Through a school-based project, students within the proposed COMA program would watch popular videos under supervision and then talk about the images afterwards, to assess different rapper's portraits of women, violence, crime, and sexuality. Students would also analyze rap lyrics in their English classes. This would encourage teens to not simply mindlessly listen to the music, without critically analyzing rappers' overt messages and rap lyrics' subtexts.

Bringing rap into the school would help to erase the 'us vs. them' divide that is part of much of rap's violent, negative, outsider appeal. It could also offer a springboard in which to discuss larger social issues about racism and sexism. Students would be asked to create their own rap music videos and rap songs to talk about issues that were important to them on a personal level. Incorporating rap as an expressive medium has been proven to be effective in many contexts....
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