MCs Take the Stage

This chapter shows how MCs became the dominant participants in hip hop. In addition, the chapter argues that it is because of this important shift that The Sugar Hill Gang, a crew from New Jersey that did not have any symbolic capital prior to releasing their song “Rapper’s Delight,” became a household name. This final chapter also brings to a culmination an analysis that has been unfolding throughout the preceding chapters, namely, how hip hop developed cultural and social attributes. By demonstrating how it developed these attributes, it shows another aspect of the endurance of an emerging entity. On how it became cultural, it draws together examples of how it instilled in participants a real or imagined sense of distinction between themselves and the outside world; formed among them a sense of mutual connection and responsibility; and shaped how they expressed themselves (e.g., through gestures, postures, and language). In regard to how it became social, it shows how it shaped the behaviour of participants even in aspects of their lives not directly related to the entity or other participants therein (e.g., decisions regarding how to spend their time, how to lead their lives, or how to serve their community).