Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature & Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Josef Eliáš The Rapper That Happens to Be White Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2015 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature I would like to thank my supervisor, J. Vanderziel, B.A., for his helpful guidance and kindness. The moral support of Bc. et Bc. Dominika Sirná was also greatly appreciated. Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1. The roots of rap – Afro-American black music ................................................. 6 The textual level ....................................................................................................... 7 The Dozens......................................................................................................... 11 Black music ............................................................................................................ 18 The black music of the slaves ............................................................................ 19 The black music of the freedmen ....................................................................... 23 The institutional commercialization of black music .............................................. 28 2. The birth of hip hop culture ............................................................................. 35 South Bronxites ...................................................................................................... 38 Sample that – the birth of rap music ...................................................................... 41 The origins of rap music ........................................................................................ 43 3. Indie vs. Major ................................................................................................. 47 Commercialized authenticity ................................................................................. 51 Jay Z ....................................................................................................................... 53 Macklemore............................................................................................................ 54 4. The rapper that happens to be white ................................................................ 57 Marhall Mathers ..................................................................................................... 57 The rise of Eminem ................................................................................................ 58 Authenticity vs. fiction ........................................................................................... 61 Persona ................................................................................................................... 64 Double-sided persona ............................................................................................. 68 5. Conclusion........................................................................................................ 73 Works Cited ........................................................................................................... 75 Introduction Although the topic of this study was largely based on my fondness of hip hop music, the focus and scope of this work was inspired by a work of my colleague Petr Homolka - his master’s thesis on the authenticity and commercialization of rap music. When I was reading through Homolka’s work, one particular claim caught my attention: “[Eminem’s] lyrics do not diverge from mainstream hip-hop production, which proves his status of another “black rapper”, as his tremendous success rests in his white skin and, above all, black persona.” (Homolka, 66). This association of Eminem’s music with black music on the basis of the content matter and his “persona” – a fictitious narrator – seemed to me as a bold claim at first, as it is actually accusing Eminem of cultural appropriation. Yet the more I learned about the history of black music and the roles Caucasians played in it and still do, the more and simultaneously less sense Homolka’s claim seemed to have. It made no sense that the music of one of the most commercially successful rappers would be so profitable if it was a result of co-optation of black cultural forms, now, in the 21st century. Additionally, music that contains lyrics rife with misogyny, graphic violence, homophobia and generally disturbing content, but which was awarded with several Grammy Awards. On the other hand, there have been instances of cultural appropriation of black music and after all, rap is an art from which should be allowed certain artistic freedom. Why should it be then treated differently, in comparison to other musical genres or other popular art forms, such as cinema, or drama, which can be surely similar in their portrayal of these negative aspects? The answer is not straightforward, but the fact is that both rap music and Eminem, one of the most successful white rappers to 1 this day, have been both surrounded by countless controversies, legal trials and discussions about the bad influence rap wields. In my study, I will try to analyze the arguments which are used to accuse Eminem of co-opting rap music. The first cornerstone would be specifying the characteristics or the nature and history of the musical genre in question. Rap is generally associated with African Americans (therefore the controversy about a white rapper), originating in the New York’s Bronx among the non-white economically oppressed in the early 1970’s. But rap and the hip hop culture were not born out of thin air - it was a new artistic form, but largely depending on old musical pieces, molded by the principles and tendencies of black music. To pinpoint what exactly from black music might be Eminem adopting in his work, rap music needs to be put into the larger context of the history and development of black music, which will be the objective of the first chapter. The focus here will be on the history and development of black music, as well as on the musical traits of black music, its influence and also commercialization. Both the textual level (the lyrics) and the musical traits (the sonic elements) will be taken into account, heavily depending on the work of Gates and his theory of African-American literary criticism, and Floyd’s work on the history, development, and influence of black music. The second chapter will focus on the origin and development of hip hop and rap music in particular, reaching thus the year 1997, the year of the publication of Eminem’s first mainstream album. The third chapter will discuss the types of record promotion and production. As was already mentioned, Eminem’s fame skyrocketed with his first mainstream album The Slim Shady LP in the year 1999. This album was produced by Interscope Records, a major record label. Three years before that, Eminem made his first studio album Infinite, 2 produced by the independent label Web Entertainment - the sales and popularity of this album were nowhere near the success of The Slim Shady LP. By analyzing the differences between a major and independent record labels and subsequent implications for the authors themselves, there will be a first mention of the rappers chosen for the comparative analysis, which is the subject of the next chapter. Chapter four will employ narrative theory to analyze and describe Eminem’s narrative strategy, the distinction between his narrators, as well as his content matter. Since Eminem is a mainstream artist, another successful white, independent rapper was chosen as his opponent for the comparative analysis – Macklemore from the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, winners of the Grammy Award for the 2014 Best Rap Album. To see if there are any significant differences between current white and black rap artists in terms of their narrative strategies and subject matter, Jay Z will figure as a representative of an Afro-American mainstream rappers. Before specifying the objectives of my analysis, it should be explained why is narrative theory the preferred tool. This theoretical approach will be employed for the analysis of rap lyrics because they are generally literary texts, some of which have the structure of a narrative. Furthermore, the relationship between the author and the narrator(s) of his work, complicated in the case of rap by its emphasis on authenticity, will be best illustrated here by the example of the author in question, Eminem. There is Marshall Mathers - the author and the man behind the pseudonym “Eminem”. Then there is the real-world Eminem, Mathers’ public persona of a rapper which is presented in his work as one of the narrators, but also in real-world public (starring in interviews, live concerts and such). Lastly, at the bottom of the hierarchy of credibility stand Eminem’s fictional personas talking to his audience from his music or music videos, i.e. the duo Eminem and his alter-ego Slim Shady – these characters are described by Homolka as 3 ‘black’. Narrative fictionality will be the key to understanding, for example, how could Eminem win Grammy Awards in the early 2000 for his albums notorious for homophobic slurs, misogyny and vivid descriptions of violence just as he has won in 2015.