Hip-Hop & the Global Imprint of a Black Cultural Form

Hip-Hop & the Global Imprint of a Black Cultural Form Marcyliena Morgan & Dionne Bennett To me, hip-hop says, “Come as you are.” We are a family. Hip-hop is the voice of this generation. It has become a powerful force. Hip-hop binds all of these people, all of these nationalities, all over the world together. Hip-hop is a family so everybody has got to pitch in. East, west, north or south–we come MARCYLIENA MORGAN is from one coast and that coast was Africa. Professor of African and African –dj Kool Herc American Studies at Harvard Uni- versity. Her publications include Through hip-hop, we are trying to ½nd out who we Language, Discourse and Power in are, what we are. That’s what black people in Amer- African American Culture (2002), ica did. The Real Hiphop: Battling for Knowl- –mc Yan1 edge, Power, and Respect in the LA Underground (2009), and “Hip- hop and Race: Blackness, Lan- It is nearly impossible to travel the world without guage, and Creativity” (with encountering instances of hip-hop music and cul- Dawn-Elissa Fischer), in Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century ture. Hip-hop is the distinctive graf½ti lettering (ed. Hazel Rose Markus and styles that have materialized on walls worldwide. Paula M.L. Moya, 2010). It is the latest dance moves that young people per- form on streets and dirt roads. It is the bass beats DIONNE BENNETT is an Assis- mc tant Professor of African Ameri- and styles of dress at dance clubs. It is local s can Studies at Loyola Marymount on microphones with hands raised and moving to University. She is the author of the beat as they “shout out to their crews.” Hip- Sepia Dreams: A Celebration of Black hop is everywhere! Achievement Through Words and The International Federation of the Phono- Images (with photographer Mat- graphic Industry (ifpi) reported that hip-hop thew Jordan Smith, 2001) and music represented half of the top-ten global dig- “Looking for the ’Hood and Find- 2 ing Community: South Central, ital songs in 2009. Hip-hop refers to the music, Race, and Media” in Black Los arts, media, and cultural movement and commu- Angeles: American Dreams and nity developed by black and Latino youth in the Racial Realities (2010). mid-1970s on the East Coast of the United States. © 2011 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 176 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 It is distinguished from the term rap in youth driven. Citizenship in the hip-hop Marcyliena that it does not focus solely on spoken nation is de½ned not by conventional Morgan & Dionne lyrics. Hip-hop initially comprised the national or racial boundaries, but by a Bennett artistic elements of (1) deejaying and commitment to hip-hop’s multimedia turntabalism, (2) the delivery and lyri- arts culture, a culture that represents the cism of rapping and emceeing, (3) break social and political lives of its members.5 dancing and other forms of hip-hop In this way, the hip-hop nation shares dance, (4) graf½ti art and writing, and the contours of what international stud- (5) a system of knowledge that unites ies scholar Benedict Anderson calls an them all.3 Hip-hop knowledge refers to “imagined community,” a term he uses the aesthetic, social, intellectual, and to explain the concept of nationhood political identities, beliefs, behaviors, itself.6 Though not a conventional polit- and values produced and embraced by ical community, it sometimes functions its members, who generally think of in that manner. hip-hop as an identity, a worldview, and The hip-hop nation serves as an imag- a way of life. Thus, across the world, hip- ined cultural community and, just as im- hop “heads” (or “headz”)–as mem- portant, it functions as a community of bers of hip-hop culture describe them- imagination–or an imagination com- selves–frequently proclaim, “I am munity. Its artistic practices are not hip-hop.”4 merely part of its culture; rather, they As hip-hop has grown in global popu- are the central, driving force that de½nes larity, its de½ant and self-de½ning voices and sustains it. Moreover, hip-hop cul- have been both multiplied and ampli½ed ture is based on a democratizing creative as they challenge conventional concepts and aesthetic ethos, which historically of identity and nationhood. Global hip- has permitted any individual who com- hop has emerged as a culture that en- bines authentic self-presentation with courages and integrates innovative prac- highly developed artistic skills in his tices of artistic expression, knowledge or her hip-hop medium to become a production, social identi½cation, and legitimate hip-hop artist. Because most political mobilization. In these respects, hip-hop artists are self-taught or taught it transcends and contests conventional by peers in the hip-hop community, hip- constructions of identity, race, nation, hop has empowered young people of all community, aesthetics, and knowledge. socioeconomic backgrounds all over Although the term is not of½cial, the use the world to become artists in their own of “hip-hop nation” to describe the citi- right. That is, it has supported artists zens of the global hip-hop cultural com- whose worth is validated not by community is increasingly common. More- mercial success or elitist cultural criti- over, it is one of the most useful frame- cism, but by the respect of their peers works for understanding the passionate in local hip-hop communities as well as and enduring investment hip-hop heads by their own sense of artistic achieve- have in hip-hop culture. The hip-hop ment and integrity. nation is an international, transnational, Intellectual debate by hip-hop heads multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual about hip-hop art and culture is also a community made up of individuals with central feature; thus, regardless of their diverse class, gender, and sexual identi- artistic ability, young people worldwide ties. While hip-hop heads come from all are developing into what political theorist age groups, hip-hop culture is primarily Antonio Gramsci describes as “organic 140 (2) Spring 2011 177 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & intellectuals”: those who use hip-hop to thirty police of½cers arrested him. Over- the Global develop critical thinking and analytical whelming public protest following his Imprint of a Black skills that they can apply to every aspect arrest prompted a phone call from then- Cultural of their lives.7 The result is the emer- President Ben Ali; days later, he was Form gence of local hip-hop “scenes,” where released.9 Within weeks, the nation- young people practice the elements of al protest movement led to Ben Ali’s hip-hop and debate, represent, and cri- removal, and in late January 2011, El tique the cultural form and their social Général performed the song live, for lives. the ½rst time, before an audience of pro- The signi½cance of these scenes testers in the nation’s capital city.10 became apparent in the early months El Général’s songs became popular with of 2011, a time that proved to be among young Egyptians, who had their own hip- the most politically signi½cant in the re- hop soundtrack for Egypt’s national rev- cent history of hip-hop culture. When olution. Despite government warnings, revolution swept through North Africa Egyptian hip-hop crew Arabian Knightz and the Middle East, it did so to the sound released its song “Rebel” in support of of hip-hop music. In North Africa, where the protest. Soon, hip-hop artists all over young people played a central role in the the world began to express solidarity with national protest movements, hip-hop the Egyptian revolutionary movement by emerged as the music of free speech and recording songs and posting them online. political resistance. Master Mimz, a Moroccan-born, Unit- It began in Tunisia. A week before ed Kingdom-based woman mc, released the self-immolation of fruit vendor “Back Down Mubarak” in support of the Mohamed Bouazizi became a catalyst movement. The song includes a feminist for national protest, a twenty-one-year- class critique as she rhymes, “First give old Tunisian mc released a hip-hop song me a job / Then let’s talk about my hijab.” that has been described by TIME maga- After President Mubarak resigned as zine as “the rap anthem of the Mideast a result of the protest, Al-Masry Al-Youm, revolution.” Hamada Ben Amor, who is one of Egypt’s largest independent news- known by his mc name, El Général, told papers, noted on its English-language TIME that he has been inspired by Afri- website, “Although singers af½liated with can American hip-hop artist Tupac Sha- various musical styles have shown sup- kur, whose lyrics he describes as “revo- port for the Egyptian people, the style lutionary.”8 For years, the government that prevailed–or at least that had the had banned El Général’s music from the biggest impact–in this ½ght for freedom radio and forbid him from performing and liberty is rap music. East and west, or making albums. In December 2010, north and south, rappers have emerged the artist posted the protest rap “Rais as the voice of the revolution.”11 Lebled” (which translates as “President In February 2011, inspired by the pro- of the Republic” or “Head of State”) on test activities throughout North Africa YouTube.

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