Encouraging creativity and teaching students through hip-hop music

Primary Goals:
Enable middle and high school students to express their creativity through hip-hop lyric composition and sharing Expand a students lyrical toolkit through educational challenges and exploration of the works of hip-hop artists

In accordance with Gees Production principle, the Rhyme Book allows users to create lyrics and subsequently revise and share them. Most existing rappers have a physical rhyme book and many use native word-processing functionality in their smart phones to store rhymes. The Rhyme Book is a central repository tailored to rhyme/lyric composition.

The Hustle section is an innovative way to appeal to a users Identity in order to educate them through popular culture. Using an intuitive system of breaking down lyrics on behalf of users, giving users to ability view lyrics and then encouraging users to emulate their favorite artists; we are maximizing retention of key concepts.

By allowing users to integrate their lyrical creations with Facebook, we are intending to leverage the artists desire to publically display his or her talent. Not only is Facebook a forum that is conducive to textual masterpieces, but it is also a marketing mechanism that will expose the game to our target demographic. Battle functionality allows users to go oneon-one with other users via Facebook. This is one example of when the users MC persona transcends the reality of the game. They are now able to take on their friends and others as themselves. Most wins!

The users Crew represents their closest group of MC friends. Crew functionality is a means to draw other users into the game and to provide a sense of pride and camaraderie amongst members.

In the Hustle section, users are given tools and a new lens through which they can interpret their existing knowledgebase of hip-hop music. Users view lyrics and are given challenges that demonstrate the various rhyme schemes, literary devices and vocabulary that the best hip-hop artists use.

Rhyme Schemes Literary Devices Vocabulary Message

2x2 Empathy Maps LEVEL

HUSTLE PTS SWAG PTS
X: Assisted Play vs. Full Control Y: Strategy vs. Discovery X: Music vs. Lyrics Y: Informative vs. Memorization

Balsamiq Mockups

EMPIRE

SWAG STORE

HUSTLE

BATTLE

RHYME BOOK
X: Song vs. Dance Y: Rhythm vs. Tempo

EDU396X Team BlueCard Leonard Medlock, Demetric Sanders, Franklin Winokur