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Performance, Protest, and Prophecy in the Culture of Hip-Hop

Performance, Protest, and Prophecy in the Culture of Hip-Hop Perlorman,e, Protest, and Prophety in the Culture ol Hip-Hop Michael Eric Dyson From the very beginning of its history, hip-hop music-or "rap," as it has come to be known-has faced various obstacles. Initially, rap was deemed a passing fad, a playful, harmlessly nonsensical, and ephem­ eral form of cultural high jinks that steamed off the musical energies of urban black teens. As it became obvious that rap was here to stay, a permanent fixture in black ghetto youths' musical landscape, the reactions changed from dismissal to denigration, and rap music came under attack from both white and black quarters. Is rap really as dangerous as many would have us believe? Or are there redeeming characteristics to rap that warrant serious, critical attention, as op­ posed to dismissive condescension? I will attempt to answer these and other questions as I explore the culture of hip-hop. Trying to pinpoint the exact origin of rap is a tricky process that depends on when one acknowledges a particular cultural expression or product as rap. Rap has been traced back to the revolutionary verse of Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets, to Pigmeat Markham's "Heah Comes de Judge," and even to Bessie Smith's rapping http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Black Sacred Music Duke University Press

Performance, Protest, and Prophecy in the Culture of Hip-Hop

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Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1043-9455
eISSN
2640-9879
DOI
10.1215/10439455-5.1.12
Publisher site
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Abstract

Perlorman,e, Protest, and Prophety in the Culture ol Hip-Hop Michael Eric Dyson From the very beginning of its history, hip-hop music-or "rap," as it has come to be known-has faced various obstacles. Initially, rap was deemed a passing fad, a playful, harmlessly nonsensical, and ephem­ eral form of cultural high jinks that steamed off the musical energies of urban black teens. As it became obvious that rap was here to stay, a permanent fixture in black ghetto youths' musical landscape, the reactions changed from dismissal to denigration, and rap music came under attack from both white and black quarters. Is rap really as dangerous as many would have us believe? Or are there redeeming characteristics to rap that warrant serious, critical attention, as op­ posed to dismissive condescension? I will attempt to answer these and other questions as I explore the culture of hip-hop. Trying to pinpoint the exact origin of rap is a tricky process that depends on when one acknowledges a particular cultural expression or product as rap. Rap has been traced back to the revolutionary verse of Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets, to Pigmeat Markham's "Heah Comes de Judge," and even to Bessie Smith's rapping

Journal

Black Sacred Music – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 1991

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