The Organic Globalizer: The Political Development of Hip-Hop and the Prospects for Global Transformation

Abstract

This article argues that hip-hop is an “organic globalizer.” No matter its pervasiveness or its reach around the world, hip-hop ultimately remains a grassroots phenomenon that is born of the community from which it permeates. The authors contend that the political development of hip-hop in the United States holds important lessons for global political and social transformation. They identify three stages in its development: (1) the cultural awareness and emergence stage marked by the identification and recognition of voices of marginalized communities through music and art; (2) the social creation and institutionalization stage, marked by the development of independent alternative institutions and non-profit organizations in civil society geared toward social and economic justice; and (3) the political activism and participation stage, which hip-hop has entered in the United States. It is marked by demands made on the state by group actors, and the recognition of hip-hop's ability to affect electoral outcomes through political participation. Using this paradigm as a launching point, the article concludes by looking at a few examples of ways in which communities across the globe have used hip-hop to build positive political alternatives for historically marginalized communities.

Notes

¹ “Little of beauty has America given the world save the rude grandeur God himself stamped on her bosom; the human spirit in this new world has expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than in beauty. And so by fateful chance the Negro folk-song—the rhythmic cry of the slave—stands to-day not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas. It has been neglected, it has been, and is, half despised, and above all it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.” W.E.B. Dubois, Souls of Black Folk (New York: Penguin Press), chap. 14. Or few can deny the impact that Billie Holiday's “Strange Fruit” had in exposing the horrors of lynching to American society. See Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony (documentary film, 2003).

² Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan Press, 1994).

³ Robin D.G. Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class (New York: Free Press, 1994).

⁴ The works here are too many to mention. See, for instance, Arlene Tickner, “Aqui en el Ghetto: Hip-hop in Colombia, Cuba and Mexico,” Latin American Politics and Society 50:3 (2008), pp. 121–146; Nina Cornyetz, “Fetishized Blackness: Hip-Hop and Racial Desire in Contemporary Japan,” Social Text 41 (Winter 1994), pp. 113–139; Peter Wade, Michiel Baud, Arturo Escobar, Jean Muteba Rahier, Livio Sansone, Carlos Alberto Uribe, Fernando Urrea Giraldo, and Jim Weil, “Making Cultural Identities in Cali, Colombia [and Comments and Reply],” Current Anthropology 40:4 (1999), pp. 449–471.

⁵ Besides Rose and Kelley, see for instance Nelson George, Hip Hop America (New York: Penguin, 1999); Bakari Kitwana, Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture (New York: Basic, Civitas Books, 2002); Jeff Chang, Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005); S. Craig Watkins, Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005); Charise Cheney, “‘Revolutionary Generation’: (En)gendering the Golden Age of Rap Nationalism,” The Journal of African American History 90:3. For a concise bibliographical essay on hip-hop, see Juliana Chang, “Keeping it Real: Interpreting Hip-Hop,” College English 68:5 (2006), pp. 545–554.

⁶ Todd Boyd, The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop (New York: NYU Press, 2003). Derrick Alridge, “Hip Hop Versus Civil Rights?” The Journal of African American History 88:3 (2003), pp. 313–316. See also his “From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Toward a Nexus of Idea,” The Journal of African American History 90:3 (2005), pp. 226–252.

⁷ Hopefully it will become clear as we proceed that we think the jury is still out on the impact hip-hop has on political participation and electoral politics.

⁸ In this sense, we agree with Arlene Tickner who writes, “what makes hip-hop unique among popular musical genres is the way it relates to everyday life. In reflecting on poverty, inequality, exclusion, and discrimination; claiming a positive identity based on these conditions; and offering musical, linguistic and corporal tools for commenting on them, it transcends the bounded sites where it is practiced and participates in a symbolic network that circulates globally.” Tickner, Aqui en el Ghetto, p. 121.

⁹ Tickner, Aqui en el Ghetto, pp. 123–126.

¹⁰ Russell A. Potter, “Roots N Rap #2: The Last Poets,” < http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/lpoets.html>.

¹¹ Louise Roug, “Music Might Save Bronx Homes,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 2008, < http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/24/nation/na-bronx24>.

¹² Universal Zulu Nation, “Hip Hop History,” < http://www.zulunation.com/hip_hop_history_2.htm>.

¹³ Jeff Chang, “It's a Hip-hop World,” Foreign Policy 163 (Nov./Dec. 2007), pp. 58–65.

¹⁴ Karen Jaehne, “Charles Ahearn: ‘Wild Style,’” Film Quarterly 37:4 (1984), pp. 2–5.

¹⁵ Davey D., “Black History: Remembering How Hip Hop Took on Apartheid,” < http://hiphopandpolitics.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/black-history-fact-remembering-how-hip-hop-took-on-apartheid/>.

¹⁶ Cheney, “Revolutionary Generation,” pp. 278–298.

¹⁷ Yvonne Bynoe, “Hip-Hop Politics: Deconstructing the Myth,” < http://www.funk-the-system.net/hiphopolitics.html>.

¹⁹ The HEAL manifesto can be found at < http://www.hiphop-network.com/articles/graffitiarticles/heal-1.asp>.

¹⁸ < http://www.graffiti.org/ups/heal/reason.html>.

²⁰ Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, < http://mxgm.org/>. MXMG has local chapters in Atlanta, Detroit, New Orleans, Jackson, Fort Worth–Dallas, Oakland and New York.

²¹ Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, < http://www.ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid = 19&contentid = 151>.

²² Blackout Arts Collective, < http://www.blackoutartscollective.com/about.html>.

²³ Hip Hop Caucus, < http://hiphopcaucus.org/>; Hip Hop Association, < http://www.hiphopassociation.org/#/home/>; Global Block Foundation, < http://www.globalblock.org/index.html>.

²⁴ Hip Hop Declaration of Peace, < http://www.declaration-of-peace.com/en/>.

²⁵ Hip Hop Declaration of Peace, < http://www.declaration-of-peace.com/en/>

²⁶ Dave “Davey D” Cook, “Will Rap Artists Run for Political Office in 1996?,” < http://www.daveyd.com/politicaloff.html>.

²⁷ John H. Trindell and Martin Medhurst, “Rhetorical Reduplication in MTV's Rock the Vote Campaign,” Communications Studies 49:1 (1998), pp. 18–28.

²⁸ Hip Hop Summit Action Network: Mission, < http://www.hsan.org/content/main.aspx?pageid = 7>.

²⁹ David Jones, “Standing Up and Speaking Out: The Hip-Hop Generation's Quest for Political Power and Representation,” National Housing Institute, 137 (Sept./Oct. 2004), < http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/137/hiphop.html>.

³⁰ Ras Baraka for South Ward Councilman, < http://www.rasbaraka2010.com/index.php?option = com_content&view = article&id = 66&Itemid = 99>.

³¹ Kitwana, Hip Hop Generation.

³² “The Politics of Hip Hop in Dakar,” August 17, 2007, < http://allafrica.com/stories/200708170863.html>.

³³ Ben Barnier, “Where Hip Hop Brought Down a Government,” September 1, 2008, ABC News, < http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id = 5700928>.

³⁴ Ben Barnier, “Where Hip Hop Brought Down a Government,” September 1, 2008, ABC News, < http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id = 5700928>

³⁵ “Youth and Hip Hop in African Politics,” July 11, 2007, < http://www.wilsoncenter.org/ondemand/index.cfm?fuseaction = media.play&mediaid = A2C6E856-BE2C-499F-4FE266BD25DEB56E>.

³⁶ Benjamin Dangl, “Rapping in Aymara: Bolivian Hip Hop as an Instrument of Struggle,” September 11, 2006, < http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/427/1/>.

³⁷ Benjamin Dangl, “Rapping in Aymara: Bolivian Hip Hop as an Instrument of Struggle,” September 11, 2006, < http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/427/1/>

³⁸ George Martinez has travelled on several occasions to La Paz as a US Cultural Ambassador to conduct these workshops—all with the blessing of the Bolivian government and the US State Department.

³⁹ Benjamin Dangl, “Abraham's Last Rap: Bolivian Hip-Hop Hero Dies in El Alto,” May 24, 2009, < http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/1874-abrahams-last-rap-bolivian-hip-hop-hero-dies-in-el-alto>.

⁴⁰ Benjamin Dangl, “Abraham's Last Rap: Bolivian Hip-Hop Hero Dies in El Alto,” May 24, 2009, < http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/1874-abrahams-last-rap-bolivian-hip-hop-hero-dies-in-el-alto>

⁴¹ “Vulgar' Jay-Z Not Welcome,” October 11, 2006, < http://music.commongate.com/post/Vulgar_Jay-Z_not_welcome>.

⁴³ Jimmy Wang, “Now Hip Hop, Too, is Made in China,” January 23, 2009, < http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/arts/music/24hiphop.html>.

⁴² Jamila Trindle, “Made in China: Hip Hop Moves East,” December 13, 2007, < http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId = 17204661>.