Hip-Hop and Poetry: Listen to the Words Jordan Dingle
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Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago Cultural Studies Capstone Papers Thesis & Capstone Collection Spring 5-11-2018 Hip-hop and Poetry: Listen to the Words Jordan Dingle Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cultural_studies Part of the American Popular Culture Commons, Cultural History Commons, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Dingle, Jordan, "Hip-hop and Poetry: Listen to the Words" (2018). Cultural Studies Capstone Papers. 30. https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cultural_studies/30 This Capstone Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Thesis & Capstone Collection at Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. 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Cultural Studies Program Departments of English and Creative Writing and Humanities, History, and Social Sciences Columbia College Chicago Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies Thesis Approval Form Student Name: Jordan Dingle Thesis Title: Hip-hop and Poetry: Listen to the Words Name Signature Date Do';jlt.S Ia:lcRwr Pc,~~ Pi,J) ~ 5/ /1 (r ~ Thesis Director ~~ Program Director Cultural Studies Program Departments of English and Creative Writing and Humanities, History, and Social Sciences Columbia College Chicago Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies Thesis Approval Form Student Name: Jordan Dingle Thesis Title: Hip-hop and Poetry: Listen To The Words Name Signature Date Thesis Director Program Director Department Chair Hip-hop and Poetry: Listen To The Words By Jordan Dingle Capstone Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies Cultural Studies Program School of Liberal Arts and Sciences Columbia College Chicago May 11th 2018 Abstract: Hip-hop is a subculture that has become a major part of popular culture and heavily affects contemporary music, clothing, and media. The subculture initially started as a way for the historically oppressed to voice themselves and have a dialogue for social dilemmas that were relevant to them. Maintaining this voice of authenticity will become more difficult the larger and more commercialized Hip-hop becomes, thus it is important to identify mediums that are being used to express authenticity through discussion of social dilemmas in Hip-hop culture. This project identifies poetry as a medium that is used to display authenticity in Hip-hop culture by allowing the marginalized a voice to discuss problems they face within the subculture. Keywords: Hip-hop, Poetry, Economic Inequality, Race, Feminism, Homophobia "This is the first anthology of poems by and for the hip-hop generation. And it's about time." - Kevin Coval The purpose of the essay is to display and discuss how poetry is used as a medium for marginalized voices within hip-hop culture to discuss social dilemmas through a literary analysis of the book BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in The Age of Hip-Hop. Hip-hop has grown substantially as a subculture to the point where it has become a major part of popular culture and is heavily commodified. The commodification of the culture can be observed in the use of hip-hop and rap music to sell products geared towards a white audience. In 1992, for example, Mattel released a commercial for Barbie that featured the doll wearing a leather jacket, gold chain and a hoodie, as well as coming with a battery-operated toy boom-box. The commercial additionally feature young girls rapping about the barbie doll. The commodification of hip-hop in this manner takes some of the surface attributes of hip-hop; rapping and fashion, and packages it for consumption, leaving behind the culture and intent of hip hop. Poetry is an integral and founding part of Hip-hop as a subculture but is often a largely ignored section of Hip-hop by popular culture. I will ask the question: how does contemporary poetry take part in the dialogue of social issues in Hip-hop culture, such as racism, gender discrimination, and socio-economic hardship? First, I define what current Hip-hop culture consists of. Then, I identify what the various social dilemmas surrounding identity and representation are within the Hip-hop subculture. I use literary analysis of poems from the anthology, The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop to gain an understanding of the role that poetry plays in Hip-hop culture and how social dilemmas are addressed using the medium of poetry. This lead me to an understanding of the relationship of contemporary poetry to the culture of Hip-hop and of how poetry is used as a medium to display the subculture. I learned that poetry is used as a tool to discuss issues within Hip-hop without the pressure of commercial success. Poetry has a deep connection with rap music and Hip-hop culture that stems from many rappers practicing poetry and slam poetry in the early days of the culture. It was, and continues to be, a way for people within Hip-hop culture to partake in dialogues regarding social dilemmas such as race, economics, gender issues, and violence. Using literary and historical analysis poetry related Hip-hop culture, this project aims to show how poetry contributes to the dialogue on social dilemmas within Hip-hop culture. The historic and artistic connections between poetry and Hip-hop culture affirm the importance of poetry as a tool for discussion of critical issues in Hip-hop culture. Poetry allows Hip-hop to grow commercially while still keeping an aspect of its' authenticity to the political and social justice roots that helped it become the phenomenon it is today. It is important to view Hip-hop as more than a subculture because of the global impact it has had on society. "Hip-hop is not a homogeneous entity. It should be understood as an umbrella term containing at least four distinct parts: break-dancing, DJ-ing, graffiti art, and rapping. It is important to foreground the multiple components of hip-hop culture since it is often reduced to rapping and rap music, which immediately limits the discussion of it and also excludes potential and actual sites of resistance within hip-hop occurring outside of rap. (Whitney 23) Hip-hop formed in the early 1970s in New York City as an underground subculture and movement focused initially on emceeing over "breakbeats." New York City provided the perfect environment for the development of Hip-hop because of the historically marginalized Black and Latino communities searching for a unique form of expression and protest. The earliest pioneers of the culture were disc jockeys such as DJ "Cool Herc" who began isolating percussion breaks in disco songs and extending them indefinitely using two records and a mixer. Spoken word poetry, either rehearsed or improvised, was performed over these breaks. This developed into another key musical element of Hip-hop, the art of emceeing or rapping, the delivery of spoken word or creative wordplay over a break or beat provided by a DJ. In the year 1982, a pivotal moment in hip-hop history was reached as one of the first songs of the genre reached achieved widespread commercial success and exposed the rest of America to the art form for the first time. The song was The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It was the first popular hip-hop song to provide social commentary and protest the impoverishment and poor living conditions of the Bronx. This a massive departure from the usual party songs that hip hop largely consisted of at the time. The lyrics of the song very bluntly paint a picture of the life and struggle of those living in an oppressed and impoverished environment as well as the affects that has on a person. The song, with its wide spread acclaim signified a critical shift in hip-hop culture that put emcees and lyricism at the forefront of the culture. Emcees had the opportunity to incorporate rhythmic poetry into hip-hop as a way to show lyrical skills and convey messages to the audience. The late 1980s and 1990s brought more exposure of hip-hop and music to mainstream America and a further commercialization of the culture. One of the major culminations of this commercialization and popularization of hip-hop is displayed in the song California Love by Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre. The song reached mass commercial and critical acclaim, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going double Platinum in the United States in 1996. While the sales and reach of the song are impressive for hip-hop at the time, Tupac himself was indicative of a wider acceptance and popularity of gangster rap in mainstream culture. The rapper was able to create songs that appealed to popular music due to its' party appeal as well as make songs that talk about the struggles of an oppressed people. Women began making large strides in Hip-hop in both visibility and commercial success. In 1998, Lauryn Hill released her debut solo single titled Doo Wop (That Thing). Hill is an example of very poetic hip-hop developing and expanding its' topics to be more inclusive. While the misogyny within Hip-hop still remains, Lauryn Hill set a precedent for women in hip-hop to strive for. She is part of trend of female rappers that push the boundaries and open the doors for female representation within Hip-hop. It is highly important to note that the songs mentioned are song a few of many examples of major points of hip-hop music that chart the development and change of political and social discourse in hip-hop culture throughout its' existence.