Alican Koc speaks on his article, "Views from the 6: Gentrification, Condo-Ization, and Drake’s Affective Appeal in Toronto."

Niel Scobie is a PhD candidate and part-time instructor in Western University's Faculty of Information and Media Studies. He also teaches turntablism at the University of Guelph's School of Fine Art and Music. Niel's dissertation, supervised by Dr. Keir Keightley, explores the roots of hip-hop culture in Toronto, particularly its connections to the Caribbean diaspora and sound system culture. Recent publications have appeared in Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press) and The Spaces and Places of Canadian Popular Culture (Canadian Scholars Press).

Prior to academia, Niel spent 20 years in Vancouver's hip-hop scene as a DJ and producer. In 1989, he created "In Effect"at UBC's CITR 101.9fm, one of Canada's earliest hip-hop radio shows. As a producer, his collaborations received Juno nominations for "Rap Recording of the Year" in 2003 and 2005. 

Today’s guest is none other than Dan Charnas. If you’re an avid reader of the genre, you’re probably familiar with his 2010 publication titled The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop. In addition to The Big Payback, Charnas is one of the pioneering voices in hip-hop journalism. He worked for the Source in the early infancy stages of the magazine, and became an A&R for Rick Rubin’s Def American venture in the 1990s in which he helped shape the careers of artists like Sir Mixalot, Chino XL and Kwest the Madd Ladd. Additionally, he’s written for The Washington Post, The Financial Times, the Chicago Tibune, Complex, Village Voice, Spin, and more. In 2016, Charnas co-created the VH1 movie The Breaks, which was later adapted into a television series under the same name. Charnas now teaches at NYU and Columbia and is working on a new book on the life of J-Dilla titled Dilla Time.  

This podcast speaks on his 2010 book The Big Payback. Recently, the book saw it’s 10 year anniversary and it’s one of the best pieces of hip-hop literature I’ve gotten a chance to read. We talk a bit about his upcoming work on Dilla as well, however for those that read The Big Payback, this conversation will serve as a nice behind the scenes look at the creation process.

Today’s guest is Dr. Janice Rahn. As a professor at the University of Lethbridge, Janice spent her career working on issues relating to art and education. In 1997, she wrote an early account on Canadian hip-hop called “Painting Without Permission.” The article, which featured in the Material History Review was later adopted into a book by the same name in 1999. Both pieces, look at describing her own experiences in the early to mid 1990s discovering graffiti in Montreal and getting to know the community personally.  The book is relatively hard to come by today, however the article mentioned is readily available online and I highly suggest you give it a read. This conversation centers around her experiences in the Montreal Graffiti scene, her findings, as well as thoughts on the current scene and its influences. 

For episode 9 we have Kalen Coleman, a student at the William H. Bowen School of Law, Kalen recently wrote one of the most interesting articles on hip-hop I’ve read in quite some time. The paper, called Wake Up Or Get Woke: The Paradox of American Diplomatic Export of Hip-Hop looks at how through jazz tours in the mid 20th century, and state-sanctioned hip-hop tours in recent decades, the United States has historically used black culture as a way of communicating a version of America that it wishes to represent, despite a lack of domestic effort to help these same groups they use. As I said, I found this article fascinating and I think the conversation will be insightful for anyone interested in the subject.

In this episode of the Hip-Hop Learners Podcast I sit down with Danielle Garcia to discuss her most recent dissertation titled "The Politics of Hip Hop: A Political Analysis of Hip Hop’s History and Its Complicated Relationship with Capitalism." The thesis, published under the City University of New York's Graduate Center speaks on a variety of issues regarding early South Bronx political history, its influence on hip-hop politics, as well as hip-hop's relationship with capitalism. I quite enjoyed the podcast, and I hope you do as well.

This week's episode features a conversation with Dr. Margaret Robinson. Robinson, a professor at Dalhousie University, recently published the article "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: Hip-Hop, Cultural Continuity and First Nations Suicidality" in the edited collection We Still Here: Hip-Hop North of the 49th Parallel. The article centers on themes of hip-hop accessibility, indigeneity, mental health, and cultural identity. Furthermore, the article introduces a new term to my own vocabulary; "cultural continuity", which I feel like contributes to important dialogues surrounding hip-hop more broadly. Enjoy the conversation! 

Dr. Charity Marsh is a professor at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. Since obtaining her PhD in 2005, Marsh has published numerous texts on hip-hop in Canada; often exploring the topic through an indigenous and gender lens. At the tail end of 2020, Marsh, alongside Mark V. Campbell, edited and published a scholarly collection on Canadian hip-hop titled We Still Here: Hip-Hop North of the 49th Parallel. I recently read through the text, and sat down with Charity to discuss the process putting this together, as well as her own contributions to the text that she had authored. Enjoy the podcast!

Dr. Marsh would like to acknowledge that she lives, works, plays, and parents two kiddos on Treaty 4 lands. Treaty 4 is home to the Nêhiyawak (Cree), Anihšināpēk (Saulteaux), Lakota, Dakota, Nakoda peoples, as well as the homeland of the Métis Peoples. 

The podcast is available on all major platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Alexa devices through TuneCore, as well as on Podbean where the show is hosted. 

For this episode of the Hip-Hop Learners Podcast, I speak with David Nelson, AKA Emotionz on his upcoming book "Field Trips." As an artist, Nelson has had quite the illustrious career; from early beginnings with Macklemore, signing with Dreamworks, battling at King of the Dot, to touring the globe and helping elevate and build the Vancouver hip-hop community. In his debut book, Nelson creates an autobiographical account of some of the most insane stories of his career. The book serves not just as a coffee-table-esque tour book, but a book that further identifies what it means to be a Canadian hip-hop artist. This conversation covers the writing process of Field Trips, but also looks at the career of Emotionz as a lens into the broader hip-hop community here in Canada. 

The guest for this episode is Michael McGuire. A professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Michael has been instrumental to the efforts in documenting Maritimes hip-hop. From his 2011 dissertation "How the East Coast Rocks: A History of Hip Hop in Halifax: 1985 - 1998" to his efforts in archiving Maritimes hip-hop more broadly. Recently, he's shifted focus towards hip-hop pedagogy and hip-hop as an educational tool. All of which is covered in our discussion.