Skip to content ↓

Hip-Hop Japan comes to MIT

Zeebra is one of the most influential hip-hop artists in Japan today. His music has reflected the themes of a younger generation growing up at a time of unemployment and recession.

An artist talk by Zeebra and panel discussion on Fukushima activism, 1960s art, postwar pop, and global hip-hop will be held at MIT on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 3 p.m. in E25-111.

In addition to Zeebra, speakers include Marié Abe, an assistant professor of music in the Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Boston University; Miki Kaneda, a lecturer in East Asian languages and civilizations at Harvard University; and Murray Forman, an associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern University. Forman is the author of "Hood Comes First: Race, Space and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop." Also speaking is Hiromu Nagahara, an assistant professor of history at MIT. MIT Professor Ian Condry will moderate the discussion.

This event is part of a two-day series sponsored by the The MIT/Harvard Cool Japan research project. Other activities include a performance on Wednesday evening by Zeebra and Japanese hip-hop artist Miss Monday. Also appearing will be local artists WTF. The performances start at 8 p.m. at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge.

On Thursday, Feb. 27, a panel discussion on Music, Culture and Transformation will be held at 5 p.m. in E14-663 featuring two MIT scholars: Meredith Schweig will deliver at talk "Gender in Taiwanese Rap Music: Hope for the Future?" Rebecca Dirksen will deliver "A Musical Model for Development? Haiti's Mizik Angaje Re-Imagined."

Related Links

Related Topics

More MIT News

Illustrated silhouettes of people's heads, with thought and speech bubbles above

What is language for?

Drawing on evidence from neurobiology, cognitive science, and corpus linguistics, MIT researchers make the case that language is a tool for communication, not for thought.

Read full story