Hip Hop Genius is a weapon for the defense of the resilience, brilliance, and strengths of young people and for schools designed to serve them. I wish we had had such a book as a weapon for our self-defense during the struggles of the sixties. It provides evidence for the way in which diversity in schooling can overcome intractable problems of public education and should be used in defense of democratic, wider-ranging schooling. The educational establishment is cynically obsessed with one-way schooling, and this book is a call for resistance and opposition through the power of the portrait it provides of what creative education looks like. -- Herbert Kohl, author, 36 Children, I Won't Learn from You, and The Discipline of Hope
With back bends for the older and back flips for the agile young, Hip Hop Genius exercises sound scholarship and creative, critical thinking as it confronts social disparities in America's educational crisis. Sam Seidel's years of experience with city and charter schools allow him to chronicle and channel the contributions of teachers, students, artists, and activists rooted in urban cultures-all working to define strategies for quality universal education. Positioning hip hop against ideological conservatism, economic neglect, racism, sexism, and homophobia, Hip Hop Genius executes the essential moves. -- Joy James, editor, The New Abolitionists
Don't wait for Superman-Hip Hop Genius is here! With more than turntables and a microphone, the High School for Recording Arts has created an amazing new model to tap one of America's greatest resources: the unrecognized genius of kids from the hood. Unfortunately, most schools are stuck in the 20th Century. Hip Hop Genius works-it will change the way you think about education and hip hop at the same time. -- William Upski Wimsatt, Author, Bomb the Suburbs and Please Don't Bomb the Suburbs
At a time when educators and policymakers are struggling to find ways to motivate young people to achieve at higher levels, it would make sense for them to consider looking into the areas where many are already engaged. In this insightful and illuminating book, we learn that hip hop is much more than a source of entertainment. It can and is being used as a medium for creativity and genius to be cultivated. Seidel shows us how one school is doing just that, and through his analysis of their work he reminds us of what could be possible for many more. -- Pedro A. Noguera Ph.D, distinguished professor of education UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
Get the book... [David 'TC' Ellis has] done his job with his school... Anything he's doing is worth being read about... He turned his life around and went on and did something and he's still doing it. I would read a book about his ass. -- George Clinton
Hip Hop Genius is a powerful and necessary work. Through his beautifully written account of the High School for Recording Arts, Samuel Seidel offers real-world texture and nuance to the field of hip-hop-based education. Unlike many books in the field, Hip Hop Genius doesn't force us to choose between theory and practice, or pragmatism and hope. This book is a sorely needed reminder of what is possible when we release our imaginations and mine the genius that inside of all of our children. -- Marc Lamont Hill
This book describes the pedagogy and curriculum of an alternative high school that is rooted in hip-hop culture and has demonstrated some success in retaining students who might otherwise be among the 1.23 million high school dropouts in America every year. It also attempts to explain hip-hop as a philosophy and way of life to the uninitiated. While the library is at the heart of a traditional school, the High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota, has as its core a recording studio. Curriculum is centered on music production and prepares students for a wide range of jobs related to the recording business. It is a curriculum that makes sense to young African Americans. Claiming that traditional programs subject minority students to "identity abuse," this school is predicated on providing an environment that reflects rather than transforms student culture. The program features individualized, project-based learning in real-world contexts....Summing Up: Recommended. General readers. * CHOICE *
It's the something-from-nothing attitude that led young musicians to transform record players into instruments and to combine snatches of disco, funk, rock, and blues into the new American music. It is hip-hop genius, and, according to Sam Seidel, it just might be the antidote for what ails our public schools....With no wasted words or drawn-out discussions, Seidel keeps it moving and leaves you wanting to know more. The author comes across as knowledgeable and passionate about the topic as well as humble in his obvious admiration for the youth and adults featured in the book....This book is a gift. * Harvard Educational Review *
