I INTRODUCTION
The DFG project Hip-Hop’s Fifth Element: Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Artist-Scholar Collaboration has been running since 01.02.2022 for a period of three and half years until 01.06.2025. The grant was conceived by Prof. Williams and European Network of HipHop studies founder and scholar Dr. Sina Nitzsche. It is was then led (modified and further developed) by Prof. Dr. Oliver Kautny (University of Cologne) and Prof. Dr. Justin A. Williams (University of Bristol). It is part of the UK-German Funding Initiative in the Humanities (AHRC-DFG). On the University of Cologne side, Dr. Chris Kattenbeck, Dr. Linus Eusterbrock, Charlotte Furtwängler, Frieda Frost and Jason Carter are employed as project staff.
II. OVERVIEW
III. ENGLISH SUB-PROJECT (University of Bristol, AHRC): see here.
IV. GERMAN SUB-PROJECT(University of Cologne, DFG):
The interdisciplinary project at the interface of music education, musicology, cultural studies and empirical educational research pursues three main objectives.
1. OBJECTIVES
1.1. Research on knowledge in hip-hop
What is meant by this term? And why is it so important in hip-hop culture? How is knowledge constructed, handed down, canonized and communicated? How it is related to practices of learning and teaching of Hip-Hop related to music?
1.2. Analysing, developing and testing (high) teaching materials for Hip-Hop Music Education.
1.3. Collaboration and dialog with hip-hop artists. In other words, hip-hop artists are invited to research, teach and develop didactic material together with the project team. The collaboration itself is also the subject of reflection and research. Last but not least, the role that collaboration with artists can or should play in the process of institutionalizing hip-hop in (music) educational contexts will be examined. In this context, questions of power relations, cultural appropriation, legitimization, etc. also become virulent.
2. INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT: CHHI
The project is based at the Cologne Hip Hop Institute founded by Oliver Kautny at the University of Cologne in 2020. Its activities are about teaching, research and third mission and its interests overlap with central aspects of the project (above all the development and testing of didactic material, collaboration with artists and critical self-reflection on the institutionalization of hip hop).
3. MILESTONES (Selection)
Various milestones have been achieved in the last three years:
3.1. Research Workshop
The project was initiated by a research workshop on the institutionalization of hip-hop, which was attended by international participants (researchers and artists) (2022).
3.1. Conference
A conference on Breaking & Olympia was co-organized by Frieda Frost and Deutsche Sporthochschule (conference report: see here, 2024).
3.3. Publications
Various publications have been released since then, e.g. the anthology „It’s how you flip it“ that brings together different perspectives on hip-hop and music education (2024). Two PHD candidates conducted their research within this project: Frieda Frost (2025, forthcoming) and Charlotte Furtwängler (2026, forthcoming).
Eusterbock/Kattenbeck/Kautny (2024): It’s How You Flip It. Multiple Perspectives On Hip-Hop And Music Education. Bielefeld: Transcript: Full Text online: here.
At the intersection of hip-hop and music education, scholars, artists, and educators cooperate in this volume to investigate topics such as representations of gangsta rap in school textbooks, the possibilities and limits of working with hip-hop in an intersectional critical music pedagogy context, and the reflection of hip-hop artists on their work in music education institutions.
4. All EVENTS OF THE PROJECT (Overview)
a. LECTURES (e.g. by rappers such as Retrogott, DJ RickSki, Gabriel Riquelme, Torch, Megaloh, Sookee, Koljah, Roger Reckless, Keno)
b. ATISTICAL RESEARCH (e.g. an artistic dialogue between rapper Keno and Sami musicians Torgeir Vassvik and Rasmus Kjorstad (2023); a music ethnological seminar with refugee artist from Niger and Burkina Faso and the production of an album etc. (2022-2023), concerts: Jesué @ HumFestival Cologne & research interview, July 2024); „Echoes in Motion“: a research project on the intersections of breaking and DJing and Beatmaking by Frieda Frost and Jason Ng aka Subnet, May 2025.
c. Many artistical / educational WORKSHOPS for students (e.g. by MCs, DJs, writers, B-Girls or hip hip educators like Retrogott, Keno, DJ Cem, Ket, Frieda Frost, Steffen Peter, Puya Bagheri, DJ Lifeforce, FlyJay and many others)
d. SEMINARS / CONFERENCES Oliver Kautny and Chris Kattenbeck organized a musicological seminar together with the MC and beatmaker Retrogott, including a song exclusively composed by the artist for this seminar (see Kurt Tallert aka Retrogott 2024 in Eusterbrock, Kattenbeck, Kautny 20241). Frieda Frost co-organized an international conference on Breaking & Olympia, in 2024.
e. TEACHING CONCEPTS / MATERIALS
Analyzing (Furtwängler 2024, Furtwängler 2026, forthcoming; Kautny 2024 in Eusterbrock, Kattenbeck, Kautny 2024), and testing of didactic concepts at schools (e.g. at the Heliosschule in Cologne, 2022, German School in Singapore (2023), School-Project in Dessau, 2022).
Developing teaching materials (see video below), implementation of HipHop-practices in Teacher Training, and other practices of knowledge-transfer (e.g. contributing to an exhibition on Hip-Hop in Frankfurt).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rrZdgEapE
- References to articles, books: https://blog.uni-koeln.de/colognehiphopinstitute/research/ ↩︎