11: Rap Music: A Socio-Cultural Revolution

According to J. L. Lemke (1998), literacies consist of a group of mutually dependent social practices that connect people, media, objects, and strategies to make meaning. Moreover Lemke (1998) states that all literacy is multimedia, such that meaning is not made with language alone, but instead with visual or vocal understanding of the linguistic signs that provide non-linguistic meanings such as tone of voice. Lemke continues to describe literacies as always being social and advocates the learning of a combination of other modes of literacy, such as singing, drawing, or mime with writing in order to enhance communication. In fact, he proposes that meaning is most effectively enhanced through the union of “typological” (i.e., the way language operates) and “topological” (i.e., visual perception and spatial gesturing such as drawing and dancing) modes of meaning-making.