the cultural economy of hip hop

facilitator: ashar latif asharkl@hotmail.com

place & space: thuesdays at 7 PM starting September 20, at 540 spadina #1

an overview of an overview:

emergence as a multi-faceted culture of resistance ... history of extreme tension with dominant culture, despite (also because of?) its cooption by dominant culture ... dissection of meanings of youth culture, identity, cultural resistance and ownership, renegotiation of connection to history ...

outline:

week 1: what is hip hop?

• (aesthetic ... methodology ... cultural agglomerate ...) ... (negotiation of course content and structure ...) ...

week 2 & 3: proto hip hop + golden age

• [social/cultural roots (musical origins ... cultural genesis ... ) ... ] ... [formal features ... (reappropriation of found space/sound/objects ... technological characteristics ... aesthetics ... ) ... ] ... [emergence as “cohesive” form ... (coagulation & “legitimization” ... shift in subcultural dynamics ... forms & meaning in hip hop structure ...) ... ]

week 4&5: twin militancies: gangsta and conscious

• [identity & persona (black nationalism ... urban & underclass consciousness ... reflections on internal/external violence ... reembracing of history ... construction/coding of identity ... masculinity/feminity ...) ... ] ... [conscious vs. gangsta ... (relevance to everyday condition ... effectiveness as vehicles of change ... youth culture ... ) ... ] ... [violence (media and spectacular violence ... rivalries + feuds ...) ... ]

week 6&7: ownership + the politics of cooption

• [property (graffiti ... sampling ... intellectual property rights ... materialism in hip hop discourse ... ) ... [cooption (incorporation into dominant culture ... retention of revolutionary potential ... relationship/stakeholdership in dominant culture/society ... ) ... ] ...

week 8: hip hop as global phenomenon

• [revisit origins ... (relationship of music to origins ... ) ... ] ... [formal composition ... (cultural drift & adaptability ... hybridity ... recombinance ...) ... ]

movie + discussion interspersed throughout, and also audio galore

(partial) bibliography

Baker Jr., Houston A. Black Studies, Rap, and the Academy. University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Blackburn, Regina Naasirah. “Binary Visions, Black Consciousness, and Bling Bling”. Socialism and Democracy. New York: Jul-Dec 2004.Vol.18, Iss. 2; pg. 79

Hess, Mickey. “Metal Faces, Rap Masks: Identity and Resistance in Hip Hop's Persona Artist”. Popular Music and Society; 28:3; pg. 297

Murray, Derek Conrad. “Hip-Hop vs. High Art: Notes on Race as Spectacle”. Art Journal. New York: Summer 2004. 63:2; pg. 4

Perry, Imani. Prophets of the hood : politics and poetics in hip hop. Duke University Press, 2004.

Potter, Russell A. Spectacular vernaculars : hip-hop and the politics of postmodernism. State University of New York Press, 1995.

Trapp, Erin. “The Push and Pull of Hip hop: A Social Movement Analysis”. American Behavioral Scientist, 48:11, pg. 1482.

and others ...