Impact
Hip-Hop’s Place in Higher Education
On the Now at Ohio State podcast, we talk with researchers, innovators and bold thinkers who look at our world, see what the real challenges are, and create the solutions that people need now.
Episode 18
24-minute listen
Hip-Hop’s Place in Higher Education
When you think of college music courses, do you think about classical? Jazz? Rock ’n’ roll? If you don’t consider hip-hop to be a part of that list, our guests might convince you otherwise. In this episode, we talk to two professors at Ohio State’s School of Music about the history of hip-hop, the culture, how it’s changed our world and how it’s changing academia.
College of Arts and Sciences
Jason ‘J Rawls’ Rawls
Rawls is an assistant professor of hip-hip in the School as Music and in the Department of African American and African Studies. He has more than 30 years of teaching experience, including time at Ohio University and Columbus City Schools. In addition, he has a long career as a hip-hop music producer, working with artists like Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Beastie Boys, Aloe Blacc, Domo Genesis and Capital Steez.
College of Arts and Sciences
Stevie ‘Dr. View’ Johnson
Johnson is an assistant professor of creative practice in popular music in the School of Music. In 2023, he was the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at Harvard University. He received his doctorate from the University of Oklahoma in 2019. His dissertation, Curriculum of the Mind: A BlackCrit, Narrative Inquiry Hip Hop Album on Anti-Blackness and Freedom for Black Male Collegians at historically white institutions, received the 2019 Bobby Wright Dissertation of the Year from the Association for the Study of Higher Education – the first time a hip-hop or non-traditional dissertation received the award.
