Vassar College Digital Window @ Vassar Senior Capstone Projects 2016 “Come through with the ‘Ye mask on / spray everything like SAMO:” Jay Z, Kanye West, and fine ra t as luxury in contemporary hip hop Lily Shell Vassar College,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalwindow.vassar.edu/senior_capstone Recommended Citation Shell, Lily, "“Come through with the ‘Ye mask on / spray everything like SAMO:” Jay Z, Kanye West, and fine ra t as luxury in contemporary hip hop" (2016). Senior Capstone Projects. Paper 551. This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Window @ Vassar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of Digital Window @ Vassar. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Lily Shell “Come Through with the ‘Ye Mask On / Spray Everything Like SAMO:” Jay Z, Kanye West, and Fine Art as Luxury in Contemporary Hip Hop April 8, 2016 American Studies 302/303: Senior Project First Reader: Leonard Nevarez Second Reader: Lisa Collins CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Jay Z, Kanye West, and Conceptions of Luxury 1 Contextualizing Art, Hip Hop, and Celebrity 4 A Note on Positionality 6 CHAPTER 2. BINARIES AND BOUNDARIES IN HIP HOP AND SOCIETY 10 Hip Hop Criticism and The Mid-2000s in Crisis 10 Hip Hop’s Obama Era 14 The Shift from Bling Rap to Luxury Rap 17 Bourdieu, Berger, and Cultural Capital 22 Cultural Capital and Hip Hop 25 CHAPTER 3. JAY Z 28 Jay and Jean-Michel 28 Jay and Fine Art: A Timeline 31 Picasso Baby Lyrics 34 “Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film” 36 CHAPTER 4.