‘The Academic Minute’ Features OWU Professor
David Caplan Discusses ‘Is Hip-Hop Poetry?’
Ohio Wesleyan University’s David Caplan, Ph.D., professor of English, picks up the mic and raps a little about hip hop on the March 3 edition of the national “The Academic Minute” radio program.
In his one-minute segment, available online now, Caplan shares his thoughts on “Is Hip-Hop Poetry?”
A member of the OWU faculty since 2000, Caplan is the author of “Rhyme’s Challenge: Hip Hop, Poetry, and Contemporary Rhyming Culture.”
In the book, he writes that hip-hop artists are the most daring, inventive, and sophisticated contemporary rhymers and examines three kinds of rhymes these artists favor.
During his “Academic Minute,” he asserts that even if hip hop is not considered poetry by contemporary practice, “that is what makes it such a powerful model.”
“Hip hop inspires attentive listeners to reconsider the pleasures and opportunities rhyme offers and reintroduce them back into our poetry,” says Caplan, who also serves as OWU’s associate director of creative writing.
“The Academic Minute” – hosted by Lynn Pasquerella, Ph.D., president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities – features a different professor each day, drawing experts from top colleges and universities from across the country. It is produced by and aired on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.