Copyright by Bryan John McCann 2009 The Dissertation Committee for Bryan John McCann Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Resistance and Ideology in Gangsta Rap, 1988-1997 Committee: Dana L. Cloud, Supervisor Barry Brummett Jennifer Fuller Joshua Gunn Stephen John Hartnett Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Resistance and Ideology in Gangsta Rap, 1988-1997 by Bryan John McCann, B.S.; M.S. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2009 Dedication To the heroic families of Texas’s death row. They are the inspiration for this project and the heart of a movement. Acknowledgements As a materialist, I believe that all texts are conditioned by relationships. Indeed, completing this project would have been impossible were it not for my connection to a wide range of people. I am especially indebted to my talented dissertation committee. Dana Cloud, in addition to being a wise and dedicated advisor, is a dear friend and comrade. Her example and mentorship are constant reminders that scholarship should emerge from the concrete struggles of ordinary people and that while it is important to interpret the world; the point is ultimately to change it. In addition to helping cultivate a supportive and challenging environment as department chair at the University of Texas, Barry Brummett has helped me develop a deeper appreciation for the artistry of criticism and what it means to “get inside” a text. Jennifer Fuller agreed to join this project in spite of having never met me or taught me in class. By challenging me to listen and read broadly as I engaged the vast terrain of hip-hop, she helped make this a more honest and rigorous project. I am eternally grateful to Joshua Gunn for always training his students to become better scholars and citizens of the discipline. I am particularly indebted to him for helping me survey a number of psychoanalytic theories necessary for refining my conceptualization of fantasy. Finally, although he and I have never worked at the same institution, Stephen John Hartnett has always taken me seriously as a colleague and consistently demonstrates an investment in my development as a scholar. This project v benefited not only from his expertise in a wide range of literature—particularly regarding the political economy of crime and punishment—but also our shared investment in confronting the prison-industrial complex. As a whole, my talented committee has helped me create a project that is both unmistakably mine but also marked by their considerable influence. A number of other professors at the University of Texas have guided and challenged me on this journey, making the completion of this project possible. They include Roderick Hart, Richard Cherwitz, Michelle Deitch, Jeffrey Walker, and Harry Cleaver. Susan Corbin, Jennifer Betancourt, Deanna Matthews, and Margaret Surratt have, on a number of occasions, “saved my life” as I encountered various administrative hurdles during my time at UT. They are a staff like none other. Martin “Randy” Cox and the rest of the UT Individual Events Team also helped make my time here meaningful and inspired countless ideas that helped inform this project. Many professors from afar have also honored me by taking my work seriously and nurturing my intellectual development—especially Chuck Morris, Rosa Eberly, Karen Lovaas, Dan Brouwer, Jennifer Wood, and John Sloop. Finally, I would be nothing without my fellow citizens in the graduate community at UT. I owe unending affection and gratitude to Adria Battaglia, Meredith Bagley, Luke Winslow, Jaime Wright, Jennifer Asenas, Kevin Johnson, Roger Gatchet, John McKenzie, Roy Christopher, Josh Hanan, Robert McDonald, Diana Martinez, Kristin Stimpson, among many others. I am particularly indebted to Matt Morris for proofreading this document. They have comforted, challenged, and entertained me over the past four years. I will miss this place deeply. The true source of this project is the everyday struggles of people working for change and suffering under the brute apparatuses of an unforgiving and exploitative society. Thus, my activist family in Austin and elsewhere deserves thanks. I specifically vi want to acknowledge Lily Hughes, Mike Corwin, Kelly Booker, Matt Beamesderfer, Matt Korn, Laura Brady, Karen Burke, Jeneanne Scott, and Stefanie Collins for standing alongside me in struggle and always reminding me to draw theory from practice. As I note in my dedication, the family members of those languishing on Texas’s death row— especially Lawrence, Kenneth, and Nydesha Foster, Sandra Reed, Delia Perez-Meyer, and Terri Been—remind me why I do what I do. And of course, Kenneth Foster, Jr. is an inspiration to us all. Were it not for the movement—led by him and his family—that saved his life, this project would not have happened. I am also grateful to those whose support and friendship got me this far. Susanna Bernat helped me develop a vocabulary for my emotions at the most difficult stages in this process. Clark Bernier continues to challenge me intellectually and grace me with unending loyalty. Katie Feyh deserves special gratitude for supporting me as a comrade, colleague, and dear friend. None of this, of course, would have been possible without my parents John and Julie McCann. I am grateful that they nurtured my many curiosities through life and am always humbled by their struggles and hard work over a lifetime. My class-consciousness begins with them. My sister Megan McCann has also been a constant source of support. I should also acknowledge the Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive and Hip-Hop is Read, which served as online resources for researching lyrics and samples. Finally, I am grateful to my best friend and the love of my life. Ashley Mack has provided a foundation for this project and all aspects of my life, loving me for me and helping me grow more comfortable in my own skin. From her proofreading to her encouragement, she is my partner through and through. vii Contesting the Mark of Criminality: Resistance and Ideology in Gangsta Rap, 1988-1997 Publication No._____________ Bryan John McCann, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 Supervisor: Dana L. Cloud This dissertation situates the emergence of gangsta rap from 1988-1997 within the historical trajectory of the American criminal justice system and the mass incarceration of African Americans. Specifically, it examines how the genre enacted the mark of criminality as a gesture of resistance in a period of sustained moral panic surrounding race and criminality in the United States. The mark of criminality refers to a regime of signifiers inscribed upon African American bodies that imagines black subjects as fundamental threats to social order. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of historical materialism and cultural studies, the project locates the mark of criminality within the social structures of capitalism, arguing that hegemonic fantasies of racialized criminality protect oppressive and exploitative social relations. The project concludes that while gangsta rap has many significant limitations associated with violence, misogyny, and commercialism, it nonetheless represents a salient expression of resistance that can inform broader interventions against the American prisons system. A number of questions guide this project. Chief among them are the following: In what ways does the viii criminal justice system operate as a site of rhetorical invention and hegemonic struggle? To what extent does gangsta rap enable and disable rhetorical and political agency? To what extent does it enable and disable interracial political practice? What are the implications of gangsta rap for a gendered politics of criminality? Three case studies demonstrate how specific gangsta rap artists inverted the mark of criminality toward the constitution of affirmative and resistant fantasies of black criminality. While the work of these artists, I argue, was significantly limited in its emancipatory potential, it nonetheless offered important insights into the contingency of race and crime in America. The project also considers how other rhetors responded to gangsta discourse, frequently toward the end of supporting hegemonic notions of race and criminality. The dissertation concludes that criminality functions as a vibrant site of rhetorical invention and resistance provided it is articulated to broader movements for social justice. While the often-problematic discourses of gangsta rap do not constitute politically progressive rhetorics in their own rights, they provide resources for the articulation of righteous indignation and utopian desires capable of challenging the prison-industrial complex. ix Table of Contents Table of Contents.................................................................................................x List of Figures.................................................................................................. xiii Prologue: Rapping Across Experience, or Why White Boys Should Study Gangsta Rap..............................................................................................................1 Introduction: Reading Race, Crime, and Culture Rhetorically and Materially.......8 Crime, Punishment, and Communication Studies.......................................18 Crime and/as Cultural Resistance