Contesting Meanings in the Postmodern Age

Matatu ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tosin Gbogi
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Hip Hop Music

Recent years have seen an explosion in the production and consumption of hip hop music in Nigeria. From the MTV Africa Music Awards to the BET Awards, Nigerian hip hop heads have continued to push the boundaries of their music on the international front, linking it, in the process, to a sort of global Hip Wide Web. Yet, despite these breakthroughs, the general perception of the discursive landscape of this music is not altogether positive in Nigeria itself. In particular, the message(s) of the music’s lyrics has been severally described as a venture that has no meaning beyond its noisy character. This is especially the case when the music is being evaluated by older generations of Nigerian critics who do not share in, and are almost averse to, the hip hop culture that has newly ascended as the dominant youth culture. Problematizing these evaluations under five paradigms—crossing, multilingualism, and styling, repetition, inversion of order, meaninglessness, and pornography—this essay contends that what appears as meaninglessness in Nigerian hip hop music inscribes a masked matrix of meanings in the postmodern age. It argues that the elements of the lyrical gamut that are often perceived as meaningless are in fact meaningful and valuable resources that the artists, and by extension their audience members, harness to perform their generational ingroupness and multiplex postmodern identities.

IMAGINING A BETTER WORLD:

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 353-385
Author(s):  
Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey ◽  
Ray Block ◽  
Harwood K. McClerking
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
Black Youth ◽  
Black Music ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Negative Messages ◽  
Mass Level

AbstractDespite a recent increase in research on its sociopolitical implications, many questions regarding rap music’s influence on mass-level participation remain unanswered. We consider the possibility that “imagining a better world” (measured here as the degree to which young African Americans are critical of the music’s negative messages) can correlate with a desire to “build a better world” (operationalized as an individual’s level of political participation). Evidence from the Black Youth Project (BYP)’s Youth Culture Survey (Cohen 2005) demonstrates that rap critique exerts a conditional impact on non-voting forms of activism. Rap critique enhances heavy consumers’ civic engagement, but this relationship does not occur among Blacks who consume the music infrequently. By demonstrating rap’s politicizing power and contradicting certain criticisms of Hip Hop culture, our research celebrates the possibilities of Black youth and Black music.

scholarly journals "The Cashtro Hop Project" Hip Hop music and an exploration of the construction of artistic self-identity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Joseph Cachia
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Cultural Artifact ◽  
Musical Production ◽  
Hip Hop Music ◽  
Artistic Self ◽  
Specific Concern

While Hip Hop culture has regularly been legitimized within academia as a social phenomenon worthy of scholarly attention (witness the growing number of studies and disciplines now taking Hip Hop as object for analysis), this is the first Hip Hop-themed project being completed within the academy. Indeed, academic and critical considerations of one's own Hip Hop-based musical production is a novel venture; this project, as a fusion of theory with practice, has thus been undertaken so as to occupy that gap. The paper's specific concern is with how (independent) Hip Hop recording artists work to construct their own selves and identity (as formed primarily through lyrical content); the aim here is to explore Hip Hop music and the construction of artistic self· presentation. I therefore went about the task of creating my own album - my own Hip Hop themed musical product - in order to place myself in the unique position to examine it critically as cultural artifact, as well as to write commentary and (self-)analyses concerning various aspects of (my) identity formation. The ensuing outlined tripartite theoretical framework is to serve as a model through which other rappers/academics may think about, discuss, and analyze their own musical output, their own identities, their own selves.

Affective Gestures

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles White
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
The Body ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Hip Hop Music

This chapter looks at the ways in which the body, aesthetic features of hip-hop music, and the material culture that surrounds it are deployed to construct affect and help delineate between what is meant by hard and hardcore, both as music and as masculine performance. In hip-hop culture, uniqueness and the expression of individual identity are prioritized through behavior, modes of dress, language, and other ways. Those who adopt these styles of behavior in mannerism, dress, speech, or attitude become part of a community of practice that is able to persist because the expressive codes associated with the culture have the power to invoke it through any number of performative texts. The chapter also traces the historical evolution of hip-hop culture from a largely benign music to something more malevolent.

scholarly journals "The Cashtro Hop Project" Hip Hop music and an exploration of the construction of artistic self-identity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Joseph Cachia
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Cultural Artifact ◽  
Musical Production ◽  
Hip Hop Music ◽  
Artistic Self ◽  
Specific Concern

While Hip Hop culture has regularly been legitimized within academia as a social phenomenon worthy of scholarly attention (witness the growing number of studies and disciplines now taking Hip Hop as object for analysis), this is the first Hip Hop-themed project being completed within the academy. Indeed, academic and critical considerations of one's own Hip Hop-based musical production is a novel venture; this project, as a fusion of theory with practice, has thus been undertaken so as to occupy that gap. The paper's specific concern is with how (independent) Hip Hop recording artists work to construct their own selves and identity (as formed primarily through lyrical content); the aim here is to explore Hip Hop music and the construction of artistic self· presentation. I therefore went about the task of creating my own album - my own Hip Hop themed musical product - in order to place myself in the unique position to examine it critically as cultural artifact, as well as to write commentary and (self-)analyses concerning various aspects of (my) identity formation. The ensuing outlined tripartite theoretical framework is to serve as a model through which other rappers/academics may think about, discuss, and analyze their own musical output, their own identities, their own selves.

“Be Current, or You Become the Old Man”: Crossing the Generational Divide in Hip-Hop Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 004208592091435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason D. Rawls ◽  
Emery Petchauer
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
Classroom Community ◽  
Personal Identification ◽  
Building Relationships ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Large Segment ◽  
Hip Hop Education ◽  
Generational Divide

Hip-hop culture has been an influential force on a large segment of this generation’s teachers and a tool for building relationships with students. The contemporary hip-hop of today’s generation differs from that of many hip-hop educators/pedagogues. This case study explored how one hip-hop generation teacher attempted to cross this generational divide rather than discount youth culture in the classroom. The findings of this study focus on how the teacher’s personal identification with hip-hop culture informed his relationships with students and how he drew from key narratives and ideas in hip-hop to communicate his views of his classroom community.

Investigating Cultural Collision: Educators’ Perceptions of Hip-Hop Culture

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Floyd D. Beachum
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Energy Drinks ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Television Programming ◽  
Hip Hop Music ◽  
The Media

AbstractHip-hop music has been embraced worldwide by youth, pummeled in the media for supposedly increasing social misery and hailed as a significant musical breakthrough. Hip-hop culture has transcended musical boundaries and now impacts speech, clothing, mannerisms, movies, websites, television programming, magazines, and energy drinks (

Hip-Hop and Haring: Pop Culture and Interdisciplinary Learning for the General Music Classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-13
Author(s):  
Martina Vasil
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
General Music ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Interdisciplinary Learning ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Hip Hop Music ◽  
Interdisciplinary Projects

Teachers are searching for accessible, relevant, and engaging lessons for students as elementary classrooms grow more diverse and high-stakes testing constrict curricula and recess time. General music teachers may consider implementing lessons that blend popular culture with collaborative, interdisciplinary projects. Artist Keith Haring was inspired by 1980s hip-hop music and drew break dancing figures in much of his artwork. Both Haring’s artwork and hip-hop culture have broad appeal and are accessible to students. The purpose of this article is to share an exploratory series of lessons that used hip-hop music and dance in conjunction with the artwork of Haring. The author provides a brief background on 1980s hip-hop music and break dancing and the artwork of Haring, then delves into the details of the collaborative art and music project completed with grades K–5. Tips for bringing popular culture into the general music classroom are offered.

Queer Hip Hop

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanté Paradigm Smalls
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Hip Hop Music ◽  
Bisexual And Transgender ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores the relatively long history of the queer presence inside of hip hop cultural production. Starting in the late 1970s and ending in the current moment, this historiography argues that queer and/or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) artists in hip hop music have chartered and navigated perilous landscapes—in the music industry, in hip hop culture, and in the broader US pop terrain. The discussion details the notable queer artists, some known and some forgotten, who have made possible the seeming ease with which queer and queer-friendly artists emerging in the 2000s and afterward have captured audiences in multiple mainstream areas.

Promiscuous πόρναι, Bad Bitches, and Misogynistic Masculinities: A Queer, Imperial-Critical Analysis of Revelation and Rap

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-149
Author(s):  
O’neil Van Horn
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
First Order ◽  
Resistance Literature ◽  
Hip Hop Music ◽  
Drag Kings ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract If the Book of Revelation is anti-imperial resistance literature of the first order, hip-hop music is its contemporary equivalent – with Kendrick Lamar as one of its most politically sensitized “prophets.” I will explore the intersections, commonalities, and divergences between Revelation 17-18 and rapper Kendrick’s “For Sale? (Interlude),” especially regarding notions of empire, gender, and sexuality. I will draw connections between the characters of “For Sale” – Kendrick and Lucy – and those of Revelation 17-18 – John of Patmos and Babylon. This analysis will reveal the relationship between anti-imperial rhetoric and the troubling “effemination” of empire. I contend that Babylon and Lucy are both figures “in drag,” dis/closing the prevailing imperial and misogynistic forces of their respective cultures. This queer interpretation, playing off Catherine Keller’s and Stephen D. Moore’s reading of the text and J. Jack Halberstam’s study of drag kings, seeks to unveil the hypermasculine performances in both Revelation and contemporary hip-hop culture.

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