Reppin’ and Rice: How Asian American and Pacific Islander American Hip-Hop Fans Negotiate Their Racial Identities in the US Hip-Hop Community

A thesis submitted to the

Graduate School

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

in the Department of Sociology

of the College of Arts and Sciences

by

Keri Eason

B.A. Northern Kentucky University

M.A. Northern Kentucky University

July 2020

Committee Chair: Earl Wright II, Ph.D.

Abstract

Hip Hop is a global phenomenon. The boundaries of authenticity have shifted and continue to shift allowing more fans from different social backgrounds to join the U.S. multi- racial hip hop fan community. Asian American and Pacific Islander American communities are two of the groups who have become fans and have been conditionally accepted into the US hip hop community. They present an image that is in opposition to the stereotypes of what other hip hop fans learned and believe about AAPI communities. AAPI fans' race and gender acted as barriers to being seen as authentic hip hop fans. This study explores they ways that AAPI negotiated their racial identities in a community that is historically, socially, and politically tied to Black and Puerto Rican communities in the South Bronx during the 1970s.

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Acknowledgements

I am forever grateful to my thesis advisor, Dr. Earl Wright II, for his constant encouragement, mentorship, and guidance. I would also like to thank my other thesis committee member Dr. Annulla Linders who gave constant support and feedback throughout the project. I cannot express how grateful I am to my participants and fellow AAPI hip hop fans. It was truly an honor collaborating and working with you. I cannot express how thankful I am that you committed your time and energy into the project. On a personal note, I would like to my mother and brother, Anne Eason and Joshua Eason, for the never-ending support in completing this thesis as well as throughout my academic career.

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Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………8

Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………..12

Asian American Hip Hop Artists’ Racial Identity Negotiation…………………....12

Asian American Hip Hop Fan Identity Negotiation……………………………….18

Authenticity………………………………………………………………………..22

Hip Hop Authenticity……………………………………………………………...24

Methodology……………………………………………………………………………….30

Findings…………………………………………………………………………………….32

External Responses to Love for Hip Hop………………………………………….33

Connection to Hip Hop……………………………………………………………38

Hip Hop Styles………………………………………………………………………43

Knowledge About Hip Hop………………………………………………………...44

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….46

References………………………………………………………………………………….51

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Participant Demographics Table

Characteristic Participant Response (n=22)

Age 18-21 22-25 7 26-29 2 30-39 10 40+ 3

Gender Expression Man 10 Nonbinary 1 Woman 11

Sexual Orientation Heterosexual 20 Lesbian 1 Queer 1

Ethnicity Chinese 3 Filipina/Filipino 3 Korean 9 Indian 1 Taiwanese 2 Marshallese 1 Multi-racial 3

Geographical Region Midwest 11 Northeast 4 Southeast 3 West 4

Highest Level of Education Completed Some College 5 Associate’s Degree 1 Bachelor’s Degree 14 Master’s Degree 1 Juris Doctorate 1

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Employment Status Full-time 13 Part-time 3 Self-employed 2 Unemployed 1 Full-time Student 3

Current Income Level (Annual) $0k-$10k 2 $11k-$20k 2 $21k-$30k 2 $31k-$40k 2 $41k-$50k 2 $51-$60k 3 $61k-$70k 1 $71k-$80k 1 $81k-$90k $91k-$100k Over $100k 3 Did not answer 4

Approximate Family Income During Childhood $0k-$10k $11k-$20k $21k-$30k 3 $31k-$40k 1 $41k-$50k 2 $51-$60k 2 $61k-$70k 1 $71k-$80k 2 $81k-$90k $91k-$100k Over $100k 5 Did not answer 6

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Introduction

“Oh, this is my jam!” Nelly’s summer hit Grillz was blaring out of the enormous speakers the housing staff set up outside the giant cafeteria, Norse Commons. It had been a long day of icebreakers and games. We, the 2006 high school graduating class, would have been exhausted if it were not for the anxiety of meeting new people. College was an entirely different ballgame. Making friends in high school seemed so easy. We grew up together and we all were in the same classes. Suddenly, my life was different. I was away from home, my mom and brother, and the comfort and familiarity of high school friends. Facing new academic challenges was one test in my new life, but the idea of developing new friendships and a different support system somehow seemed even greater. It was a time to discover my place in an even bigger pond. I turned to the one thing in my life that had always connected me to people in the past: my love for music.

I saw a group of first-year students sitting together on a bench. The group was made up of both Black and white people. This was exciting to me as I had been looking forward to the diversity of college. My high school had been predominantly white and I was one of few students of color. In fact, there were only two Black male students in my graduating high school class.

I was nervous to approach the group. There were several men in the group who were much different than the boys I had befriended in high school. My high school guy friends were members of the drama club and into the independent (indie) music scene. At first glance the men seemed to have more mainstream aesthetics and tastes. I did not really hang out with cis- gendered heterosexual boys during high school, especially after coming out as a lesbian during my sophomore year. I was not a man-hating baby lesbian, but I felt more comfortable being

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around childhood female friends. I was comforted, however, to see a couple of white women sitting on the concrete next to the men. It seemed as if they all knew each other from the jokes going back and forth. I gathered my courage to go and interact with the group. As I approached them I heard Nelly’s song Grillz still was playing loudly in the background.

I said, “This makes me miss the Country Grammar days.”

A white male student with brown hair, who was wearing a yellow NKU t-shirt with black basketball shorts, looked up at me. The outfit was nothing to write home about, but I noticed that he was wearing a new pair of the black and red Jordan 4 shoes.

“What do you know about Nelly?” he asked. Two of his friends (one Black and one white male student) started laughing.

“What do you mean? I begged my mom for Air Force 1s,” I said.

“An Asian in Air Force 1s!” The Black student chimed in. The way he said the comment made it sound like it was absurd that I would want Air Forces 1s from their favorite rapper.

The second blonde white guy said, “You don’t know about rap.”

At the time I could not tell why they were not accepting me. Was it because I was Asian? female? or both? It did not matter. I had to think fast. I had to show them that I knew about hip hop artists, music, and culture to prove that I was a legitimate fan. The truth was that I did know many things about rap. Not only did I know the names and albums of different rappers, I could also list some of the major producers in the rap game. I could even list the artists’ other musical collaborations, where they were raised, and their less popular songs that were not on the radio.

I responded, “Alright, alright. I like Lupe, Jay-Z, T.I., Clipse, and ….”

Before I could name more rappers, however, the white guy in the Js burst out laughing.

His friends, including the white women, immediately joined in the laughter. The white hip hop

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“keeper of knowledge” in the Js said, “Hahaha! Oh, okay… I bet you like them. Everyone likes them.” I did not have the opportunity to talk about other collaborations or wanting to visit the areas where the rappers grew up. Instead, I was completely shut down. As a 17-year-old I felt humiliated. I was upset with myself because I could not think of any comebacks on the spot. My effort to make a group of friends at Orientation had failed for reasons I did not fully understand. I knew that I had been rejected in the rap discussion. Looking back, I should have remained in that space and faced their comments for my own pride. But I walked away feeling dismissed.

Although that experience as a 17-year-old first-year student seemed soul crushing to me at the time, it did not deter me from listening to rap/hip hop. As I got older I enjoyed listening to and learning about different subgenres of rap. Depending on my mood I listened to a variety of subgenres. I had dabbled in Gangster, Trap Music, and even some Chopped and Screwed rap.

It was not until I found Talib Kweli and Mos Def’s group Blackstar that I fell in love. After Talib and Mos (who later changed his name to Yasiin Bey) I found Common and then went back in time to listen to Tupac, Biggie, and Nas’ first albums.

Originally, I liked how these emcees’ flowed and put their words together. They also had unique voices that were pleasant to the ear. I started listening to more of their work and over time began to appreciate and pay more attention to the production of the songs as well as the music. I was always interested in music production even during my basketball playing days in high school. I was envious of the people who had the ear to create beats and music, but I did not pay close enough attention to recognize the specific beats for which producers were known. This led me to Dr. Dre, Swizz Beats, Pharrell Williams, and later Kanye West. What I admired most was that these artists could not only rap and sing, but that they produced their own beats and music as well.

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Though I appreciated all of hip hop culture, enjoying their production and lyrics, I knew that my identity was far different from some of the artists to whom I listened. I grew up in a middle class white suburb in Northern Kentucky as a gay Asian female. My experiences were far different from Black and Brown urban communities in Compton (CA), New York City (NY),

Virginia, or Chicago (IL). As a young adult I could not help feeling like something was not adding up. I related to emcees’ social commentaries on being different, economic hardship, and racism. I was also very aware that I did not and would not completely know what it meant to be a

Black or Brown person in the United States.

Similar to my experience as a first-year student attending college orientation, I continued to be questioned about my fit into the hip hop community by people of different races, ethnicities, gender, political, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Even as a young adult, when I continued to dedicate more and more time researching and listening to hip hop, I could not escape the comments and questions about my identity as a gay Asian woman and love for this musical art. Thankfully, I can say that not all experiences have been as humiliating as the orientation to my first year of college. Nevertheless, I still am met with puzzled and surprised looks when I say that I am a proud hip hop fan. I still cannot shake the feeling that some of the looks and questioning comments have stemmed from my racial identity and gender rather than my passion for the artform and culture. Some hip hop fans, who have been predominantly cis- gendered heterosexual males from all racial backgrounds, cannot seem to look beyond my physical appearance to understand that I love the music and culture just as strongly as they do.

The US hip hop fan community maintains stereotypical representations of Asian

American and Pacific Islander American communities that were created from the Yellow Peril and Model Minority discourses (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017). I, along with other Asian

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American and Pacific Islander American hip hop and rap fans, present an image that is in opposition to the stereotypes of what hip hop fans learned and believe about AAPI communities

(McTaggart and O’Brien 2017). From these experiences I feel internal and external pressure to prove that I belong in the US hip hop fan community. This is why I overcompensate by stressing and emphasizing my knowledge and passion for the music and culture (Harkness 2011). My high school and college experiences have inspired me to seek answers to a personal and pressing research on this question: How do Asian American and Pacific Islander American hip hop fans negotiate their racial identities in the hip hop community when it is an artform and culture that has been historically and socially tied to Black and Brown communities.

This study highlights the voices of Asian American and Pacific Islander American hip hop fans across the United States in observing the role of hip hop in their identity development.

It is my expectation that this study will lead to more nuanced and detailed analyses of identity development of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) American hip hop fans.

The plan for this study is as follows. In the next section I provide a thorough examination of the relevant literatures that includes past research on AAPI hip hop artists and fans racial identity negotiation; authenticity; and authenticity in hip hop. Next, the findings from my study are described, analyzed, and discussed. In the conclusion I highlight specific findings and theorize how they advance our understanding of AAPI racial/ethnic identity negotiation, authenticity, and hip hop studies.

Literature Review

Asian American Hip Hop Artists’ Racial Identity Negotiation

The majority of the literature on Asian Americans and hip hop focuses specifically on how Asian

American rap artists negotiated their racial identities in the rap industry. Previous research has

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focused on the challenges Asian American emcees face when, because of their race, they are not seen as authentic or that they belong in the hip-hop industry and community. Oliver Wang

(2007) states, “It comes down to the issue of marketability and, intimately related to that, how racially inauthentic Asian Americans are in a social world of fans, artists, media and industry, where Blackness is normative.” They continue, “In a genre that privileges ‘realness’ and where

‘fakeness’ can discredit an artist beyond redemption, their [Asian American emcees’] racial difference creates a crisis of racial inauthenticity that supersedes other factors” (36). Wang’s

(2007) comments illustrate the racial barriers faced by AAPI hip hop artists. For example, in the early 2000s AAPI hip hop group Far East Movement discussed, in article for Buzzfeed, how they were met with racist comment when they joined the hip hop industry. Though they are known for their music production and beats, they received hateful twitter comments from people telling them to “Go back to Asia” (Cheng and Han 2017:1).

No matter how skillful or talented, AAPI hip hop artists face the reality that because of their race and ethnicity their authenticity will be challenged. The AAPI hip hop artists’ experience parallels that of AAPI hip hop fans who may try to prove their fandom by excessively demonstrating their knowledge of the artform and culture. No matter how knowledgeable, AAPI hip hop fans, like artists, face challenges to their claims of authenticity in the US hip hop community because of their race and ethnicity (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017).

Other scholars have studied how Asian American emcees and DJs have found ways to create and perform music even though it is historically and socially tied to Black and Brown communities. Some East Asian American rappers have carved out a place in hip-hop for themselves despite the hip hop community’s skepticism of their authenticity. Asian American emcees like Jin and Dumfoundead have used hip-hop as a vehicle to defy dominant notions of

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hegemonic whiteness (Ogbar 2007). For example, Dumfoundead, in discussing his inspiration for his song Safe, said, “A couple of projects ago I had this song called ‘Safe,’ talking about the whitewashing of Hollywood” (Chesman 2018:1). He describes writing the song “out of frustration” after viewing the Oscars in 2015 and observing along with other non-white

Americans the lack of diversity and whitewashing, the tendency of the media to portray and create white characters who are played by white actors as a strategy to have media stories resonate deeply with white audiences and their experiences/worldviews in Hollywood (Chesman

2018).

AAPI emcees have also used their marginalized status as people of color to express their own form of authenticity and have used hip-hop to express themselves by commenting on the values of their communities and using their voice politically to reject American discourses like the yellow peril, and model minority stereotype and, as we are currently experiencing, blame for the spread of the coronavirus or “China virus” as it is referred to by the President of the United

States. For example, emcee and actress Awkwafina, commented on AAPI authenticity and the political nature of hip hop, in an interview with YLWRNGER, a blog dedicated to AAPI culture.

She said,

[Cultural appropriation] is a very controversial subject, and especially one to talk

about when you’re in the hip hop industry when you’re not Black. What people

have to understand is that hip hop music is music spawned out of adversity,

political adversity, and it is political at its core (Gao 2018:1).

Awkwafina also discusses how she is very aware of her presence in hip hop as an Asian

American woman. She hopes to create space for other Asian American female rappers while also paying homage to hip hop’s roots rather than exploiting it (Gao 2018). Awkwafina illustrates the

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additional challenge faced by AAPI female rappers to find acceptance and respect in the male dominated industry and culture.

AAPI artists have used hip hop as a platform to offer creative ways to discuss the politics of Asian American identity (Labrador 2018). For example, Asian emcees such as Jin and Jamez have written and performed lyrics to reject the permanent foreigner narrative (Ogbar 2007). They express their views on the racism Asian Americans face, thereby creating space for themselves and other Asian Americans in hip hop while informing Blacks and Latinx of their shared experiences (Ogbar 2007). For example, MC Jin discussed his journey of joining the rap industry as a young Asian man in an interview with Radii, a Chinese website dedicated to creating media centered on Chinese social issues. He hoped his presence in the industry paved the way for more

AAPI rappers wanting to join the game. He said:

I’m 37 this year — if we go back 20 years to when I was 16, 17, and basically

trying to make my way into the rap game, it was absolutely unheard of. It was

like, “Yo, nobody ever seen an Asian rapper. Nobody wants to hear an Asian

rapper. Nobody cares about Asian rappers. The thought of an Asian rapper is so

outrageous and farfetched, why are we even talking about Asian rappers? I would

hope that maybe 10 years from now, this won’t even be a topic of discussion

because it’ll just be so prevalent and of the norm that we won’t have to be like,

“Oh you know who’s really making waves in the Asian community? (Feola

2019:1).

Scholars Wang (2007) and Ogbar’s (2007) work are relevant to the topic of AAPI fans in the multi-racial US hip hop fan community. Their work, however, specifically discusses how

Asian American rappers fight to be seen as legitimate artists. The pressure, performance, and

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experiences of artists are not identical to what AAPI fans would experience in the US hip hop community. Though both AAPI hip hop artists and fans experience pressure to be authentic, have to perform, and experience exclusion because of their racial identities, the experiences of becoming an artist is much different than trying to belong in a fan community.

Sharma (2010) studied South Asian American hip-hop producers predominantly in the

Bay area. She discussed how South Asian American identities are constrained when structures uphold definitions of race that emphasize the Black and white binary. Hip hop helped South

Asian Americans overcome feelings of invisibility, voicelessness, and social and political powerlessness that is stressed through the Marginalization Perspective, the process people are treated as insignificant based on their identities, associations, experiences, and environments

(Sharma 2010). Through hip hop, South Asian American producers created new and different definitions of South Asian American identities including political activism and social justice.

Sharma writes:

The artists harnessed ambiguity [being positioned in the middle of the Black/white

binary] to expand their options of being in a world beyond what is currently modeled for

them by others. They broadened desiness to include political activism [for their South

Asian communities] and conscious artistry. Some of them work alongside other young

desi activists and artists who fight for the rights of marginalized South Asian populations,

including the working class, undocumented immigrants, and gays and lesbians (Sharma

2010:28).

This new South Asian American identity that is impacted and influenced by hip hop culture is rooted in political consciousness and solidarity with other marginalized groups like the

Black and Latinx communities (Sharma 2010:3). Sharma writes:

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Participating in hip-hop culture allows desis to create racialized identities that

foreground the effects of racism that they experience, making race visible and

expressing a ‘political consciousness of inter minority solidarity.’ To engage with

hip hop is to engage with blackness, which produces an apparent conflict between

the desi’s ‘model minority’ status and the disadvantaged status of the black

community, disadvantages that are in some cases defined in opposition to the

success of desis. The artists embrace both/and rather than either/or distinctions

(Sharma 2010:28).

The South Asian American hip hop producers looked to the Black community and how they expressed what Blackness meant to them through hip-hop, and then used this as a model for themselves (Sharma 2010).

Filipino Americans, also in the San Francisco Bay area, have carved out a space for themselves in the multi-racial hip hop community. Filipino DJs use hip hop as a way to express themselves. Filipino DJs view the culture as part of their identities and an activity they love.

These DJs recognize that hip hop’s roots are in Black and Brown communities. They now see hip hop, however, as being tied to a multi-racial community for creativity, and fun (Tiongson

2013).

Sharma (2010) and Tiongson’s (2013) work are important because they show a different pillar of the multi-racial hip hop community: DJing. Most hip hop scholarship has focused on emceeing and breakdancing, without attention to the other two pillars of hip hop: djing and graffiti art. Their work is limited, however, in that it focuses on two specific ethnic Asian

American groups in one geographical location in the United States.

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The literature highlighted here describe the struggles and challenges faced by AAPI hip hop artists as they seek participation, acceptance, and respect in the US hip hop industry and community. Authenticity has shifted to include more white fans with the promotion of write artists such as Beastie Boys, Eminem, Mac Miller, Yelawolf, Macklemore, Lil Dicky, and G-

Eazy. The rap industry has also focused their efforts to market rap to young cis-gendered heterosexual males (Ogbar 2007). The combination of this marketing to white male fans as well as the representation of white emcees has allowed cis-gendered heterosexual white male to establish themselves in the US hip hop fan community. This not the case for AAPI hip hop fans.

Authenticity related to race is still a major barrier to being perceived as legitimate artists and members of the US hip hop community for AAPI folks. Despite this barrier, AAPI artists have found ways to create space for themselves in the industry as well as the hip hop community to adopt and address themes of racism, social and political activism, and rejecting stereotypes through their artistic work. This section has focused on challenges faced by AAPI hip hop artists, which is relevant to the experiences of AAPI hip hop fans. The next section focuses on how

AAPI hip hop fans negotiate their identities in the US hip hop community.

Asian American Hip Hop Fan Identity Negotiation

The literature on Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hip hop fans is extremely limited.

Previous scholars (Tuan 2000; Kim 1999; Watkins-Hayes 2016) have discussed how racial dynamics in the United States often have been defined through a binary lens, predominantly sharing and discussing the history and experiences of Black and white people. Kim’s (1999) theory of Racial Triangulation emphasizes how use and reliance on the Black/white binary neglects to account for how Asian Americans fit into American racial dynamics. Kim (1999) proposed that races occupy different social positions creating a hierarchy that keeps whites in

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power and Blacks powerless. Asian Americans then occupy a middle position in the hierarchy leaving them to ultimately feel caught in-between and racially triangulated or positioned in the middle of both Blacks and whites (Kim 1999). This work is useful in describing Asian

Americans’ middle position in the United States and is relevant to how AAPI hip-hop fans fit into the US hip hop community. The US landscape, however, does not reflect directly the landscape of the hip hop community. It would be insensitive and inaccurate to compare the experiences of Asian immigrants to Asian American hip hop fans because the experiences of both groups are different. Using Kim’s (1999) work to describe the social phenomena of AAPI participation in the US hip hop community also would assume that the hip hop community has completely excluded AAPI fans from the community, which is not true.

There are currently two articles that directly address AAPI hip hop fans in the US.

McTaggart and O’Brien (2017) found that Asian American cis-gendered heterosexual male and female fans were accepted or felt like they belonged only conditionally into the US hip hop community. Non-Asian American hip-hop fans viewed Asian American male fans’ identities as in continual conflict with hip-hop’s traditional concentration on hypermasculinity and the experiences of poor urban residents. Non-Asian American fans also, largely, believed the stereotypes that Asian American and Asian men are asexual, weak, have small pensises, and hold middle to upper-class status (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017). Furthermore, non-Asian American fans associated Asian men and Asian masculinity with their brains or intellect as opposed to the brawn of their bodies (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017).

While Asian male fans were dismissed because other fans viewed them stereotypically as

“passive and obedient,” Asian female fans were not taken seriously. Asian females were viewed as “docile and pliable” (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017:635). The traditional image of hip hop is

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hypermasculine and dominated by powerful Black men. Stereotypical Asian femininity stands in sharp contrast to this traditional image. The authors (2017) discuss it in this way:

The narrow and exaggerated images of Asian American men and women in

passive and obedient roles fuel the notion that Asian Americans are the antithesis

of hip hop, which often prides itself on its oppositional nature and display of

hypermasculinity. Asian American men in hip hop are dismissed and Asian

American women are not taken seriously and objectified (651).

Though Asian American male and female fans felt their gender identities were in opposition to traditional authenticity, they still joined the US hip hop fan community. They were attracted to the music and viewed the hip-hop fan community as a place of freedom from societal expectations. These fans used hip hop to express their racial identities and ethnic pride. They also enjoyed hip hop because it allowed them to reject racist expectations from society as well as expectations placed on them by their families and friends (McTaggart and O’Brien

2017). McTaggart and O’Brien’s work fills certain gaps in the literature, showing how some

AAPI hip hop fans have been conditionally accepted into the US multi-racial hip-hop community. Their work highlights AAPI hip hop fan voices, and brings gender into the conversation. The limitation of their work, however, is that it focuses only on the experiences of

Asian cis-gendered heterosexual females and males in the community, therefore studying only a portion of AAPI hip-hop fans. These findings provide a skewed and limited perspective of non- binary AAPI hip hop fans.

Scholars Nguyen and Ferguson (2019) conducted the second study to specifically examine AAPI hip hop fans in the United States. They studied how Southeast Asian American immigrant (SEAA) hip hop fans negotiated their cultural identities in their Southeast Asian

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communities in the United States. The authors use the Marginalization Perspective and Cultural

Variability to explain how Southeast Asian American immigrants negotiated their identities. The

Marginalization Perspective (Nguyen and Ferguson 2009; Wu 2002) provides a way to understand how Asian youth feel invisible. Asian youth face this feeling when sociocultural landscapes view and define race through the Black/white binary (Nguyen and Ferguson 2019).

The authors then discuss a newly developed psychological framework centering identity development. They describe and define cultural variability (CV). CV involves the ways hip hop fans play up or emphasize different aspects of their hip-hop identity while playing down or de- emphasizing different parts of their SEAA identities to adapt to the sociocultural and interpersonal demands of adolescence and young adulthood (Nguyen and Ferguson 2019;

Ferguson, Nguyen, & Iturbide 2006).

Nguyen and Ferguson (2019) found that SEAA hip hop fans displayed three different components of their identities: Asian/Asian American heritage, the white dominant culture in which they live, and hip hop identity (Nguyen and Ferguson (2019). The authors found that

SEAA participants viewed hip hop as “transcendent of race and ethnicity” (Nguyen and

Ferguson 2019). They believed that their hip-hop identities were “based on a skill as performer, the contributions they made to the community, and shared the values of multiculturalism”

(Nguyen and Ferguson 2019:105). The participants viewed hip hop as multi-cultural instead of tying it to its original origins. Participants played up their hip hop identities and used their knowledge of global hip hop as a way to gain social status with their peers (Nguyen and

Ferguson 2019). SEAA participants used their hip hop identities to reject racism and stereotypes about Southeast Asians (Nguyen and Ferguson 2019). The participants also used their hip hop identities to create connections with other Asian and SEAA immigrant students (Nguyen and

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Ferguson 2019). The hip hop identity that SEAA youth created allowed them to mix their Asian heritage, white mainstream dominant culture, and the global hip hop community.

Nguyen and Ferguson’s (2019) work is very important for understanding how AAPI hip- hop fans negotiate their racial identities in the U.S. hip hop community and in providing a framework for understanding how other groups negotiate their identities. The work focuses on, however, the specific population of SEAAs. Like McTaggart and O’Brien’s (2017) work, this is a narrow population focus and does not account for how other Asian ethnic and Pacific Islander

American fans are conditionally accepted or excluded from the hip hop community. It would be damaging and harmful to assume that the experiences of SEAAs are the same or even similar to other AAPI hip-hop fans in the US hip hop community. Quantitative scholars have used the

“Asian American” category which groups all Asian ethnicities together as if there is one type of

Asian experience in the US. The authors’ work also studies SEAAs in SEAA communities, in which not all residents are hip hop fans. This work also does not highlight the different racial dynamics in the US multi-racial hip hop community. The Marginalization and CV perspectives and identity development processes also are limited because they focus on the psychological impacts of individuals rather than sociological social processes.

Authenticity

Previous scholars in Sociology and Anthropology have studied authenticity in various contexts including presentation of self (Goffman 1967), sexuality (Bernasconi 2010), mourning (Collier

1997; Schwarz 2013; Wilce 2009), education (Reay), career decisions (Hoey 2006; Vannini and

Burgess 2009), and consumption (Grigsby 2004; Zukin 2008). Authenticity has been defined by different scholars (Boltanski and Chiapello 2005; Taylor 1991; Weigert 2009). Schwarz (2016) defined it as:

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Individuals finding out their true nature, emotions and beliefs and stick to them;

act spontaneously and uncalculatedly; and remain true to themselves despite

external pressures to conform to social norms and temptations to sell out, i.e.

subordinate authenticity to instrumental reality (2).

Scholars such as Cerulo (1997) and Lamont and Molnar (2002) have provided definitions that include how authenticity is used to differentiate and stratify people (Cerulo 1997; Lamont and Molnar 2002; Harkness 2011). Cerulo defined authenticity as “a boundary that is a socially constructed barrier that differentiates various groups of people and creates distinctions, establishes hierarchies and renegotiates rules of inclusion” (Cerulo 1997:394-395). Some scholars have studied authenticity in other youth and music cultures like Hebdige’s (1979) work on youth in reggae culture and Thorton’s (1990) work on UK club culture. Grazian (2003) also used the concept of authenticity to study different people in the blues community as it relates to non-white blues musicians.

Current authenticity scholars such as those mentioned above draw from Pierre Bourdieu’s work on authenticity. Bourdieu studied authenticity in the context of symbolic violence and domination. He was interested in understanding the persistence of cultural hierarchies (Bourdieu

1984; Bourdieu 1993; Bourdieu 1996; Bourdieu 2001). Bourdieu believed that high cultural capital (dispositions, social assets, and education) determined people’s taste in society (Bourdieu

1984). He believed domination always required the complicity of the dominated. The complicity of the dominated is not a matter of conscious choice. Rather, the dominated group is pressured to meet the criteria for worth created by those in power (Bourdieu 1984; Bourdieu 1993;

Bourdieu 1996; Bourdieu 2001; Schwarz 2016). Those with less power, therefore, accept the validity and desirability of the dominating group’s standards (Bourdieu 1984; Bourdieu 1993;

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Bourdieu 1996; Bourdieu 2001; Schwarz 2016). Therefore, in subtle but very real ways, members of dominated groups add to their own oppression by accepting and valuing the standards of beauty, aptitude, and sophistication of the dominating class (Bourdieu 1984;

Bourdieu 1993; Bourdieu 1996; Bourdieu 2001; Schwarz 2016). These standards, created by the dominating class, deem subordinated groups unworthy. In many cases illustrated by Authenticity scholars, who are discussed below, dominated groups, therefore, strive for goals established by the dominating class, yet often remain in a state of shame or inadequacy when they are not able to achieve them. The dominated groups try or become “authentic” based off the authenticity standards created by the dominating class who create and police authenticity boundaries in society (Bourdieu 1984; Bourdieu 1993; Bourdieu 1996; Bourdieu 2001; Schwarz 2016).

Hip Hop Authenticity

Hip hop scholars (Ogbar 2007; Bennett 2004; McLeod 1999; Harkness 2011; Rambsy II 2013) have built on previous work by authenticity scholars, applying previous definitions to the realm of hip hop. The definition of authenticity when it comes to the US hip hop community is similar to previous definitions. The main difference, however, is the reality that hip hop authenticity is rooted in the origin of hip hop itself which is tied to race and class, and provided a voice and a way to resist the oppression experienced by Black and Brown communities. Historically, Black and Brown communities have been excluded socially, politically, and financially from all aspects of mainstream white Eurocentric society. Hip hop became a vehicle through which Black and

Brown communities could be their “true selves,” and provided realistic depictions of their lived experiences as People of Color in working-class America.

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Jeffrey Ogbar (2007) provides insight into hip hop authenticity in one of their works. Hip hop, throughout its generational evolutions, has been tied closely to authenticity or “keepin’ it real” (Ogbar 2007:37). Howard Rambsy II (2013:205) also discusses authenticity by writing:

Rappers in particular and hip hop heads in general gain their worth in part based

on their abilities to channel and exhibit recognizable aspects of the hood or

experiences distinct to Black communities. Keeping it real presumably counters

falsehoods and allows people to forgo seemingly passive practices, such as lying,

masking, signifying, and other cultural behaviors linked to African Americans,

concealing their true selves and feelings in the face of powerful authoritative

forces. For some, keeping it real means rejecting ostensible white or Eurocentric

rules or decorum in favor of taking proBlack positions. And still for others,

keeping it real simply means adhering to supposedly accepted forms of behavior

based on the standards of the ‘black community.’

In hip hop culture authenticity or realness relies heavily on personal experiences with urban environments and working-class experiences. This traditional concept of hip hop authenticity reflects the origins of the art as rooted in conditions of the South Bronx in the 1970’s

(Ogbar 2007). Therefore, hip hop fans traditionally associate hip hop with the experiences of the poor Black and Puerto Rican communities.

Hip hop authenticity is clearly tied to the origins of hip hop created by poor Black and

Brown communities. It is noted, however, that authenticity in hip hop is a dynamic concept which I discuss below, which has evolved over time. The concept has shifted and continues to shift, making space for new and different groups of people to become fans. Ogbar states, “Hip- hop is about ‘being real’; however, this realness is never static, thus allowing for continued shifts

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of expression in politics and race” (Ogbar 2007:53). My study will show “realness” has shifted to allow AAPI fans to join the US hip hop community. Their experiences also highlight the ways that they are still policed by other hip hop fans from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds based on authenticity boundaries created in the past.

Other scholars (McLeod 1999; Bennett 2004; Harkness 2011; Rambsy II 2013) have examined authenticity in the hip hop community. Bennett (2004) studied hip hop culture and found that definitions of hip hop authenticity were constantly changing and were redefined as different groups around the world appropriated hip hop and hip hop culture (Bennett 2004;

Harkness 2011). The author worked with white rappers in Newcastle, England, and concluded that white rappers found it easier to construct authentic identities in their hometown of

Newcastle, where the population was predominantly white compared to British cities that were more ethnically diverse (Bennett 2004; Harkness 2011). Bennett (2004) found that definitions of authenticity varied, which created different cultural objects and attitudes.

Communications scholar McLeod (1999) studied how hip-hop artists preserved their identities through claims of authenticity when threatened with assimilation by mainstream culture. The author used Seitel (1974), Katriel and Philipsen (1981), and Carbaugh’s work on semantic dimensions (social psychological, racial, political-economic, gender-sexual, social locational, and cultural) to highlight how culture symbols are organized and given meaning through authenticity within a discursive system (McLeod 1999). McLeod (1999) outlines six conceptual dimensions of authenticity used by hip-hop emcees to maintain authenticity. Realness and authenticity were centered on the six categories: staying true to oneself, Black, underground, hard, street, and old school. Fakeness fell into the six categories: following mass trends, white, commercial, soft, suburbs, and mainstream.

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The author argues that the hip hop community uses these six dimensions of authenticity through hip hop’s cultural symbols like words such as “‘true,’ ‘real,’ any derivation of that word, such as realness and ‘authentic’ or any derivation of that word, such as ‘authenticity’” to maintain hip hop’s cultural identity and forms in-group and out-group distinctions (McLeod

1999:137). McLeod (136) states, “Hip-hop artists (and their fans) have had to struggle to maintain a ‘pure’ identity. They preserved this identity by invoking the concept of authenticity in attempting to draw clearly demarcated boundaries around their culture.” McLeod discusses the emcees who do not meet one or more of the six dimensions of authenticity. The author (1999) states, “Those who question or resist the use of authenticity claims tend to be located in opposition to what is deemed authentic by the most vocal hip-hop community members. They are characterized as mainstream, commercial, White suburbs” (145). Emcees used McLeod’s six dimensions when they faced the threat of “erasure via misrepresentation by outsiders like Vanilla

Ice, major label executives, and out-of-touch advertising agencies” (148). McLeod’s (1999) work, while addressing policing circuitously, is limited because it views authenticity as a static set of norms by which people are judged (McLeod 1999; Harkness 2011).

Harkness (2011) built on McLeod’s (1999) work. McLeod studied how insiders (Black and Latino emcees) maintained their hip hop identities while being coerced into American mainstream society. Harkness (2011) brings outsiders into the conversation and shows how they want to preserve hip hop culture as well. The author studied how outsiders, who are seen as inauthentic by insiders, negotiate their participation in subcultures. The author utilized qualitative methods such as participant observation, in-depth interviews, and visual sociological methods to study two groups: the insider group and outsider group (Harkness 2011). The insider

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group consisted of Black and Latino male rappers. The outsider group contained white people

(female and male), females (multicultural), and suburban rappers.

Harkness (2011) offers the new situational authenticity framework to understand and explain how outsiders negotiate their identities in subcultures that view them as inauthentic. The author was interested in studying the social processes of how outsiders construct and preserve authenticity. For outsiders, realness cannot “as per the normative conditions of hip-hop culture - be granted without question or scrutiny” (285). Harkness (288) defines situational authenticity by writing, “Situational authenticity occurs when a person makes claim to ‘realness’ that emphasizes certain categories within the normative cluster of conditions that govern authenticity, while downplaying others.” Outsiders highlight interpretive categories like being true to oneself and nonconformity while playing down fixed categories like race and gender. Harkness (2011) uses the example of white suburban rappers to illustrate situational authenticity. The author states, “White suburban rappers place great importance on skills and being true to themselves, but downplay the relevance of race and location – they reorder the normative cluster of conditions to suit their own habitus” (288).

Emphasizing interpretative categories while downplaying fixed categories does not deny the white suburban rapper’s race or class. It does allow the white suburban rapper, however, to stress the categories that do make them authentic. Further, it allows them to demonstrate that they are more authentic than other white suburban rappers, and that they are “an exception to the status quo” (Harkness 2011:288). Insiders also use situational authenticity, but they use it to emphasize fixed categories like race and gender. While outsiders use situational authenticity to show they belong in the subculture, insiders use it to “preserve the normative cluster of conditions regulating authenticity, and thus protect their insider status” (88). The author shows

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“how boundaries can be both rigid and malleable at the same time: the cluster of conditions that govern authenticity [Harkness (2011) uses McLeod’s (1999) semantic dimensions as the conditions that govern authenticity] in hip-hop culture is relatively concretized, agreed upon, and stable, yet the more malleable conditions may be emphasized and the more rigid downplayed”

(296).

Harkness’ (2011) situational authenticity can be applied and is helpful for understanding how AAPI hip-hop fans negotiate their racial identities in a community that is centered on an artform historically and socially tied to Black and Brown communities. Harkness’ (2011) work like Bennett’s (2004) and McLeod’s (1999) focuses on emcees from different racial groups and genders. Hip hop scholars should not assume the experiences of AAPI fans are the same.

Scholars also should not assume that the processes of identity negotiation are the same or similar for hip hop artists and fans.

The current literature is limited in how AAPI hip hop fans negotiate their racial identities in the U.S. hip hop fan community. Past research focuses specifically on these particular areas:

Asian American identity development in the United States (Tuan 2000; Kim 1999; Watkins-

Hayes 2016); Asian American hip hop artists (Ogbar 2007; Wang 2007; Sharma 2010; Tiongson

2013); how specific Asian American hip hop fan populations such as Asian American cis- gendered and heterosexual female and men negotiate their gender identities in the US hip hop fan community (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017); how Southeast Asian Americans negotiate their identities specifically in Southeast Asian communities (Nguyen and Ferguson 2019); and how specific outsider rapper groups (white, female, and suburban rappers) negotiate their identities with other rappers (McLeod 1999; Bennett 2004; Harkness 2011). Given the scope of the current literature, my research attempts to fill the gaps from the studies highlighted above. I offer

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findings that demonstrate how Asian American and Pacific Islander American hip-hop fans negotiate their racial identities in a community that is centered on an artform historically and socially tied to Black and Brown communities.

Methodology

For this study I conducted 23 semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with people who identify as

Asian American or Pacific Islander. Pacific Islanders are grouped routinely in the category of

Asian Americans, yet it is acknowledged that they do have unique cultural and ethnic customs. It is also important to highlight their experiences as their voices often are neglected. Participants were required to identify as hip-hop fans and be at least 18 years old. Three of the participants in the sample were multi-racial and included in the sample because they self-identified as Asian

Americans. One participant identified as both Indian (South Asian) and Asian American.

Purposive and convenience sampling approaches were used to select participants for the study.

These approaches allowed me to target Asian and Pacific Islander American hip-hop enthusiasts.

Participants were also recruited online with a flyer through the social media platforms such as

Facebook and Twitter. A total of 22 participants answered an oral survey at the beginning of each interview to collect demographic information. Table 1 captures the demographics of the participants in the Appendix.

The interviews included pre-determined questions pertaining to participants’ race, passion for hip hop, and experiences as non-white and non-Black/Latinx hip hop fans. The questions in each category were open-ended, allowing participants to discuss and reflect their experiences as Asian American and Pacific Islander hip hop enthusiasts. There were three categories of questions: Family Background and Growing Up, Hip hop and Identity, and Themes in Hip hop. The Family Background and Growing Up questions were asked first to help establish

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rapport with participants. The answers gathered from these questions provided context for the questions that followed. Probing questions were asked after participants responded to the predetermined questions. Though the interviews had some structure, participant answers extended beyond the predetermined questions. The interviews lasted between 30 to 60 minutes and took place online or at a location of the participants’ choosing. All interviews were audio- recorded as an effort to accurately represent participants’ voices.

I transcribed and analyzed the interviews to search for emergent themes using Weiss’ four-phase approach. I first read and reread each interview transcript. This helped me become familiar with the content of the transcripts. I then read the transcripts for a third time and made preliminary notes. I engaged in an open coding process using Microsoft Word. First, I created short phrases/codes from what I observed in the data. For example, when participants commented on their experiences with how their parents reacted to their passion for hip hop, I created the codes “Mom’s Reaction” and “Dad’s Reaction.”

The initial codes and comments were created through using different combinations of colors in Microsoft Word. After initial coding was completed the Grouped Coding Document was created to sort and group the color-coded codes in each transcript. For example, the code

“Parent Reaction” was typed in blue font. All of the blue font comments then were grouped together in a separate Word Document titled “Grouped Coding Document.” After grouping the color-coded codes in the “Grouped Coding Document” I reviewed them for commonalities and differences. From this review, the overarching four major themes were created: External

Responses to Love for Hip Hop, Connection to Hip Hop, Hip Hop Styles, and Knowledge About

Hip Hop.

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I created a “Final Quotes” Word document, selecting quotes for inclusion in the Findings section. This document was created so that I could easily locate and cite quotes instead of searching for them through the Grouped Coding Document. When selecting quotes for the study

I considered representation, accessibility, and clarity with respect to ease of reading and understanding.

Findings

In the section that follows I present a detailed discussion of four key themes that emerged as I analyzed participant responses. I include narrative passages from the participants with their quotes which show how they make meaning of their experiences in the US hip hop community.

Throughout this section I use participants’ own voices to highlight their experiences, reflections, and thoughts. I note that none of the participants referenced or acknowledged the role that the

Puerto Rican community played in the origins of hip hop. Participants only identified the Black community as the source of hip hop. It should also be noted that some participants use and believe that rap and hip hop are synonymous though the author believes the two are not the same.

Hip hop music and culture gave marginalized Black and Brown communities a voice as well as a way to resist and fight racism. Rap is the product after the music industry transformed it to make money and appeal to mainstream society.

I identified four core themes that represent Asian and Pacific Islander Americans’ experiences negotiating their racial identities in the U.S. multiracial hip hop community. The themes used to organize and frame this section are: 1) External Responses to Love for Hip Hop,

2) Connection to Hip Hop, 3) Hip Hop Styles, and 4) Knowledge About Hip Hop.

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External Responses to Love for Hip Hop: “She Threw Out My Heavy D CD”

Similar to McTaggart and O’Brien’s (2017) findings, most participants discussed how they felt welcomed into the hip hop community. They felt like it was a place for them to discuss their favorite artists, go to shows/concerts, and get involved in other activities in hip hop culture like djing, breaking, and graffiti. Nguyen and Ferguson’s (2019) findings showed that young SEAAs participation in hip hop positively enhanced and strengthened familial relationships and friendships, promoting parent/child and peer-to-peer mutual understanding. In my study, however, some of my participants discussed their parents. This perspective regarding parents was rarely discussed. In fact, some participants discussed how their families and friends did not have opinions regarding their involvement in hip hop. Furthermore, other participants related that their family and friends were surprised or completely against their passion for the music. Mina Kang, a 32-year-old Korean female from the South said,

Everyone [my Puerto Rican and Honduran friends] are surprised that I, this

skinny Asian girl really loves ‘hood rap.’ My Korean friends said that they’ve

never met another Asian or Korean girl that loves hood rap. My family doesn’t

like it when I play it because they have to listen to it.

Mina Kang’s quote illustrates McTaggart and O’Brien’s (2017) findings in which Asian

American women are met with confusion and surprise at their love for hip hop. The authors

(2017) found that stereotypical Asian American femininity was in sharp contrast to traditional hip hop authenticity leading to Asian female fans feeling like they are not completely accepted into the hip hop community because other fans are surprised by their involvement in hip hop.

Al, a 34-year-old male Korean Adoptee from the Northeast, further illustrates McTaggart and

O’Brien’s (2017) findings from a male Asian American hip hop fan. Al said,

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I mean, flat out my [white] mom's a straight up racist bigot. Our last president was

"President N*****" and when she heard me listening to Biggie one day she told

me I'm not a N*****. She threw out my Heavy D cd my dad bought me. Earlier

in school, I ended up just spending most of my time with the 10% that were Black

and Hispanic and we listened to hip hop. At first, I think my friends were going

off of the stereotypes that Asians know Kung Fu, sumo, fried rice, egg rolls, and

math. A lot of people, especially in the 90s, didn't associate any form of music

with Asians if it wasn't that Sakura melody that everyone knows. They didn't

know I was into hip hop until someone was playing a Pac song and I was rapping

along.

Al’s father, who is white, supported his involvement in listening to hip hop, which is in line with

Nguyen and Ferguson’s (2019) findings. Al and his father shared their love for the music. Al’s father even purchased a Heavy D cd for him. His mother, however, vehemently disapproved of

Al’s involvement in Black culture. Al then goes on to discuss how his friends associated him with Asian stereotypes and initially could not understand his interest in hip hop. As McTaggart and O’Brien (2017) described, Al’s white friends, who he mentioned earlier on in the interview, dismissed him as an authentic hip hop fan based upon their perceptions of him rooted in stereotypes.

Al also comments on views of Asian Americans that arose from the Yellow Peril and

Model Minority Stereotypes. His comments are consistent with previous works on these stereotypes. Al’s examples of Asian food, Kung Fu, and Sumo wrestling relate to the Yellow

Peril stereotype in which Zhang (2010) described Asian immigrants as menaces to society and permanent foreigners. The Yellow Peril stereotype was used to keep Asian immigrants from

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obtaining political rights (Zhang 2010). Al then comments on Asians excelling at math, which draws from the Model Minority Stereotype. Zhang said, “[Asian Americans are] a shining example for other racial minorities. [Asian Americans] are overachievers who are intelligent, industrious, technologically savvy, mathematically talented, self-disciplined, self-sufficient, and law abiding” (Zhang 2010:24).

Mina Kang and Al were keenly aware that their family and friends did not think rap and hip hop aligned with their expectations for them because of their race and gender (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017). Contrary to Nguygen and Ferguson’s (2019) findings, Al’s experiences with hip hop did not cultivate a positive relationship with his mother. Both participants comments illustrate the negative impact of Asian American stereotypes and acceptance into the US hip hop community.

Questioning Asian American Females’ Place in the US Hip Hop Community: “There were a few instances of being quizzed”

The cis-gendered heterosexual female participants explained how they felt like they were members of the US hip hop community. In their responses, however, they made comments indicating they felt it was a conditional acceptance. These comments were consistent with

McTaggart and O’Brien’s (2017) findings that Asian female fans were not taken seriously as authentic hip hop fans. The Asian female participants were very aware that both their race and gender were barriers to being seen as authentic. The Asian female participants’ quotes show that other fans viewed their race and gender in rigid and fixed ways. These quotes are consistent with two of McLeod’s (1999) semantic dimensions of meaning that are proposed as part of assessing claims of authenticity: racial and gender-sexual. McLeod (1999) argued that authenticity or realness regarding race deemed Blackness as real and whiteness as fake. Similarly, the author

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(1999) proposed that with respect to the gender-sexual category, realness is hard and fakeness is soft.

Holly, a 31-year-old half Filipina and half white female from the Midwest, described two experiences in which she was questioned about her participation in the hip hop community. She described a time when her children’s father Drew, a Black male hip hop fan, questioned her love for hip hop. She said,

Drew would say stuff… Like you ‘trying to act Black!” He’d say shit like that and

I can’t even. I’d get so mad. I told him ‘I’m not trying to act Black, I like hip hop.

Yeah, he’d say ‘You wanna be Black so bad, you wish you were Black, or Why

you actin’ Black! You wish you were a Black girl or You think you’re hood

because you listen to hip hop. He’d say just stupid stuff like that.

Drew’s comments to Holly rely on McLeod’s (1999) fixed category of race as a measure of authenticity. The boundary was very clear. Asian females do not fit this fixed authenticity category in which realness is defined as Black (McLeod 1999). This questioning and taunting were especially hurtful to Holly who later explained that she had put a lot of time into researching different MCs and learning lyrics to hip hop songs to be able to rap along with them.

Holly then talked about comments that she received from some of the older white females in her Midwest community. She said:

White ladies would say to me ‘Oh, now you date Black guys and you listen to hip

hop!’ in a judgmental way, you know, they were like ‘You listen to hip hop, so I

bet you date… I bet you only like and date Black guys’ or they’re like

‘Obviously, you’re from the Midwest, listening to hip hop, you think you’re a

hoodrat.

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Holly felt these white women judged her for listening to hip hop. They associated listening to hip hop with stereotypes about Black communities and further related hip hop to Black men when they suggested that she surely must “date Black guys.” This experience also illustrates McLeod’s

(1999) semantic dimensions of race and gender-sexual. The white women’s comments to Holly connected hip hop to Black men as well as the implication of being “hard,” or unfeeling, aggressive, and hypermasculine, when they suggested that she thought she was a “hoodrat.”

Holly did not appreciate them calling her a “hoodrat” which is a charged racial as well as socioeconomic comment, implying that Holly would take on the behavior of Black people from poor areas.

Caylee, a 22-year-old Korean female from the Northeast, described some experiences at invited music listening parties. She said,

There were a few instances of being quizzed about hip hop. They were usually

other male fans [of all different races including Latino, Black, and white] who

were there. I’d meet them at the gatherings and after I mentioned I liked hip

hop… They’d immediately say things like ‘Name three songs by these artists.’

They made it seem like it was a competition to name songs. I mostly felt

confused, and then I would kind of laugh it off. I’m not sure if they wanted to

‘mansplain’ hip hop or something like that. I didn’t know the cultural roots of hip

hop for awhile, but even without knowing history, I still feel like my taste should

have been respected.

Caylee was surprised by being questioned about her interest in hip hop. She does not explicitly state that her gender is keeping her from appearing authentic to these male fans, but she comments on it as a feeling as she tried to make sense of their questioning. Caylee being

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questioned is an example that is consistent with Harkness’ (2011:285) finding that insiders

“question and scrutinize” the authenticity of outsiders to maintain the “normative conditions of hip hop culture” (285). Harkness (2011) defines insiders as “Black and Latino, male rappers from the city’s urban core.” Conversely, outsiders are defined as “white, female, and/or suburban rappers who want to participate in hip hop culture, but are deemed inauthentic by insiders” (283).

In Caylee’s case, she was surrounded by an audience of male hip hop fans who immediately scrutinized her by questioning her knowledge of hip hop artists.

Holly and Caylee described feeling only conditionally accepted into the hip hop community because of McLeod’s (1999) fixed semantic categories race and gender. Despite this conditional acceptance, which was also described in McTaggart and O’Brien’s (2017) study, these Asian female participants maintained a connection to hip hop and the US hip hop community. Like all of the study participants, they explained that they were aware of their race and gender and their experiences of being questioned, which is explained by McLeod’s (1999) fixed semantic categories of race and gender as measures of authenticity.

Connection to Hip Hop: “While I Didn’t Grow Up as a Black Person, I Did Grow Up as

Someone Who was Marginalized”

Most of the cis-gendered heterosexual male participants were aware of the rigid category of race and how it made their friends, family, and other hip hop fans question their realness (McTaggart and O’Brien 2017; McLeod 1999; Harkness 2011). Interestingly, however, some of the Asian and Pacific Islander male participants’ race and experiences with racism drew them to hip hop and hip hop culture. These participants considered themselves authentic hip hop fans because they identified, experienced, and could relate to many of the prevalent race based themes in hip hop. As described by Ogbar’s (2007) work, AAPI hip hop artists have used hip hop to express

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themselves, comment on the values of their communities as a political voice, and to reject racism arising from the Yellow Peril and Model Minority stereotypes. Similarly, AAPI hip hop fans are attracted to hip hop and hip hop culture for similar reasons. This creates a sense of belonging for them in the US hip hop community. Participants discussed in their interviews ways in which they related to the experiences of emcees’ and other hip hop fans regarding racism. These shared experiences reflected why and how the participants showed they belonged in the hip hop community.

Participants discussed the theme of racism and status as members of marginalized groups.

For example, Holly, a 31-year-old half Filipina and half white female from the Midwest said, “I would say that I identify with just the discrimination. Being a minority and being raised in the

Midwest and being raised with all white friends. The racist things people say here in the

Midwest.”

Holly describes her identification with the theme of racism in hip hop when she says, “I identify with just the discrimination.” Holly’s quote shows the relevance of Ogbar’s (2007) findings with respect to how members of marginalized groups, specifically People of Color, identify with the prevalent themes of racism in hip hop.

Participants specifically discussed how hip hop artists rapped about racism. Adam, a 34- year-old Korean male from the Northwest, said:

What spoke to me with Pac specifically was his words about growing up and

seeing racism around him. As an Asian Adoptee, you have this kinda dual

personality and you never feel right... And when you get family making Asian-ish

jokes, you feel like you're a white person but when you reflect on those jokes or

those microaggressions and look in the mirror... I felt the racism in a visceral

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way... So when he spoke about the struggles Black people go through, while I

didn't grow up as a Black person, I did grow up as someone who was

marginalized, and you can use that outcry to kinda tell your own story.

Similar to Holly, Adam discusses how he related to themes of racism voiced by Tupac.

Adam’s comments are also consistent with Kim’s (1999) work on analyzing the positionality of

Asian Americans and the Black/white binary. Adam feels like he’s accepted into his adoptive white family when he says, “You feel like you’re a white person.” He then discusses how he relates to the themes of the struggles of Black people in Tupac’s music. This leaves him stuck between Black and white folks (Kim 1999). Nevertheless, he finds listening to hip hop empowering and giving voice to his own experiences of racism.

Jim, a 39-year- old Taiwanese male from the West described how, like Black communities, Asian Americans in his community used hip hop to have a political voice and build a sense of racial pride. He said:

In many ways, the political aspects of hip-hop informed my self-identity as an

Asian American. It enabled me to develop a "non-white" identity. I had a sense of

pride in being an ethnic minority. Even though in many ways, we [Asian

Americans] were the majority at least at school [on the West coast]. I believe that

the genesis of hip hop evolved as a way to express pride in a culture that is not the

mainstream. In a way it is fun and celebratory.

Some participants explained how they felt connected to hip hop through the themes of racism and discrimination. These themes also helped them feel less isolated and alone since they heard artists describing similar experiences (Ogbar 2007). Though some did not explicitly discuss the racism and discrimination faced by Black and Brown people in the United States,

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similar to Ogbar’s (2007) research as discussed above, they saw their experiences as similar or running parallel to those marginalized groups who birthed and created hip hop.

These AAPI participants emphasized the interpretative category of, which is discussed by

Harkness (2011) in his framework work on situational authenticity, their membership in a marginalized group and were drawn to the voice hip hop gave to those experiences. Harkness

(2011:295-296) argues that outsiders of subcultures find authenticity in cultures that view them inauthentic by “placing greater emphasis on interpretative categories rather than those that are relatively fixed.” At the same time, participants downplayed the significant differences in the experiences of racism between the AAPI population and Black and Brown populations.

Hip Hop is All About the Music: “Music is for Everyone”

Participants identified another way that they connected to hip hop and hip hop culture. They described hip hop as music, and further noted that music has universal themes and production/beats that relate to everyone, transcending McLeod’s (1999) rigid semantic categories like race, gender-sexual, and socioeconomic status.

Some participants, therefore, felt connected to hip hop as a musical genre. These participants enjoyed hip hop because of its global character and the universal appeal of music.

They also discussed feeling like members of the hip hop community because of their involvement at hip hop concerts and shows. When asked about hip hop’s historical roots, Nancy, a 38-year-old Taiwanese female from the West said, “Even though hip hop came from those

[Black] ethnic groups, I don’t think hip-hop is tied to a specific race or ethnicity. I just consider it music. And music is for everyone.”

Marisol, a 23-year-old Chinese woman from the Northeast specifically discussed the beats and sounds of music. She said, “I am a fan of hip hop because of the beat and the melody.“

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Mina Kang also commented on the sounds, and further discussed how she does not pay attention to the lyrics. She said, “I identify with certain sounds or sometimes artists during specific times during my life. I just like the sounds. I could care less about what they are saying. As long as it has a good beat, instrumentals, and flow.”

Nancy, Marisol, and Mina Kang describe the appeal of hip hop from an appreciation of the music, and how the music unites hip hop fans globally. Their observations are similar to those made in Nguyen and Ferguson’s (2019) study which describes hip hop as transcending race and ethnicity and encouraging a sense of belonging to a global community.

These participants downplayed the significance of the racial history of hip hop (or race) by emphasizing the beats and sounds produced on hip hop tracks and this being universal or for everyone. For these participants, the content and quality of the music becomes the interpretative category, which Harkness’ (2011) framework describes as mentioned earlier, through which they find authenticity and belonging in the US hip hop community.

Nancy actually mentions ethnic groups, but then states that hip hop is more about the music (Harkness 2011; Nguyen and Ferguson 2019). Mina Kang shows that she intentionally listens to hip hop for the sounds and instrumentals while explicitly stating that she does not listen to emcees’ lyrics. These Asian American women participants discuss their belief that music can transcend racial boundaries as argued by Nguyen and Ferguson (2019). They claimed that their love for the music is what makes them authentic hip hop fans and gives them a connection to the

US hip hop community. All AAPI female, nonbinary, and male participants alluded to the degrees and commitment of hip hop fans to the artform. For many of the AAPI women like

Nancy, Marisol, and Mina Kang, listening to music and going to music listening gatherings provoked them to become more engaged to attend concerts and purchase artists’ merchandise.

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Hip Hop Styles: “The Styles, the Hair, and the Clothes… I Tried to Imitate a Little Bit of the Look”

Another way some AAPI participants found a connection to the US hip hop community was through their outward physical appearance and style. These participants reordered the “normative cluster of conditions that governed authenticity” by placing importance on the interpretive category of style to downplay the fixed categories of race and gender (Harkness 2011:290).

Harkness (2011) describes how outsiders find and maintain authenticity in the hip hop community through interpretative categories which are less rigid than McLeod’s (1999) fixed semantic dimensions like race, gender, class, and geographic location. In the case of these participants the interpretative category they emphasized to display their authenticity was style.

These participants talked about becoming very involved in hip hop styles and streetwear. They described taking up these fashion choices to feel like they belonged in spaces such as concerts and hip hop fan gatherings. Maggie, a 42-year-old Korean female from the Midwest said, “Yeah,

I was obsessed with the sneakers. I was obsessed with wearing Adidas and K-Swiss shoes.”

Similar to Maggie, Holly, a 31-year-old Filipina and half white female from the Midwest, said,

“I used to wear Supreme. Yeah, I do have that Supreme hat somewhere around here. Also, you know I got Js. Had them and have them. Don’t try me. The Retro 8s are my fave! You know, they’re black and teal and purple. They are my shit!”

Rob, a 42-year-old Korean male from the Midwest, not only wore the clothes, but he took it a step further. He discussed how he would partake in hair and facial hair styles that were popular in the hip hop community and Black culture. He said:

The styles, the hair, and the clothes. I just kinda, you know, tried to imitate a little

bit of the look of that, you know, with the hairstyle and what is that? It was kind

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of a beard with the little hair on the sides, and I can’t even think now. Just like

that persona is what I tried to go towards.

All of the participants felt like their race and gender should not keep them from being seen as authentic in the US hip hop community. All of the participants, whom to some degree felt like they were policed and not seen as “authentic” hip hop fans. These participants show how they are adopting fashion and grooming of hip hop culture as a way of demonstrating that they fit into hip hop culture. Harkness said, “Those assimilating into hip hop culture also seek to preserve the culture, often using the same symbols, but emphasizing different aspects of them”

(Harkness 2011:296). The author then describes how outsiders use situational authenticity to utilize practices “demonstrating how they can fit into a culture without altering its purity” (296).

For these participants, adopting hip hop sneakers and hats and specific hair and facial hairstyles is their way of demonstrating that they can be authentic hip hop fans despite their race and gender.

Knowledge about Hip Hop: “I’m Accepted as an Actual Hip Hop Fan AKA Not Just

Listening to Mainstream Stuff”

Some participants discussed how they proved themselves as being authentic hip hop fans by emphasizing their knowledge and historical roots of hip hop. These participants are drawing upon what could be viewed as an additional interpretative category as discussed in Harkness’

(2011) framework for situational authenticity. As described in the previous section, Harkness

(2011) argues that outsiders can use a variety of interpretative categories to demonstrate their authenticity and belongingness in hip hop culture. In this case, participants demonstrated their authenticity through proving their hip hop knowledge. For some like Mina Kang, a 32-year-old

44

Korean female from the South, she was able to prove herself to others in the US hip hop community by being able to name underground emcees. She said:

All ethnicities have questioned my interest when I say I like rap and hip hop. The

questioning stops as soon as I mention some of my favorite rappers. I’m accepted

as an actual fan of hip hop because I don’t just listen to mainstream stuff on the

radio.

Participants like Max, a 25-year-old half Filipinx and half Latinx nonbinary person from the Midwest, took the time to reflect on their participation in the US hip hop community. They described struggling with the relatively fixed categories of race and masculinity (Harkness

2011). They said:

I think that there was a time where I really had to reckon with my relationship to

Black culture and Black music as a non-Black person. Um and… You know,

growing up around other Filipinos, they would use the N word and I… There was

a part of me that was like ‘Hmm… Is this okay? It’s probably not okay.’ Like

should I say something or like am I… What is my place in all of this? And um…

Growing up around mostly Black folks and almost all of my best friends up until I

graduated from high school pretty much were Black folks. Like is it even

appropriate for me to use South Central Black LA vernacular? So this cultural

hodgepodge while also acknowledging that the whole time, a large part of my life

has been influenced by Black culture, but I am not a Black person. And

continually reminding myself of that and trying to form my own identity that was

informed by that acknowledgment and also develop upon, you know, as we’ve

45

talked about, my Asian American identity, Latino or Hispanic identity and how all

these things come together to make me who I am.”

Mina Kang and Max demonstrate in different ways how knowledge of hip hop and hip hop culture and history established their authenticity in the US hip hop community. Mina Kang is able to earn respect from other hip hop fans through emphasizing her knowledge of underground non-mainstream hip hop artists (Harkness 2011). Once she establishes that she has done more than listen to songs on the radio and has, in fact, studied different hip hop subgenres, her authenticity is no longer questioned and she is no longer under scrutiny.

Max uses their knowledge of Black culture, Black music, and cultural appropriation as an entree to the hip hop world. Because they demonstrate this knowledge and awareness to other hip hop fans, they are able to gain respect and acceptance into the hip hop community despite their race and gender.

Conclusion

Hip hop and rap have become global phenomenon, attracting fans from around the world. The origins of hip hop are in poor Black and Brown communities in the Bronx in 1970. Increasingly, people from different social backgrounds have become fans. There is a growing hip hop fan community among Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans in the United States. This population often finds itself caught between the Black/white binary as Kim (1999) has shown.

This dynamic of social relations creates a challenge to AAPI identity development. Participation in US hip hop culture is one arena in which this identity development occurs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary research question: How do Asian

American and Pacific Islander American hip hop fans negotiate their racial identities in the hip hop community, which is an artform and culture historically and socially tied to Black and

46

Brown communities? To guide this study, I conducted a literature review of four different areas of related study: Hip hop Artist and Fans’ Racial Identity Development, Authenticity, and

Authenticity particularly as understood in the context of hip hop.

After interviewing 23 AAPI hip hop fans and analyzing the data, four major themes emerged. The four major themes were External Responses to Love for Hip Hop, Connection to

Hip Hop, Hip Hop Style, and Knowledge About Hip Hop. The majority of the findings were consistent with studies conducted by McTaggart and O’Brien (2017), Nguyen and Ferguson

(2019), McLeod (1999), Ogbar (2007), and Harkness (2011).

Participant responses, when discussing External Responses to their Love for Hip Hop, were consistent with findings by McTaggart and O’Brien (2017). Most participants felt, at least, conditionally accepted into the US hip hop community. There was an observed difference among male and female participants in this study. Female participants often felt scrutinized and questioned because of their race and gender in contrast to male participants who did not describe experiences of questioning. Additionally, all participants were keenly aware of their race and gender in their interactions with other hip hop fans who were predominantly cis-gendered heterosexual males from all races, who often made it clear that their race and gender were a barrier to acceptance in the US hip hop community. This confirmed McLeod’s (1999) work describing six semantic fixed dimensions of categories used to assess authenticity. Some participants in this study described a lack of support from their family members and friends for their participation in hip hop culture. This finding is not consistent with the observation by

Nguyen and Ferguson (2019) that hip hop involvement often enhanced familial relationships.

Hip hop culture is well known for giving voice to themes of racism and oppression. As

Ogbar (2007) found, participants found a connection to hip hop through the themes of racism it

47

presents. Additionally, several participants viewed hip hop as transcendent of race and ethnicity and part of the global community. This is consistent with Nguyen and Ferguson’s (2019) findings, whose SEAA participants discussed hip hop belonging to the global community despite race and ethnicity. Nguyen and Ferguson (2019) even argue that “participants can engage in local hip hop culture while feeling broadly connected to a global culture” (101). This is helpful in understanding why AAPI hip hop fans from across the US experience hip hop on both a local and global level.

The descriptions of experiences offered by participants regarding their connection to hip hop and strategies for finding authenticity are very consistent with Harkness’ (2011) framework on situational authenticity created by implementing and emphasizing interpretive categories while downplaying McLeod’s (1999) fixed and rigid categories. Participants in this study identified four interpretative categories when negotiating their racial and gender identities and finding authenticity within the US hip hop community. First, they spoke of connection to the theme of racism. While hip hop originated from racism and oppression from poor Black and

Brown communities, the AAPI participants emphasized their membership in a marginalized group and were drawn to the voice hip hop gave to those experiences. At the same time, participants downplayed and did not acknowledge the significant differences in the experiences of racism between the AAPI population and Black and Brown populations.

Three other interpretative categories described by the participants were: appreciation of music, fashion and grooming, and knowledge of hip hop. The emphasis placed on each of these interpretative categories were strategies used to downplay participants’ race and gender. The categories highlight methods used by participants to join the US hip hop community as authentic members. Harkness (2011) said, “those threatened with assimilation utilized practices that

48

affirmed the status quo. Outsiders who wish to assimilate do much the same thing by demonstrating how they can fit into a culture without altering its purity” (Harkness 2011:296).

Participants’ use of these interpretative categories to seek authentic membership into the US hip hop community shows how boundaries and categories can be both “rigid and malleable at the same time” (Harkness 2011:296). Hip hop insiders, those who fit the rigid categories, maintain these rigid categories. By contrast, hip hop outsiders, like the AAPI participants in this study, downplay the rigid categories and emphasize interpretive categories to oppose these authenticity norms (Harkness 2011).

Some participants alluded to the influence and impact of the Yellow Peril and Model

Minority stereotypes with respect to how others in the US hip hop community view them. This study did not pursue this theme in detail. It is important for future studies to examine more closely the roles of these stereotypes as AAPI hip hop fans seek to be viewed as authentic members of the US hip hop community.

The US hip hop community is one place where AAPI Americans navigate and negotiate their racial and gender identities. This study has examined the ways in which some AAPI hip hop fans do this even when questioned and scrutinized regarding their authenticity. This study has identified themes in hip hop that make it attractive to identity development for AAPI

Americans as well as barriers they encounter to complete acceptance into the hip hop community. Despite these barriers, all the participants in this study viewed themselves as authentic members in the US hip hop community.

This work adds to the literature on authenticity particularly in the context of hip hop for those outsiders wanting to join the community. Future research would be useful in identifying additional interpretative categories that AAPI hip hop fans emphasize and employ as they

49

navigate their own racial identity in becoming authentic members of the community. This study is important when thinking about the boundaries of authenticity in racial identity development.

The implications from this study could be further used in future studies about authenticity and culture beyond the context of hip hop.

50

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