The aim of this thesis is to analyze and interpret the hypermasculine elements of African American performance in rap music. It shall examine the ways in which the performance works as well as its possible influence on the public; therefore, it shall also react to the widespread criticism of the genre. In order to understand the complexity of the issue, it sketches the history of African American men struggling to attain their manhood and it points out the damage done to African American masculinity during the era of slavery and the following period of Reconstruction. Moreover, it is necessary to trace back the inspiration that helped to constitute the hypermasculine images. To do that, we shall look into the folkloric tradition of figures such as the "bad nigger" and "badman" or "bad nigga;" and we shall see how these personas transformed into the modern figures of "gangstas," pimps and hip hop revolutionaries. In the next two chapters, the thesis discusses the relation of rap music authenticity and the performativity of gender, which is based on Judith Butler's gender theory as described in her book Gender Trouble. Regarding authenticity, we shall dissect the term itself and its potential meaning for a work of art. In the last few chapters, the thesis attempts to categorize hip hop masculinity...

Studien behandlar musiklärares förhållningssätt till gangsterrap i skolan där deltagarnas uttalanden och reflektioner har analyserats med fältteori. Studien utforskar dessutom informellt lärande och pedagogiska aspekter utifrån vetenskapliga teoretiska discipliner som interpellation. Syftet är att beskriva hur musiklärare förhåller sig till läroplanens övergripande mål och riktlinjer när musiklärare tillämpar musikskapande och utövning av gangsterrap specifikt men även andra musikgenrer med texter som kan ses strida mot värdegrunden i Lgr22. Studien är kvalitativ där fältstudierna bestod av fyra halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Studiens Resultatet visar bland annat lärares positioner och kulturella kapital spelar roll för hur gangsterrap förstås och används av elever och musiklärare.

This thesis asks why women gangsta rappers have been excluded from virtually all academic and popular discourses about the genre. While ‘positive’ and ‘empowering’ New York-based female rappers in the late 80s and 90s are often referenced by those concerned with gangsta rap’s misogynistic tendencies, women rappers in Los Angeles who performed alongside male gangsta rappers, were represented on labels managed by gangsta rappers, and were otherwise self-consciously engaging in the gangsta rap style are almost never acknowledged by either the genre’s defenders or detractors. By interrogating this discursive absence, I reevaluate the neoliberal sexual and racial politics of gangsta rap’s censorship discourse and interrogate the rhetorical and representational strategies deployed by female gangsta rappers such as Lady of Rage, Bo$$, NiNi X, Menajahtwa, H.W.A., and Yo-Yo to both contest misogyny and express coalitional affinity with their male counterparts from within the genre itself.

This project examines Dr. C. DeLores Tucker’s efforts to abolish the production and distribution of gangsta rap to the American youth. Though her efforts were courageous and daring, they were not sufficient. The thesis will trace Tucker’s crusade beginning in 1992 through the end of the 1990s. It brings together several themes in post-World War II American history, such as the issues of race, gender, popular culture, economics, and the role of government. The first chapter thematically explores Tucker’s crusade, detailing her methodology and highlighting pivotal events throughout the movement. The second chapter discusses how opposition from rap artists, and the music industry, media coverage of Tucker and her followers, and resistance from members of Congress contributed to the failure of her endeavor.

This thesis interrogates gangsta hip-hop for the unique attention it plays to the drug trade. I read theories of hypervisibility/invisibility and Louis Althusser’s theory of interpellation alongside hip-hop feminist theory to examine the Black female criminal subjectivity that operates within hip-hop. Using methods of discourse analysis, I question the constructions of gangster femininity in rap lyrics as well as the absences of girlhood on Season 4 of HBO’s television drama The Wire. In doing so, I argue that the discursive construction of Black female subjectivity within gangsta hip-hop provides a hypervisibility that portrays Black women as violent while simultaneously erasing the broader social processes that impact the lives of Black women and girls. Hip-hop feminism allows the cultural formations of hip-hop to be read against the politics that structure the lives of women of color in order to provide a lens for analyzing how their criminality is constructed through media.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2009. / Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 452 p. : col. ill. Includes bibliographical references.

Submitted by Daniel Santos (imperadormacu@gmail.com) on 2018-08-03T17:42:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TEXTO COMPLETO - VERSÃO PARA IMPRESSÃO.pdf: 6201841 bytes, checksum: 34fb4e84eb9ab2983f81d450a296dab1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Setor de Periódicos (per_macedocosta@ufba.br) on 2018-08-07T15:57:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TEXTO COMPLETO - VERSÃO PARA IMPRESSÃO.pdf: 6201841 bytes, checksum: 34fb4e84eb9ab2983f81d450a296dab1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T15:57:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TEXTO COMPLETO - VERSÃO PARA IMPRESSÃO.pdf: 6201841 bytes, checksum: 34fb4e84eb9ab2983f81d450a296dab1 (MD5) / CAPES / Esta dissertação é o resultado do #TheGangstaProject, projeto de pesquisa científica sobre as masculinidades negras na cultura Hip Hop dos Estados Unidos da América, na transição dos séculos XX-XXI. A partir de um processo de investigação sobre a obra audiovisual dos rappers Jay-Z e 50 Cent pode-se identificar e decodificar as configurações dos tipos de masculinidades negras presentes nas narrativas dos videoclipes do Gangsta Rap, subgênero musical que subverteu e redefiniu o sistema iconográfico de representação sobre os homens negros, tradição herdada do passado colonial escravocrata reinventada no imaginário racial coletivo estadunidense a partir do fenômeno do Novo Racismo. Através de uma perspectiva interseccional, estabelecida entre as epistemologias étnico-raciais pós-coloniais e das dissidências sexuais e de gênero, desenvolveu-se um exercício de desmontagem simbólica das imagens produzidas historicamente sobre e pelos homens negros. Acionando os sistemas iconográficos enquanto dispositivos de dominação, controle e exploração simbólica dos corpos e subjetividades negras masculinas, esta dissertação tenta compreender como as práticas e os jogos de representação funcionam a partir dos marcadores sociais de raça e gênero, como também quais são seus efeitos nas políticas das masculinidades negras.

Many young adult African American men living in urban areas adopt a style of self-presentation known as the gangsta image in an attempt to earn and maintain what they may perceive to be respect, self-esteem, and social status. While these young men succeed in earning the respect of their peers, they also may jeopardize their chances of succeeding in mainstream society by engaging in an alienating lifestyle related to their alternative form of status. The purpose of this case study was to explore the concepts of respect and self-esteem as defined by a culture-sharing group of young African American men living in an urban environment. Using the theoretical lens of Goffman's dramaturgical model of social interactions, case studies of 4 young African American males' experience of self-esteem and respect as components of social acceptance were explored. Their sources of teachings about respect and social position received from the authority figures in their environment, as well as the contextual factors that shaped their self-concept, were also delineated. The research used a qualitative, case study design. Data were collected from observations, interviews, participatory photography, and document review and analyzed by coding and concept mapping using Atlas.ti software. The key finding was that perceptions of self-respect were connected to ongoing negative relationships with mainstream society and law enforcement. This study contributes to social change by helping human services professionals to comprehend the meaning and significance of respect and self-esteem for this population. This understanding can then inform practices related to engaging and supporting the mainstream success of this important group.

Den här uppsatsen fokuserar på autenticitet inom rapp: hur den skapas och bibehålls. Först introduceras genren ”gangsterrapp” och därefter analyseras en uppsättning av låtar inom genren både text-, ljud- och bildmässigt. Därefter följer en diskussion om mina undersökningsresultat och slutsatsen att svenska gangsterrappare skapar autenticitet genom att vara kriminella. Oavsett var de kommer från eller vilka de känner presenterar gangsterrapparna sig som frontfigurer för stora kriminella nätverk och använder sina texter som en slags ”gangsters dagbok”. Teman såsom polishat, drogförsäljning och kallblodigt mord förekommer ofta och är till och med förväntade. / This paper focuses on authenticity in rap: how it is created and maintained. First, I introduce the subgenre of “gangsta rap” and how it is defined. Then, I continue by analyzing a set of songs both lyrically, audibly and visually, and while direct audible differences are included, they are deemed less important than the social aspect of said songs. Subsequently follows a discussion of my findings and the conclusion that Swedish gangster rappers create authenticity by being criminals. No matter where they come from, or who they know they will always present themselves as the front figure of vast criminal networks and use their lyrics as a form of “gangster diary.” Themes such as hating the police, selling drugs and killing in cold blood are commonplace and are even expected.

This dissertation situates the emergence of gangsta rap from 1988-1997 within the historical trajectory of the American criminal justice system and the mass incarceration of African Americans. Specifically, it examines how the genre enacted the mark of criminality as a gesture of resistance in a period of sustained moral panic surrounding race and criminality in the United States. The mark of criminality refers to a regime of signifiers inscribed upon African American bodies that imagines black subjects as fundamental threats to social order. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of historical materialism and cultural studies, the project locates the mark of criminality within the social structures of capitalism, arguing that hegemonic fantasies of racialized criminality protect oppressive and exploitative social relations. The project concludes that while gangsta rap has many significant limitations associated with violence, misogyny, and commercialism, it nonetheless represents a salient expression of resistance that can inform broader interventions against the American prisons system. A number of questions guide this project. Chief among them are the following: In what ways does the criminal justice system operate as a site of rhetorical invention and hegemonic struggle? To what extent does gangsta rap enable and disable rhetorical and political agency? To what extent does it enable and disable interracial political practice? What are the implications of gangsta rap for a gendered politics of criminality? Three case studies demonstrate how specific gangsta rap artists inverted the mark of criminality toward the constitution of affirmative and resistant fantasies of black criminality. While the work of these artists, I argue, was significantly limited in its emancipatory potential, it nonetheless offered important insights into the contingency of race and crime in America. The project also considers how other rhetors responded to gangsta discourse, frequently toward the end of supporting hegemonic notions of race and criminality. The dissertation concludes that criminality functions as a vibrant site of rhetorical invention and resistance provided it is articulated to broader movements for social justice. While the often-problematic discourses of gangsta rap do not constitute politically progressive rhetorics in their own rights, they provide resources for the articulation of righteous indignation and utopian desires capable of challenging the prison-industrial complex. / text