It’s crazy to think that we are actually at the finish line of this semester. I remember when I first signed up for the course I was hoping to get a better understanding of where Hip Hop originated and how it all began as well as how Hip Hop evolved to what it is today. I also wanted to learn more about female artists in the industry and what Hip Hop feminism is in general. Some of the quotes that I selected throughout the semester refer to how Hip Hop is viewed as a way of life and subculture in the bronx. While other quotes state how the art of Hip Hop is used as a tool to express the unrepresented and share real testimonies of what it’s like to grow up in the hood or be a female artist in the music industry.
The first quote that stood out to me in one of our earlier readings was “The world is now and has always been a stage”. Similar to this one another quote from Aberocrombie and Longhurst
Was “The world is always already performing, always already in motion”. The reason why these resonated with me is because it allowed me to see life as an opportunity in every way. Life’s a stage and YOU are the one running your show so do what you want with it. The quotes also took the traditional meaning of performance and made it literal and relatable to everyone. It made me realize that in one way or another everyone performs each and every day. Whether it’s pretending to be okay when you’ve had a rough night to save yourself from explaining a personal matter to anyone who asks, trying to demonstrate your best most professional version of yourself to land a job or taking the mic on stage. Everyone chooses how they will perform day by day and I find that concept really interesting.
“Hip hop gives voice to the tensions and contradictions in the public urban landscape during a period of substantial transformation and attempts to seize the shifting urban terrain, to make it work on behalf of the dispossessed”. When I read this quote from Tricia Rose’s The hood comes first chapter I thought about so many real life situations including my own and many other artists who made it in the industry. Hip Hop is a subculture that started in the streets. It was a way for people of color to not only express themselves but tell their stories and try to make a change in their realities. While white supremists would look at our broken down neighborhoods and blame us for the reason we’re poor, hip hop culture gave us a way to speak up and talk about the racial and economic inequalities that contribute to our situations.
“We need a feminism that possess the same fundamental understanding held by any true student of hip hop. Truth cannot be found in the voice of any one rapper but in the juxtaposition of many”. Lastly I chose this quote because I believe it captures the true meaning of Hip Hop as a collective and artistic form of expression.
