University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School April 2020 When the Beat Drops: Exploring Hip Hop, Home and Black Masculinity Marquese Lamont McFerguson University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, Communication Commons, and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation McFerguson, Marquese Lamont, "When the Beat Drops: Exploring Hip Hop, Home and Black Masculinity" (2020). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8321 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. When the Beat Drops: Exploring Hip Hop, Home and Black Masculinity by Marquese Lamont McFerguson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Communication College of Arts & Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Aisha S. Durham, Ph.D. Frederick Steier, Ph.D. Chris McRae, Ph.D. Gary L. Lemons, Ph.D. Date of Approval: October 25, 2019 Keywords: autoethnography, black popular culture, media studies, art-based research Copyright © 2020, Marquese Lamont McFerguson TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Chapter One: Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Hip Hop and the Black Masculine .......................................................................................2 Scripting Black Masculinity: Representations .....................................................................4 Scripting Black Masculinity: Performances .......................................................................7 Black Feminist-Informed Black Masculinity Theory and Homeplace ..............................10 Autoethnography as Method and Performance .................................................................15 Overview of Chapters ........................................................................................................18 Chapter Two: Between Hip Hop, Home and HBO ........................................................................22 Outkasted Black Masculinity: Big Bois and Andrés .........................................................23 Cool Pose: Bedroom Rehearsals ........................................................................................27 Andre 3000: Expanding the Possibilities of Black Masculinity ........................................29 Contorting in the Key of Masculinity ................................................................................33 Chapter Three: Black Masculine Emotionality and Hip Hop Poetics ..........................................36 Making a Case for Autoethnographic Hip Hop .......................................................................38 The MC’s Gaze Swings Inward and Outward ...................................................................40 Writing a MC Inspired and Influenced Autoethnography .................................................44 Unveiling Our Scars ..........................................................................................................47 Layered Accounts ..............................................................................................................51 Extended Metaphors ..........................................................................................................52 Homophonous Language ...................................................................................................53 Chapter Four: DJs, Turntables and (Re)Mixing Ivory Tower Traditions ......................................58 Crate Digging .....................................................................................................................60 My Undergraduate Academic Homeplace .........................................................................61 My Graduate School Academic Homeplace ......................................................................63 Sampling ............................................................................................................................64 My Graduate School Academic Homeplace ......................................................................65 Contact Zones and the Art of Mixing ................................................................................66 National Communication Association Convention ...........................................................69 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................70 Chapter Five: The Beat Goes On ...................................................................................................71 Between Black Feminist/Thought, Black Masculinity and Black Men .............................76 i References ......................................................................................................................................77 ii Abstract In this autoethnographic project, I take readers on a narrative journey to three of my storied homeplaces and explore my lived experiences within each site. In the process of exploring my homeplaces, I analyze how I perform my black masculine self within the context of each location, how my cultural body supports and challenges hegemonic black masculinity, and how each location constrains and frees up my performance of self. With this autoethnographic project, I will contribute to the field of communication by extending the method and writing practice of autoethnography, the theorization of the black masculine, and the exploration of black masculine performances represented in popular culture. iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION This is a dissertation about bodies, hip hop, and home. This is a dissertation about how bodies are made visible and invisible. This is a dissertation that uses hip hop and popular culture as a metaphorical lens to examine the ways black masculinity is (re)framed and black masculine bodies navigate racialized spaces. In this autoethnographic dissertation, I examine corporal and spatial histories as I analyze my lived experience within my storied homeplaces: Little Rock, Arkansas, the academy, and the performance stage. Within each personal, professional, and performative homeplace, I analyze the instances in which my black masculine identity is made legible, marked by moments of belonging when shifting between social locations as the insider and outsider, and shaped by cultural expectations of racialized gender and class. Shifting my analysis of black masculinity between the micro/macro and personal/popular, I explore how mass media produced images of black masculinity contribute to the cultural (re)scripting of black manhood and inform my understanding and performance of my black masculine self within the intellectual, physical, and cultural spaces I navigate. Ultimately, this is a dissertation about how my black masculine body is (re)imagined within and moves through space(s). My dissertation is guided by three primary questions: (1) How do I understand my cultural body within three storied homeplaces? (2) How does my cultural body support and/or challenge hegemonic black masculinity? (3) How do I perform my black masculine self within homeplaces? 1 This examination of black masculinity and how popular culture represents and impacts its performance is central to discussions in Africana studies, media and cultural studies, and hip hop studies about the media’s power to (re)frame and (re)produce visual and virtual hegemonic black masculine scripts that manifest themselves in the flesh of black masculine bodies. In this introduction, I review canonical and contemporary literature about black masculine scripts as representations and performances across these three academic areas, define the concept of homeplace and explain how spatial locations impact performativity and the development of selfhood, and outline how autoethnography equips me with an ideal methodological lens, that allows me to connect the micro/personal to the macro/popular, as I examine my lived experiences as a black man within specific historical, social, and cultural contexts. Hip Hop and the Black Masculine With its emphasis on examining and understanding the lived experiences of members of the African diaspora, my research on hip hop culture and the (re)framing and performance of black masculinity, fits firmly within and contributes to the interdisciplinary field of Africana studies. Hip hop culture is a site of intellectual inquiry that has significance within and to the fields of Africana studies. Within my research that analyzes hip hop culture, I explore how media produced images of black men in popular culture have influenced my understanding and performance of black masculinity. Hip hop’s impact on America popular culture and (re)shaping hegemonic black masculinity on a regional, national, and global level make it an important and relevant site to explore the black masculine through the transdisciplinary lens of Africana studies, and media and communication studies. In addition