Music 74AC/139AC: "Hip Hop in Urban America"

In Professor Sara Lappas's Summer 2015 offering of Music 74AC/139AC, students presented at a colloquium on March 11 utilizing four audio vignettes that incorporate interviews with RYSE youth participants, and feature the music made together with Berkeley students. Rapping in Mandarin, Berkeley student Vanessa Guo shared the stage with her teenage collaborator, Miyosha, and volunteer Juanita Greene at a lively, outdoor talent showcase last weekend in Richmond. The trio co-wrote the music and lyrics for “Dance with Me,” a hip-hop track about confidence and empowerment, through a partnership between the Richmond youth organization RYSE and a summer music course at Berkeley on the history of hip-hop in urban America.