Hip-Hop's Fifth Element: Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Artist-Scholar Collaboration
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: School of Arts
Abstract
The aim of this first-of-its-kind project is to critically investigate hip-hop culture's fifth element: knowledge. Founded in the 1970s in New York City, hip-hop culture consists of four core elements: DJing, emceeing, graffiti, and dance. While hip-hop culture contains other elements beyond its core, many hip-hop artists and fans worldwide understand the fifth element to be knowledge. It refers to the fact that practitioners and fans understand the importance of the history, values, and artistry of the culture beyond their own background. With roots in the Universal Zulu Nation, a quasi-religious group led by hip-hop founder Afrika Bambaataa (Chang 2005), hip-hop's fifth element includes aims of self-realisation ('knowledge of self'), empowerment, and includes information about the history of the genre and its key practitioners (Gosa 2015). Because of its emancipatory potential, hip-hop is increasingly used in schools, at universities, and in a variety of youth and community education contexts. Knowledge is therefore central to hip-hop's inner logic, global popularity, and institutionalisation.
This project wants to close a research gap in the emerging field of hip-hop studies in Europe. While the fifth element is one of the most important elements in hip-hop culture, it has a somewhat marginalised position in hip-hop studies. Most hip-hop studies research currently focuses on rap music where the fifth element is often conceptualised as an additional element to the set of four core elements. The objective of this research project is to create a new hip-hop studies theory of the fifth element.
As an original intervention into art and academia, this project promotes a collaborative, egalitarian, and participatory approach between artists, scholars, and educators in Germany and the UK. It will compare and contrast the micro-politics as well as the transatlantic and European artistic and educational discourses of the fifth element.
The project will include an artist in residence from each country who will co-create a commissioned hip-hop work that will push the boundaries of knowledge, art, and academia. In addition to creating new pieces of hip-hop and publishing a theory of the fifth element, the researchers will also provide open access teaching and learning tools for disseminating the values of hip-hop culture.
This project wants to close a research gap in the emerging field of hip-hop studies in Europe. While the fifth element is one of the most important elements in hip-hop culture, it has a somewhat marginalised position in hip-hop studies. Most hip-hop studies research currently focuses on rap music where the fifth element is often conceptualised as an additional element to the set of four core elements. The objective of this research project is to create a new hip-hop studies theory of the fifth element.
As an original intervention into art and academia, this project promotes a collaborative, egalitarian, and participatory approach between artists, scholars, and educators in Germany and the UK. It will compare and contrast the micro-politics as well as the transatlantic and European artistic and educational discourses of the fifth element.
The project will include an artist in residence from each country who will co-create a commissioned hip-hop work that will push the boundaries of knowledge, art, and academia. In addition to creating new pieces of hip-hop and publishing a theory of the fifth element, the researchers will also provide open access teaching and learning tools for disseminating the values of hip-hop culture.
Organisations
Publications
Chetty D
(2024)
Droppin' knowledge: An introduction to the Special Issue: 'The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture'
in Global Hip Hop Studies
De Paor Evans, A
(2021)
Zine
Isabelle Grootes
(2022)
Incorporating progesterone receptor expression into the PREDICT breast prognostic model
Ng J
(2024)
Hip-hop music producers' labour in the digital music economy: Self-promotion, social media and platform gatekeeping
in New Media & Society
Williams J
(2024)
Interview with Amelia Thomas (Unity), cover artist of this issue
in Global Hip Hop Studies
Williams J
(2022)
"This Year's Model": Toward a Sloanist Theory of Popular Music Production
in The Musical Quarterly
| Title | Psychoactive EP |
| Description | The project title is 'Psychoactive' - which uses the notion in the conceptual storytelling of the album to highlight music as a mind altering substance in a dystopian future where experimental hip-hop becomes the disruptive music to awaken masses from mind-control perpetuated through large music conglomerates (who operate like state governments and other structural forces). PSYCHOACTIVE (EP), BY JASON NG & JULIAN JAVANOVSKI (SUBNET & JUJO) |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | not yet realized |
| URL | https://hiphopknowledge.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/home/ |
| Title | Tanzania Hip-hop Documentary, Hip Hop Dar es Salaam: Muziki Ya Kizazi Kypia |
| Description | As rapper and record producer Doug E. Fresh said: "Hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change." Hip Hop Dar es Salaam captures the early history of hip-hop in Tanzania which has yet to be fully or widely told. In making the documentary we adopted new equitable methods of collaboration with hip hop practitioners in which their knowledge of both Tanzanian hip hop history and creative practice are central. For the hip hop practitioner with whom we were working hip hop was not only something they knew about but the practice of making hip hop had enabled them to gain knowledge and skills which they could bring to documentary film making. This film draws on hip-hop approaches to cultural industry, and work through theories of knowledge flows and musical (and musicians) migrations. After opening comments from our collaborators, we will screen the documentary and follow this with a discussion. Octavian Thomas aka O-Key (Director & Editor) started his career as a rapper, releasing a number of songs and working with influential producers Messen Selekta and Sallii Teknik. Following his initial success in the rap game, O-Key began producing music videos and has worked with many of the major artists in Tanzania and Kenya. O-Key's distinctive style as a music video director has brought him accolated from the music industry across East Africa. He is currently working as a filmmaker and director. Hashim Rubanza (Producer & Researcher) is an activist, poet, entrepreneur, writer, and retired rapper. His career started in the studios of Dar es Salaam some 30 years ago when he began recording songs to address the social challenges following the country's neo-liberal economic changes. He has been working with artists in Dar es Salaam over the last 20 years to develop their visions and has worked with all the major studios in the city. David Kerr (Executive Producer & Research Lead) Dr David Kerr is currently the Head of Programmes at the Africa-Oxford initiative and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. With over fifteen years of experience in fieldwork in Dar es Salaam, he has published on Tanzanian hip-hop in the fields of cultural and social anthropology, cultural studies, and media studies. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | To Be seen but we have AHRC Impact Acceleration funding to Screen in October 2025 |
| URL | https://hiphopknowledge.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/project-outputs/#PRJ4 |
| Title | The Hip-Hop Listener |
| Description | Project Lead: Dave Hook (MC Solareye) The Hip-hop Listener is an ongoing project in conversation with Forman, Neal, Bradley (eds) The Hip-hop Studies Reader, and developing the knowledge within hip-hop and through hip-hop. A number of rappers were commissioned to write rap 'chapters' on a theme of their choosing in the same way that a written anthology is collated, contributing to new forms of knowledge generation and exchange, with its own website in progress. The aim is for this collection to continue into around 10-12 songs, which will then be released as an album and published as a multimedia publication. Dr. Hook's research in progress was shown at the 7th European Network of HipHop Studies conference. 'Fifth Element' project commissioned 6 tracks of the overall project |
| Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | Yet to be seen |
| URL | https://hiphopknowledge.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/project-outputs/#PRJ10 |
| Description | The aim of this first-of-its-kind project is to critically investigate hip-hop culture's fifth element: knowledge. Founded in the 1970s in New York City, hip-hop culture consists of four core elements: DJing, emceeing, graffiti, and dance. While hip-hop culture contains other elements beyond its core, many hip-hop artists and fans worldwide understand the fifth element to be knowledge. It refers to the fact that practitioners and fans understand the importance of the history, values, and artistry of the culture beyond their own background. With roots in the Universal Zulu Nation, a quasi-religious group led by hip-hop founder Afrika Bambaataa (Chang 2005), hip-hop's fifth element includes aims of self-realisation ('knowledge of self'), empowerment, and includes information about the history of the genre and its key practitioners (Gosa 2015). Because of its emancipatory potential, hip-hop is increasingly used in schools, at universities, and in a variety of youth and community education contexts. Knowledge is therefore central to hip-hop's inner logic, global popularity, and institutionalisation. Part of a German-UK research initiative, the grant was conceived and written by Prof. Williams and European Network of HipHop studies founder and scholar Dr. Sina Nitzsche. In the UK, the project consisted of a number of global projects, all intended to illuminate how knowledge manifests and flows both through and within hip-hop culture. More information on the German-based activities can be found via the University of Cologne Hip Hop Institute website. Most importantly, the area of hip-hop and knowledge have been theorized in the Special Issue of Journal of Global Hip-hop Studies Vol. 5.1 and 5.2. In this way we have gotten closer to finding a framework to studying hip-hop and knowledge. The project is ongoing to July 2025 and so we will continue to pull data together and make conclusions of our findings when the project has ended. |
| Exploitation Route | ongoing |
| Sectors | Other |
| Description | Ongoing, but now that OPM and Special issue have been released at the end of 2024 we should have a clearer picture soon of when the data findings will be used and cited by others. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
| Description | Black British Music Study Day: Sacred and Secular |
| Organisation | Baylor University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Committee: Dulcie Dixon-Mckenzie, Natalie Hyacinth, Monique Ingalls (Co-Chair), Matthew Williams, Justin A. Williams (Co-Chair) Keynotes: Robert Beckford, Joy White, Pauline Muir, Monique Charles Including a Gospel Industry Panel, Early Career Panel, and performance by The Renewal Choir Book Celebration: Black Music in Britain in the 21st Century Ed. Monique Charles with Mary Gani and Black British Gospel Music: From the Windrush to Black Lives Matter Eds. Dulcie Dixon McKenzie, Pauline E. Muir, and Monique M. Ingalls |
| Collaborator Contribution | The aims of the day were to put scholarship about Black British sacred and secular music in conversation with one another, and to support academics and practitioner-scholars of all levels in building a community around these significant areas of study. Schedule - 'Black British Music: Sacred and Secular' Study Day, 25 March 2023 |
| Impact | Event |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Tanzania Hip-hop Documentary, Hip Hop Dar es Salaam: Muziki Ya Kizazi Kypia |
| Organisation | Africa Oxford Initiative |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As rapper and record producer Doug E. Fresh said: "Hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change." Hip Hop Dar es Salaam captures the early history of hip-hop in Tanzania which has yet to be fully or widely told. In making the documentary we adopted new equitable methods of collaboration with hip hop practitioners in which their knowledge of both Tanzanian hip hop history and creative practice are central. For the hip hop practitioner with whom we were working hip hop was not only something they knew about but the practice of making hip hop had enabled them to gain knowledge and skills which they could bring to documentary film making. This film draws on hip-hop approaches to cultural industry, and work through theories of knowledge flows and musical (and musicians) migrations. After opening comments from our collaborators, we will screen the documentary and follow this with a discussion. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Octavian Thomas aka O-Key (Director & Editor) started his career as a rapper, releasing a number of songs and working with influential producers Messen Selekta and Sallii Teknik. Following his initial success in the rap game, O-Key began producing music videos and has worked with many of the major artists in Tanzania and Kenya. O-Key's distinctive style as a music video director has brought him accolated from the music industry across East Africa. He is currently working as a filmmaker and director. Hashim Rubanza (Producer & Researcher) is an activist, poet, entrepreneur, writer, and retired rapper. His career started in the studios of Dar es Salaam some 30 years ago when he began recording songs to address the social challenges following the country's neo-liberal economic changes. He has been working with artists in Dar es Salaam over the last 20 years to develop their visions and has worked with all the major studios in the city. David Kerr (Executive Producer & Research Lead) Dr David Kerr is currently the Head of Programmes at the Africa-Oxford initiative and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. With over fifteen years of experience in fieldwork in Dar es Salaam, he has published on Tanzanian hip-hop in the fields of cultural and social anthropology, cultural studies, and media studies. |
| Impact | Documentary Film |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | The Hip-hop Listener |
| Organisation | Edinburgh Napier University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Project Lead: Dave Hook (MC Solareye) The Hip-hop Listener is an ongoing project in conversation with Forman, Neal, Bradley (eds) The Hip-hop Studies Reader, and developing the knowledge within hip-hop and through hip-hop. A number of rappers were commissioned to write rap 'chapters' on a theme of their choosing in the same way that a written anthology is collated, contributing to new forms of knowledge generation and exchange, with its own website in progress. The aim is for this collection to continue into around 10-12 songs, which will then be released as an album and published as a multimedia publication. Dr. Hook's research in progress was shown at the 7th European Network of HipHop Studies conference. 'Fifth Element' project commissioned 6 tracks of the overall project |
| Collaborator Contribution | Solareye (Dave Hook, Project Lead on 'The Hip-hop Listener') Dave Hook (PhD) is a rapper, poet, song-writer and music producer. As a lecturer in Music at Edinburgh Napier University, his research focuses on hip-hop, rap lyricism, identity and performance, through creative practice. Winner of Best Hip-Hop at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards 2018, Dave has toured toured extensively throughout the UK and around the globe with critically acclaimed alternative hip-hop group Stanley Odd, and as a solo artist, Solareye. His music has been featured on BBC Radio and Television, RTÉ2, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), ARD Germany and many others. His written poetry has been published in a range of publications including Gutter Magazine, Neu! Reekie!'s #UntitledTwo anthology, and Forty Voices Strong: An Anthology of Contemporary Scottish Poetry. Artist Website: Solareye |
| Impact | 6 music tracks |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Humboldt lecture by Sina Nitzsche |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | "besinne mich unserer Pflicht, geb' dir Geschichtsunterricht": Germany's Colonial History, Afrodiasporic Identities, and Hip-Hop Knowledge in Platz an der Sonne (2017), Humboldt University Berlin, 16 February 2021 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Keynote "Wir geben ihnen die Wahrheit": Platz an der Sonne, institutionelle Gewalt und (post-)koloniale Wissensdiskurse in den deutschsprachigen HipHop Studies (Sina Nitzsche) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | https://www.ph-gmuend.de/die-ph/aktuelles/deutsch-rap-und-gewalt The title of my paper is: "Wir geben ihnen die Wahrheit": Platz an der Sonne, institutionelle Gewalt und (post-)koloniale Wissensdiskurse in den deutschsprachigen HipHop Studies English translation: "We Give them the Truth": The Rap Album Platz an der Sonne, Institutionalized Violence, and (post-)colonial Knowledge Discourses in German-Speaking Hip Hop Studies Online Conference: "(Deutsch-)Rap und Gewalt - Ambivalenzen und Brüche"/ "(German) Rap and Violence - Ambivalences and Ruptures (German language) 23 April 2021 at University of Education Schwäbisch-Gmünd Conference Website and Registration: https://www.deutschrap2021.de/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Zine launch |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We launched the zine as part of the fifth-element project at the university of Bristol music department research colloquium series. Students, staff and members of the public came, including Massive Attack's Daddy G. We had James McNally read his intro from the zine and then we had a panel discussion about the early hip-hop scene in Bristol followed by a dinner after. We have done a number of events out in the community, for example, at the Ropewalk pub but I was keen to have an exchange where we could invite artists into our University as well. It was a successful event and nice to get into an in person events after COVID put so many curbs and restrictions on those sorts of activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/events/2021/november/zine-launch.html |