Mike
@professorberry
Orchestra teacher, music theorist, bassist "Listening to Rap" (2e) and "Rap as Antiracist Pedagogy" both coming from Routledge in 2026. michaelberrymusic.com
If anyone is looking for a dissertation topic you could write about why, when I search Getty Images and Shutterstock for "hip hop" or "rap" or something similar, I get a bunch of stuff like this:
One of the more interesting song titles I've come across recently, from the "Director's Cut" of "Scaring the Hoes" by JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown
To paraphrase my dissertation advisor, the best book is a finished book, and this one is now finished. Thanks all for your support and encouragement along the way. 😀
Going through some old books and found a hand-drawn analysis that ultimately ended up in my dissertation.
One time my formatting was off and I had to copy by hand like 16 pages from a book, footnotes and all. This had to be done and on his desk by 7:30 the next morning. I still remember the title and cover 35 years later:
Apropos of nothing here’s an email I sent to my admin after a meeting of our school’s MTSS (multi-tiered support systems) team.
Organizing my bookshelves and a little surprised by how many books I have with “pimp” in the title… (Totally forgot I had the Sharpley-Whiting book!)
From a 1991 article titled "Rap singing as an icebreaker for large classes" by E. Rae Harcum:
One unexpected kinda fun thing about this orchestra teaching job is that I’ve become pretty interested in instrument repair. I’m very much a novice at it—have done more harm than good once or twice—but it’s satisfying when it works (and saves my district some $$!)
There is much in the world that is terrible right now but this new shirt is bringing some joy. #KohlsCashRulesEverythingAroundMe