Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Book Review For Renegade Rhymes, Meng Ren

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Renegade Rhymes delves into the personas, lyrics, and civic engagement of Taiwanese rappers, who leverage rap as a platform to navigate masculine politics, provide social critiques on Taiwan’s neoliberal economy and demanding work environment, and revitalize indigenous languages. Spanning from the post-martial law era spanning from the 1980s to the conclusion of the Nationalist Party period in 2016, Meredith Schweig focuses on the “old-school” generation of rappers, born between 1975 and 1985, whose formative years align with this pivotal historical period. Schweig begins by charting the history of Taiwan rap through interviews, examining three main threads: xiha, raoshe, …

The Spatio-Temporality Of J Dilla’S Sound Aesthetic, Masahide T. Kato

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Book review

DILLA TIME: Life and After Life of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022).

Review: We Were Hyphy, Lavar Pope

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

No abstract provided.

“Ain’T Nuthin Wrong With Being A Trojan Man”: Discourse On Safe-Sex In Rap Music, 1985-1995, Christopher D. Rounds, Kareem R. Muhammad

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This essay methodically tracks references to safe-sex in rap music and analyzes their implications. Reviewing over 3,000 songs from 1985 to 1995, the authors found that the tone and messages of these references differed substantially. While many artists celebrated risky and indiscriminate sexual behavior– their work marred by a misogny and homophobia that often stigmatized persons living with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)– many other artists portrayed safe-sex in a positive light, either as a responsible approach to sexual behavior, or as a pragmatic tool of urban survival. These songs normalized the use of condoms, and educated listeners by raising awareness …

From Page To Stage To Lyrics Database To Page: Breakbeat Poets, Lyrics Databases, And The Textual Capacity Of Hip Hop Verse, Victorio Reyes Asili

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

As a multimedia artistic movement, Hip Hop is known for its contributions across the arts, from music to dance to graphic arts. However, Hip Hop is also a form of poetry, which we can call Hip Hop verse, and it is rooted in performance but also exists in the world as a textual art. While scholars have analyzed Hip Hop’s contributions to the world of poetry, there has yet to be a proper accounting for Hip Hop’s function as a textual poetry that is regularly consumed by Hip Hoppas. Accordingly, this study is focused on Hip Hop’s role as a …

Hip Hop At 50: Reflections From Our Students, Dana Horton, Lavar Pope, Travis Harris

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Hip Hop transcends time and space, however, its confluence in the Bronx in 1973 is worth commemorating. During the celebration of fifty years of Hip Hop, the authors asked their students to reflect on fifty years of Hip Hop. In particular, the authors asked students to discuss why Hip Hop is still popular in 2023, as well as the direction the culture has taken. Students are at the forefront of keeping Hip Hop culture alive, and their contributions to our 50th Anniversary are valuable.

A similar question was asked in the authors' courses: “Hip hop started 50 years ago in …

Foreword, Courtney Terry

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Foreword for volume 10 issue 1.

From House Party To World Dominance: Celebrating 50 Years Of Hip Hop: A Bibliography, Cassandra Chaney

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

In 2023, the culture celebrated the 50th birthday of Hip Hop. While there is an ongoing argument of when Hip Hop started, Hip Hop culture marked Clive “DJ Kool Herc” Campbell’s legendary 1973 party at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, NY as the day to commemorate its humble beginnings. This work provides a bibliographical list of published articles, interviews, book reviews, forthcoming books, and live performances from various artists that made a major impact on Hip Hop. In particular, the bibliography highlights the mark that Hip Hop has made on fashion, the economy, language, and the unique contributions that …

Foreword, Travis Harris

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Foreword to volume 9 issue 1.

Funk What You Heard: Hip Hop Is A Field Of Study, Journal Of Hip Hop Studies

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

The complete general issue of volume 9 issue 1.

Funk What You Heard: Hip Hop Is A Field Of Study, Travis Harris, Scott "Lyfestile" Woods, Dana Horton, M. Nicole Horsley, Shayne Mcgregor

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

“Funk What You Heard” is a beaconing call to all scholars who engage with Hip Hop studies. This article lays out the ways in which Hip Hop studies should properly respond to the wave of oppressions currently pounding the world. With several key date markers in place for Hip Hop studies, Tricia Rose’s Black Noise in 1994 and Murray Foreman and Mark Anthony Neal’s That’s the Joint in 2004, “Funk What You Heard” charts the path forward for the future of Hip Hop studies. Black Noise provided the original blueprint for studying Hip Hop and That’s the Joint! stamped “hip-hop …

Hip Hop And Spoken Word Therapy In School Counseling: Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches Book Review, Kalyn T. Coghill

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Hip Hop and Spoken Word Therapy in School Counseling: Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches by Ian Levy maps out the ways in which school counselors can incorporate Hip-Hop into their counseling practices in the K-12 school system. Levy provides examples of lessons they crafted specifically for this type of pedagogy and breaks down Hip Hop's contribution to education and counseling.

It’S “Hip Hop,” Not “Hip-Hop”, Tasha Iglesias, Travis Harris

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

“It’s ‘Hip Hop,’ Not ‘hip-hop’” explains how two Hip Hop scholars, Tasha Iglesias and Travis Harris, collaborated to get the official academic spelling of Hip Hop changed from “hip-hop” to “Hip Hop.” While they were graduate students, they grew frustrated with reading numerous academic texts that did not represent Hip Hop in the same way the culture did outside of academia. Iglesias and Harris are Hip Hop and involved with the culture outside of the classroom. The clash between these two worlds led them to petition the American Psychological Association and eventually speak with Merriam Webster dictionary to change the …

Hustle In H-Town: Hip Hop Entrepreneurialism In Houston, Brittany L. Long

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Imagine a sprawling, overheated American megalopolis that epitomizes diversity and segregation in one of the world’s youngest countries. Despite Houston’s history of structural racism and segregation, Houston Hip Hop entrepreneurs built communities and created storied businesses that culminate in a sense of local pride and Hip Hop identity that has not been replicated in the same manner in any other city. An examination of thought-provoking existing scholarship about the Hip Hop South and Hip Hop in Houston, as well as an examination of existing and collected primary sources (interviews) allow me to demonstrate two things: Hip Hop entrepreneurialism is a …

“This Ain’T Just A Rap Song”: 2pac, Sociopolitical Realities, And Hip Hop Nation Language, Leah Tonnette Gaines

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

2Pac’s music was not merely rap songs. His music was and continues to be a platform for communicating important messages and concerns with his audiences. To relay these messages, he often used Hip Hop Nation Language (HHNL). In this research, I will conduct a linguistic analysis to illustrate how 2Pac’s music communicated sociopolitical realities through his use of HHNL. To construct possible answers for the questions that guided this work, the researcher transcribed, coded, and analyzed a sample size of 2Pac’s music. From the sample of songs used, the researcher was able to detect three common themes throughout, namely relaying, …

Chronicling Stankonia The Rise Of The Hip Hop South Book Review, Brittany L. Long Ms.

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Book review of Chronicling Stankonia The Rise of the Hip Hop South

Foreword, Travis Harris

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Foreword to volume 8 issue 1.

Spirituality Countering Dehumanization: A Cypher On Asian American Hip Hop Flow, Brett J. Esaki

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Flow—an artistic connection to the beat—is essential to the experience and cultural mix of Hip Hop. “Flow” is also a term from positive psychology that describes a special out-of-body state of consciousness, first articulated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. When Hip Hop performers get into artistic flow, they sometimes become immersed in psychological flow, and this article examines the combination for Asian American Hip Hop. Based on my national survey of Asian Americans in Hip Hop, I argue that dual flow inspires spiritual transformation and mitigates the dehumanization of social marginalization. However, the combination of terms presents problematic possibilities, given that Hip …

Clan In Da Front - Wu-Tang: An American Saga Review, Marcus Smalls

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

@MarcusSmalls is a Teaching Artist and writer who uses his lifelong love of Hip Hop to moderate creative environments around spirituality and identity. He has been a writer in residence at Teachers & Writers Collaborative and a WritersCorps fellow at Bronx Council on the Arts and is the recipient of the 2021 St. Luke’s Alumni Artistic Achievement Award. Marcus has workshopped with award winning authors, M. Evelina Galang at VONA/Voices in 2015 and A. Naomi Jackson in Catapult’s Master Class in 2017. Marcus is currently featured on The MixTape Museum website. Marcus is a Teaching Artist for the Brooklyn Academy …

For The Dead Homie: Black Male Rappers, Homicide Survivorship Bereavement, And The Rap Tribute Of Nipsey Hussle, Melvin L. Williams, Justin K. Winley, Justin A. Causey

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom’s murder represented a cultural cataclysmic event that startled the Hip Hop community and triggered previous memories of Black men’s homicidal deaths in the world. Nipsey Hussle’s death inspired touching rap tribute songs by Black male rappers, who sought to commemorate his cultural legacy and express their bereavement as homicide survivors. Rap tribute songs occupy a significant history, as rappers historically employed them to honor Hip Hop’s fallen soldiers, communicate their homicide survivorship bereavement processes, and speak about social perils in the Black community. Framed by critical race (CRT) and gender role conflict theoretical frameworks, this study …

A Critical Interpretive Synthesis Of Research Linking Hip Hop And Wellbeing In Schools, Alexander Crooke, Cristina Almeida, Rachael Comte

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Hip Hop is recognized as an agent for youth development in both educational and well-being spaces, yet literature exploring the intersection of the two areas is comparatively underdeveloped. This article presents a critical interpretive synthesis of twenty-two articles investigating school-based well-being interventions which used Hip Hop. The critical stance taken aimed to identify or expose assumptions underpinning this area of scholarship and practice. Our analysis suggested several assumptions operate in this space, including the idea rap represents a default for Hip Hop culture, and the default beneficiaries of Hip Hop-informed interventions are students of color living in underprivileged, inner-city US …

Give Me Body! Race, Gender, And Corpulence Identity In The Artistry And Activism Of Queen Latifah, Shannon Cochran

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Celebrity Queen Latifah’s body is one of the most observable Black female bodies in contemporary United States culture. Using Black feminist theory, textual analysis, and Hip Hop theory, I examine Queen Latifah’s Hip Hop corpulence bodily and narrative performativity. That is, I identify her usage of her body in different and varied spaces. Even though Queen Latifah’s weight has fluctuated throughout her career, she has centered her body in spaces that have previously been hostile to corpulent, defined here as simply meaning larger and nonconforming, bodies; particularly, corpulent Black female bodies. I build on the work of Black feminist scholars, …

“A Different Type Of Time”: Hip Hop, Fugitivity, And Fractured Temporality, Pedro Lebrón Ortiz

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

In this article, I seek to explore Hip Hop as an expression of marronage. I identify marronage as an existential mode of being which restitutes human temporality. Slavery and flight from slavery constituted two inextricable historical processes, therefore logics of marronage must also constitute contemporary human experience. I argue that Hip Hop offers a distinct way of affirming and expressing one’s existence through what has been called a “maroon consciousness.” In the same way that maroons created new worlds free from the tyranny of slavery, Hip Hop offers the Hip Hoppa a space free from colonial logics.

Covid Edition, Journal Of Hip Hop Studies

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Travis T. Harris

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

No abstract provided.

It’S Complicated: Black Hip Hop Feminist Art Commentary On Us Democracy, Camea Davis

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Part narrative reflection, part artistic installation, this work contemplates the tensions and the possibilities of Hip Hop culture, Black womanhood, and American democracy in the United States. The significance of this work is twofold: (1) The authors use Hip Hop feminism to develop a framework for Hip Hop activism as a public pedagogy on US politics, and (2) they provide commentary on US democracy from a Black Hip Hop feminist perspective through art. This article contributes an argument for a creative ontological space from which Black women can reimagine a justice-centered US democracy.

Hip Hop Feminism Starter Kit, M. Nicole Horsley

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

The inspiration to develop a Hip Hop Feminist workbook developed from a college course I teach: Hip Hop Feminism: Queen B*tch. An Introduction to the (im)Possibilities of Hip Hop Feminism. Using the syllabus, I have developed lessons and talks on college campuses that I have also delivered to community spaces with Black girls and women, secondary educators, parents, and student organizations. I teach resistance and anti-establishment readings of our bodies, lyrics, and live and mediated performances of Hoes With An Attitude (H.W.A.) Lil’ Kim, Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott, Cardi B, The City Girls; as well as topics related to Hip Hop …

The Cardi B–Beyoncé Complex: Ratchet Respectability And Black Adolescent Girlhood, Ashley N. Payne

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

The identity of Black girls is constantly subject to scrutiny in various spaces, particularly within Hip Hop and education. Previous scholarship has noted that, as Black girls are compelled to navigate the margins of respectability politics, the images and messages of Hip Hop culture have always created a complicated and complex space for Black girls’ identity development. The purpose of this article is to explore how Black adolescent girls construct their identities, particularly as it relates to ratchet-respectability identity politics, a concept called the Cardi B–Beyoncé́ complex. In examining the Cardi B–Beyoncé́ complex, I look at the intersection of …

“Yeah, I’M In My Bag, But I’M In His Too”: How Scamming Aesthetics Utilized By Black Women Rappers Undermine Existing Institutions Of Gender, Diana Khong

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

2018 was the year of the “scammer,” in which many Black women rappers took on “scamming” aesthetics in their lyrics and music video imagery. Typified by rappers such as City Girls and Cardi B, the scammer archetype is characterized by the desire for financial gain and material possessions and the emotional disregard of men. This paper investigates how Black women rappers, in employing these themes in their music, subvert existing expectations of gender by using the identity of the scammer as a restorative figure. The objectification of men in their music works in counterpoint to the dominant gender system and …

Introduction: Savage And Savvy: Mapping Contemporary Hip Hop Feminism, Aria S. Halliday, Ashley N. Payne

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Introduction to the special issue on Hip Hop Feminism entitled Twenty-First Century B.I.T.C.H. Frameworks: Hip Hop Feminism Comes of Age.