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'Troublesome' Voices ‘TROUBLESOME’ VOICES Ph.D. Thesis – M. Smith McMaster University – English & Cultural Studies ‘TROUBLESOME’ VOICES: REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK WOMANHOOD IN STREET LITERATURE AND HIP-HOP MUSIC By MARQUITA R. SMITH, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Marquita R. Smith, August 2015 ii Ph.D. Thesis – M. Smith McMaster University – English & Cultural Studies DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2015) McMaster University (English & Cultural Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: ‘Troublesome’ Voices: Representations of Black Womanhood in Street Literature and Hip-Hop Music AUTHOR: Marquita R. Smith, B.A. (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), M.A. (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Mary O’Connor NUMBER OF PAGES: vii, 196 iii Ph.D. Thesis – M. Smith McMaster University – English & Cultural Studies ABSTRACT This dissertation draws upon literary and cultural studies, hip-hop studies, and hip-hop feminism to explore Black women’s critical engagement with the boundaries of Black womanhood in the cultural productions of street literature and hip-hop music. The term “troublesome” motivates my analysis as I argue that the works of writers Teri Woods and Sister Souljah and of rapper Lil’ Kim create narratives that alternately highlight, reproduce, and challenge racist, classist, and sexist discourse on Black womanhood. Such narratives reveal hip-hop to be a site for critical reflection on Black womanhood and offer context-specific examples of the intersectionality of hip-hop generation women’s experiences. This project also incorporates ethnographic methods to document and validate the experiential knowledge of street literature readers. In the growing body of scholarship on street literature (sometimes called hip-hop fiction), there is limited work on the intertextuality of hip-hop music and street literature, and the dialogic nature of their listening and reading publics. This project offers an analysis of the discursive contributions of street literature texts, hip-hop music, and consumers and participants of hip-hop culture by reading the texts and sites of the culture as constitutive of a Black public sphere. By using the framework of hip-hop feminism to analyze street literature and hip-hop music, this dissertation argues that these women’s works demonstrate the possibilities in and through both popular mediums to trouble understandings of what Black feminism for the hip-hop generation is or can become. iv Ph.D. Thesis – M. Smith McMaster University – English & Cultural Studies ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the culmination of much work and even greater support. I must thank my supervisory committee, Mary O’Connor, Sarah Brophy, and Susan Fast, for providing excellent guidance and encouraging my growth as a scholar. Mary, thank you for your steady leadership and thoughtful engagement with my ideas in their earliest stages. Sarah, I am grateful for your keen readings and challenging insights. Susan, thanks for your mentorship and for always reminding me of the possibilities that emerge when we really listen to the music. You are all amazing teachers and I am so lucky to have learned from each of you. To my friends and colleagues from McMaster: thank you for making my grad experience so memorable and for sharing your wisdom with me. In particular, I’d like to thank Vinh Nguyen, Phanuel Antwi, Kasim Husain, Craig Jennex, Nandini Thiyagarajan, and Asha Jeffers for the regular pep talks and good times. I would like to thank my external examiner, Dr. Brittney Cooper, for her thoughtful and encouraging commentary. I am invigorated by your feedback and look forward to developing these ideas even further. I would like to acknowledge the bookstores that are sites of inquiry for this project: Source of Knowledge (Newark, New Jersey) and Black and Nobel (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). “‘Troublesome’ Voices” would not be the project it is without the generous contributions of the owners and patrons of both stores who spoke with me. I thank my family for making all of this possible for me. To my dear sister, Brittany: your kindness and belief in me has encouraged me when I needed it most. To my mom, Gwendolyn: your support of me has been unwavering and I hope to keep making you proud. To my DeFalco family: thank you all for your generosity, love, and for making Ontario home for me. Randle, thank you for being my biggest cheerleader. You made the day-to-day challenges of doing a Ph.D. so much easier to handle. I can’t even count all the ways. Bang bang, always. v Ph.D. Thesis – M. Smith McMaster University – English & Cultural Studies Table of Contents ‘Troublesome’ Voices of Black Womanhood: an Introduction .................................... 1 On Hearing the Troublesome Voice................................................................................ 1 Defining Terms ............................................................................................................... 5 Hip-Hop Feminism.......................................................................................................... 6 On Doing Fieldwork ..................................................................................................... 12 Black Public Spheres .................................................................................................... 17 African American Literary Criticism & Street Literature ............................................ 27 The Troublesome Voice as a Challenge to ‘Exclusionary Violence’ ............................ 33 Chapter Overview ......................................................................................................... 36 Chapter One - Teri Woods and the Street Literature Movement .............................. 40 Recalling Street Literature’s History and Context ....................................................... 46 The Literary Response to Street Literature ................................................................... 50 Teri Woods: An Emergent Voice ................................................................................... 56 True to the Game: A Hip-Hop Romance ....................................................................... 59 Hip-Hop’s Materialism & the American Dream .......................................................... 67 Street Literature Publishing and its Future .................................................................. 73 Chapter Two - Urban Bookstores as Discursive Spaces .............................................. 76 Distinguishing “Knowledge” from “the Street” .......................................................... 83 Black and Nobel: a Man, a Table, a Mission and a Dream.......................................... 86 The Source of Knowledge ............................................................................................. 89 Critical Views on Street Literature ............................................................................... 91 Connecting across Generations .................................................................................. 100 Chapter Three - Sister Souljah Speaks: No Disrespect, The Coldest Winter Ever, and the Criticality of Hip-Hop Feminism ................................................................................. 104 The “Sister Souljah Moment” ..................................................................................... 107 Souljah, the Activist and Rapper ................................................................................. 110 Finding Shelter in The Coldest Winter Ever .............................................................. 113 Souljah and Black Women’s Autobiographical Histories of Resistance .................... 117 Fighting Oppression with Oppression: On the Need for Intersectional Critique ....... 122 Where Race, Gender, and Sexuality Intersect ............................................................. 129 On Hearing One Another ............................................................................................ 136 vi Ph.D. Thesis – M. Smith McMaster University – English & Cultural Studies Chapter Four - There’s Only One Queen B: Reading and Viewing Lil’ Kim as a Challenge to Archetypical Black Womanhood ............................................................................ 143 Viewing Lil’ Kim as an anti-icon ................................................................................ 148 Reading Hard Core ..................................................................................................... 156 Reading Notorious K.I.M. .......................................................................................... 163 There’s Only One ........................................................................................................ 167 Conclusion: Power, Complexity, and Risk within the Troublesome Voice ............. 171 Works Cited ................................................................................................................... 178 Appendix A: Oral Script for Recruitment and Consent ........................................... 189 Appendix B: Letter of Information ............................................................................. 190 Appendix C: Interview Guide ...................................................................................... 193 Appendix D: Email Recruitment Script.....................................................................
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