THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 at 7:30 PM

Murder, Materialism and Misogyny – no culture could live on a steady diet of these three ‘M’s. And yet, modern, popular rap music boasts of such a lifestyle. Hip Hop culture is now over 40 years old, spanning two generations. How has the culture survived?  Perhaps, the better question is, has it? The answer to this question matters because, as Brady Goodwin argues, Hip Hop is just a magnified microcosm of American values. It takes the ethics found behind closed doors on Wall Street and Washington D.C. and puts them on 20″, spinning rims so everyone can see them.

With all of the recent media attention given to police shootings, Black Lives Matter protests and race relations in America, the questions always turns to the issue of black on black crime and the culture and music that seems to glamorize it. But this music and culture is doing more than that, it is sending a message to America about the values it teaches through its actions and inaction toward the poor and powerless. Come learn how to interpret this often misunderstood message and what it says to and about America as a whole.