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Rap 101 with Professor E
The Advocate
The typical lecture on African-American history can be dry and boring, but Eric Davis says using music as a tool can motivate while educating.
Davis, also known as Professor E, was invited to MHCC to do a presentation during Black History Month. The presentation titled “Rap 101” was held during lunch hours Wednesday in the Vista Dining Center.
Davis likes to make his points by using the lyrics of well-known artists. He uses a combination of old school and new school, and sometimes controversial, songs to show that music is used as a way to send a message to society about the life experiences of African- Americans.
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Holly Corbitt, director of the Student Activities Board, said, “He (Davis) brought to life that African-American history affects not only blacks, but it affects everyone across the board.”
During the presentation, Davis uses clips from NWA’s “Fuck Tha Police” and Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise.”
“It was great because he not only played the music to hear the lyrics but he also showed the lyrics on screen so you could see them,” said Corbitt.
Davis said, “A lot of people get caught up in the beat but don’t actually hear what they’re saying,” referring to rap/hip-hop music.
Using these two groups as an example, he explains his purpose. “They’re two sides to one coin. They both talk about protesting the system, protesting police brutality, protesting the social system holding people back in America, black Americans,” he said.
Corbitt said she like how he used these two groups because they had contrasting ideas but both brought up similarly good points about politics and history.
He also uses the eye-opening lyrics to the Jungle Brothers “Acknowledge your own history.”
“You ain’t gonna find it in your history book, come here, young blood, and take a look. Dig down deep inside this hard cover, don’t you know you was bought, brother. All you read about is slavery, never about the black man’s bravery.”
Davis said the reason these lyrics stick out to him is because “I remember growing up and all the black history was about slavery,” Davis said.
A more recent example he uses is “Heard ’em Say” by Kanye West. “The lyrics in this song are asking good questions that we as Americans should be asking ourselves,” Davis said.
Asked about Davis’s methods, Corbitt said, “I felt really good about it because it’s hard to relate to history in general.”
Using music to send a message goes as far back as the days when there was black slavery. “They used music as a way to pass messages about the Underground Railroad back in the times of slavery,” Davis said.
Until high school, Davis grew up in Rockford, Ill., and recalls being bussed between the west and east side of town as part of desegregation, “It took Illinois 20 years but they got there,” he said during another presentation given in Kansas City, Kan.
After moving to LA in high school, Davis attended UCLA and then moved to the Seattle-Tacoma area where he’s a professor at Bellevue College. He teaches five classes at Bellevue and an online course in black culture for Pierce College.
His father was a jazz musician and held sessions in the basement when Davis was a child. He recalls watching his father’s music move people and said it’s the reason why it became his passion.
The idea to teach through music came to Davis on a whim when he was a resident assistant at UCLA he was encouraged by his director to reach out to students and get them to come and listen to a professor of communications. He was unsuccessful at first but after walking in on a bunch of students watching “Yo’ MTV Raps,” an idea occurred to him.
“I put up a poster that said ‘Me so horny’ and had the professor of communications come in and talk about censorship,” Davis said. “Twenty people showed up and we had a conversation. I played the song ‘Me so horny’, then the professor came in and talked about what censorship means and why it’s allowed and what that means to First Amendment rights.
“They were educated but the draw was music,” he said. “Rap 101 is just using the music to educate and get people motivated for positive things like understanding history, understanding theirselves, or to better work with each other.”
“My sessions are a combination of motivation and education,” said Davis. “I try to educate people because that’s what I do, I’m Professor E, but I know that popular culture has a big pull.”
Another factor in the concept of Rap 101 came to Davis while he worked in Compton, Calif.
“I realized that the brothers that I met in Compton and Carson, that I hung out with at the park, those brothers had a lot of interesting things to say and had some knowledge,” he said. “But then there was this book knowledge I was learning at UCLA and I saw them as a way to merge the two parts of me.
“In addition, I had grown up socializing in an all-white school system and then I took African-American studies and I was trying to find a way to merge those,” said Davis.
Davis also thinks that Rap 101 gives him a great opportunity to influence people away from the negative type music and said, “If they’re listening to hip-hop, what are they listening to and how can I expose them to something a little more positive than what they’ve been listening to?”
This was Davis’s first time presenting Rap 101 at MHCC and said the campus was beautiful and he hopes to return again.
Asked if Davis would be brought back in the future, Corbitt said, “Yes we would love to bring him back. Speakers are usually non-interactive,” she said. “He brought in music and audience participation.”
“I try to create my presentations to keep people engaged,” Davis said. “You retain information better if you’re engaged in the conversation. If I’m presenting something that’s interesting and I’m presenting it in a message that makes people want to listen, well there’s no losing in that.”
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