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Home , African hip hop, Afrika Bambaataa, American Dreams, Beat Street, Beat Street (soundtrack), Brazilian hip hop

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 (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 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- on the East Coast of the .

© 2011 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

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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 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 com- munity is increasingly . 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

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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 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 ; 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 . 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. The video went viral on You- and the Middle East, a group of Libyan Tube and Facebook and was broadcast hip-hop artists in compiled Khalas on Al Jazeera. Tunisian youth found the Vol. 1: North African song so compelling–and the government Artists Unite. (Khalas means “enough” in found it so threatening–that after El Arabic.) The features songs by Général released another hip-hop song artists from Tunisia, Egypt, , and supporting the protest movement, Algeria.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 The global influence of hip-hop directly lematic images, philosophies, and per- Marcyliena relates to its popularity as a major music sonas underlying hip-hop culture.17 Morgan & Dionne source among youth in the United States. Today, this scholarship extends across Bennett In 1996, there were 19 million young peo- most disciplines in the humanities and ple aged ten to fourteen years old and social sciences, from political scientist 18.4 million aged ½fteen to nineteen liv- Cathy Cohen’s Democracy Remixed: Black ing in the United States.12 According to Youth and the Future of American Politics a national Gallup poll of adolescents to The Anthology of Rap, a collection edited between the ages of thirteen and seven- by literary scholars Adam Bradley and teen in 1992, hip-hop music had become Andrew DuBois.18 Volumes have also the preferred music of youth (26 percent), been published in the emerging ½eld of followed closely by rock (25 percent).13 global hip-hop studies, including Global Moreover, the Recording Industry Asso- Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA; ciation of America (riaa) reports that The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the from 1999 to 2008, hip-hop music was Globalization of Black ; the second-most-purchased music after Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and rock for all age groups. Consciousness; Global Linguistic Flows: There is a growing body of scholarship Hip Hop , Youth Identities, and the on hip-hop as well. Academic analyses of Politics of Language; and The Languages hip-hop culture began to appear in the of Global Hip Hop.19 and include the 1994 publication We consider hip-hop to be the lingua of Tricia Rose’s Black Noise: Rap Music franca for popular and political youth and Black Culture in Contemporary America culture around the world. In this essay, and Russell Potter’s Spectacular Vernacu- we analyze hip-hop’s role as a global lars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmod- imprint that symbolizes unity, justice, ernism, which, in 1995, was the ½rst criti- and equality through its interpretation cal work to examine hip-hop as an artis- of black cultural and political practices tic, social, and cultural phenomenon.14 and values. Our purpose is to examine Also in the 1990s, the First Amendment the perspectives of many followers of free-speech issues associated with the hip-hop. These perspectives include, for group drew public com- example, a Japanese young person who ments from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and stated: “I mean a culture Hiphop . . . Houston Baker, Jr., who were then new that’s bringing us together like this– academic stars and rising public intel- that’s amazing! That’s the power of lectuals.15 Angela Davis and bell hooks, music, I think. And not only that, the both authors and activists, published power of Hiphop. I’ll say this: it is separate conversations about politics black power.”20 and feminism with , a former member of the hip-hop group N.W.A. Though hip-hop is now ubiquitous, its (Niggaz with Attitude).16 The signi½- adoption and adaptation into cultures cance of hip-hop in African American outside of the United States have at times culture was also addressed by the phi- been problematic. Researchers have re- losopher , historian Robin coiled at the explicit racist parody and D.G. Kelley, political scientist Michael comic-like copies of the gangster persona Dawson, and sociologist , all that appeared in the early stages of hip- of whom celebrated and critiqued the hop’s global presence. For instance, early impact of the relentless and often prob- attempts by Japanese youth to “repre-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & sent” hip-hop’s African American her- multinational media corporations yet the Global itage reportedly involved intensive tan- are more essential to hip-hop culture and Imprint of a Black ning, the use of hair chemicals to grow the hip-hop nation than commercial Cultural Afros and dreadlocks, and caricatures production. Commercial production Form of hyper-stereotyped urban black mas- could end, but hip-hop culture would culinity as a rationale to abuse young continue, and even thrive, through women.21 As hip-hop’s cultural beliefs local scenes. became more widely understood, global Some observers have conceived of the hip-hop began to take on a character of movement of hip-hop culture around the its own, reflecting the culture, creativ- globe as a hip-hop diaspora that shares ity, and local styles of the youth who characteristics of ethnic constructions of embraced and produced it. Hip-hop is diaspora.24 Global hip-hop scenes are now a multibillion-dollar global indus- sometimes (quite accurately) described try that continues to grow and diversify, as translocal because they so often repre- but its impact remains underreported; sent complex cultural, artistic, and polit- often overlooked is the fact that hip- ical dialogues between local innovations hop influences not only conventional of diverse hip-hop art forms; transcultural “rap music,” but also all forms of pop- interactions between local hip-hop scenes ular music as well as radio, music, tele- in cities and nations outside of the Unit- vision, ½lm, advertising, and digital ed States; and exchanges between local media throughout the world.22 scenes and U.S.-based hip-hop media.25 Though commercial hip-hop represents While the translocal dynamics of the a signi½cant part of the music industry, hip-hop diaspora foster countless routes it is only a fraction of the artistic produc- of cultural interaction and exchange, at tion and performance of hip-hop culture, least two major routes of cultural global- most of which is local. Every populated ization are at the crossroads of these nu- continent (and most countries) have merous pathways. African American cul- thousands of local hip-hop scenes shaped ture and African diasporic cultural forms by artistic and cultural practices that are are integral to the formation of both these produced, de½ned, and sustained primar- major routes. Here, we focus primarily ily by youth in their own neighborhoods on hip-hop music, but the routes charac- and communities. In the United States, terize other hip-hop art forms as well. these scenes are generally described as The ½rst route of diaspora relates to underground hip-hop, both to characterize the origins of hip-hop culture. While their critical challenge to conventional hip-hop may have emerged in norms and to distinguish them from in the 1970s, many of its diverse global commercial hip-hop.23 And as it turns and multicultural beginnings can be tied out, the underground is more densely to African diasporic cultural forms and populated and deeply substantive than communities.26 Especially in the case of the commercial cultural space on hip- rapping/rhyming, it is almost impossi- hop’s surface. The Internet has added a ble to isolate a single cultural trajectory new and transformative dimension to because the aesthetic and linguistic fea- local and global hip-hop cultures and tures of lyrical rhyming can be found communities, empowering young people throughout Africa and the Caribbean as to document and distribute their person- well as the United States. Many of the al and local art, ideas, and experiences. young black and Latino artists who col- These local scenes are rarely ½nanced by laborated in the development of hip-hop

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 culture in New York were recent immi- does not destroy cultural identity. . . . The Marcyliena grants from the Caribbean and, there- African aesthetic origins of hip hop, as Morgan & Dionne fore, were shaped by a range of African with all black American music, allows Bennett diasporic cultures. Jamaican musical for it to have a shared resonance among forms, for example, have been particu- a wide range of diasporic and continen- larly signi½cant in the development of tal Africans.”29 Moreover, in addition to hip-hop aesthetic practices.27 Yet reflec- representing a shared cultural terrain for tions on African American musical tra- members of international African dias- ditions reveal that many aesthetic fea- poric cultures, these African aesthetics tures of early hip-hop were already a have also shaped the aesthetic conscious- part of the complex cultural roots, and ness and tastes of non-African Ameri- routes, of African American history. cans for centuries. The world’s youth Musician and sound curator David have responded with a stunning prolif- Toop traced these many trajectories in eration of hip-hop-based artistic and his discussion of the origins of hip-hop cultural production. culture: Aside from being translocal, the move- ment of hip-hop between local and glob- Whatever the disagreements over lineage al contexts can also be explained by the in the rap hall of fame or the history of concept of glocalization: that is, simulta- hip hop, there is one thing on which all neously engaging the intersections of are agreed. “Rap is nothing new,” says global and local dynamics.30 In their Paul Winley. Rap’s forbears stretch back analysis of European hip-hop, sociolin- through , street , radio djs, Bo guists Jannis Androutsopoulos and Arno Diddley, the singers, Cab Calloway, Scholz suggest that glocalization involves Pigmeat Markham, the tap dancers and a recontextualization of cultural forms comics, the Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, through “local” appropriations of a glob- , and doo-wop ally acceptable cultural model “that are groups, ring games, skip rope rhymes, then integrated into a new social con- prison and army songs, toasts, signifying text.”31 Transculturation, which describes and the dozens, all the way to the of the cultural features of glocalization, re- and . No matter how fers to a process of continuous cultural far it penetrates into the twilight maze of exchange; historically, it has been used Japanese video games and cool European to critique the unidirectional model of electronics, its roots are still the deepest in cultural transmission implied by the con- all contemporary Afro-American Music.28 cepts of acculturation, appropriation, or The second major route of hip-hop cultural imperialism. Complex transcul- culture is its movement into local youth turation processes shape global hip-hop; cultures around the world. Soon after it they have been observed within and was developed in the United States, hip- across international, national, local, and hop culture traveled as part of the larger digital environments, and they some- processes of America’s global media dis- times result in entirely new cultural tribution. While multiethnic collabora- or artistic products and forms. Conse- tion produced early hip-hop forms, Afri- quently, global hip-hop cultures retain can Americans played a vital cultural and many qualitative features of African political role in its development. As Afri- diasporic and U.S.-based hip-hop cul- can American studies scholar Imani Perry tures while simultaneously engaging in argues, “[P]romiscuous composition dynamic and proli½c processes of aes-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & thetic innovation, production, and sweatshirts–a new style of ‘calligraphy’ the Global diversi½cation.32 (graf½ti)–which we quickly adopted Imprint of a Black Along with hip-hop’s cultural norm of for the headlines of the class newspa- Cultural inclusion, global hip-hop remains sym- per–and, last but not least, a new style Form bolically associated with African Amer- of dance: .”35 She remem- icans. It has incorporated many aspects bers that in the same summer, she and of African American language ideology, some friends watched , the even when the English language itself is 1984 classic hip-hop movie, at the local not part of a particular expression of open-air cinema. Terkoura½’s story was hip-hop culture. In other words, repeated many times over around the world as the generation was intro- it is not mere words and expressions that duced to hip-hop culture through Beat create a bond among hiphop followers Street and .36 These ½lms played throughout the world. Rather, it is based a central role in making international on African American language ideology youth aware of hip-hop culture, music, where the words signify multiple mean- graf½ti, and dance. In Japan, , ings and critiques of power. Hiphop pre- and other nations, youth initially re- sents African (aae) as sponded less to the English language- a symbolic and politicized where based rapping and more to the graf½ti speakers are aware of complex and con- and dance representations.37 tradictory processes of stigmatization, The particulars of hip-hop’s more valorization and social control. The hip- recent emergence reveal an old story of hop speech community is not necessarily how African American culture has cir- linguistically and physically located but culated throughout the world. In fact, rather bound by this shared language the global influence of African Ameri- ideology as part of politics, culture, so- can culture has been inextricably linked cial conditions, and norms, values, and with the rise of the American Empire attitude.33 since at least the late nineteenth centu- Hip-hop language ideology remains ry: for example, in 1873, the Fisk Jubilee central to the construction and contin- singers performed “” spirituals uation of all hip-hop cultures, local and for England’s Queen Victoria. African global. The use of and nation- American music and culture historically al languages, including complex code- have traveled when and where African switching practices, serves as a decla- American bodies could not. During the ration that hip-hop culture enables all twentieth century, while Jim Crow seg- citizens of the hip-hop nation to reclaim regation restricted ’ and create a range of contested languages, movement in their own country, African identities, and powers.34 American music, including , , and, later, and soul, trav- In her introduction to The Languages of eled the world, shaping world music in Global Hip Hop, sociolinguist Marina ways that have yet to be fully acknowl- Terkoura½ recalls her ½rst encounter edged.38 Beginning in the late twentieth with hip-hop in the mid-1980s in Herak- century, hip-hop music, the ½rst African lion, Greece. A new student at her high American musical form to be created in school, whose family had emigrated, re- the post–civil rights era, continued this turned from Germany with a new dress global journey, a journey whose impact code “consisting mainly of hooded has been expanded and problematized in

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 the late twentieth and early twenty-½rst ture in the United States and elsewhere. Marcyliena centuries by processes of corporate glob- In 1992, when pe toured Europe with the Morgan & Dionne alization and new–especially computer- rock group , their charge to hip-hop’s Bennett based–technologies for musical produc- nation of millions was “Fight the Power!” tion and distribution. This slogan began to appear on walls in Understanding the global presence of England, Poland, and Italy, among other hip-hop culture is like putting together nations. According to pe’s highly polit- puzzle pieces from around the world. icized mc , the group visited Over the last several decades, interna- more than forty countries within the tional newspapers and magazines have ½rst ten years of its formation.39 In 2010, collectively printed thousands of articles pe launched its seventieth tour, which (many of which we reviewed for this included numerous world destinations. essay) about the presence of hip-hop mc Ferman of the Basque group Negu culture worldwide. There are hundreds, Gorriak describes the impact pe had on if not thousands, of websites devoted to him as an artist: “[W]e had been listen- hip-hop in different areas. Every nation, ing to a whole lot of music, especially region, and even neighborhood that rep- linked to the rap explosion. We were resents hip-hop culture does so with a shocked by , by the force unique history. Yet much of this culture that the rap movement had, its power to remains undocumented or under-docu- criticize.”40 Chuck D himself was partic- mented, particularly because only hip- ularly affected by a conversation he had hop media that engage conventional in 1994 with a fan in Croatia. The fan commercial markets achieve wide rec- applied pe’s African American political ognition. Given that much of hip-hop analysis to the religious and ethnic con- culture is local, including in the United flict that had long affected the region, States, and that it is produced by young explaining: people who do not have access to main- Public Enemy showed us that Rap music stream media outlets, it is often ignored is not afraid of subjects connected with by conventional modes of recognition national and race issues. We started to see and assessment. how powerful rap could be if it were used Despite the fact that much of local in expressing our attitudes. The kind of hip-hop culture does not receive com- lyrics and consciousness that reveals the mercial or global attention, a number of whole process of civilization, which is the emergent themes and trajectories indi- story of dominance, the dominance of cate hip-hop’s signi½cance as a global white people over Black people, the dom- arts and media movement. These factors inance of male over females, the domi- include the use of hip-hop culture to ex- nance of man over nature, and the domi- pose injustice or ½ght for justice and, in nance of majorities over minorities.41 an ironic parallel, to conventionalize the nationalization of hip-hop cultures as Another signi½cant influence in the the political, commercial, and even international spread of hip-hop as spiritual arbiters of national and inter- grounded in the African American and national culture. black experience is the Universal Zulu One of the most influential groups to Nation.42 American dj Afrika Bam- uncover injustice and encourage activism, baataa founded the community-based Public Enemy (pe) shaped the early overt organization in the 1970s to promote politicization of hip-hop music and cul- peace, unity, and harmony among bat-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & tling and peoples.43 The Zulu (a style of chanting over a beat in dance the Global Nation utilized black liberation ideol- hall music), were actively engaged in Imprint of a Black ogies to bring to its many global follow- that construction. Cultural ers a mantra of interplanetary human- France’s long-standing engagement Form ism. Bambaataa explains: with African American culture through artists such as dancer and singer Jose- [M]y thing is to always try to bring peo- phine Baker, writer James Baldwin, and ple together in uni½cation and to see our- countless jazz musicians enabled that selves as humans on this planet so-called country to build a bridge to American Earth, and what can we do to change the hip-hop culture with relative ease. In betterment of life for all people on the 1982, for example, the French radio net- planet Earth and to respect what so-called work Europe 1 sponsored the New York black, brown, yellow, red and white people City Rap Tour that brought to France have done to better civilization for people important American hip-hop artists, to live on this planet so-called Earth, and some of whom were themselves immi- recognize that we are not alone.44 grants or the children of immigrants. Bambaataa and other hip-hop pioneers Artists included Fab 5 Freddy, the Rock adhered to belief systems that upheld Steady Crew, and , human equality and that explicitly whose Zulu Nation took root in denounced constructions of race and rac- at the same time.46 ist activities to separate and hierarchi- As American hip-hop artists began to cally situate human beings. Inspired by achieve tremendous economic success singer ’s “I’m Black and I’m and cultural influence in other countries Proud,” Negu Gorriak produced what and music markets, global youth quick- anthropologist Jacqueline Urla calls the ly began not only to consume but also group’s “anthem”: “Esan Ozenki,” whose to produce their own hip-hop cultural main rhyme–“Esan ozenki. Euskaduna naiz forms.47 Not surprisingly, thousands of eta harro nago”–translates as, “Say it local scenes and national hip-hop artists Loud: I’m Basque, and I’m proud.”45 emerged in different areas of the world. Though influenced by American hip- In the 1980s, nations with English- hop forms, these artists typically devel- speaking populations easily engaged oped their own styles, drawing from lo- with hip-hop music and rapping, while cal and national cultural art forms and nations where English was not the pri- addressing the social and political issues mary language often forged their initial that affected their communities and na- relationship with hip-hop through graf- tions. These scenes generated a wide- ½ti and break dancing. As a result, places spread interest in hip-hop culture and such as England and Anglophone former the growth of commercial hip-hop music colonies, including , Aus- in national contexts; thus, hip-hop music tralia, and Nigeria, have been creating was no longer accessible only as an Amer- hip-hop music since it emerged in the ican import. Both international and Amer- United States. Certainly, Jamaican mu- ican hip-hop artists have topped music sical forms have been in a cultural dia- charts and sales throughout Europe and logue with African American music Africa as well as in parts of Asia and Latin since before hip-hop was formally con- America and, more recently, Australia. structed. Both African American and France is the world’s second-largest Jamaican verbal , such as toasting hip-hop market, and it is one of the larg-

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 est producers and consumers of hip-hop the American group N.W.A.) Cantonese Marcyliena culture.48 In 2003, four hip-hop singles hip-hop’s mc Yan, a member of Hong Morgan & Dionne were nominated for the Victoires de Kong’s ½rst major hip-hop act, has cre- Bennett la Musique, the French version of the ated an independent hip-hop label Grammy Awards. France’s mc Solaar, (Fu©kin Music) that successfully pro- who was born in and whose par- motes the new group Yellow Peril. Nige- ents are from Chad, has topped French ria’s distributes hip-hop charts with his singles and albums for along with R&B and pop and promotes nearly two decades; he has had best-sell- itself as “Africa’s Number One Record ing albums in dozens of other countries, Label.” Nigerian mc Ruggedman, who too. In 1995, he was named Best Male holds a political science degree, famous- Singer in the Victoires de la Musique ly called out Kennis Music in his song awards. He has launched successful world “Big Bros” for excluding gifted hip-hop tours of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the artists and promoting mediocre ones; United States; received recognition from he has created his own label, Rugged American hip-hop artists; performed Records, to promote acts according to with American hip-hop group De La his vision. Soul; appeared on albums with rappers In response to hip-hop’s continued Guru and ; released a song popularity, national and international through American hip-hop, R&B, and music awards ceremonies have incor- pop label ; and porated hip-hop into their productions, appeared in Bollywood movies. and artists have won awards both within American multinational record corpo- the hip-hop music and in broader rations have hip-hop divisions all over the categories. Hip-hop music videos, which world. Def Jam Records, for example, is were initially excluded from America’s one of hip-hop’s most iconic record la- along with all other African Ameri- bels. Founded by and can musical forms, have been broadcast Rick Rubin in 1984, it is famous for acts worldwide on since the 1980s such as Public Enemy, Run dmc, and the and, more recently, on the Internet. Hip- . Currently owned by Univer- hop artists, both in the United States and sal, Def Jam now operates in Germany, elsewhere, use music videos to promote the , and Japan. It has their brands and their music. Although an international hip-hop music game, music videos have always served primar- Def Jam Rapstar, which features interna- ily to boost record sales, they have long tional artists. In November 2010, the com- aided another signi½cant process: the pany created a Web portal to enable un- transcultural exchange of hip-hop. Young signed artists around the world to access people who watch videos from other cul- Def Jam online distribution resources. tures or nations can acquire a great deal National record companies in other of knowledge not only about the music, countries have also developed hip-hop but also about the dance, fashion, style, divisions or labels, or they showcase a and overall aesthetics of hip-hop in roster of hip-hop acts. In 1981, Germany’s diverse cultures. Bombastic Records released one of the Moreover, arbiters of national culture ½rst German hip-hop albums, featuring have increasingly come to recognize hip- songs in German and English by Ger- hop as a legitimate art form. This valida- man mcs. (The album title, Krauts with tion may have reached an unusual zenith Attitude: German HipHop Vol. 1, referred to in 2004, when a Polish break dancing

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & crew performed for Pope John Paul II at scribed hip-hop as “the existing revolu- the Global the Vatican. The video–widely viewed tionary voice of ’s future.”49 Indeed, Imprint of a Black on the Internet–shows the Pope smil- hip-hop is the main source for discussion Cultural ing, nodding, and clapping during the of racial injustice in Cuba today: at least Form performance and blessing the dancers two documentaries have been made afterward. As just one example of hip- about Cuban hip-hop culture; African hop’s growing cultural validity, the epi- American mc Common has demonstrat- sode hints at hip-hop’s potential reach. ed a long-term commitment to collabo- Cultural acceptance of hip-hop, how- rating with Cuban hip-hop artists; and ever, is often accorded to dance rather former Black Panther and American ex- than music. Although hip-hop dance ile in Cuba, Assata Shakur, has been ac- historically has been less explicitly con- tively engaged in helping Cuban youth troversial than hip-hop music, it none- become empowered through hip-hop. theless implicitly challenges a range of Music Mayday, an organization that institutional and cultural norms about promotes youth empowerment and edu- dance, movement, and the body. Inter- cation through the arts in Africa, puts national break dancing competitions particular emphasis on hip-hop and and hip-hop dance festivals have existed sponsors a range of hip-hop-related edu- for decades, but in the twenty-½rst cen- cational and cultural activities. One of tury they are acquiring more institution- their biggest events is B-Connected, an al and commercial support and funding. annual music and arts festival that links The year 2010 offers three striking exam- youth through concurrent festivals in ples: In July, Salzburg, Austria (birth- ½ve different countries, including The place of Mozart and stomping ground of , Tanzania, South Africa, Hitler) witnessed its ½rst Urban Culture Ethiopia, and Hungary. These festivals Festival, featuring hip-hop dancers from feature an international roster of mcs around the world. Australia sent Kulture that includes, but is not limited to, art- Break, its multiethnic break dancing crew, ists from the host countries. to the Shanghai Expo to represent its na- In South America, Brazilian hip-hop tional culture in a performance for thou- culture has in many ways mirrored sands of international participants. In themes in African American hip-hop. , where the b-boys are con- On the one hand, the Brazilian media sidered among the best hip-hop dancers have stereotyped hip-hop as the music in the world, the government spent mil- of drugs and violence, and on the other, lions on the second annual global invita- Brazilian artists use hip-hop to address tional hip-hop dance competition, only racism, poverty, and police brutality– to make millions more–an estimated issues that ’s myth of racial har- $35 million–in advertising revenues. mony attempts to conceal. Brazil’s tra- ditional martial art, capoeira, is widely Hip-hop culture is also used to edu- recognized for its remarkable similarity cate and socialize young people. In 2004, to break dancing, and both forms emerge the United Nations Human Settlements from African diasporic roots. However, Programme, un-habitat, sponsored a more recently, hip-hop in Brazil has dis- Global Hip-Hop Summit to organize and tinguished itself, through its aesthetic educate world youth about a range of complexity, engaging diverse musical issues. Fidel Castro sponsors an annual forms and becoming increasingly ac- hip-hop conference in Cuba; he has de- cepted as a social and political tool to

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 educate and empower Brazilian youth.50 the Caribbean, , the Unit- Marcyliena The 2005 documentary Rising, ed States, and Europe to create “World Morgan & Dionne which has won dozens of international Cup,” a twelve-minute mix track that is Bennett awards, examines the music group and described as a “transnational hip-hop social project Grupo Cultural AfroReg- collaboration.” Nomadic Wax released gae. AfroReggae is Rio’s most success- the track for free online. Coca-Cola chose ful hip-hop band, merging hip-hop with “Wavin’ Flag”–whose lyrics were changed other musical forms and touring the for the promotion by K’Naan, the world- world. (The group opened for the Roll- famous Somali-born Canadian mc–as ing Stones in Brazil in 2006.) It is also one of the anthems for its World Cup an ngo, a dynamic hip-hop organiza- campaign and World Cup Trophy Tour, tion that empowers Rio’s poorest young which traveled internationally and fea- people through dozens of arts and social tured K’Naan as a headlining act. K’Naan justice projects. Led by former small- also performed the song at the World time drug-dealer-turned-mc Anderson Cup concert with , Shakira, Sa, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae has be- and the transnational, multiracial, and come so powerful that it serves as one multicultural American hip-hop group of the most effective mediators between the Black Eyed Peas. The performance different institutions, groups, and fac- was broadcast to millions. tions within ’s complex In another example of national and social and political structure.51 In 2007, institutional endorsement of hip-hop Brazil nationalized its investment in hip- and of the role of technology in the hop culture when its Ministry of Culture development of hip-hop culture, the began to apply AfroReggae’s mission National Museum of Australia com- to the entire nation through its Culture missioned mc Wire and Morganics, a Points program. By providing grants to white mc and hip-hop theater artist, to fund local organizations, such as the undertake a hip-hop-based oral history project Hip Hop Nation Brazil, the pro- project. They toured Australia to collect gram empowers local hip-hop commu- more than 1,500 autobiographical rap nities to educate and serve Brazilian songs by youth from across the conti- youth. The organizations are often run nent. Both men then used the songs to by local hip-hop artists, including one conduct youth workshops and trainings run by mc Guiné Silva in São Paolo. throughout Australia. As he explained to : Women hip-hop mcs are appearing “This program has really democratized in greater numbers, though there are culture. . . . We’ve become a multimedia far more male artists. Their limited num- laboratory. Getting that seed money and bers reflect larger issues of global that studio equipment has enabled us to and the international marginalization become a kind of hip-hop factory.”52 of women’s voices as well as the gender During the 2010 World Cup in South politics of hip-hop culture. Many women Africa (the ½rst to be held in Africa), hip- mcs perform lyrics about gender and hop played a meaningful role in the inter- are often actively involved in using hip- national soccer championship. Nomadic hop to educate and empower youth. Wax, a Fair Trade international media In the global Muslim hip-hop move- company that focuses on hip-hop and ment, women mcs are playing an in- the diaspora, brought together ½fteen creasingly vital role, a phenomenon that international hip-hop artists from Africa, contests stereotypes of Muslim cultures

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & and people as universally misogynistic. “original abodigital” explains that his the Global Lebanese mc Malikah was proclaimed identity “has an ambiguous meaning Imprint of mc a Black “Best in Libya” with another ½nalist because of the word digital. I’m abo- Cultural on mtv Arabia’s program Hip HopNa.53 digital because I’m a twenty-½rst cen- Form Palestinian-British mc Shadia Mansour, tury Aboriginal, I’m down with laptops known as “the ½rst lady of Arab hip-hop,” and mobile phones and home entertain- explains, “Hip-hop holds no boundaries. ment. But digital also means your hands It’s a naked testimony of real life issues. and your ½ngers, so I’m still putting my You just break down your message and ½ngers in the dirt; I’m still using my get your point across in the music.”54 hands to create things. So that’s the The 2008 ½lm Slingshot Hip Hop docu- ambiguity.”56 mented how Palestinian rappers form Israeli hip-hop music reflects Israel’s alternative voices of resistance within complex political dynamics and includes the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. It fea- Zionist, pro-Palestinian, and Jewish Ethi- tured female artist Abeer Al Zinati (also opian-Israeli artists. Sagol 59 is a promi- known as Sabreena da Witch). The nent Jewish Israeli mc who uses hip-hop 2006 ½lm I Love Hip Hop in Morocco to build bridges between Jewish and featured the female mc Fati, who is Muslim communities. In 2001, he orga- now a solo artist.55 nized and produced “Summit Meeting,” Fijian-Australian mc Trey is one of which is believed to be the ½rst record- the most prominent hip-hop artists in ing featuring a collaboration between Australia and one of the world’s pre- Jewish and Arab artists in Israel. He also eminent female hip-hop artists. She has hosts Corner Prophets/Old Jeruz Ci- collaborated with Maya Jupiter, an Aus- pher Hip Hop series, a cultural project tralian mc of Mexican and Turkish focused on uniting diverse groups in descent, in the hip-hop group Foreign Israel through hip-hop culture.57 Heights. In addition to her work as an In one of the lighter examples of hip- mc, Trey is an activist and aerosol artist hop’s reach, -based multination- whose artwork has been displayed on al communications corporation Nokia the streets of three continents. She has has incorporated hip-hop into a Chinese collaborated with a collective of U.K. commercial in which elderly rural Chi- and Australian hip-hop artists on a the- nese farmers claim to have created hip- ater project called “East West hop music using local farming tools and Sydney.” Vodafone, one of the world’s labor. The hilarious commercial reveals largest telecommunications companies, not only Nokia’s assessment of hip-hop’s provided a grant to mc Trey and other selling power, but also the advertisers’ Australian hip-hop artists to work with complex knowledge of the debates re- Australia’s Information Cultural Ex- garding origins, cultural authority, and change program (ice) to develop hip- individual authorship that play a sig- hop arts and digital education work- ni½cant role in hip-hop culture around shops for at-risk youth in Australia. the world. mc Trey’s work with ice is a practical The above examples of record labels, example of the theoretical model that artists, events, campaigns, and social indigenous Australian mc Wire–who programs are just a handful of the thou- claims that, for him, mc means “my sands of ways in which hip-hop exerts a cousin”–elucidates in describing his cultural and economic force worldwide. album and identity, AboDigital. The Most of these examples reflect hip-hop’s

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 inclusion in commercial media and priv- When hip-hop came to Africa from Marcyliena ileged cultural spaces, but these institu- the United States, it had among its ½rst Morgan & Dionne tional representations and events are fans (and imitators) elite and upper- Bennett possible only because they are fueled by middle-class African youth. Hip-hop the originality, imagination, commit- developed as several former colonial ment, and endurance of local hip-hop powers, including France, served as con- cultures. duits bringing hip-hop to Francophone Africa. Countries that embraced the new While the influence of pe and the Zulu cultural form included Senegal, the ½rst Nation is widespread, global hip-hop African country to adopt and develop culture has a complex relationship with rap music; Tanzania, one of the ½rst other aspects of African American cul- countries to develop a strong “mother tural representation. First, though the tongue” rap presence; ; and Ni- originators and innovators of hip-hop geria. However, given that hip-hop has included a diverse group of talented, its roots in an African diasporic art form, determined, and creative youth, media its presence in Africa has raised a com- outlets created a hyper-stereotypical plex discourse about origins and home- account of hip-hop as the product of comings.59 Senegalese trio , whose poor, young black men who were liter- music combines hip-hop with a range of ally “wild” and menacing.58 While this global styles, describes hip-hop’s return depiction has stuck in the United States, to Africa in the title track of their album it is not as effective globally, where Afri- Boomerang: “Born in Africa, brought up can American youth are credited for in America, hip-hop has come full cir- social justice struggles like the civil cle!” As a result of their sense of cultural rights and Black Power movements. authority, African hip-hop artists have American forms of racism are so widely actively engaged in the process of re- known and studied as an example of de½ning hip-hop culture in ways that injustice that individuals all over the challenge colonial norms and values; world know both the explicit signs and indeed, they do not hesitate to critique the smoldering, everyday existence of the practice of those norms and values repression. Yet there is extensive com- by African Americans. mentary and critique of the representa- One common theme throughout Africa tion of U.S.-style violence in hip-hop. has been the question of how to adapt Among African hip-hop artists in par- hip-hop so that it represents local and ticular, there is a sustained critique of national issues without incurring vio- hardcore hip-hop. Commercial gangsta lence. African artists focus on both cul- rap lyrics have been central to hardcore ture and the realities of violence. For hip-hop culture, and have historically example, politically motivated hip-hop represented, (in some cases) analyzed, was pioneered in the Western Cape by and (in too many others) glamorized the the groups Prophets of the City (poc), intersection of masculinity, dominance, Black Noise, and, later, Brasse Vannie and violence. As a result, hardcore hip- Kaap (bvk, or Brothers of the Cape). hop culture has been the historical target These groups continue to promote the of global and American communities; ideals of socioeconomic and racial par- and it has produced a contested relation- ity through community development ship with local hip-hop cultures in the programs. In contrast to this overtly United States and elsewhere. “conscious” message, a contemporary

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & genre known as has emerged ing Brazil, Cuba, and the Sahara, the Global in the vicinity of , South Congo, , and the United States. Imprint of a Black Africa. This style is dance-oriented, It is often used to express religious mes- Cultural incorporating elements of , sages, and even hip-hop contains a sub- Form indigenous black languages, and vernac- genre of gospel rap. also ular dialects. Arthur Mafokate, the self- carries political and social messages. proclaimed King of Kwaito is widely The most famous example is , regarded as the progenitor of this style. the king of , whose inflamma- The late and crossover tory lyrics (in Nigerian Pidgin) and non- artists such as tkzee have contributed traditional lifestyle endeared him to mil- to the mainstream success of kwaito in lions inside and outside Nigeria. Local South African culture. music, especially in the Hausa north, Hip-hop mcs often rhyme in their own might address a particular political can- language and in local dialects that have didate or of½ceholder, or it might exhort been historically marginalized. African the populace to take a particular action. mcs, who are often multilingual, and For the past several years, the most wide- who have a long intellectual and literary ly listened-to music has been American- history of rejecting colonial languages inspired rap and dance hip-hop based in favor of their own, frequently code- on local beats and enhanced with music switch into two or more languages with- production technology. As young Nige- in a single song, just as some bilingual rian rappers–who as children idolized U.S. and Caribbean-Latino mcs code- American stars like Tupac, krs-One, switch between English and Spanish.60 Jay-Z, and –are coming of age and The musical and linguistic possibilities have greater access to production equip- of hip-hop culture are particularly dy- ment, Nigerian rap is becoming increas- namic in Africa’s most populated nation, ingly popular. Artist jjc talks about Nigeria. One of the most linguistically avoiding guns because “we got too much diverse countries in the world, Nigeria drama already.” For other Nigerian art- has more than ½ve hundred languages ists, avoiding gangster posturing is about spoken within its borders. English is the “keeping it real.” Says GrandSUN, “We of½cial language, used in schools and ½ght with our hands.” Certainly, on a government of½ces, but Nigeria also continent where oral literatures and lit- recognizes three dominant languages: eracies have been culturally and politi- Hausa (spoken primarily in the North), cally central for longer than written his- Yoruba (spoken mostly in the South- tory is capable of documenting, African west), and Igbo (spoken in the South- hip-hop heads also ½ght with their words. east). The country’s unof½cial lingua As global hip-hop maintains the tradi- franca is Nigerian Pidgin English. tion of American hip-hop, it must also About half of Nigerians are Muslims; account for equally powerful local tradi- 40 percent are Christians; and about tions of art, culture, and protest. It must 10 percent practice indigenous religions. represent life on a local level. The critique (Indigenous practices are often infused and constant examination of the genre is into both Islam and Christianity as well.) at the heart of hip-hop culture. It focuses Popular music in Nigeria has a rep- on growth and analysis–even when it utation for melding local melodies, lan- also takes American hip-hop to task for guages, and polyrhythms with influ- its gangster posturing, as K’naan does in ences from all over the world, includ- “What’s Hardcore?”:

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 I’m a spit these verses cause I feel tinues to function as a dynamic culture Marcyliena annoyed, of resistance. It also reveals how hip-hop Morgan & Dionne And I’m not gonna quit till I ½ll the void, artists have used online technology to Bennett If I rhyme about home and got descriptive, reach audiences who would not other- I’d make Fifty Cent look like Limp Biskit, wise have access to their work. This is It’s true, and don’t make me rhyme about particularly true in the case of artists you, who have been banned by their govern- I’m from where the kids is addicted to ments from performing or releasing glue, albums. Many of the hip-hop songs in Get ready, he got a good grip on the the North African protest movements machete, include musical or aesthetic references Make rappers say they do it for love like to African American hip-hop, and the R-Kelly, artists acknowledge African American It’s HARD, influences on their music. They have Harder than and Compton transformed those influences to achieve intertwined, local and national, aesthetic and politi- Harder than harboring Bin Laden and cal goals. The hip-hop songs of the North rewind, African and Middle Eastern revolution- To that earlier part when I was kinda like ary movements collectively represent a “We begin our day by the way of the gun, meaningful moment in the history, not Rocket propelled grenades blow you away only of hip-hop culture, but also of pop- if you front, ular and youth culture. African Ameri- We got no police ambulances or ½re can hip-hop artist Nas famously rhymed, ½ghters, “All I need is one mic to spread my voice We start riots by burning car tires, to the whole world.” North African and They looting, and everybody starting Middle Eastern hip-hop artists have em- shooting.” braced that ethos, using their voices and [. . .] hip-hop culture as powerful instruments So what’s hardcore? Really? of revolutionary change. Are you hardcore? Hmm. So what’s hardcore? Really? While mainstream American dis- Are you hardcore? Hmm.61 courses have marginalized, maligned, K’naan criticizes the senseless pos- and trivialized hip-hop music and cul- turing in U.S. hip-hop as a way to cri- ture, multicultural youth in America and tique the senseless destruction and around the world have come together to oppression in Somalia and to indict a turn hip-hop into one of the most dynam- world that does not have the stomach ic arts and culture movements in recent or heart to make a difference. history. It is disturbingly ironic that the As the lingua franca of global youth, nation that produced hip-hop culture has hip-hop uni½es young people across the least respect for it; meanwhile, the racial and national boundaries while United Nations and individual countries honoring their diversity, complexity, are crossing the bridge that the global intellect, and artistry. As mentioned hip-hop nation has been building for de- above, the role of hip-hop in the pro- cades. Nations are using hip-hop to see, tests in North Africa and the Middle hear, understand, serve, and, ultimately, East demonstrates how hip-hop con- be transformed for the better by their brilliant and powerful young people.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & Hip-hop’s aesthetic culture–which The hip-hop nation has done more the Global began with the four core elements of than heed Public Enemy’s famous call Imprint of a Black rapping, deejaying, breaking, and graf- to “Fight the Power.” It has created and Cultural ½ti art–now encompasses all those ele- become the power. U.S. and global hip- Form ments along with an ever-growing and hop heads have put into practice and diversifying range of artistic, cultural, expanded on psychiatrist Frantz Fanon’s intellectual, political, and social prac- theory: namely, that an individual or tices, products, and performances. These group that “has a language consequently developments include, but are not lim- possesses the world expressed and im- ited to, studio, live, and digital music plied by that language. . . . Mastery of production; writing and rhythmic per- language affords remarkable power.”62 formance of spoken words alone and to Citizens of the global hip-hop nation beats; street, club, and studio dance in- have not merely mastered a language, novations; fashion and style expressions; they have formed a new one. They have visual arts, including graf½ti innovations; used that new language to rede½ne, theater and performance arts; interna- name, and create their many worlds tional club cultures’ engagement with and worldviews. Through their unprece- diverse music, dance, and style expres- dented global movement of art and cul- sions; and digital, public, and academic ture, the citizens of the hip-hop nation knowledge-production and distribution have used their unique and collective practices. The artistic achievements of aesthetic voices both to “possess” and hip-hop represent, by themselves, a transform the world, a process that has remarkable contribution to world cul- not merely afforded them power, but ture. However, the hip-hop nation has has also enabled them to produce new not just made art; it has made art with forms of power, beauty, and knowledge. the vision and message of changing worlds–locally, nationally, and globally.

endnotes 1 dj Kool Herc, Introduction to , Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), xi–xii. dj Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) is considered one of the originators of hip-hop music and culture. He is credited with developing the art of combining deejaying and rhyming. This skill became the foundation not only for hip-hop music, but also for a range of other musical forms. He was born in Jamaica and immigrated to as a child in the 1960s. mc Yan, quoted in Tony Mitchell, ed., Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2001), 7. 2 Though these ½gures indicate the popularity of hip-hop music, its audience may be larger than suggested. Many youth purchase digital singles rather than physical formats. The ifpi reports that digital music revenues increased by roughly 12 percent in 2009. Yet the estimated $4.2 billion in revenue did not offset the decline of physical purchases; John Kennedy, IFPI Digital Music Report 2010: Music How, When, Where You Want It (ifpi Digital Music, 2010), 30. 3 Afrika Bambaataa of the Zulu Nation introduced knowledge as the ½fth element of hip-hop, though some argue that it is beat boxing (). For further discussion, see Emmett G. Price, Hip Hop Culture (Santa Barbara, Calif.: abc-clio, 2006); and Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 4 See Marcyliena Morgan, The Real Hiphop: Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the Marcyliena LA Underground (Durham, N.C.: Press, 2009); and H. Samy Alim, Awad Morgan & Ibrahim, and Alastair Pennycook, eds., Global Linguistic Flows: Hip Hop Cultures, Youth Dionne Identities, and the Politics of Language (New York: Routledge, 2009). Bennett 5 Morgan, The Real Hiphop; Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, eds., That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 2004); Cheryl Lynette Keyes, Rap Music and Street Consciousness (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004). 6 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Schocken Press, 1983). 7 Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, Volume 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 205. 8 Vivienne Walt, “El Général and the Rap Anthem of the Mideast Revolution,” TIME, February 15, 2011, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2049456,00 .html#ixzz1Ei26RZZC. 9 Ibid.; Steve Coll, “Democratic Movements,” The New Yorker, January 31, 2011, http://www .newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/01/31/110131taco_talk_coll#ixzz1EgVecZMy. 10 Dario Thuburn and Najeh Mouelhi, “Tears and Joy as Tunisia’s Revolution Rap Debuts,” AFP, January 29, 2011, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110129/wl_mideast _afp/tunisiapoliticsunrestmusic_20110129162358. 11 Louise Sarant, “Revolutionary Music: Rap Up,” Al-Masry Al-Youm, February 15, 2011, http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/revolutionary-music-rap. 12 Bruce A. Chadwick and Tim B. Heaton, Statistical Handbook on Adolescents in America (Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1996). 13 Robert Bezilla, ed., America’s Youth in the 1990s (Princeton, N.J.: The George H. Gallup International Institute, 1993). 14 Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan/University Press of New England, 1994); Russell A. Potter, Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism (New York: State University of New York Press, 1995). 15 In 1990, the American Family Association lobbied to have 2 Live Crew’s 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be classi½ed as obscene in Florida’s Broward County. Store owners who sold the record after the ruling and members of 2 Live Crew who performed it were arrested. In 1992, a court of appeals overturned the ruling. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., served as an expert witness in the case and defended his testimony in a New York Times op-ed; Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “2 Live Crew, Decoded: Rap Music Group’s Use of Street Language in Context of Afro-American Cultural Heritage Analyzed,” The New York Times, June 19, 1990. Houston Baker, Jr., also reviews the case, placing it in the context of cultural and political arguments; Houston A. Baker, Jr., Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). 16 bell hooks, “Ice Cube Culture: A Shared Passion for Speaking Truth,” Spin, April 1993; bell hooks, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations (New York: Routledge, 1994); “Nappy Happy: A Conversation with Ice Cube and Angela Y. Davis,” Transition 58 (1992): 174–192. 17 Cornel West, Race Matters (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); Robin D.G. Kelley, “Kickin’ Reality, Kickin’ Ballistics: and Postindustrial ,” in Droppin’ Sci- ence: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture, ed. William E. Perkins (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995), 117–158; Robin D.G. Kelley, Yo’ Mama’s Dysfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997); Michael Dawson, “Structure and Ideology: The Shaping of Black Public Opinion” (Department of Political Science, University of Chicago, 1997); Paul Gilroy, “‘After the Love Has Gone’: Bio-Politics and Etho-Poetics in the Black Public Sphere,” Public Culture 7 (1994): 49–76. There are

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & now a number of works on hip-hop that explore these topics. They include: Imani Perry, the Global Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, Imprint of 2004); Carla Stokes, “Representin’ in Cyberspace: Sexual-Scripts, Self-De½nition, and a Black Hip Hop Culture in Black American Adolescent Girls’ Home Pages,” Culture, Health, and Cultural Form Sexuality 9 (2) (2007); Gwendolyn Pough, Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip- Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004); Elaine Richardson, Hiphop Literacies (New York and London: Routledge, 2006); Ethne Quinn, Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004); Halifu Osumare, The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop: Power Moves (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008); Derrick Darby and Tommie Shelby, Hip Hop & Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason (Peru, Ill.: Open Court Publishing, 2005); Felicia Miyakawa, Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission (Bloom- ington: Indiana University Press, 2005); Adam Krims, Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Murray Forman, The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2002); Forman and Neal, That’s the Joint!; Dawn-Elissa Fischer, “Kobushi Agero (=Pump Ya Fist!): Blackness, ‘Race’ and Politics in Japanese Hiphop,” Ph.D. dissertation, Univer- sity of Florida, 2007; H. Samy Alim, Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture (New York: Routledge, 2006); Todd Boyd, The New H.N.I.C. (Head Niggas in Charge): The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop (New York: New York University Press, 2002); Ian Condry, Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006); and Greg Dimitriadis, Performing Identity/Performing Culture: Hip Hop as Text, Pedagogy, and Lived Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2001). 18 Cathy J. Cohen, Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (New York: , 2010); Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois, The Anthology of Rap (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010). 19 Mitchell, Global Noise; Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture (London: Pluto Press, 2006); James Spady, H. Samy Alim, and Samir Meghelli, Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Consciousness (Black History Museum Press, 2006); Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, Global Linguistic Flows; Marina Terkoura½, ed., The Languages of Global Hip Hop (New York: Continuum, 2010). 20 Fischer, “Kobushi Agero (=Pump Ya Fist!),” 19. 21 Cf. Ian Condry, Hip-Hop Japan; Fischer, “Kobushi Agero (=Pump Ya Fist!).” 22 Mitchell, Global Noise; Forman and Neal, That’s the Joint!; Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, Global Linguistic Flows. 23 Morgan, The Real Hiphop. 24 Tope Omoniyi, “‘So I Choose to Do Am Naija Style’: Hip Hop, Language, and Postcolonial Identities,” in Global Linguistic Flows, ed. Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, 113–138; Carol M. Motley and Geraldine Rosa Henderson, “The Global Hip-Hop Diaspora: Understanding the Culture,” Journal of Business Research 61 (3) (2008): 243–253. 25 Andy Bennett and Richard A. Peterson, eds., Music Scenes: Local, Translocal, and Virtual (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004); Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, Global Linguistic Flows; Mitchell, Global Noise. 26 Osumare, The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop. 27 Forman and Neal, That’s the Joint!; Mark Anthony Neal, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (New York: Routledge, 2002); Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop. 28 David Toop, Rap Attack #2 (London and New York: Serpent’s Tail, 1992), 19. 29 Perry, Prophets of the Hood, 12–13. 30 Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, Global Linguistic Flows; Jannis Androutsopoulos and Arno Scholz, “On the Recontextualization of Hip-hop in European Speech Communities: A

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Contrastive Analysis of Rap Lyrics,” Philologie im Netz 19 (2002): 1–42; Roland Robertson, Marcyliena “Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity,” in Global Modernities, ed. Morgan & Mike Featherstone, Scott Lash, and Roland Robertson (London: Sage Press, 1995), 25–44. Dionne Bennett 31 Androutsopoulos and Scholz, “On the Recontextualization of Hip-hop in European Speech Communities,” 1; Samira Hassa, “Kiff my zikmu: Symbolic Dimensions of Arabic, English and Verlan in French Rap Texts,” in The Languages of Global Hip Hop, ed. Terkoura½, 48. 32 Osumare, The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop. 33 Morgan, The Real Hiphop, 62. 34 Ibid.; Terkoura½, The Languages of Global Hip Hop; Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, Global Linguistic Flows. 35 Terkoura½, The Languages of Global Hip Hop, 1. 36 Beat Street, directed by Stan Lathan (mgm Studios, 1984); Wild Style, directed by (Rhino Home Video, 1983). 37 Condry, Hip-Hop Japan; Mark Pennay, “Rap in Germany: The Birth of a Genre,” in Global Noise, ed. Mitchell, 111–133. 38 Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (Berkeley: Uni- versity of California Press, 2003); George Lipsitz, Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism and the Poetics of Place (London and New York: Verso Press, 1994); Tony Mitchell, Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania (London: Leicester University Press, 1996). 39 Chuck D with Yusuf Jah, Fight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality (New York: Dell Publishing, 1998). 40 Jacqueline Urla, “‘We are all Malcolm X!’: Negu Gorriak, Hip Hop, and the Basque Political Imaginary,” in Global Noise, ed. Mitchell, 175. 41 Chuck D with Jah, Fight the Power, 58. 42 Marcyliena Morgan and Dawn-Elissa Fischer, “Hiphop and Race: Blackness, Language, and Creativity,” in Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century, ed. Hazel Rose Markus and Paula M.L. Moya (New York: W.W. Norton, 2010), 522. 43 Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop; Perkins, Droppin’ Science. 44 Afrika Bambaataa, quoted in Adhimu Stewart, “Afrika Bambaataa Can’t Stop the Planet Rock,” Earwaks.com, 2007. 45 Urla, “‘We are all Malcolm X!’” 175. 46 André Prévos, “Postcolonial Popular Music in France: Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in the 1980s and 1990s,” in Global Noise, ed. Mitchell, 39–56. 47 Terkoura½, The Languages of Global Hip Hop. 48 Christian Béthune, Le rap: Une esthétique hors la loi (Paris: Autrement, 1999); Krims, Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity. 49 Raquel Cepeda, “Breath Free: In Search of a De½nition of Freedom,” , May 2000, 134–138. 50 Derek Pardue, “‘Writing in the Margins’: Brazilian Hip-Hop as an Educational Project,” Anthropology & Education Quarterly 35 (4) (2004): 411–432. 51 Patrick Neate, “AfroReggae: Rio’s Top Hip-hop Band,” The Independent, February 24, 2006. 52 Larry Rohter, “Brazilian Government Invests in Culture of Hip-Hop,” The New York Times, March 14, 2007.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00086 by guest on 01 October 2021 Hip-Hop & 53 Samir Wahab, “Breaking: Malikah, First Lady of Arab Hip-hop Claims Her Crown,” the Global , February 1, 2001, http://www.rollingstoneme.com/index.php?option Imprint of =com_content&view=article&id=68. a Black Cultural 54 Jay Feghali, “Shadia Mansour: A Revolutionary Voice in Arab Hip-hop,” Shuhra.com, Form September 6, 2010, http://shuhra.com/en/artistDetails.aspx?pageid=297. 55 Slingshot Hip Hop, directed by Jackie Salloum (Fresh Booza Productions, 2008); I Love Hip Hop in Morocco, directed by Joshua Asen and Jennifer Needleman (Rizz Productions, 2006). 56 Alastair Pennycook and Tony Mitchell, “Hip Hop as Dusty Foot Philosophy: Engaging Locality,” in Global Linguistic Flows, ed. Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, 26. 57 “Artist Pro½le: Sagol 59,” JDub Records, 2009, http://jdubrecords.org/artists.php?id=21. 58 Mike A. Males, The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War on Adolescents (Monroe, Me.: Com- mon Courage Press, 1996); Mike A. Males, Framing Youth: 10 Myths about the Next Genera- tion (Monroe, Me.: Common Courage Press, 1999); Valerie Smith, Not Just Race, Not Just Gender (New York: Routledge, 1998). The term wild is used in reference to the rape and beating of a female jogger in Central Park in 1989. Police originally attributed the attack to a of black youth who were described as acting like animals; the police used the term wilding to describe their actions. According to New York Times reporter David Pitt, “The youths who raped and savagely beat a young investment banker as she jogged in Central Park Wednesday night were part of a loosely organized gang of 32 schoolboys whose random, motiveless assaults terrorized at least eight other people over nearly two hours, senior police investigators said yesterday. Chief of Detectives Robert Colangelo, who said the attacks appeared unrelated to money, race, drugs or alcohol, said that some of the 20 youths brought in for questioning had told investigators that the crime spree was the product of a pastime called wilding”; David E. Pitt, “Jogger’s Attackers Terrorized at Least 9 in 2 Hours,” The New York Times, April 22, 1989. The young men were arrested and jailed. Later, the real rapist was discovered through dna evidence and a confession. 59 Omoniyi, “‘So I Choose to Do Am Naija Style.’” 60 Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1986); Alim, Ibrahim, and Pennycook, Global Linguistic Flows. 61 K’naan, “What’s Hardcore?” The Dusty Foot Philosopher (bmg Music, 2005). 62 Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, trans. Charles Lam Markmann (1952; New York: Grove Press: 1967), 18.

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