MEEKER, JAMES KENNETH, Ph.D., May 2019 SOCIOLOGY
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MEEKER, JAMES KENNETH, Ph.D., May 2019 SOCIOLOGY THE SPECIES OF CAPITAL AND THE CULTURAL PRODUCTION OF HIP-HOP (258 pp.) Dissertation Advisor: Timothy Berard, Ph.D. Over the last forty years, hip-hop has evolved as a cultural form describing the impact of racial marginalization experienced by African Americans. Contemporary research has focused primarily on the consumption and symbolic meaning of hip-hop rather than how hip-hop is culturally produced. This study examined the relationships between cultural, social, economic, and subcultural capital to the cultural production of hip-hop. Data was gathered using semi- structured interviews with thirty hip-hop cultural producers. Results identified two groups of hip- hop cultural producers: (a) those whose capital transferred into a hip-hop cultural production career, and (b) those whose capital had not transferred into a hip-hop career. Several qualitative themes emerged describing the roles of social, cultural, economic, and subcultural capital as it relates to hip-hop cultural production. In conclusion, participants with greater capital resources through early involvement in cultural production were more likely to have their capital transfer into a career in hip-hop cultural production. These findings suggest that, despite being positioned as an artistic form that ‘speaks’ for all African Americans, hip-hop cultural production is characterized by structural inequality that excludes the least capitalized individuals. THE SPECIES OF CAPITAL AND THE CULTURAL PRODUCTION OF HIP-HOP A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by James Kenneth Meeker Jr. May 2019 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Dissertation written by James Kenneth Meeker Jr. B.A., Cleveland State University, 2012 M.A., Cleveland State University, 2013 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2019 Approved by _________________________________, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Timothy Berard, Ph.D. _________________________________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Christopher Dum, Ph.D. _________________________________, Kamesha Spates, Ph.D. _________________________________, Babacar M’Baye, Ph.D. _________________________________, David Swartz, Ph.D. _________________________________, Paul Haridakis, Ph.D. Accepted by _________________________________, Chair, Department of Sociology Richard Serpe, Ph.D. _________________________________, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences James Blank, Ph.D. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………….. iv LIST OF TABLES……………..………………………………………………………...... v DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………….. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….. vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION……………..………………………………………………………… 1 Research Aims……………..………………………………………………………. 6 Benefits and Broader Impact……………..………………………………………... 8 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE……………..……………………………………… 10 Hip-Hop……………..……………………………………………………………... 11 Cultural Production Careers……………..………………………………………… 20 Cultural Production and the Species of Capital……………..……………………... 33 Subcultural Capital……………..………………………………………………….. 45 III. METHODOLOGY……………..……………………………………………………… 53 Sampling Strategy……………..…………………………………………………… 56 Data Collection……………..……………………………………………………… 59 Data Analysis……………..……………………………………………………….. 64 Ethical Issues……………..……………………………………………………….. 69 iv IV. RESULTS AND FINDINGS……………..…………………………………………… 74 Description of the Participants……………..……………………………………… 75 Participant Music Involvement……………..……………………………………… 78 Hip-Hop Career Transfer and Non-Transfer Participants……………..…………... 81 Report of the Qualitative Themes……………..…………………………………… 84 Getting In……………..……………………………………………………………. 88 Social Capital……………..……………………………………………………….. 104 Cultural Capital……………..……………………………………………………… 122 Economic Capital……………..…………………………………………………… 148 Subcultural Capital……………..………………………………………………….. 166 V. DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS……………..…….. 185 Discussion……………..…………………………………………………………… 186 Contributions……………..………………………………………………………… 215 Limitations……………..…………………………………………………………... 224 Recommendations for Future Research……………..……………………………... 225 APPENDICES List of Participants……………..…………………………………………………... 227 Interview Guide……………..……………………………………………………… 228 REFERENCES……………..………………………………………………………………. 237 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Participant Descriptive Data ……………………………………………… 77 2. Participant Music Involvement …………………………………………… 80 3. Transfer Group Participants Compared to Non-Transfer Group Participants 83 4. Definitions and Examples of Themes 85-87 vi DEDICATION This project is dedicated to my wife, Diane, whose kindness, love and support nurtured and sustained me throughout this challenging period. I thank and dedicate this work to my children, Gavin and Talia, for their years of patience and understanding during this educational journey. I would also like to dedicate this project to Dr. Linda Francis for her years of guidance, compassion, and care that she has shown me. Finally, I dedicate this project to the memory of Dr. James A. King (1940-2013) who, at the University of Toledo, mentored my early interest in sociology as both friend and teacher. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the many persons that helped guide and shape this research. First, I thank Dr. Timothy Berard for his vigilant and tireless assistance in this project from its infancy until its completion. I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Christopher Dum, Dr. Kamesha Spates, Dr. Babacar M’Baye, and Dr. David Swartz for their invaluable, impactful contributions to this work. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Paul Haridakis for his insightful review and professional moderation during the finalization of this dissertation. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Richard Serpe for his many years of advice, counsel, and advocacy—without which it is doubtful whether this project would have been possible. viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This study examines the relationship between Bourdieu’s theories of capital and the cultural production of hip-hop music. Hip-hop, a uniquely African American form of artistic expression, is of interest to social scientists as it reveals a complex set of norms, practices, beliefs, and techniques of cultural resistance employed by a racially oppressed subculture (Bennett 2008). While scholarly examination of cultural fields such as hip-hop is relatively new, these studies are critical for understanding how meaning is constructed and reproduced within contemporary society (Prior 2011; Becker 1996). Furthermore, scientific investigation of cultural arts such as hip-hop allows for examination of “the boundary between art and everyday life” (Featherstone 2007:64) that underlies the study of interrelationships among symbolic consumption, exchange, production, and social behavior in postmodern society. Consequently, hip-hop scholarship has grown rapidly in the last decade with landmark studies being conducted in a number of disciplines including sociology, critical race theory, education, psychology, anthropology, literary analysis, history, and even religious studies (Miller, White Hodge, Coleman, and Chaney 2014). Hip-hop is compelling because it provides a unique empirical window into the norms, practices, and beliefs of a racially marginalized population (Collins 2006). First, hip-hop culture provides an artistic account of African American experiences and culture (Harrison 2018; Persaud 2006). Coleman (1961) argues that the study of artistic forms such as hip-hop provides information on the development of non-mainstream cultures. This is particularly true of the 1 African American subculture as it formed independently from, yet subordinated to the dominant, white society, due to segregation and racial discrimination. Secondly, for nearly forty years hip-hop has influenced and been influenced by African American culture (Clay 2003). The symbolic content of hip-hop often addresses social inequities, consistent with Middleton’s (1990) observation that subcultural forms often communicate a “structural resonance” (9) revealing broader social inequalities such as racial discrimination, political and economic oppression. Subcultural forms can also provide a vehicle for subordinated groups to artistically address these perceived injustices. Third, hip-hop, along with sports and other forms of entertainment, has been described as an escape from the historically poor occupational choices available for African Americans (Harrison 2008). It is possible, however, that only the most fortunate hip-hop cultural producers realize enough professional success to dramatically alter their socioeconomic status. Hip-hop is actually created by a wide range of individuals with varying motives, degrees of involvement, and expectations of success. Hip-hop is an inclusive subcultural practice allowing researchers to potentially cover a wide variety of participants across the socioeconomic sphere (Kitwana 2002; Arbona and Novy 1991). Fourth, hip-hop is considered as a type of cultural resistance to socio-historical forces that have negatively impacted the African American community—thus providing artistic voice to an otherwise marginalized group of people (Krims 2000). Cultural resistance offered by hip-hop empowers disenfranchised subgroups within the African American community such as black women, providing an ability to “talk back” (Pough 2015:80) to oppressive racial