapters! I went from not being sure if I’d have a thesis before I wrote the MADDSKILLZ Update (March 09) to creating one of the best two months later.
ABSTRACT
“The United Eras of Hip-Hop” examines the media perception of hip-hop over the last quarter century – from Run-DMC’s 1984 debut to the end of 2008. “The United Eras of Hip-Hop” also defines 5 concrete 5-year eras in hip-hop while loosely using terms that usually come up in American History: The Revolution Era (1984-1988), The Golden Age Era (1989-1993), The Civil War and Reconstruction Era (1994-1998), The Beef Era (1999-2003), and The Crisis Era (2004-2008). The Revolution Era represented the rise to permanence of hip-hop. The Golden Age Era is recognized as hip-hop at its highest quality. The Civil War and Reconstruction Era marked the geographical battle for supremacy amongst hip-hop. The Beef Era represented great conflict within hip-hop as the most popular trend. The Crisis Era is where hip-hop the question of hip-hop’s relevance was raised and challenged. This thesis intends to be a narrative of mainstream hip-hop music and culture, a partial historical account, and an extended example of how the media can influence both the rise of a phenomenon and the direction of its future. Because of the vast level of the subject, this thesis primarily focuses on American mainstream hip-hop. Paralleling other subjects, such as current events and the National Basketball Association, help to explain just how reflective hip-hop is to the greater society in which we live in.
-1SKILLZ