Artistic Knowledge and Performance Identity Formation in Toronto’s Hip-Hop Communities of Practice by Maria Myrtle D. Millares A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Music University of Toronto © Copyright by Maria Myrtle D. Millares, 2020 ii Artistic Knowledge and Performance Identity Formation in Toronto’s Hip-Hop Communities of Practice Maria Myrtle D. Millares Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Music University of Toronto 2020 Abstract This research project illustrates, through the voices of Toronto hip-hop artists, how the complex, mutually influential interactions between individuals and their communities shape and create knowledge, while encouraging the articulation of difference through unique performance identities. Their learning spaces are not institutional classrooms, but rather public spaces such as community centres, church basements, and concrete city squares, where the line between teacher and student is crossed and blurred. I employ narrative methodology as a means of obtaining the rich accounts necessary to illuminate these community-based learning processes. Hip-hop’s history is passed on orally and aurally as artists cultivate their craft. Artists’ personal stories are essential to the way hip-hop’s history, together with its teaching philosophies, are internalized and passed on in community spaces. Narratives elicited through interviews, conducted as dialogue, have the potential to more respectfully trace these individual-communal relationships. As such, the body of my data consists of the narratives of three Toronto hip-hop artists – B-boy Jazzy Jester, DJ Ariel, and MC LolaBunz – presented and interpreted according to the themes or moments that they have voiced as significant to the development of their skills and of their performance identities. iii The narratives presented here show the dialogic relationship between musical creativity and identity- building, resulting in embodied, performed expressions of an engagement with the tensions of lived experience. Each artist reveals their personal engagement with layers of normative discourses that are constantly at play, accepted, rejected, and creatively manipulated to fashion one’s own performance identity expressed as style. Keywords: hip-hop; Toronto hip-hop; Canadian hip-hop; urban music; popular music; informal learning; narrative methodology; musical culture; performativity; Signifyin(g), performance identity, artist identity; music education iv Acknowledgments When I asked my dad, Osmundo, for a piano at the age of 5, there is no way I could have imagined what music would allow me to learn about my place in the world, nor the connections music would allow me make. My mom, Jenny, was always listening to my progress, no matter what she was busy with. Both of them nurtured my musical development and saw to it that I had my own piano once again soon after we moved to Canada from the Philippines. They attended every performance and every competition, not knowing, perhaps, that they were supporting a core aspect of who I would come to be. While the piano repertoire I learned was of the Western classical tradition, my Uncle George, Auntie Gina, and Auntie Judy, who lived with us, had pop on the radio the whole day. It’s no wonder then, that my brothers, Kent and Vince, picked up the guitar and drums, respectively, leaning more toward more popular genres. I’ll never forget the one time we all played Guns N’ Roses’s “November Rain” in our living room – our only ensemble performance. These musics and the occasional Philippine folk tune continue to feed my curiosity for different sounds and the communities that make them. All this to say that this project would likely never have happened without my family. The scholarly world presented me with opportunities to ask about sounds and communities and I’d like to thank the teachers that helped me on this journey at the University of Toronto. First, to Boyanna Toyich, who passed away last year, for encouraging me to audition for Piano Pedagogy and Performance, which eventually resulted in combination graduate studies in Music Education and Piano Pedagogy. The piano has always been a way for me to “voice” the thoughts I usually keep quiet, and so I treasure Dr. Midori Koga’s guidance toward a more embodied sound at the instrument so that I could be at ease with myself. When music-making eventually gave way to research for this Doctoral project, Dr. Lee Bartel’s pointed reminders about keeping to the trajectory of my inquiry helped me keep my data within the bounds of my questions. Who knows what unmanageable paths I might have tread through pages and pages of interviews. Dr. Jeff Packman provided incisive feedback that clarified my concepts and critiqued what I might have otherwise taken for granted. During the last stretch of this Doctoral journey, I am additionally grateful to Dr. Nasim Niknafs, and Dr. Mary Fogarty Woehrel, who provided the fresh perspectives and commentary crucial to the final sculpting of the work presented v here. At every turn through all these years, my supervisor, Dr. Lori-Anne Dolloff held me to the care and rigour required to sensitively navigate narrative inquiry. Most importantly, she generously listened to my own stories, from the light-hearted to the immensely difficult, in order to see me through to the completion of this milestone. As Dr. Thomas King wrote in The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative, “The truth about stories is that that’s all we are” (2003, p. 2). My heartfelt gratitude goes out to those who generously gave of their selves to this project – Abdominal, Skyboxx, LolaBunz, Benzo, Jazzy Jester, JuLo, Dopey, Andy B Bad, and Ariel – your insights and knowledge are invaluable. I hear your voices in my head when I read your words and I hope what I have re-presented here are true to the sincere reflections you have shared with me. A big shout out to the Streetdance Academy crew: Miss Maehem, Rowdy B, Chuie, Doogie, King Josh. Remember when I did 37 rounds while almost two months pregnant? I knew that if I could do that without dying, I could finish this thesis! Breaking is where my interest in hip-hop started, so I’d also like to acknowledge the Toronto b-girls and b-boys who first showed me, though they were not aware, the various facets of this Toronto community. It was a sound foundation from which I will continue to explore the creativity and complexity of Hip-Hop Culture. And finally, to Matt and Freya, you have both shown me life in very different ways. Matt (“Doogie”), your excitement about breaking began this whole project, and your appreciation for that patch of moss reminds me of the infinitely small beauty of the earth. But what I am most thankful for is your enduring strength and your unwavering commitment to the very do-able ways of making the world better. To our fierce Sparrow, this work is an expression of hope that you will grow through a world increasingly willing to break boundaries and to enact ideas toward the realization of a complex and deep kindness. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1 I wanna be a b-girl ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research problem ............................................................................................................. 2 1.1.1 What is hip-hop? ................................................................................................... 2 1.1.2 Hip-hop and education .......................................................................................... 4 1.2 Exploring performance identity ......................................................................................... 5 1.3 Research questions ............................................................................................................ 5 1.4 Methodology and methods ................................................................................................ 6 1.5 Interview data analysis ...................................................................................................... 6 1.6 Potential impact on music education.................................................................................. 7 1.7 Key terms ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.8 Chapter overview .............................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2 Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 11 2 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 11 2.1 Hip-hop: Art and politics ................................................................................................. 11 2.2 A culture called hip-hop .................................................................................................. 12 2.3 Hip-hop for social change ...............................................................................................