Expand your knowledge and learn about hip hop’s rich history and global cultural currency with these informal talks with food and friends.
Overview
Welcome to the Hart House Hip Hop 101 Café. Whether you’re a sneakerhead or a novice, an emerging fan or an old school expert, we’ve got a hip hop conversation for you!
Hip Hop 101 Café is a space created for students to come together and explore how hip hop infuses all parts of our everyday culture. Peer- and community-led conversations in this space will leave you with a deeper appreciation of a shared community and a greater understanding of how hip hop culture continues to influence our world.
Everyone is welcome. Bring a friend and drop by. Refreshments will be served.
For this session
From Tupac in Above the Rim, Ray Allen in He Got Game, and the everlasting impact of trailblazers like Allen Iverson, the connection between hip hop and basketball has become inseparable.
We have come to know and associate hip hop with basketball in ways we don’t even consider anymore: Adidas and Run DMC, J. Cole's performance at NBA All-Star weekend, Meek Mill courtside at his beloved 76ers games, but was it always that way? Walk onto any court, and you'll hear the most recent tracks from some of the best MC's and Hip Hop artists out there. But Drake and Jay-Z didn't become owners of NBA teams overnight.
It now seems common for ballers to drop mixtapes (Hey Lonzo), or have the illest freestyle in the league (shout out to Damian Lillard aka Dame D.O.L.L.A.), but what did it take to make those connections? Let's not forget Shaq-Fu! What were the social or political consequences of those who blazed trails and what lessons can we derive from their stories? The intersection of both basketball and Hip Hop as pathways to success, self-expression, and community-building cannot be overstated.
Join us for a discussion on the relationship, history, present day, and future of two of the greatest global cultural influences of our time: Hip Hop and Basketball.
Hip Hop Education at Hart House will support our values of representation, collaboration and social justice to explore and provide platforms for key principles of hip hop and its importance in our everyday culture on all three campuses. Recognizing hip hop as a powerful global influencer, Hart House seeks to create unique opportunities for students and community to engage hip hop education and artistic expression.
