All I See Is Blinkin’ Lights

All I See Is Blinkin’ Lights is a Hip Hop Podcast in German language. It features interviews with personalities from the German rap scene and deep talks on various Hip Hop related topics. In a new five-part series, the podcast approaches the British grime culture and scene with many music samples, clips and recordings documenting the scene. It explores the beginnings in the UK Bass Culture of the 90s, explaining the sound of the beats and the styles of the MCs, whose roots can be found in London’s pirate radios. The series discusses the beginnings of the culture, important key figures, and also takes a critical look at social and political developments such as the Police Form 696, which almost brought the genre to a halt. In the final episode, the podcast traces the musical roots back to Jamaica in 1930. In the process, the foundations of reggae, toasting, and sound systems are discovered, and the connections to the Jamaican history and the British immigration policy over the decades are revealed.

All links to listen, follow and support the podcast can be found at www.alliseeisblinkinlights.de

Job Offer: Lecturer in Music Performance (Hip Hop), London College of Music

Salary:   £41,201 to £47,169 per annum
Release Date:   Tuesday 02 November 2021
Closing Date:   Sunday 14 November 2021
Interview Date:   Friday 26 November 2021 
Reference:   LCM116

The University of West London (UWL) has climbed an impressive 23 places to become one of the top 40 universities in the UK according to the influential Guardian University Guide 2021. 

UWL is now ranked 35th in the UK.  We were also the top modern university in London.  In addition, UWL has been named University of the Year for Student Experience in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021.  

The College 

London College of Music is placed within the University of West London and is the largest specialist music and performing arts institution in the UK, delivering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from BA and BMus through to PhD and DMus.  

Based at the Ealing campus, London College of Music boasts exceptional facilities for performance and studio technology.  We are looking to appoint a Lecturer in Music Performance (Hip Hop).

The Role

The successful candidate will lead, develop and teach modules within Music Performance (Hip Hop).  In addition, they will contribute to the overall undergraduate course development.

The post holder will be required to perform duties appropriate to delivery of the course including administration, assessment and developing links with the professional sector to enhance potential employment opportunities for graduates.

The Person 

We are looking for a recognised and talented practitioner and/or researcher who possesses:

• Relevant teaching experience.
• A global perspective on the music industry and awareness of current performance practices in support of the curriculum.
• Practical knowledge and expertise regarding the particular demands of Music Performance (Hip Hop) and is in a position to assist students to reach their own potential.

Additional Information 

For informal enquiries about the position please contact Dr Danny Hagan, Head of Subject Music Management, Technology and Performance at danny.hagan@uwl.ac.uk 

We welcome applications from individuals who do not have a fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Should you be successful and do not hold an HEA fellowship you will be asked to complete one within 2 years of appointment as a condition of your continued employment. Depending on eligibility this may take the form of an advanced Level 7 apprenticeship in teaching which means that you will spend 20% of your work in off-the-job study.

London Collage of Music is under-represented in terms of staff from BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds, of LGBT+ identities, and with disabilities. UWL is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce, supports the gender equality Athena SWAN Charter, and is a Disability Confident Employer as well as a Diversity Champion for Stonewall, the leading LGBT+ rights organisation. We welcome applications from all sections of the community, particularly those mentioned above to increase diversity in our workforce.

Please be advised that it is expected that appointment within a grade will normally be at the minimum point.

For full Job Description and the online application system see: https://jobs.uwl.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=LCM116 

Talking Back: Hiphop Through Research and Practice, Online Event, 16-18 June 2021

Hiphop has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon and has impacted a large international community. 

Talking Back: Hip Hop Through Research and Practice is grounded in feminist and critical theorist Bell Hook’s idea of “Talking Back”. This three  day event will open up a space to learn more about the five pillars of Hiphop (Knowledge, Graffiti, break dance, Djing, Emceeing) and will allow artists and researchers to sit down and discuss their practice  and reflect on their research. The hope is that each session will explore the importance of Hiphop  and its cultural, social, political and economic value in some capacity.  Talking Back  opens up online dialogical spaces for people to come together, learn, share, question, reflect, dream and gather different perspectives to current research streams in the field.

The event will be of interest to people hoping to engage in culturally relevant discussions and also students and artists looking for networking opportunities, and anyone seeking to learn more about Hip Hop culture.

The three-day event will include conversations with Dr Alex Mason (University of Sheffield), Otis Mensah, Frieda Frost, Robert Hylton, Dan (Lyrix  Organix), Love SSega (UK), Axel Gossiaux (BE), Marius Mates (RO/UK), Adil “Dj KhanFu” Khan (UK), Robin Bodéüs (BE), David Diallo (FR), Dr Monique Charles, Street Factory, and Jade Ward. Each morning there will be a short sharing  of  a performance that will kick-off the day. This may include a film or a dance workshop. The symposium is free and open to the public.

New Book: Brithop: The Politics of UK Rap in the New Century

Justin William’s new book Brithop is the first book-length study of politics and UK hip-hop. It discusses multiple forms of politics in rap discourses from Wales, Scotland, and England. Brithop shows a rich, multifaceted cultural reality reflective of the postcolonial condition of the UK.

Book cover of Justin William’s new book Brithop.

Call for Papers: Hip Hop & Higher Education Conference 2021, Deadline 5 Dec. 2020

Hip Hop’s global importance and impact is clear. It has travelled through space and time to entertain, inspire, teach, challenge and transform us, both individually and collectively. In the UK context, Hip Hop and Grime currently stand not only at the forefront of artistic innovation but also in the arena of political debate, setting cultural trends whilst providing crucial insight into some of society’s most pressing problems. However, UK universities have been hesitant to embrace Hip Hop as a creative, intellectual and pedagogical tool; one that can enrich the higher education experience for staff, students and community members, and also help dismantle the oppressive systems which underpin universities and wider society more generally. Within university walls, in fact, Hip Hop is often ridiculed or dismissed as a crude and inferior art form and culture. We who value and respect Hip Hop know that this could not be further from the truth.

The Hip Hop and Higher Education online conference is a one-day event, funded by the British Association for American Studies (BAAS), that will take place on Thursday 15^th July 2021. Through this conference, we seek to do three things:

• Provide a space for people to exhibit and enjoy the critical, creative and communal elements of Hip Hop
• Interrogate Hip Hop’s exclusion from higher education, linking it to intersecting systems of oppression and discrimination which underpin the university and wider society
• Explore the merits and possible dangers of incorporating Hip Hop into formal sites of higher education

In order to reflect and honour the dynamism of Hip Hop, music and performance will feature throughout the day. In that vein, we not only invite artists, academics (early careers/established) and members of the Hip Hop community to submit proposals for papers, but also group presentations, performances, videos, virtual exhibitions, discussion groups and creative workshops.

Deadline and instructions for abstract submissions:

Please email a 300-word abstract clearly outlining your proposal, as well as a brief 100-word bio to alex.mason@sheffield.ac.uk by the 5th December 2020

Possible topics pertaining to Hip Hop and higher education include (but are not limited to):

• Activism and protest
• Appropriation, Commodification and/or Neoliberalism
• Community Engagement
• Decolonising the Curriculum
• Home and Belonging
• History, Collective Memory and the Archive
• Krip Hop
• Identity (e.g. racial, class, gender, sexual, religious)
• Intersecting Systems of Oppression
• Liberational Pedagogy / Teaching Practice
• Mental Health
• Performance
• Philosophy
• Poetry, Literature and Lyricism
• Politics
• Space and Place (e.g. City, Region, Nation)
• Technology

We look forward to hearing from you!

• Dr Alex Mason (Arts & Humanities Knowledge Exchange Project Manager, University of Sheffield)
• Dr Stuart Green (Senior Lecturer in Spanish, Leeds University)
• Otis Mensah (Independent Artist and Educator)

Job Opportunity: Black Health and the Humanities project, U Bristol

The Centre for Black Humanities at Bristol University is seeking a full-time Research Associate to work on a two-year Wellcome Trust funded project ‘Black Health and the Humanities’ led by Dr Josie Gill. A PhD in a field relevant to the research project, either completed or pending post-viva corrections, is essential.

The key aims of the project are:

•  To establish an interdisciplinary network of researchers with the aim of investigating and bringing to light perspectives from the Black humanities on Black health and wellbeing. The network will bring together scholars whose research concerns how Black writers, theorists and artists have addressed the psychological and physiological health of black people across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a particular focus on the Black British experience.
•  To explore how research in Black humanities might intervene in the current racialized landscape of medicine and health.
• To train and support a new generation of ECR scholars in the theories and methods of Black humanities and the medical humanities, exploring how they might intersect.

The successful candidate will research and identify relevant materials on Black health generated by Black scholars across disciplines including (but not limited to) English, History, History of Art, Philosophy, Theatre and Film. They will work closely with the PI to design workshops and recruit participants, taking the lead in organisation and facilitation. The role holder will lead on the development and maintenance of the project’s website and on social media output, and will work towards the creation of a publicly available online library of resources on Black health and the humanities. In addition, the Research Associate will support the PI’s own, related, research project, and will also be expected to develop their own research and publication record.

• Start date: 1^st October 2020
• Grade: Research Associate, Pathway 2, Grade I
• Salary: £33,797 to £38,017

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: 25^th August 2020

Contact for informal enquiries:

• Dr Josie Gill, Lecturer, Department of English josie.gill@bristol.ac.uk
• Ms Jane Kinney, jane.kinney@bristol.ac.uk (administrative lead)

Timescale of appointment:

Short-listed candidates will be notified on or around 26^th August and invited to interview. They will be asked:

1. to submit a sample of their recent academic writing, in English, of no more than 10,000 words, to hums-academicsupport@bristol.ac.uk as soon as possible after notification but no later than 28^th August
2. to deliver a 10-minute presentation on their research and on how it is relevant to the role.

Anticipated interview date: 2^nd September

More details

New Book: Provincial Headz: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism

PROVINCIAL HEADZ: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism is a new
book by Adam de Paor-Evans, which reveals the evolution of hip hop in the
regional-rural areas of Britain during the 1980s, and draws upon spatial practice,
(auto)ethnomusicology, material culture, and cultural theory to present a
counter-narrative to that of hip hop as strictly urban. The book provides insight
into the relocation of hip hop culture from its inception in New York to its
practices in provincial and rural Britain. Provincial Headz reveals parallel and
dialectical experiences of British hip hop pioneers and practitioners dwelling
outside the metropolis, and serves as an introduction to the complexities of its
historical narratives in Britain, and how we might understand these narratives as a
valuable part of global-glocal hip hop history.

Avalible from all good bookshops, online book stories and direct from the publisher at an online discount using the code: Headz.

New Monograph: Provincial Headz: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism

Provincial Headz: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism is a new book by Adam de Paor-Evans, which reveals the evolution of hip hop in the regional-rural areas of Britain during the 1980s, and draws upon spatial practice, (auto)ethnomusicology, material culture, and cultural theory to present a counter-narrative to that of hip hop as strictly urban. The book provides insight into the relocation of hip hop culture from its inception in New York to its practices in provincial and rural Britain. Provincial Headz reveals parallel and dialectical experiences of British hip hop pioneers and practitioners dwelling outside the metropolis, and serves as an introduction to the complexities of its historical narratives in Britain, and how we might understand these narratives as a valuable part of global-glocal hip hop history.

Provincial Headz: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism draws upon spatial practice, material culture, human geography, ethnomusicology and cultural theory in order to present an interdisciplinary counter-narrative to that of hip hop as a strictly urban phenomenon.

Congratulations, Adam, for publishing the book!

“Elements Bristol”: Registration Now Open!

I’m excited to announce that the website for the European Hip-hop Network conference is now live! Go to: https://eurohiphop2019.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/ for information about registration, schedule, places to stay and eat and other bits of information. Note that the different tabs are at the top of the site in black if you are having trouble finding it.

In addition to talks and workshops we will also have a screening of Girl Power about women graffiti artists at the Cube cinema on the Fri and a performance by Kid Be Kid on Saturday evening. There will also be social events and performances on the Thurs and Sat so quite the packed schedule! I look forward to welcoming you to Bristol.

Justin Williams

The Hip Hop Dance Almanac Vol. 1 Out Now!

The Hip Hop Dance Almanac was initiated by Ian Abbott and aims to collect and preserve knowledge about dance culture. It

presents primary accounts of people who are both active and an integral part of the broad diaspora of the Hip Hop dance community in the UK.

Volume 1 features inteviews by the following artists:

• Botis Seva
• Ella Mesma
• Nathan Geering
• Shanelle Clemenson
• Gemma Connell
• Wilkie Branson
• Duwane Taylor
• Kendra Horsburgh
• Victoria Shulungu
• Kloe Dean and
• Frankie J.

Volumes 2-5 will be released until 2023.

If you would like to be interviewed or wish to nominate someone else within the Hip Hop dance community please contact Ian Abott via itabbott(@)gmail.com