'Sampling Soul' Goes Live!

Class to focus on rapper Nas' critically acclaimed rap album 'Illmatic'

'Sampling Soul' Class Open To The Public Via Live Webcast March 16

DURHAM, N.C. -- The public will get a chance to experience the popular Duke University course “Sampling Soul” via a live webcast beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, at ustream.tv/dukeuniversity.

The topic of the class will be the making of the critically acclaimed hip-hop album “Illmatic” by rapper Nasir Jones, aka Nas.

The undergraduate course is co-taught by African and African American Studies professor Mark Anthony Neal and Grammy Award-winning music producer 9th Wonder. Each weekly class emphasizes a different aspect of sampling music, from its history to legal considerations. The “Sampling Illmatic” class will focus on the making of Nas’ 1994 album.

Viewers are encouraged to submit questions for the professors either in advance or during the session by sending an e-mail to live@duke.edu, posting a comment on the Duke University Live Ustream page on Facebook, or tweeting with the tag #dukelive. A recording of the event will be available on Duke on Demand.

“Well before the release of ‘Illmatic,’ Nas was already drawing comparisons to Rakim Allah, often regarded as hip-hop's greatest lyricist,” says Neal. “The album’s release did not disappoint. It began what has been one of the most stellar careers in hip-hop, where Nas has found the perfect balance between maintaining relevancy on the streets while offering trenchant commentary about politics, relationships and everyday black life.”

“Illmatic,” with its lyrics from the perspective of a teenager living in the projects, contains several popular singles, including “The World Is Yours,” “It Ain't Hard to Tell” and “One Love.”

Neal says “Illmatic” also struck a chord because it became the blueprint for sample-based hip-hop production throughout the 1990s, with “contributions from a who's who of producers including DJ Premiere, Pete Rock, Large Professor and Q-Tip.”

Neal contributed an essay on jazz, hip-hop and fathers to the newly released book Born To Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic (Basic Civitas, 2010). Nas’ father is jazz and blues musician Olu Dara. The volume was edited by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai and is one of several texts used in the class.

Mark Anthony Neal is the author of four books, including “New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity” and the forthcoming “Looking for Leroy.” His essays have been anthologized in a dozen books.

9th Wonder, born Patrick Douthit, is a former member of the hip-hop trio Little Brother, which released albums such as “The Listening” and “The Minstrel Show.” He has produced music for Jay-Z, Destiny’s Child, Mary J. Blige and Erykah Badu among others. He also scored the music for “The Boondocks” animated television series. He was recently selected as the NAACP’s national ambassador for hip-hop relations and culture.

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Mark Anthony Neal Holds Online "Office Hours"

Mark Anthony Neal to Discuss Musical and Cultural Legacy of Michael Jackson in Online 'Office Hours'

The conversation takes place at noon Friday, Aug. 28, on the Duke University Ustream channel.

Pop icon Michael Jackson, diversity in baseball and why this is an exciting time for scholars of black culture will be among the topics discussed during a live webcast with Mark Anthony Neal, a Duke professor of African and African American Studies. This latest installment of Duke’s new online "office hours” series will begin at noon EDT Friday, Aug. 28.

Neal is the author of the book “New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity” and wrote the main essay for “Hello World - The Complete Motown Solo Collection,” a 3-CD box collection of Michael Jackson solo recordings released between 1971 and 1975. He is currently writing album notes for a collection of unreleased Jackson 5 master recordings. (Jackson would have celebrated his 51st birthday on Aug. 29.)

Viewers can submit questions in advance or during the session by email to live@duke.edu, on the Duke University Live Ustream page on Facebook or via Twitter with the tag #dukelive. The program will run live on Duke’s Ustream channel.

In recent months, Neal has addressed such issues as the lack of black players in Major League Baseball and how President Obama’s election provides ample opportunities to advance discussions around issues of race.

“The Obama presidency is akin, for some, to having the first black family move into an all-white neighborhood,” Neal wrote in Duke Magazine last spring. “… this bodes well for those of us who make meaning in both the mundane and the exceptional in African-American life and culture. There's little doubt in my mind that Obama's presidency -- and its long-term influence and implications -- will usher in an exciting period in the study of black popular culture. It also promises to provide an unprecedented opportunity, and inspiration, for black artists and entertainers, as they scout and interpret new cultural terrain.”

Neal is the author of four books, including “Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation” (2003), and co-edited, with Murray Forman, “That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader” (2004). His essay, “Music: Bodies in Pain,” on the music of R&B artists Linda Jones and Keyshia Cole, was published in the collection “Best African American Essays 2009”.

He was also a frequent commentator for NPR and contributes to several online media outlets, including NewsOne.com, TheRoot.com and TheGrio.com. He regularly updates his own blog with essays written by other scholars and himself.

Duke’s Office of News and Communications launched Online Office Hours series on July 31 with economist Dan Ariely, the best-selling author of “Predictably Irrational.” Last Friday’s guest was David Goldstein, director of the Center for Human Genome Variation at Duke’s Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy.