Dr. Norjuan Austin lectures to his rap music class [Click to enlarge] At the age of adolsence, Dr. Norjuan Austin knew how rap music could stir emotions in people to act. Unfortunately, he remembers how his mother acted when she heard some lyrics on one ill-fated day. When he was 11 or 12 years old, Dr. Norjuan Austin received a stereo for Christmas. That Christmas morning, his mother was amazed by all the buttons and knobs on the stereo and wondered how they all worked.

Austin wanted to show off his gift, so he invited his friends to come over to see it, wanting to test the volume of his toy, he blasted the stereo to see how high it could go. Soon, the song, “Lottie Dottie” vibrated through his room. He assumed the song was the “edited” version, and realized his error when the one unedited, graphic and explicit line blasted out from the stereo’s four speakers. Obviously, the explicit lyrics did not stay within the boundaries of his room.

If it had, his mother would not have come from the other room where his relatives were congregating She immediately turned the stereo off. Austin was amazed she was able to do that since she was marveling at how to work the thing earlier. However, his astonishment was cut short when she told his friends to leave, which they were more than happy to do, considering her angry tone.

His mother closed the door, and he could not remember much afterward except that he was sore when he came out of that room. Austin, SFA assistant professor and director of English education, teaches the English 300-level course, African American Literature: Rap Music as Poetry. The course is like any writing intensive English poetry course. Students have to learn about similes, metaphors and rhyme schemes and have to refer to other pieces of work that are cited in lyrics.