Abstract
In 2006 Nas released an album entitled Hip Hop Is Dead, sparking widespread debate among music enthusiasts and scholars about the current state of hip hop. Nas, in subsequent interviews, indicated that the title was not to be viewed literally and it was chosen to provoke debate among listeners. The current state of hip hop is one that critics both inside and outside the academy have debated over the past fifteen years. Some observers lament the hypercommericialization of the music in the mainstream, with a consistent focus on negative and stereotypical imagery, while others point to the global appropriation of the genre and a fear that the African American urban roots of the music will be lost. These concerns are a result of a complex mix of factors, including industry factors, appropriation, and moderate political context that have significantly transformed the genre over the past twenty years.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See Hayden White, “Afterword,” in Beyond the Cultural Turn: New Directions in the Study of Society and Culture, ed. V. Bonnell and Lynn Hunt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999);
Joanne Freekman, “The Culture of Politics: The Politics of Culture,” Journal of Policy History 16 (2004): 137–42;
And Kyle Grayson et al., “Pop Goes IR? Researching the Popular Culture—World Politics Continuum,” Politics 29 (2009):155–63.
Lisa Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 30.
Review additionally: Wedeen, “Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science,” American Political Science Review 96, no. 4 (December 2002): 713–28; and John Bowen and Roger Petersen eds., Critical Comparisons in Politics and Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Aldon Morris and Naomi Braine, “Social Movements and Oppositional Consciousness,” in Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest, ed. Jane J. Mansbridge and Aldon Morris (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 25..
Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual: A Historical Analysis of the Failure of Black Leadership (1967; repr., New York: Quill, 1984), 71.
W. E. B. Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” in The Souls of Black Folk (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Company, 1903; New York: Penguin Books, 1989), 5
Adolph Reed, Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and the Color Line (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)
And W. E. B. Du Bois, “Talented Tenth: Memorial Address,” in W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader, ed. David Levering Lewis (New York: Henry Holt, 1995), 348.
Ernest Allen Jr., “On the Reading of Riddles: Rethinking Du Boisian ‘Double Consciousness,” in Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy, ed. L. Gordon (New York: Routledge, 1997), 64.
Sterling Stuckey, “W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Cultural Reality and the Meaning of Freedom,” in Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 265.
One may also consider Bernard Boxill, “Du Bois and Fanon on Culture,” The Philosophical Forum (Winter/Spring 1977–78): 326–38
And Stanley Brodwin, “The Veil Transcended: Form and Meaning in W.E.B. Du Bois ‘The Souls of Black Folk,” Journal of Black Studies (March 1972): 303–21.
Barbara Harlow, Resistance Literature (New York: Routledge, 1987), 28.
Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), 9.
Amiri Baraka, Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 108.
Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Society (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964), 61.
James Young, “Profound Offense and Cultural Appropriation,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63 (Spring 2005): 136.
Richard Fung, “Working Through Appropriation,” Fuse (Summer 1993): 20.
Sunaina Maira “Henna and Hip Hop: The Politics of Cultural Production and the Work of Cultural Studies,” Journal of Asian American Studies 3 (October 2000): 11
Recording Industry of America (RIIA), “Gold and Platinum Data;” http://www.riaa.com
Nelson George, Buppies, B-Boys, BAPS,& BOHOS (New York: DA CAPO Press, 2001), 94.
Dan Charnas, The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New York: New American Library, 2010), 494.
Jay Z, “Moment of Clarity,” The Black Album (Roc-A-Fella Records, 2003).
Mos Def interview with Spank Rock, “House Music: Mos Def,” June 6, 2009, /www .interviewmagazine.com/blogs/music/2009-06-01/mos-def/
Lupe Fiasco, “American Terroist,” Food & Liquor, Atlantic Records, 2006, CD.
Interview: Lupe Fiasco Talks “Lasers” Delay, Japanese Cartoon, and “Food & Liquor II,” complexmag.com, September 10, 2010.
Ibid., my emphasis.
See Patrick Burkart, “Loose Integration and the Popular Music Industry,” Popular Music and Society 28 (Oct. 2005): 289–500; and the documentary Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music (2001).
Kembrew McLeod, “MP3s Are Killing Home Taping: The Rise of Internet Distribution and Its Challenge to the Major Label Music Monopoly,” Popular Music and Society 28 (October 2005): 523.
http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000428.
McLeod, 523.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, cited in Amanda Andres, “Changes Rock the Music World as ‘360 Deals’ Rise,” Daily Telegraph (London), February 6, 2009, online edit: www.telegraph.co.uk.
Talib Kweli “Let’s Get Free” (Part One), www.xxlmag.com, April 17, 2006.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Rap artist Macklemore (born Ben Haggerty) won Grammy awards in 2014 for best rap album, best rap song, and best rap performance over other artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z, Kanye West, and Drake. Similarly, he won MTV’s 2013 Video Music Award (VMA) for best hip hop video.
Comments made at the 23rd Annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards, June 26, 2010.
Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1994), 5.
“Minnesota School Faces Lawsuit Over Racist ‘Wigger Day,’” Huffingtonpost.com, August 3, 2011.
Bakari Kitwana, Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 149.
Nina Simone, “Definition of an Artist: interview,” Protest Anthology (Andy Stoud Incorporated, 2008).
James Brown, “America Is My Home Pt.1,” James Brown Singles, Vol. 5 1967–1969, Universal Records, CD.
Suzanne Smith, Dancing in the Streets: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 238.
On “Self-Destruction” participants included BDP, MC Lyte, Public Enemy, Just-Ice, Heavy D, Stetsasonic, among others, and on “Were All in the Same Gang” they included NWA, Tone-Loc, Above The Law, Young MC, and Digital Underground.
Young Jeezy, “My President,” The Recession (Island/ Def Jam Group, 2008).
Ibid.
Nas, “Black President,” Untitled (Island/Def Jam Group, 2008).
Ibid., passim.
Tricia Rose, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk about When We Talk about Hip Hop— and Why It Matters (New York: Basic Books, 2008), i.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2014 Tamara Lizette Brown and Baruti N. Kopano
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Robertson, D.O. (2014). Cash Rules Everything around Me: Appropriation, Commodification, and the Politics of Contemporary Protest Music and Hip Hop. In: Brown, T.L., Kopano, B.N. (eds) Soul Thieves. Contemporary Black History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137071392_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137071392_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-10897-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-07139-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)