The Diabolical Formula of the Mad Scientist: Droppin' Science Through Album Cover Art

• In Event: 65.064 - Reading the World and the Word Through Album Covers: Spinning Popular Culture as Public Pedagogy

Abstract

Much of the academic work that is designed to document the experiences of urban youth of color in urban science education is undertaken from the vantage point of researchers who position themselves as being alarmed or perplexed by the achievement gaps between these students and their counterparts from other ethnic backgrounds and less diverse social settings. There are two major challenges to the existent research: first, the particular vantage point of hip-hop youth is painfully absent from existent academic work; and second, the lack of consideration for the fact that urban science teaching for hip-hop youth often extracts the very core of science mindedness from their instruction and consequently, does not truly teach them science. This presentation focuses on urban youth of color who use hip-hop music and art as their major forms of expression; specifically, it focuses on the ways that hip-hop artists have used album cover art to describe their complex relationship with school science.

Perspectives/Theoretical Frameworks
Artistic phenomena, like albums and album covers may be used to provide deep insight into the experiences of urban youth of color. These types of artifacts, particularly when they revolve around a very specific theme, provide an intimate, reflexive, and phenomenological view of what science means to youth in urban settings.

Methods/Data Sources
The analysis focuses on Diabolical Biz Markie by Biz Markie, The Formula by 9th Wonder and Buckshot, The Mad Scientist by the Large Professor, and Droppin’ Science by Marley Marl. I describe the ways that these album covers have been used to spark conversations with young people about the ways that they engage in, and with, science. I describe a project where young people write reflections on, and perform remakes of the music on each album, which includes a redesign of the album covers.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments or point of view
Each album cover has a science title, but each of them also has complex representations of science through art, wording, dress of artists, and general style. Furthermore, they reflect a general view of science in urban America that goes beyond what we may be able to glean from research data.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
When school systems do not have the tools to recognize the complexities of their lifewords, urban youth of color from the hip-hop generation are locked into an existence that disallows them from expressing who they are within classroom spaces. This work, through its focus on giving voice to silenced minorities, challenges homogenization and standardization that are staples of contemporary education. Using the album cover to create a space for youth to voice how they see science creates Freireian intergenerational equity - students and teachers both question, reflect and participate in meaning-making (Freire, 2000). The work of triggering conscientizatio through hip-hop and urban science education can begin when we take the time to deconstruct and analyze the messages we are receiving from those who have been silenced in school.

References (See below).

Author

• Christopher Emdin, Teachers College, Columbia University