{"id":4920,"date":"2023-07-04T19:19:32","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T00:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=4920"},"modified":"2024-04-12T16:31:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T21:31:36","slug":"the-global-musical-phenomenon-hip-hop-turns-50-a-professor-of-hip-hop-explains-what-the-word-dope-means-to-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=4920","title":{"rendered":"The Global Musical Phenomenon ‘Hip-Hop’ Turns 50, A Professor Of Hip-Hop Explains What The Word \u2018Dope\u2019 Means To Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the global musical phenomenon turns 50, a hip-hop<\/span> professor explains what the word \u2018dope\u2019 means to him.<\/p>\n

After I finished my Ph.D. in 2017, several newspaper reporters wrote about the job I\u2019d accepted at the University of Virginia as an assistant professor of hip-hop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA.D. Carson just scored, arguably, the dopest job ever,\u201d one journalist wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The writer may not have meant it the way I read it, but the terminology was significant to me. Hip-hop\u2019s early luminaries transformed the word\u2019s original meanings, using it as a synonym for cool. In the 50 years since, it endures as an expression of respect and praise \u2013 and illegal substances.<\/p>\n

In that context, dope has everything to do with my work.<\/p>\n

In the year I graduated from college, one of my best friends was sent to federal prison for possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. He served nearly a decade and has been back in prison several times since.<\/p>\n

But before he went to prison, he helped me finish school by paying off my tuition.<\/p>\n