Professors and students work together to create hip hop archive

A University of Manchester professor has been working with the University's Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre (AIU Centre) to establish new resources for tributaries of the hip hop music genre and movement.

Dr Joy White, hip hop graffiti and hip hop books at the AIU
Dr Joy White, hip hop graffiti and hip hop books at the AIU

Dr Eithine Quinn is a Professor of American Studies and author of Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. Her project, The Hip Hop Collection, is an archive dedicated to the collection of related magazines, journals, books, and teaching resources for future usage.

This will help contribute to and individualise hip hop education for future students, partners and researchers of the University. The archive has links to Eithine's academic course in American Studies, Hip Hop and Hollywood.

The Hip Hop Collection will also be used to access and connect with external organisations, including local groups and youth clubs affiliated with hip hop.

As part of the project, an informative discussion was held at Manchester Central Library in November 2017. This was introduced by Dr Joy White, author of Urban Music and Entrepreneurship: Beats, Rhymes and Young People's Enterprise, to give an overview of the session and future plans for the AIU Centre.

The various talks offered perspectives on hip hop for the attending audience, making it an informative and worthwhile discussion for both participants and attendees to share ideas and future projects.

Some of the tributary workshops associated within this talk included Reflections on a Decade of Grime by Joy White, Young Identity and Wordsmith's Spoken Word for schools in Manchester, and a talk on help with the archive by Jon Green of Unity Radio.

There were also performances from Manchester-based Young Identity and director Shirley May to support and give insight into the project.

As part of the project, American Studies master's student Hattie Charnley-Shaw has compiled a Hip Hop in the Library study guide for the AUI Centre.

This project has been funded by the University's Curriculum fund as part of the Social Responsibility goal within the Manchester 2020 strategy. 

Find out more about the AIU Centre.