The Aesthetics and Ethics of London Based Rap
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The Aesthetics and Ethics of London Based Rap: A Sociology of UK Hip-Hop and Grime Richard Bramwell Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. 2 Abstract This thesis considers rap music produced in London. The project employs close textual analysis and ethnography to engage with the formal characteristics of rap and the social relations constructed through its production and use. The black cultural tradition has a considerable history and the thesis focuses upon its appropriation in contemporary London. The study begins with an examination of the process of becoming a rapper. I then consider the collaborative work that rap artists engage in and how these skills contribute to construction of the UK Hip-Hop and Grime scenes. Moving on from this focus on cultural producers, I then consider the practices of rap music’s users and the role of rap in mainstream metropolitan life. I use the public bus as a site through which to observe the ethical relations that are constituted through sharing and playing with rap music. My analysis then turns to the processes through which identity is solicited and produced within nightclubs and concerts. I discuss the production of subaltern masculinities and femininities by the audience in this space. I also consider how MCs orchestrate their audiences in the production of special forms of collectivity and the organisation of a social consciousness. Following this, I examine rap lyrics in a selection of tracks and videos in order to engage with the representation of urban dwelling within the black public sphere. This close analysis allows me to consider rap songs as part of a cultural politics that challenges socio-economic inequality and racist oppression. I then discuss the structural position of the black working classes and the role of cultural production in providing means of avoiding the economic vulnerability of low skill labour. The study concludes with an examination of artists’ efforts to transform their socio-economic positions through their cultural production and self-representation. 3 Acknowledgements This research was supported by funding from the Sociology Department at the London School of Economics and a Doctoral Award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Shout outs to Afrikan Boy, Alim, D’Explicit, Excalibah, Farmer, Formula, Fx, JJ, Jaxor, Jeff, Klayze, Possessed, Reain, Skirmish, Slik D, Terra, Ty and X Ray. Special thanks to my Supervisor, Paul Gilroy, for his generosity and advice. I would also like to thank Fran Tonkiss and Dick Hobbs for their considered criticism. This thesis is dedicated to Jane. 4 Contents Introduction: Route Change 6 Chapter 1 Literature Review: Now boarding the last Routemaster through London 21 Chapter 2 Methodology: Hold On Tight! 52 Chapter 3 ‘Revolution of a Next Kind’: Building black London from the Bottom 97 Chapter 4 ‘On The Bus My Oyster Card Goes “Ding De Diing De Ding Ding”’: Transforming the Space of London’s Public Transport 146 Chapter 5 ‘I See The Glow In You’: Summoning the Aura in London’s Post Hip-Hop Culture 187 Chapter 6 ‘That There Kind of Sumthin’ Sounds Strange to Me’: Social Representation and the Recorded Soundscape 232 Chapter 7 From a ‘Junior Spesh’ to the ‘Keys to the Bentley’: The Routes of Grimey London 272 Conclusion: Post Grime London 322 Appendix 329 Bibliography 331 5 Introduction: Route Change After completing the final examinations of my undergraduate degree, I spent a week on campus celebrating with friends. One night I danced in the student nightclub with a flatmate from my Halls of Residence and his friends. After purchasing drinks from the bar I returned to the group. As I did so the rumbling bass of a well known Hip-Hop track began to sound. While the deep reverberations of Dead Prez’s ‘Bigger than Hip-Hop’ drove on, I handed my friend his drink and rocked with the music from side to side. Presently, I became aware of a young Asian man heading directly toward me. I noticed, from the corner of my eye, that my acquaintances were also alerted to the stranger’s rapid strides. My body tensed up. Then I was struck by the young man’s words, as he spat the first bars of Dead Prez’s lyrics in my face: ‘One thing about music when it hit you feel no pain’. After a moment of shock (and relief) I began to rap them back at him. I had learned the lyrics to this song through repeated reading and listening as I had studied them for my dissertation. Although this was a fairly unusual way of acquiring the skill that I was now exercising, I was able to rap the entire track in this confrontation with another man. As our encounter developed I noticed, through my peripheral vision, that the tension of the group that had accompanied me had transformed into perplexity. I now focused on spitting back at my antagonist the lyrics he rapped in my face and, as I grew more confident in my own performance, began to physically engage him with firm but restrained pushes with my shoulder. My groups’ interest in the performance began to spread, producing a wider audience. A large number of other dancers now stood around us in a circle. My antagonist and I continued to 6 rap the lyrics as the DJ played the track. He returned my pushes and shoves, while we both gestured with our arms emphasising the force of our verbal enunciation, as the audience looked on. Our performance ended with the track, at which point the other man embraced me. I remember being struck by a spontaneous feeling of fraternity. I think he thanked me before walking away, but I have never seen him since. For my own part, I returned to my group and shrugged my shoulders when my flatmate asked ‘what the fuck was that all about?’ This spontaneous performance perplexed me and I had no idea why the young Asian man approached me. But the event came to inform my approach to some aspects of this study. I became interested in the activity of young men and women on the dance-floor and the relation that rap lyrics have to those activities. Considering this particular incident, I became aware of the interaction between DJ, soundscape, and dancers in the construction and performance of a cultural script. Although I thought it unlikely that I would observe a similar performance in the course of my research, I had become sensitised to the role of antiphony and the production of extemporaneous social relations through rap music. After having explored an interest in rap songs through close textual analysis, this event helped me to engage with rapping as a social process. I was surprised to discover that through my studies I had acquired the ability to rap this track from the album Let’s Get Free. But the practice of performing those lyrics in that encounter disclosed a social dimension that I had not yet begun to explore. The unfolding of this performance in this social space, supported by the 7 track the DJ played, allowed particular forms of identification to emerge between the participants. I became aware of the relations through which identities were produced. Through this performance I was struck by how the force of the lyrics allowed myself and the other man to recognise something within one another, how the rhythm of the music provided a structure through which we could respond to one another’s calls. The Habitus and Cultural Politics of London Based Rap The event in the student nightclub revealed to me an ability that I had acquired through repeated study of a particular song. However, I was aware that this academic interest was distinct from the familiarity that London’s MCs had with rapping. Those who had learnt to rap through repeated practice during secondary school or earlier would have a substantially different relation to the art form than I would. In my conversations with MCs and DJs, they frequently related narratives of their development that placed beginning to rap at a crucial point in their childhood. This was usually around the age of thirteen or fourteen. They connected rapping to the relations they had with friends or with particular family members. Interviewees often described how learning to rap, at home in the bedroom or in school corridors with friends, developed from being a source of pleasure to a means of gaining social recognition. These distinct emphases are essentially connected to one another, and both have an organic relation to other aspects of urban sociality. MCs talked about how becoming a rapper influenced their perception of the world. Some also discussed political issues they had related through their music. I began this research thinking of rap, principally, as an art form. I found, through my conversations with artists, how 8 rapping also became a channel through which they developed their awareness of the possibilities that life in London made available to them.