“Death in Hip-Hop” and the Spring Philosophical Forum

Frostburg State University’s Philosophy Department hosted their Spring Philosophical Forum on Tuesday, March 5. The presenter, Dr. Brandon Hogan, is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Howard University having earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. Hogan’s topic, “Death in Hip-Hop: An Existential Analysis,” drew a crowd of over fifty attendees, including FSU President Nowaczyk.

Hogan asserts that academic philosophical discussions overlook the meaningful and vast collection of ideas about death presented in hip-hop music. Hogan cites Socrates who said that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” and rapper Talib Kweli claims that “life without knowledge is death in disguise.” Throughout this examination, Hogan mentioned Kendrick Lamar, the Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Ice Cube, Pusha-T, and Chance the Rapper. By slideshow, Hogan’s presentation would play clips of popular hip-hop songs and relate them to classic philosophical thinkers including Martin Heidegger, Thomas Nagel, and Epicurus. Hogan’s perspective is that the intellect and perspective of both groups, hip-top artists and philosophers, are equal in terms of their understanding of what it means to live, and as agents that provide us with an opportunity to examine our lives and our world. Hogan’s goal seemed to be a discussion of hip-hop explicitly embedded in context, one that provides a full picture of the reality of being black in America, and how these circumstances influence the conception of death. To this end, the audience was convinced of this thesis and left with a renewed sense of the power of music.

Dr. Brandon Hogan can be found at www.brandonhogan.net. His most recent courses at Howard University include, “Truth in the Trump Era,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “Hip-Hop and Philosophy.” For more information about the Philosophy Department at Frostburg State University, contact Dr. Skott Brill at sbrill@frostburg.edu. The Philosophical Society, a student organization, meets on Thursday nights from 6-7 p.m. in Dunkle 132A.