Defining Authenticity in the Mid-2000s Australian Hip-Hop Scene: Constructing and Maintaining ‘Underground’ Status at a Time of Increasing Popularity

Abstract

Hip-Hop fans and artists’ responses to the growing popularity of Hip-Hop music in Australia in the mid-2000s is the subject of this article which draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Melbourne and Adelaide from 2006 to 2008. Prior to this period, participants in the Australian Hip-Hop scene characterised it as an ‘authentic’ underground community in contrast to disparaged ‘inauthentic’ mainstream practices and products. This conceptualisation was challenged as opportunities to make money from Hip-Hop culture increased and more people began to produce and consume Hip-Hop. Research participants reacted to these developments by drawing boundaries around the Hip-Hop community, in particular, by making distinctions between people who loved Hip-Hop and had demonstrated a commitment to Hip-Hop culture and ‘outsiders’ whose involvement in the scene was criticised and rejected. In doing so, they were able to maintain a sense of ownership, control and shared cultural identity in a period of uncertainty.

Keywords:

• Hip-Hop
• Rap
• Authenticity
• Commercialisation
• Underground
• Mainstream

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editorial team and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on this article and the Hip-Hop fans and artists who gave up their time to participate in this study.

ORCID

Dianne Rodger http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2649-442X

Notes

1 Sarah Baker (2013, 14) demonstrates that mainstream popular music is typically ‘positioned as the polar opposite of “authentic” music culture and widely regarded as ordinary’.

2 Similar understandings are widely reported in studies of underground and DIY (do-it-yourself) music scenes, see Bennett and Guerra (2019) for an excellent overview.

3 I do not explore gendered understandings of authenticity in this article, however, I note that the ‘mainstream’ is frequently associated with ‘feminine’ qualities which tend to be disparaged such as passivity and conformity (cf. Thornton 1996; McLeod 1999; Baker 2013). Elsewhere, I explore how the constitution of Hip-Hop as a ‘masculine’ culture shaped both women’s and men’s participation (Rodger 2011). In a more recent study, Christopher Vito (2019, 100) demonstrates that issues around gender and sexuality are frequently ignored in independent Hip-Hop despite the increasing diversity of artists and listeners (e.g. LGBTQA participants).

4 Pseudonyms are used in this paper.

5 This origin narrative is contested with some Hip-Hop enthusiasts employing different understandings and categories (Appert 2016) or positing the source of Hip-Hop culture in existing local traditions (cf. Pennycook and Mitchell 2009).

6 Due to space restrictions I do not provide a detailed overview of this large body of work. For an edited collection of Hip-Hop scholarship outside of America see Mitchell (2001).

7 For example, two important early Adelaide Hip-Hop events held in 1993 were called ‘Voices from the Underground’ (Downing 2006, 11).

8 Hip-Hop artists were utilising social media platforms like MySpace and they did share music digitally but albums still tended to be released on CD and/or vinyl.

9 http://www.rapthefilm.com/about.

10 I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for encouraging me to address this point and draw out these differences.

11 Eminem is a successful American rapper. Figgkidd was also disliked because he rapped in an American accent, a practice that was overwhelming criticised at the time of my study.

12 This study was based on ethnographic interviews and participant observation in Brisbane and Sydney between 2010 and 2016.

13 Simon expressed quite a liberal view, indicating that ‘at the end of the day it’s just personal choice, that might be what they like or what they want to make’.

14 Hilltop refers to the Hilltop Hoods. Oars is short for Funkoars.

15 I did not record in my fieldnotes the identity of the MC who said this.

16 Slang for disrespect.

17 Speers (2017, 42) suggests that London MCs' dedication to not selling-out could actually be thwarting their careers, resulting in the perpetuation of underground status.

18 See also Damien Arthur’s (2006) study of the brands that were viewed as authentic by members of the Australian Hip-Hop scene, demonstrating that some mass-produced brands originating from America were accepted while others were rejected.

19 This album was released under the moniker ‘X and Hell’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Divisional Scholarship awarded by the University of Adelaide.