I’m looking at my calendar and yikes, we’re almost done with the school year.
We’re about to wrap up our unit around poetry this week and I often shift into songwriting for a day or two. This year, I might do something a little bit different. I am mulling over the idea of having each of my four classes collaborate as a class on a rap/hip-hop song, using Garageband as the recording platform. I haven’t done much of this full-class collaboration nor used Garageband much for looping sounds, so I can’t quite say how it will go.
But I started to compose some opening lines that will guide them forward, and then see what happens. I am hoping that I can get at least two or three students from each class to come on up and “sing” the rap they write as a class. And if we find a good chorus, maybe everyone can chime in.
I was recently inspired by this blog post entitled How and Why to Write a Class Rap. If they can do it, why not us? And as for a theme, since we are at the end of the year, why not a rap that captures the identity of them as a class?
Here’s how I may go about it:
- Look at some lyrics and listen to a song (I may use Kris Allen’s Live Like You’re Dying — which is pop and not rap, but still … a useful song because of its message and rocking beat). This will give me a chance to talk about couplets and also, the concept of verse-chorus with them.
- I may also turn to The Week in Rap to show how it can be done. I see they have “The Last 18 Years in Rap” compilation up.
- Brainstorm some main ideas and messages they want to see reflected in their class rap.
- Play them a beat loop in Garageband as well as my own introduction, which may be something like this: “I want to introduce to you/the kids with mad rhymes/they’ve got some crazy mad skills/and they use them all the time/They’re the writers and the readers/and they’re tearing up the scene/They’re the up and coming class of 2017.”
- Write at least 10 new lines — as couplets and with inner rhymes, if possible. Have them pay attention to the stress and rhythm of the lines.
- Record and publish.
What do you think? Anyone done collaborative songwriting with their students?
Peace (in the hip, in the hop, in the hip-hop-hip),
Kevin