<p>African American Vernacular English, AAVE, is a variant of English spoken mostly by lower-class black citizens in the US. Since the most popular music genre among African Americans today is rap, this paper will describe what characterizes AAVE and rap music, and explore the use of AAVE in rap lyrics of both black and white rappers.</p><p>AAVE is different from Standard English in several respects; grammatically, phonologically and lexically. Examples of grammatical features in AAVE are invariant be, double negations and the differing use of possessive pronouns.</p><p>The hip hop industry has been, and still is, largely dominated by black performers, and white artists make up only a minority of rappers in the line of business today. Rappers being part of a larger culture, the hip hop nation, they have a language in common, and that language is AAVE. In this paper, a number of lyrics performed both by black and white rap artists have been compared and analyzed, in search of linguistic features of AAVE. This study provides evidence that AAVE is indeed used in rap lyrics, although the use of its features is often inconsistent. It is also shown that AAVE-presence in white rappers’ lyrics exists, but is sparser than in the works of their black equivalents.</p>

Historically, social scientists have not only marginalized rap music as a viable unit of scholarly analysis, but failed at attempts to understand the thoughts and actions of rap music consumers. This study analyzes the connection between rap music’s (and the artists’) authenticity and how those perceptions of authenticity affect music consumers’ decision making process, thus providing a possible explanation as to why music fans purchase rap music. The goal of this research was to see if the reasons rap music fans provide explaining the rationale behind their purchases match the images and perceptions presumably held by the general public about rap music. A snowball sample was used to survey a total of 30 rap music “experts.” The findings from this study indicate the concept of authenticity is very important in validating not only rap music, but rap artist, rap music fans, and hip hop culture as a whole. The findings from this study provide empirical evidence supporting the importance of authenticity as a construct and the use of rap music as a unit of scholarly research analysis. By justifying the importance of authenticity to rap music and hip hop culture, this research proposes that authenticity may well be used as a means to maintain existing relationships with a fan-base and as a marketing tool used by record companies to attract new fans and generate album sales.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

This research aimed for an extended knowledge and understanding of young people in stigmatized areas and their construction of group identity. With a focus on Roma youths in Konik, Montenegro, and their involvement in hip-hop we wanted to explore what this culture meant to them in relation to their context. An ethnographic approach was used in collecting the empirical data through observations, interpreting music lyrics and conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews. Five young Roma boys from Konik, all involved in hip-hop, were interviewed. Theoretical perspectives on identity, youth culture and stigmatization were central. In addition, Bourdieu’s theory regarding cultural capital was emphasized and connected to youths and hip-hop. The empirical material showed that involvement in hip-hop provided the Roma youths with a group identity that they referred to in positive terms. Contextual factors of stigmatization excluded the Roma group from the majority population and the engagement in hip-hop created a possibility for the youths to be someone. The cultural capital gained through hip-hop was not used to verify and legitimate an authentic Roma identity. It was rather a way for them to create boundaries towards the negative elements in their community.

Combining quantitative sociophonetic methods and a qualitative, ethnographic acpproach to the study of language and social relations, my current research program focuses on the role of language in competing hip hop cultures. This research draws on early scholarship in cultural studies (Hebdige 1979), as well as what some have termed post- subcultural studies (Muggleton & Weinzierl 2003). Central to my own work are two theoretical concerns shared by these currents of scholarship, including: (1) How sociohistorical forces (including institutionally-mediated social action) shape cultural frameworks for symbolically staking out a position in the social landscape (2) How prominent social positioning in local cultral hierarchies shapes popular ideas regarding such intersecting notions as authentcity and indigeneity Regarding the first of these concerns, I examine how popular hip hop artists reflexively bring into focus a repertoire of spatialized social practices by rapping about them in their music -- a discursive practice I term metastylistic discourse. By selectively rapping about social practices indexical of their experiences of place, not only communicate a particular take on the local (i.e. their own); they directly position social and indirectly position soicolinguistic practices centrally among stylistic practices distinguishing Houston aeshetically from the cultural forms associated with other scenes. Central here is the second concern I share with current approaches to cultural studies, particularly, the significance of where social actors (i.e. established artists) find themselves in local social hierarchies. Established artists shape and reshape ways of talking about local life partly through econtextualizing prior texts. It is through the circulation of such texts that a discursive framework emerges, the product of a trans-modal series of recontexutalizations which serve to communicate an experience of Houston, what it looks and sounds like. In short, my current project works to close the gap between sociolinguistic approaches to the formation and interrogation of stylistic norms and research in cultural studies along these same lines (Hodkinson 2003, Piano 2003). By examining these processes in the context of hip hop, my work illustrates how social actors shape cultural norms through performance

With new technology come new possibilities for the creation of artistic works. The invention of sound recording at end of the nineteenth century enabled musical performances to be “written” in the same manner as traditional, printed literature. The status of records as a form of writing and, moreover, as the material for further writing is demonstrated in the work of two hip hop artists, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, who assemble new, heteroglossic texts out of a wide array of sampled records. Two concerts, Product Placement (2004) and The Hard Sell (2008) – both of which have been memorialized on DVD – serve as fruitful examples of the potential for artistic production enabled by technology. Indeed, the genre of turntablism, which involves the live manipulation of vinyl records, requires the usage of technology in ways not intended by its original developers – a recurrent theme throughout the history of sound recording. By transforming the turntable from a passive playback device into an active compositional tool, turntablism collapses the distance between consumption and production and so turns the listener into a performer. Furthermore, the exclusive usage of 45 rpm records as the source texts for the two sets dramatizes theories of intertextuality while simultaneously tracing the constraints placed on such artistic piracy by the copyright regime. These texts entail more than just their cited musical content; they also involve visual components. These include not only the video imagery that accompanies and comments on the records being played, but also the physical performance of the DJs themselves and the spectacle of the attending crowds whose response to the music constitutes part of the text itself. Following a theoretical and historical background that will situate these works within the history of hip hop and literature in general, this study will explicate these two multimedia texts and reveal how they demonstrate a concern not only with the history of sound recording, but also such issues as the influence of technology on cultural production, the complication of authorship through intertextuality, and the relationship between culture and commerce. Above all, however, both the form and content of these two performances also serve to highlight the value of physical media as historical artifacts in the face of increasing challenges from incorporeal digital media.

Outside Looking In (OLI) is a youth development through recreation program for Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Through the analysis of semi-structured interviews, fieldnotes, and archival documents, in this thesis I examine OLI staff and Board members’ description of OLI’s creation and implementation processes. This thesis is written in the stand alone format and is comprised of two papers. The first paper shows that OLI staff and Board members describe OLI’s creation and implementation as relatively predetermined. At the same time, however, OLI incorporates collaborative approaches to various aspects of program design. While OLI facilitates collaborative processes that can contribute to Aboriginal self-determination, Eurocentric influences and broader colonial forces make efforts to achieve Aboriginal self-determination challenging. The second paper illustrates that OLI’s approach to Aboriginal youth development through recreation creates a hybrid third space that challenges colonial discourses. Together, this thesis not only describes the creation and implementation processes of a youth development through recreation program for Aboriginal peoples, but also how the tensions associated with Aboriginal self-determination and colonial relations of power can permeate such programs.

La présente recherche est une étude ethnographique d'une danse de rue hip-hop appelée «breaking» (communément appelée «breakdance») à Montréal dans ses divers contextes et occurrences. En particulier, elle vise à déterminer les changements esthétiques et socio-culturels qui se manifestent lorsque le contexte social ou vernaculaire du «breaking» est reconfiguré en oeuvre de danse contemporaine. Un examen historique de la forme de danse encadre l'exploration du «breaking» dans quatre contextes précis: le «freestyle cypher,» le «battle» organisé, la mise en vedette «freestyle» et le spectacle de danse contemporaine. Le transfert ou le glissement de contexte de la danse se décline en plusieurs niveaux: les participants (qui), l'esthétique et la forme (quoi), le lieu (où), la relation au temps (quand) et la raison d'être (pourquoi). Ces cinq catégories d'examen sont empruntées de la Theory and Methods for an Anthropological Study of Dance de l'anthropologue de danse américaine Joann Kealiinohomoku. La compréhension du transfert de la danse en divers contextes est inspirée par des modèles théoriques d'études en danses folkloriques. Le «freestyle cypher» reflète le contexte original participatif de la danse folklorique, souvent désignée comme première manifestation de danse. Les contextes subséquents suivent approximativement les trois principes de théâtralisation adaptés par le folkloriste canadien Andrij Nahachewsky lui-même inspiré du folkloriste ukrainien Kim Vasylenko. Selon ces principes, différents niveaux ou approches d'adaptation de la danse folklorique au théâtre sont appliqués à la danse d'origine. Le dernier principe rejoint l'approche de chorégraphes en danse contemporaine qui fusionnent le vocabulaire et l'esthétique du «breakdance» avec ceux de la danse contemporaine et du ballet. Ce processus est démontré dans une recherche sur le travail de deux compagnies de danse montréalaises, Rubberbandance Group sous la direction de Victor Quijada et Solid State Breakdance Collective sous la direction d'un groupe de chorégraphes-interprètes féminines. Les ramifications socio-culturelles d'un tel transfert sont complexes, surtout dans le milieu des arts de la scène. Le glissement, notamment d'un art populaire ou d'une danse vernaculaire, au «High Art» sous-tend une reconnaissance et un soutien institutionnels. Les divisions de la reconnaissance et le soutien se font souvent selon les ethnies. Néanmoins, les formes de danse non-occidentales réussissent, depuis quelques années, à infiltrer la danse contemporaine. Le «breaking», bien qu'elle soit une forme de danse née en Occident, illustre cela. Elle a été créée par de jeunes noirs et hispanophones du Bronx, un quartier défavorisé de New York, avant d'être largement assimilée par de jeunes Canadiens d'origines ethniques semblables, aussi issus de milieux défavorisés. Le travail de Rubberbandance Groupe et celui de Solid State Breakdance Collective questionnent les hiérarchies et se jouent des catégories. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Breaking (b-boying/b-girling), Danse vernaculaire Africaine Américaine, Danse contemporaine, Danse de représentation, Danse de participation, Appropriation, Hip hop.

Cette recherche vise à explorer et comprendre l'influence de la culture hip-hop québécoise sur l'intégration ou la marginalisation des adolescents montréalais d'origine haïtienne. Pour ce faire, nous nous sommes d'abord interrogée sur l'importance de la culture hip-hop québécoise chez les adolescents montréalais d'origine haïtienne, les sphères où peut se faire sentir cette influence, mais aussi sur la perception qu'ont ces jeunes de l'artiste hip-hop. Nous estimions que les adolescents montréalais d'origine haïtienne voyaient en la culture hip-hop bien plus qu'un amalgame de disciplines artistiques. Que la culture hip-hop était plutôt pour eux un mode de vie, un outil de revendication, une incitation à l'engagement social ou politique. S'inspirant de la tradition interactionniste symbolique, notre recherche s'est faite en trois temps: analyse documentaire, observation et entrevues. Nous nous sommes intéressée à la construction de l'identité faite dans un rapport à l'autre, telle qu'abordée par les sociologues de l'École de Chicago; à l'intégration et aux stratégies identitaires selon Hanna Malewska-Peyre; ainsi qu'au lien entre musique et identité, un lien développé par Simon Frith. Par la suite, les jeunes hommes haïtiens de Montréal que nous avons rencontrés nous ont parlé hip-hop, identité, regroupement, intégration et revendication. La culture hip-hop québécoise s'est avérée profitable à l'intégration des personnes interrogées. Plutôt que de s'isoler, elles se regroupent autour d'une culture qui les fait s'exprimer, se questionner et revendiquer une vie meilleure. Mais si la culture hip-hop ne se résume pas aux stéréotypes souvent véhiculés par les médias et les artistes eux-mêmes (argent, sexe, violence, gangs de rue), elle comporte aussi sa part de noirceur. Un côté sombre qui fait partie intégrante de la société québécoise et qui, pour certains jeunes, représente la seule solution. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Hip-hop, Identité, Groupe, Intégration, Stratégie identitaire.

Au moment où la majorité des êtres humains vivent désormais dans les villes, l'étude de phénomènes sociaux urbains prend une importance renouvelée. La culture hip-hop est née dans la ville de New York à l'époque où y appliquait les premières politiques néolibérales. Aujourd'hui, les deux phénomènes se côtoient de part et d'autre, au centre et en périphérie de la ville-globale, une mise en réseau des mégapoles du monde qui entraîne une amplification des rapports transnationaux. La culture hip-hop, en tant que manifestation socio-culturelle offre un accès privilégié à l'imaginaire des populations périphériques. São Paulo, métropole du Brésil et centre financier de l'Amérique latine, abrite aussi l'une des communautés hip-hop les plus engagées et à partir desquelles on peut étudier les rapports entre le « mouvement culturel » hip-hop et la politique à l'heure de l'altermondialisme. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Culture hip-hop, Politique, Postmodernité, Cultural studies, Ville-globale, Périphéries urbaines, Troisième espace, São Paulo, Brésil, Altermondialisme.