Hip Hop Audible Series Ep3: Marcus Singleton a.k.a. iomos marad

Nidhil Vohra 

Welcome to Hip Hop Audibles, where local Toronto Hip Hop artists, educators and practitioners share passages from their favorite books and verses and talk about how these pieces made an impact in their lives. Today, we feature Marcus Singleton, also known as iomos Marad. Marcus is originally from the Englewood community in the south side of Chicago. He's a conscious Hip Hop artist and educator who is an advocate for Black students. He completed his Master of Education in Social Justice Education and is currently a PhD student in the Social Justice Department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on critical Hip Hop pedagogy and critical race reading practices within Black Studies. He's also the inaugural Hart House Hip Hop Education Community Connector. 

Marcus Singleton 

"Rap is the verbal expression of an inner-city culture known as Hip Hop. Hip Hop is an empowering identity, a behavior, an attitude. Hip Hop is created when inner city youth can find no external expression that accurately defines their mentality. Hip Hop is the mental activity of oppressed creativity. Hip Hop is not a theory, and you cannot do Hip Hop. Oppressed urban youth living in the ghettos of North America are Hip Hop. Rap is something you do. Hip Hop is something you live. Hip Hop is the true inner-city reality, constantly fighting against the made-up reality of today's society. This is why Hip-Hop culture appears to always be at odds with the laws of society as well as the basic education of society. Everyone, especially Black youth, lives two lives at the same time. One life is comfortable to them, and the other is comfortable to society." So, I just wanted to share this passage from one of my favorite Hip Hop artists of all time, KRS-One, and from his book "Ruminations". And this basically just centers my work creatively and it centers my work critically and academically. So, I always refer back to this. This is the foundation of why I'm doing the work that I'm doing around critical Hip Hop pedagogy and how that relates to Black youth. Thank you. Peace. 

Nidhil Vohra 

Thank you to Marcus Singleton, also known as iomos marad, for sharing with us. Hip Hop Audibles was produced on Dish with One Spoon Territory and is a co-pro between the Hart House Hip Hop Education program and the Hart House Student Podcasting team with music by Vic Adamo. For more Hip Hop Audibles and to learn more, visit www.harthouse.ca I'm Nidhil Vohra. Peace.