Meditations on Mum’s House Philosophy

Mum’s House Philosophy is a concept created by Otis Mensah in his debut EP Mum’s House, Philosopher (2018). It derives from Mensah’s desire to challenge conventional ideas around legitimate knowledge production and assert the accessible, intellectual and communal qualities of hip hop. Below, Mensah discusses Mum’s House Philosophy with Dr Alex Mason and Parise Carmichael-Murphy who co-organized the 2021 Hip Hop & Higher Education Conference , following Mason and Mensah’s collaboration on a hip hop lecture and seminar series, and Artist in Residency at the University of Sheffield. Together they unpack the principles of Mum’s House Philosophy, consider the value and challenge of bringing it into university, and how it enriches their individual and collective approaches to artist–scholar collaborations. Drawing from this discussion, they pose important questions for the reader to reflect on as they seek to incorporate hip hop into higher education.