- Explorin' Gangsta Rap: Dead Prez & the School-to-Prison Pipeline
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Abstract:
- While gangsta rap narratives have long acknowledged educational inequalities and power asymmetries of Black schooling experiences in the United States, their ideas and perspectives aren’t always considered in the process of education policy and curriculum decisions. This article analyzes Dead Prez’s track “They School” as a critique of the American educational system and the school-to-prison pipeline. It focuses on Dead Prez’s rap flow techniques of rhyme, rhythmic, and metric structures as a pedagogical tool. Through flow, the audience transitions between passive listening and a didactic musical experience. A study into Dead Prez’s narrative verses further reveals challenges African Americans encounter within the United States school system: these point to ideologies of a hegemonic curriculum and pedagogy, biased educators, and zero-tolerance policies as leading causes of the school-to-prison pipeline. From the vantage point of Dead Prez’s track “They School,” invaluable lessons on Black schooling needs can provide guidance for topics ranging from education reform to cross-cultural pedagogy.
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