Adam Bradley
is an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the author or several books, including Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop, The Anthology of Rap (co-edited with Andrew DuBois), and One Day It’ll All Make Sense (with Common).
Ten years ago when I was in the midst of my graduate studies in English at Harvard, reading four-inch-thick Victorian novels and taking my oral exams with professors whose names appear on the spine of the Norton Anthology of English Literature you couldn’t have convinced me that one day I’d be sharing the stage with my favorite MCs. My fate was Tolstoy, not Tupac; Dorothy West, not Kanye West.
But there I was late last year at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. in front of a thousand fans, celebrating the publication of The Anthology of Rap—a kind of new school Norton with my own name on the spine. Walking onto the stage, I basked in the ovation. Never mind that the cheers were meant for the men flanking me, the old school legend Kurtis Blow and the new school rapper and actor Common. As James Brown once said, it was Star Time. For me, it was Almost Famous.
In the months that followed, I had the privilege of working with Common on another project, his memoir, published this fall and entitled One Day It’ll All Make Sense. After hours of conversations in LA and Chicago, in the car and at the recording studio, at restaurants and even at the grocery store, Common and I went about telling his life story on the page. For me the book also marked the fusion of two worlds—literature and hip hop.
Living on the edge of hip hop celebrity, however, can make for an uneasy—if invigorating—relationship with a tenured professorship. Last fall and into the spring, as Common and I were working on the book, I was also teaching a full schedule of courses at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Try grading a freshman essay at two in the morning in the back of a black Escalade with Biggie bumping from the speakers. Trust me, it can be done.
Here was my weekly schedule: teach Thursday afternoon, catch a late flight from Denver to wherever on Thursday night, hang with Common until Monday night, catch a flight back at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning and arrive on campus just in time to teach my midday class. On top of that, my wife was pregnant with our first child, so we were going to birthing classes, decorating the baby’s room, and scouting out the shortest route between our house and the hospital.
Somehow it all worked out just fine. My wife and I welcomed our daughter into the world one afternoon this January. My classes got taught; my grades went in on time. And Common and I produced a book that we’re happy to present now to you.
Thanks to the Chicago Humanities Festival, Common and I will be sharing the stage again this fall. We’ll be talking about music, but we’ll also be talking about books—his memoir and The Anthology of Rap. For me, it will mark the celebration of an unlikely career as a hip hop academic. And even though I know you’ll be cheering for Common, save a couple claps for me!
UIC Forum - Main Hall AB: Nov. 5, 6:00 PM
Tags: Common, rap, hip-hop, Adam Bradley, The Anthology of Rap, poetry, technology, audio
