Queer Rap: Music Genre As an Expression of Identity
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Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bakalářská diplomová práce Pavla Němečková 2016 Pavla Němečková 20 16 Hřbet Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Pavla Němečková Queer Rap: Music Genre as an Expression of Identity Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Pavla Němečková Acknowledgements I would like to thank to my supervisor Mr. Vanderziel for his guidance and kind help. I would also like to thank him for the work he has done as the Head of our Department and for the fact that I had the opportunity to gain knowledge in the field of Queer Studies and African- American history. I would like to thank to Ms. Rebecca Brückmann for being the wonderful teacher she is and sharing her extensive knowledge of the African-American civil rights struggle with me. I would like to thank to Mr. Talel Ben Jemia for challenging my intellectual capacities. I would like to thank to my dear friends, Bajza for the initial idea, and Anna Wim for being an everlasting inspiration and showing me that you should always do what you truly believe in. And finally, I would like to thank to my family for their trust and unconditional support. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: Hypermasculinity and Homophobia in Hip-Hop .............. 8 Hip-Hop as the Black Panther Progeny .................................................... 9 Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice: “We Shall Have Our Manhood” ............... 15 The Black Panther Magazine: Aesthetics of Masculinity .......................... 24 Chapter 3: Identity and Performance ............................................. 32 Chapter 4: Queer Rap as an Expression of Identity ........................ 40 Disidentifications ................................................................................. 42 Analysis of Queer Hip-Hop: Le1f and Mykki Blanco ................................ 43 Chapter 5: Conclusion ..................................................................... 51 Bibliography ..................................................................................... 54 Resumé ............................................................................................ 58 Summary .......................................................................................... 60 Chapter 1: Introduction The music scene of 2012 saw the release of three records crucial for the formation of queer rap as an independent genre of hip-hop music. It was Mykki Blanco’s album Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss (2012, UNO), Le1f’s album Dark York (2012, Greedhead Entertainment, Camp & Street) and Zebra Katz’ single Ima Read (2012, Mad Decent, Jeffree's). These three outstanding records had several important things in common. They were all debut albums introducing a new kind of hip- hop artist on the mainstream scene; a young black male1 bringing in an innovative music production, presenting fearless and strong lyrics, and, most notably to the general public, being openly queer. The music critics were left with an uneasy task. The work of these artists is attractive, provoking, and progressive. However, addressing the artistic value of their music is inseparable from discussing their queer identities which obviously reflect in their musical output and aesthetics. The critics have to fully embrace the intersectional nature of the social position of these artists and view their work in a wider socio-political context. The aim of this thesis is to place the phenomenon of queer rap within the wider context of the African-American social, political and cultural history to fully understand the impact of the 2010s coming generation of African-American queer hip-hop artists on the African-American and general public. Chapter 2 focuses on the origins of homophobia and hypermasculinity in hip- hop culture. By creating a link to the preceding African-American civil rights groups in terms of both, the framework and the ideology, this section describes the Black Panther Party and its Black Nationalist politics as a direct source of inspiration to the early hip- 1 This would be a general perception of the abovementioned artists by the wider music audience. In fact, some of these artists identify as gender fluid. There is also a significant number of female queer hip- hop artists, such as Angel Haze, important for the development of this music genre. However, these artists are not the subject of this paper due to its specific focus on the relation between masculinity and homophobia within the African-American culture. 6 hop artists. Together with the adoption of the Black Panther embodied social politics of performative masculinity, the hip-hop culture also embraces the rhetoric of masculine hegemony and homophobia inherent in this ideological approach. This chapter provides examples of these attitudes through the analysis of Eldridge Cleaver’s writing and the aesthetics of the Black Panther magazine. Chapter 3 focuses more closely on the homophobia and hypermasculinity as expressed in the hip-hop culture. This chapter introduces the aspect of performance which is particularly significant to the African-American community and connects it to the process of creation and expression of the African-American identity. The aim of this chapter is to explain the issue of fragmentation of the African-American identity which can be seen as a result of the long history of racial oppression affecting the social position of African Americans as well as their understanding of their own identity with the particular focus on the aspect of gender and sexuality. Finally, Chapter 4 discusses the emergence of the contemporary queer hip-hop artists and their significance to the general discourse concerning the topics of race, sex, gender and the interplay of these factors. This chapter aims to show the strategies used by these artists to overcome the homophobia and misogyny within the hip-hop culture as well as the general public particularly focusing on the aspect of disidentification. The final analysis traces these strategies in the selected works of two African-American queer hip-hop artists – Le1f and Mykki Blanco. 7 Chapter 2: Hypermasculinity and Homophobia in Hip-Hop Queer hip-hop which is conscious of its queerness and the cultural and political issues this topic carries can be seen as forming a continuum with the ideas of the hip- hop pioneers in the late 1970’s. The early hip-hop artists such as KRS-One, Public Enemy and Grandmaster Flash employed the medium of music as a means of social critique and an expression of their views on the American society. Throughout the subsequent development of the genre of hip-hop, the theme of social criticism remained an inherent part of its rhetoric, however, more often than not it began to lose its acuteness and topicality (Cheney 279). Especially since the 1980’s when hip-hop started to be commercially successful and the subgenre of gangsta rap widely popular, the original idea of social criticism within hip-hop became more of an autotelic tool of hip- hop lyric writers. The contemporary generation of queer hip-hop artists who use the medium of music as a platform for social commentary in a way revive the 1970’s tradition of socially and politically conscious hip-hop (SPC hip-hop) which can be in turn seen as an extension of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (Alridge 226). The 1960s and 1970s African-American civil rights ideologies and organizations, particularly the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party, served as a direct source of political attitudes and opinions for the early SPC hip- hoppers. The SPC hip-hop mainly commented on the still persisting racism, deteriorating economic conditions within the African-American community and the grim realities of the urban environment. SPC hip-hop artists were preaching the principles of self-determination and racial pride. The issue of racism and color prejudice still remained the main and the most crucial focal point of their criticism. The present- day queer hip-hop artists extend and partly reverse these efforts of the early hip-hop 8 generation. The thing is that apart from discussing the discriminatory attitude existing outside the African-American society primarily based on more or less institutionalized racism, the contemporary queer hip-hop artists also level their criticism at their own community. By being queer hip-hoppers and articulating their African-American queer experience through their work, these artists address one of the most pressing issues within the hip-hop culture and African-American community in general – homophobia. Homophobia in hip-hop culture is, along with elements of explicit sexism and misogyny, an often mentioned but rather little discussed problem. One of the reasons for the reluctance to deal with this topic might be the fact that homophobic attitudes within the African-American community have complex and tangled roots intertwining through the ideological, political and social levels of African-American experience affected by the institution of slavery. The following section aims to trace and explain the origins of homophobia within the African-American hip-hop culture and thus emphasize the importance of the new