CD cover art as cultural literacy and hip‐hop design in Brazil

Abstract

With the development of informational technology comes the creation of new forms of cultural expressions and interpretation. In this article I focus on the material of rap music CD cover art as a space where local Brazilian hip‐hoppers create powerful links between idea and image. Through practices of production and consumption hip‐hoppers learn new ways of community‐building and strengthening what they take to be their primary goal in hip‐hop: the representation of reality in suburban neighborhoods (periferia). The emergence of visual and digital literacies vis‐à‐vis rap CD cover art reveals a significant but often unanalyzed part of hip‐hop meaning‐making and youth culture identity formation. This article is based on fieldwork research in São Paulo, Brazil, since 1995.

Notes

‘Posse’ is a term borrowed from US hip‐hoppers, who borrowed it from Jamaican dancehall and dub traditions (mixture of reggae instrumentation and rap vocal style). According to Dick Hebdige (1987), Jamaicans had appropriated this term from the American Westerns.

Zulu Nation, located in the South Bronx, New York City, is the name of one of the first hip‐hop posses in the USA. Afrika Bambaataa founded Zulu Nation in November of 1973. Many Brazilian hip‐hoppers hold Zulu Nation as a sacred icon of hip‐hop history and respect. In 2002 Zulu ‘King’ Nino Brown registered the Brazilian affiliate—Zulu Nation Brasil.

Gaspar Garcia, the namesake of the organization, was a Spanish Frei (Catholic ‘brother’). He was involved with various literacy programs in Nicaragua and was killed during the civil war in the 1980s.

The artists authorized all photos and CD cover art reproduced in this article in written or verbal permission.

See Pedro Guasco's Master's dissertation (2001) Num país chamado periferia: identidade e representação da realidade entre os rappers de São Paulo, Department of Social Anthroplogy, University of São Paulo, pp. 108–115.

For more on negritude in São Paulo hip‐hop, see Pardue (2004).