Board game educates through hip-hop

By Lucas Wilsdon / Columnist
TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2006

Many people view hip-hop culture as controversial, and many are intimidated by its ability to move and influence.

Hip-hop music introduces and creates more young black entrepreneurs than any other movement in U.S. history, says Wil Seegars, an EMU graduate and creator of the “Hip Hop Skillz” board game.

Kanye West, Carter G. Woodson, Lauren Hill, Gil Scott Heron, Sister Souljah and Puff Daddy are just some of the many powerful African-American figures whose achievements are emphasized in “Hip Hop Skillz,” an innovative new board game designed to increase people’s awareness of the history and essence of hip hop.

This game of trivia and skill traces the roots of hip-hop culture and music.

The unique history of hip-hop, as Seegars sees it, goes back to the time of the Civil Rights Movement of the late-1960s and early-70s, with powerful activists such as the Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron � the towering black-figure known to have said, “The revolution will not be televised… ”

Wil Seegars first began developing the game when he was a senior at EMU, and he credits the College of Education with encouraging him to seek out a way to teach Standard English by using the tools of hip-hop and poetry.

Seegars graduated from EMU’s College of Education in 2000, before earning a graduate degree at Wayne State. He has been pursuing a successful career in education in the Detroit area ever since.

The design of the “Hip Hop Skillz” game board is very reflective of the hip-hop culture. The pieces travel along spaces located around the outer edge of an illustrated platinum CD.

Seegars accurately portrays some of hip-hop’s greatest influences in the layout and design of the game board. Break-dancing, beat-box, poetry, the underground MC and DJ, graffiti artistry, the uptown setting�all are symbolized through illustration on the game board.

“Very, very thoughtfully developed and skillful,” said Dr. Vernon C. Polite, the dean of EMU’s College of Education, when speaking about the game.

Polite is very pleased with Seegars’ accomplishments and ambitions. He also appreciates that “Hip Hop Skillz” promotes respect for culture, history, rhyming, memory, phonemic awareness and the many other contributions of minority groups to American society and culture.

Polite deems the game educationally sound and a way for people to better appreciate language. He considers it a creative way to teach language arts to people in an urban environment,

One of the aspects Polite particularly favors is the way Seegars was able to articulate the educational values of the game. Seegars’ goals and objectives are right in line with those taught at the college of education, Polite says.

“Knowledge,” “Translations,” “Quotes” and “Challenges” are the four subjects of the game’s trivia questions.

At every turn, players must pick a card from one of these specific categories, signified by the space landed on.

“Hip-hop has always been about increasing knowledge,” said Seegars, referring to the “knowledge” category. These questions are based on historical facts of the ever-evolving culture of hip-hop.

This part of the game tests the players’ true knowledge of hip-hop. The “Knowledge” cards contain big names like Luke Skywalker, Public Enemy, Sister Souljah and Puff Daddy, along with their accomplishments and contributions to hip-hop culture.

The “Translations” questions of the game urge players to take popular hip-hop phrases and translate them to Standard English.

“Po-Po,” “flava,” “411″ and “ace-boon-coon” are some examples of the popular hip-hop phrases that are to be translated.

The “Quotes” cards call for players to be able to finish famous hip-hop quotes and cite where the quotes originated.

“I’m quotin’ everybody,” said Seegars. L.L. Cool J, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane and Rakim were some of the classic hip-hop artists Seegars was sure to include in this section.

With the translation questions, Seegars intends to encourage young people to get to know the music, to harness their listening skills and to pay attention to what they are hearing.

The “Challenge” cards of this game are a test of skill. These cards call for players to rhyme words together.

Each of the “Challenge” cards contain a single word, and upon picking one it is the player’s task to think of another word that rhymes.

In this part of the game, players are to increase their vocabulary through word-play and to achieve a better sense of timing, according to Seegars.

Polite considers this game a good theory put into practice. He recognizes the issues that others have had with games of this sort, focusing on the raw language of hip-hop and the questionable ethics, but is very pleased with how Seegars tackled this.

Seegars accepts the language or content of some of hip-hop’s best lyrics may be offensive to some people, so he included an option in the game to omit the cards with questions that refer to misogyny or harsh language.

Of the 400 trivia cards, only 5 percent of them have mature language, and are easily taken out if the players are not of a suitable age.

Hip Hop Skillz has caught the attention of a major distribution and manufacturing company called Pressman Toys. Seegars is pleased to see a major company like Pressman is interested in his product, but he is more focused on keeping the game authentic and representative.

“I’m not chasin’ any big company,” said Seegars, further illustrating his dedication to the validity of his game.

More information on the game can be found at www.HipHopSkillz.com. On this website there are pictures of Seegars with several famous hip-hop artists.