Title: Hip Hop Law.Com

Source/Sponsoring Agency: Bridgewater, Pamela D.; cummings, andré douglas pond; Welch, Brian

URL: http://hiphoplaw.blogspot.com/

Date Checked: 10/22/2009      Status: Active

Date Annotated: 9/10/2009

Topics: Land Use Planning

Other keywords: Hip Hop; Law and culture

Contents: Hip Hop Law.Com was launched in spring 2009 by Pamela D. Bridgewater, Professor at American University College of Law, in conjunction with andré douglas pond cummings, Professor at West Virginia University College of Law, and Brian Welch, a third year student at West Virginia University College of Law. The purpose of this blog is to apply critical legal theory to issues that affect the Hip Hop Nation, a rather unique and interesting lens through which to view the law. The blog includes postings of song lyrics, thoughts on current events, critiques of legal writings, and analysis of legal issues faced by those in and around the Hip Hop culture. The scope of the site is broad with no one issue serving as a focus and includes much original content by the listed contributors. The postings are current occurring from one to six times per week and the legal writings appear to be accurate. The pages are organized in the way most blogs are organized with the postings in the middle, most recent on top and the biographies and archives on the left side panel but there is no right hand column; the postings go to the right hand side of the screen. There is a basic search feature that allows searches of words or phrases but advanced searching is not available. The homepage contains about two months' worth of posts with access to archives going back to the week of February 22, 2009 that is easily available on the left hand side of the home page. The site also includes links to biographies for each of the contributors, and with 13 regular contributors and five guest contributors representing many law schools throughout the country, this endeavor appears to have strong support from the law school community. On the home page there is a link to Twitter but clicking through leads to tweets of blog posts on the main site with no original tweets. The blog has a professional appearance and is free of charge to anyone who accesses the site. One area of criticism about the site is that in the beginning, the posts were authored by a mix of the posted contributors but over the past two months, one author has predominated which could perhaps be explained by the typical college/university calendar. With the new academic year, the activity level and mix of contributions could change again. This is a new blog that is working to bring what appears to be a unique perspective to the law and it will be interesting to watch as it develops.

Author of Annotation: C. Brown