The Hip-Hop Mindset

2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop culture which, as a global industry and phenomenon, has accomplished a lot. But as a culture, what has hip-hop taught us? How has it inspired us? In what ways has it freed us? This book presents The Hip Hop Mindset Framework—a perspective that gives us the permission to show up in life as our full authentic selves and to shine in our own culturally unique ways. Centered primarily in the field of education, this book introduces the hip-hop mindset as a professional practice that holds relevance for students, educators, and ambitious leaders in any profession. It is for those who seek to innovate, trailblaze, and create a rich source of professional magic. The author offers a fresh contribution to the literature by focusing on what hip-hop culture has to offer in terms of success strategies—what it can teach us about leadership, work ethic, commitment, and resilience. Expanding the important conversations about the power of hip-hop in the lives of youth, Jenkins explores hip-hop culture in the lives of adult professionals, including P–20 educators, community leaders, and organizational administrators.

Book Features:

• Moves beyond pedagogy and teaching strategies to explore how hip-hop mindsets can contribute to professional success.
• Examines hip-hop as a cultural mindset that has nothing to do with the ability to rhyme, breakdance, or spin records.
• Argues that everyone can benefit from a hip-hop mindset, regardless of the field you are in, by welcoming new ways of knowing, being, and doing.
• Pushes us to consider culture as a professional practice and to embrace the nuggets of wisdom and insight from hip-hop culture to inform how we lead and work professionally.

Toby S. Jenkins is a professor of higher education administration and interim associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Graduate School at the University of South Carolina.

Contents (Tentative)

Foreword by Walter Kimbrough

Preface: Trash-Talking

Acknowledgments

1. Born to Rhyme, Destined to Shine: The Hip-Hop Mindset Framework
Culture as a Politic
The Hip-Hop Mindset

2. Cultural Roots: Inherited Values, Beliefs, and Traditions
Six Africanisms Fundamental to Hip-Hop Culture

3. Drive: Hunger, Competitiveness, and Honor and Kinship
Hunger
Competitiveness
Honor and Kinship
Funk De-fied

4. Approach: Creativity, Authenticity, and Ingenuity
Ingenuity and Cultural Efficacy
Turning the Tables: Creativity and Originality
Representing: Authenticity and Clarity

5. Posture: Confidence, Commanding Attention, and Claiming Space
On Being a Badass
Shine Bright Like a Diamond
Watch the Throne

6. Can I Kick It? The Hip-hop Mindset in Professional Practice
Toni Blackman
Martha Diaz
Timothy David Jones
Emery Petchauer
Bettina L. Love
Tony Keith Jr.
Ian Levy
Andre Perry
Edmund Adjapong
Mazi Mutafa
Aysha Upchurch
Baron Davis
Mike Benitez
William Boyles
Crystal Leigh Endsley

7. Air-Walking: Concluding Thoughts
Education as a Space to Let Loose

Glossary of Key Terms

Endnotes

References

Index

About the Author