The power of hip hop is something that has spanned over many decades and is not narrowed down to one race, sex, geographical location or social class. In this story Marcus, a college student is deep in the middle of creating his final for his History of Hip Hop class but the harder he works the more frustrated he gets because he knows that this era of music is so big and he wants to do it justice. Enters his friend Drake that sees his frustration and begins to take him on a rollercoaster of hip hop highlights in dance that he could possibly use within his piece, or he’s just having fun. But together the two young men realize that hip hop is more than just dancing, more than just making words rhyme and creating a beat. It is an experience that everyone should be able to respect and connect to because at its essence it is music that tells a story that every man and woman should be able to listen to and understand. As the scene progresses Marcus realizes he is enough and has always been enough to tell this story. As he creates his final for this class he cuts out all of the lies that weren’t his story to tell and gives us who he is, what he has experienced and what he knows. He tells his hip hop story. (*With the authors permission this piece may be performed by any performer: male/ male, male/ female or female/ female it is a piece about the music and is not gender or race specific.)
Story Hip Hop
Marcus: (Rapping) If I work and get that money I’ll be rich and… (He thinks) and… (Defeated) and I don’t even know.
Drake: (Laughing making his presence known) What are you working on? A rap for the nursing home? (Mimicking him) If I work and get that money I’ll be rich and get dat honey. (He laughs, Marcus does not, then after a moment he does.)
Marcus: Come Drake you know how important this is to me.
Drake: I do but I don’t know why. Of all the classes to take in college you choose the History of Hip Hop that comes with a final that requires you to write a rap.
Marcus: I knew that when I signed up.
Drake: But you don’t rap.
Marcus: I knew that too. But I like rap.
Drake: I like cupcakes you don’t see me throwing on an apron and telling Martha Stewart to move to the side, “I got this one Martha!”
Marcus: That’s not funny.
Drake: Come on it’s a little funny. (Marcus goes back to pacing looking at his notebook.) So why did you take the class?
Marcus: For real?
Drake: For real.
Marcus: Because I love hip hop and I wanted a better understanding.
Drake: (Not following) Okay-
Marcus: I wanted to be able to listen to the music and not just memorize the words and bob my head to the beat. I wanted it to mean more than that because I knew it meant more than that.
Drake: Why can’t music just be music? Like enjoy it and move on to the next thing?
Marcus: Because there’s more to it than that. This professor is like a Hip Hop Historian. It’s like he was the right-hand man for all these groups and all these events in American History.