Sebastien Elkouby wants to empower the youth. But unlike others with the same goal, he uses hip-hop as the tool. Sebastien is the creator of the Urban Youth Empowerment Foundation, a Los Angeles organization created to address the education crisis affecting more than 50% of inner-city middle and high school students.

In an attempt to provide a new method for reaching at-risk students, the Urban Youth Empowerment Foundation offers several empowerment courses, including job training classes, teen parenting classes, and global awareness through hip-hop classes.  

The curriculum educates teens on several important topics, including social and cultural awareness, the history of music and civilization, health, self-esteem, racial stereotypes and media influence, among countless others.

Following a highly successful first year, Elkouby has been asked to continue teaching hip-hop to adolescents and teenagers. Luckily, we had the chance to catch up with him on the playground after school one day, and here’s what he had to say:

What is your personal definition of hip-hop?

It’s a collective consciousness of the youth who actually do the artistic elements of hip-hop. You know, whether we’re looking at the four elements – emceeing, dejaying, bboying, graf. Or the additional other elements – knowledge, the nine elements as listed by KRS-One – street entrepreneurialism, street knowledge, fashion, language, all these things. It’s just an overall collective consciousness, you know – that’s what hip-hop is. Whether it’s through music; through the lifestyle; through a certain belief system; through a discipline. That’s what hip-hop is – that creative energy that is expressed through those artistic elements.

Yeah, a lot of people seem to leave the knowledge and KRS-One’s additional elements out when talking about hip-hop. Do you see that as maybe part of the problem in hip-hop today?

Well, it depends. I mean, are we talking about what the mainstream calls hip-hop? Or we talking about what hip-hop calls hip-hop? Because in the mainstream, hip-hop isn’t even looked at as a cultural or social movement. It’s just one form of entertainment – or that’s the way most people look at it. So knowledge isn’t even included in that conversation at all.

And that is a problem, you know, working with students every day and discussing what hip-hop means to them. Because introducing the idea of knowledge being the foundation of hip-hop can be a really boring concept for kids. I’ve had kids ask me before, “What does that have to do with hip-hop?”

If you had to pick your top 5 MCs of all time, who would they be? Why? And how have they influenced the direction you’ve taken within hip-hop?

It’s actually funny because I’ve spent a considerable amount of time coming up with a list. I’ll go with Public Enemy, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Boogie Down Productions, and A Tribe Called Quest. These groups have definitely influenced the direction I’ve taken with hip-hop. Just in terms of being an MC earlier on – I mean I still rhyme occasionally just for fun – but as an MC, those artists were my main influence.

In terms of what I do now as an educator, the acts I’ve just mentioned all have the knowledge, the consciousness, and knowledge of self at the root of what they do. Whether we’re looking at KRS and PE for political or socially conscious artists. Whether we’re looking at Tribe Called Quest who infuses a message of knowledge, Afrocentricity, fun and creativity. You got Kane who deals with the aspect of lyricism from a perspective of knowledge of self – as well as just being witty and clever with his words.

So all of these things are really a big part of what I do now in terms of the language, the form of expression, or the social consciousness.

You are the founder of the Urban Youth Empowerment Foundation. What is this foundation? Who is it for?

The foundation, as the name implies, is primarily used to empower youth – teenagers from the ages of thirteen to nineteen. And our main tool is hip-hop as a platform. We do have programs that have nothing to do with hip-hop such as our job-training program, or our teen-parenting program.

And I can’t lie, as a hip-hop head I’m always inclined to approach topics from a hip-hop perspective. Just because that’s who I am, so that’s definitely a part of everything that I do. But when I’m doing job training, you know, it doesn’t have to be hip-hop. It’s not called “The Hip-Hop Job Training Program.” So that’s pretty much the range of what we do. But primarily the foundation focuses on hip-hop and education.

What are its goals and missions?

The goals are really just about making teenagers globally and socially aware, and aware of whom they are. Self-awareness, global awareness, social awareness – that’s really what it is. Hip-Hop is the medium in which we try to reach that mission, but it’s really about personal empowerment and awareness.

Of course, we also want to expose the youth that we work with to what hip-hop culture is. What it really is. And we expose them to all the credible artists of past and present. We want them to look at hip-hop as a valuable form of expression – as something they can use in their own lives to empower themselves.

Now I don’t want to say that hip-hop has devalued. In the mainstream it has, but in our hearts and our minds it hasn’t. So I definitely want them to value hip-hop. I don’t want them to look at it as some cheap form of entertainment or a temporary thing. I want them to look at it with value.

What does hip-hop have to do with empowerment?

Well, the very origin of hip-hop is based on “Do It Yourself.” It’s about creativity, expression, and the desire to be heard. To voice your passion – voice your dreams. So without empowerment, there is no hip-hop. It’s all about living to the fullest. Living to the highest potential. Being the best you that you can be. And hip-hop is just a way to express that. Without that spark, that flame – without that desire to be, there is no hip-hop.

Tell us about the different programs you offer. What topics do you deal with? What lessons do you teach?

The main program is the “Global Awareness Through Hip-Hop” Program. That’s a full time program that is actually offered at school full time. It’s a regular class – there are tests, quizzes, homework – just like any other subject. Just like history, or math, or English. It is the only full time hip-hop program for seventh and eighth graders that I know of that isn’t an after-school program.

As I mentioned earlier, we also have job training programs and empowerment programs for teen parents. We also have an artist development program for those interested in developing their art as MCs or singers. And also we do a lot of different workshops – workshops that deal with racial stereotypes, media influence, self-esteem. So there’s a lot of one-time workshops that we do as well.

How are these classes structured?

We’ll watch videos, go over lyrics, and that will be the springboard for conversation. For example, we’ll talk about sweatshops and blood diamonds, and we’ll do that through talking about fashion in hip-hop. Whether it’s the whole bling thing, or people interested in different styles of dress. We’ll talk about history – about the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam. We talk about ancient civilizations – of Africa and Egypt specifically, or of the Maya, Inca, Aztecs. And you can always tie it to hip-hop.

Take a song like “I Can” by Nas, and the third verse is a history lesson. So that’s pretty much what we do. We spend a considerable amount of time talking about health in terms of nutrition and fitness – you know, what junk food can do to you. And it’s really easy to pick songs out to illustrate those points. You can look at a song like KRS-One “Beef,” and use that as a powerful springboard for a conversation on nutrition. I know Dead Prez also has a pretty good song to use. But it’s really pretty easy to do. There’s really no limit to what we can discuss in class using rap music.

It also allows us to talk about other styles of music through sampling, you know, through the influence. We’ve spent time talking about James Brown. We talk about reggae of course. We talk about African music, percussion, drums. We talk about rock. We cover break beats, and of course break beats come from so many other different styles of music. So that also opens the door to music appreciation.

Why did you start this foundation? What is it about hip-hop that makes it a good tool for working with the youth?

Well, I might give you a pretty cliché answer, but so many young people are into hip-hop, so it’s a real easy way to get their attention. But also, as a hip-hop head – somebody who’s been rhyming since ’85, beat boxing and actually living out the elements – it’s pretty much a natural progression for me to use hip-hop to express myself. And it’s also creative. When you’re comparing what I do to any other subjects in a school context, you can address all the same things in a much more culturally relevant, age relevant, exciting and entertaining way.

What factors in urban life make programs like yours important?

I want them to feel that they belong to something; that they’re attached to a cultural legacy; that they’re not just individuals floating through space with no connection or attachment to anything valuable. Through hip-hop, I’m able to reattach people to their history. Whether we’re looking at the history of black people, Latinos – I work in LA, so I have a pretty large Latino population that I work with as well. So I definitely want to reconnect people to a cultural legacy.

I also want them to value learning. Not simply to get As in school, but for their own empowerment – for them to be better individuals and have greater opportunities. For them to be able to get careers as opposed to just jobs. I want them to realize that they have powers – spiritual powers, mental powers – that they’re not just the average Joe. They have something to contribute to the world, their families, their community and themselves.

A lot of people criticize hip-hoppers for falsely believing the culture has some liberatory potential that vanished with the old school. Your program seems to defy this belief. What do you feel about hip-hop’s ability to educate, inspire and liberate?

Being brought up in the golden age of hip-hop, you know, hip-hop was my education. I was able to learn about so much of the world. My curiosities were sparked by so many artists – whether it’s Public Enemy, KRS-One, Rakim, X-Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers, etc, etc. – my curiosity was sparked by so many things that they said along with so many other people of my generation who wanted to learn more.

It was like “What was Rakim just talking about?” Or Chuck D was talking about Farrakhan, “Who’s that?” You know – Black Panthers, “Who are they?” As a preteen or teenager who’s never heard any of that, the music drives you to know what your favorite artist is talking about. So it was my education and the education of so many of my peers. And I’m a product of that.

I feel that it’s our job as the hip-hop elders, if you want to call it that – those that have lived through the golden age – to educate them on what hip-hop really is.

Do you ever find it difficult to convince parents to allow their kids to participate in your program in light of mainstream society’s current negative perception of hip-hop music and lyrics?

You know, I’m fortunate because I haven’t been hit with a million and one questions over that. A couple of times, people have said “Isn’t hip-hop just about Bs and hos and bad music?” Or “Doesn’t hip-hop just talk about gangs and violence? But I’ve found that when you engage in a conversation about the history of hip-hop with the parents, and tell them that that’s just what the mainstream has exposed them and their children to, they tend to realize how it will help their child with core subjects in school.

How do you influence your students to look past the highly publicized negativity and see the positive hip-hop that is ignored by the media?

I expose my students to a variety of artists. In my classroom I tell them, “Look, you guys can go home and watch MTV and BET and turn on the local radio stations, and you can hear whatever you want.” But in my class, we listen to hip-hop that they can’t hear on their own because they probably don’t know where to go to get the stuff the mainstream doesn’t play. So this is a place where you’ll hear what you can’t hear anywhere else. And if they like the music, they’ll check it out.

Contrary to popular belief – people in the industry will have you believe that the youth really isn’t in to “conscious hip-hop” – and that’s not true. If they like the music, they’ll check it out. As a teacher, someone who works with these kids on a daily basis, I know that today’s youth are not nearly as into the “negative element” as we think they are. They themselves know that a lot of it is ridiculous and a lot of it is fake.

And I don’t really have too many students that think that misogyny or sexism is something cool. I don’t have many students that think this whole thug mentality is something cool. They might see it in their own lives. They might be exposed to it in their own lives. But in terms of entertainment, even if it’s music that they listen to, they acknowledge the fact that it’s not real and it’s definitely nothing to glorify. They’re not nearly as brainwashed as we think they are.

Aside from being a hip-hop educator, what are your interests? Do you have a family? Hobbies?

I’m going on eleven years of marriage. I have two kids. My personal interests are metaphysics, ancient civilizations – I’m kind of a nerd really. So my idea of a good time is an intellectual conversation, a documentary (laughs).

I still rhyme. I had pretty much put the mic away for some time, but I recently decided to get back into it because I have a lot to say. So I thought I’d just do it for fun – definitely not looking for a record deal or anything. I just do it for fun. And it gives me a lot of creative freedom. I can express myself the way that I want, take as many samples as I need without having to worry about clearance. I feel like I have complete creative freedom, and I didn’t feel like I had that back when I was pursuing it.

I like comic books. I spend a considerable amount of time reading comics and talking about superheroes. I think a lot of old school hip-hoppers are into that sort of thing as well. But I must admit that I’m really consumed by what I do. I attend a spiritual center – I call it a spiritual center because it’s nondenominational – and I work with the teen ministry there, so I’m able to use hip-hop in that context as well.

If hip-hop was a person, and you could ask him or her one question, what would it be?

Again not to sound like a cliché, but I feel like I’m so hip-hop that if I had a question to ask, I’d just ask myself. I walk with this, you know – this is who I am. “I am Hip-Hop,” to quote the overused idea from KRS-One. But I really feel it.