Traditionsbärare och fostrare – samtal om lärande med två amerikanska rappare

Abstract

Research about non-institutional musical environments, like hiphop, is important when education and learning are being discussed. The literature on aesthetic informal learning is limited. We need to know more about how learning is organised in autonomous and musical contexts. In this article two female rappers from New York City are in focus. The rapper Jean Grae is a Grammy nominated rapper who is well-known around the world. Toni Blackman is a hiphop ambassador, appointed by the U.S. Department of State. Her different social and educational projects on hiphop have been given a lot of attention in the press. The purpose of this article is to study what kinds of learning aspects appear in the rappers’ talk about their work in interviews, group conversations, magazines and selfproduced texts. The results show how the rappers stand out like fosterers, popular adult educators, jazz musicians, tradition-bearers, specialists and artists. Linguistic reformulations are used to analyze the complexity of the rappers' activities. Finally, the article discusses how school can be a fosterer and a tradition-bearer and at the same time positive and open to new forms of popular culture.