“Do that, do that, do do that that that,” Professor Jason Rawls called.

“Do that, do that, do do that that that,” the audience responded. 

Rawls, an assistant professor of hip hop at The Ohio State University, began his lecture at the College on Tuesday, March 11, with a call and response to loosen up the audience and display his interactive hip hop -influenced teaching style. 

Rawls — known in the music industry as hip hop producer, DJ, and emcee J. Rawls — visited the College as part of a Gaudino Creative Residency Fellowship, a program that brings artists to the College to teach students about creativity. Rawls is a leader of the #HipHopEd movement, and the co-author of [ITAL] Youth Culture Power: A HipHopEd Guide to Building Teacher-Student Relationships and Increasing Student Engagement.

In an event co-sponsored by the American studies, Africana studies, and music departments, and the Lecture Committee, Rawls shared his love for hip hop, teaching, and combining the two.

Associate Professor of American Studies Brian Murphy invited Rawls to the College. Prior to the talk, Rawls held a live mixing session with students in Murphy’s “Hip Hop History” class. Murphy framed the conversation around the genre’s culture and impact. 

“Hip hop is something that leaves an imprint on us,” Murphy said. “It changes who we are at our deepest level. We thereby become hip hop and carry it within us. We actually hear, see, and cognize the world through perceptual structures that hip hop made.” 

Music of all genres has played a prominent role in Rawls’ life. He recalled sitting with his friends after school, hungry for new tunes. In the talk, he shared that some of his greatest influences included Kiss, Sha Na Na, Spirit, and other rock and soul groups. “Notice, I didn’t say anything about hip hop — right?” he said. “What I’m showing you is music. Music itself can grab you in.” 

Rawls, who owns roughly 40,000 vinyl records, spends much of his time “digging through the crates.” In an age of music dominated by synthetic sounds and computer generated sequences, he still strongly believes in sampling — the act of taking aspects of preexisting recordings and incorporating them in a new song, often alongside fresh drums and bass. 

Rawls said he tries not to intellectualize his art. “I just make what feels good, just to be honest with you, man,” he said in an interview with the Record. “That’s really all it is.” 

When Rawls attended college in the late ’90s, hip hop college classes didn’t exist. If he wanted to pursue both an education and a career in music, he knew he needed to do them separately. Through hard work and time management, he made it work. 

In 1998, less than a year after he received his bachelor’s in business from the University of Cincinnati, Rawls’ music career exploded: That year, he helped produce “Brown Skin Lady” and “Yo Yeah,” songs off of Black Star’s debut album Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Stars, one of the most influential hip hop albums ever. 

After graduating from college, Rawls worked as a high school teacher in addition to producing music, emceeing, and DJing on weekends. He brought audience engagement skills from the stage to the classroom — instead of addressing fans, he was working with children. He said he was astounded by the ineffective and cruel pedagogical approaches teachers and administrators took to control the behavior of their students, such as banning fidget spinners and even water bottles. “You can’t keep their attention enough to where they’re not gonna flip the water bottle?” he said. Instead, he tried to connect with his students through positive reinforcement and engaging curricula. 

Before he ever taught a class focused on hip hop, Rawls found ways to bring hip hop to the classroom. “What I’m telling you is [that] using this idea of crowd participation in your class, using this idea of cultural community … that’s what hip hop was about,” he said. He described Pomodoro-style teaching, with periods of work punctuated by moments of play for his students. 

Eventually, Rawls decided to combine his passion for teaching and hip hop. After completing his master’s and doctorate in education, he taught his first college course in 2021, on the art and politics of hip hop. Now, as an assistant professor at Ohio State, he has hundreds of students and many more auditors who seek to learn from his expertise and unique teaching approach. 

Luke Rostan ’27, a student in Murphy’s class, attended Rawls’ live production session. “To catch a glimpse inside the mind of a tremendously accomplished producer really is a one-of-a -kind experience. The very way Rawls listens to music — his ear is primed to snag anything he might be able to sample — taught me something about appreciating sound anew,” Rostan said in an interview with the Record.

Rawls hopes to see the pedagogical approach of hip hop spread throughout learning environments. In addition to teaching courses on the subject, he envisions integrating hip hop culture into a wider range of classes. “We’re talking about using the aesthetic of hip hop, not necessarily being a rapper in the classroom,” he said. “Anybody can lead a call and response or put young people in a cipher and have them have a discussion. Hip Hop is about community. It’s about letting people shine. Let them do what they do.” 

Correction: A previous version of this article’s headline incorrectly named Rawls as a Gaudino Scholar. His visit was supported by the Gaudino Creative Residency Fellowship, but he is not the Gaudino Scholar. The Gaudino Scholar is Chair Professor of Theatre Amy S. Holzapfel. The article was updated on March 19 at 1:37 a.m. to correct this error.