Blackness in the Absence of Blackness: White Appropriations of Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture in Newcastle upon Tyne - Explaining a Cultural Shift

254 Pages·2011·1.63 MB·English

by  Andrew Laidlaw

Loughborough University
Institutional Repository
Blackness in the absence of
blackness: white
appropriations of Rap Music
and Hip-Hop Culture in
Newcastle upon Tyne -
explaining a cultural shift
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• A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
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Publisher: (cid:13)c Andrew Laidlaw
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CONTENTS PAGE

1 Introduction 2-20

2 Black and White Relations 21-52

3 Hip-Hop 53-80

4 The Antecedents of Hip-Hop 81-108

5 Newcastle: Economic and Social Decline 109-117

6 Introduction to Fieldwork 118-125

7 Local Sensibilities, Cultural Affiliations 126-158

8 Cultural Isolation and Long Distance Black Bonding 158-182

9 Denying the Importance of Race 183-199

10 Authenticity 200-211

11 Conclusion 212-224

Bibliography 225-246
Discography 247
Appendix 248-249
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

BLACKNESS IN THE ABSENCE OF BLACKNESS

Hip-hop culture and rap music have firmly made the transition from the African-American
ghetto to the white suburbs. They have transcended geographical as well as ethnic
boundaries, so much so that predominantly white areas, such as Newcastle upon Tyne, have
their own local appropriations of the art form. Within this study, I intend to reveal the reasons
why white youth have adopted a lifestyle which is alien to their traditional local culture. I
intend to examine how and why local white youth are appropriating black music and culture
beyond the proximity of a local black population who could act as an immediate reference
guide. I will explore, amongst other things, the influence of social conditions and the mass
media, the impact of ‘whiteness’ and the perception of white appropriations by those
involved. The focus is very much on the respondents’ identity formation and lifestyle rituals.

In this chapter, I will introduce the main themes of my study with an initial overview of black
and white relations, moving on to my theoretical framework, geographical area of study and
specific research questions. A brief summary of my methodology is also included. Within the
overall structure of the thesis my work is conducted on two fronts. The first consists of a
substantial review of existing literature, which allows me to analyse and develop the main
themes of my argument and locate a relevant theoretical framework. The second is the
fieldwork, where focus groups, depth interviews, and participant observation will be utilised.
From these, I will be in a strong position to analyse data (in a manner underpinned by my
theoretical framework) that provides me with the answers to my research questions.

The dangers of essentialising hip-hop as an exclusively ‘black’ cultural form are clear when
one considers the wealth of hip-hop scenes across the globe and the vast numbers of non-
black fans and practitioners of the art form. It is clear that the allure of hip-hop is by no
means limited to those connected with the African diaspora. Gilroy takes this view further,
arguing that black culture has become the primary influence on global popular culture. He
claims that the same forces that created the ‘black Atlantic’ (African diaspora) have
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“themselves developed and now articulate its myriad forms into a system of global
communications constituted by flows” (Gilroy, 1993: 80). Hip-hop can therefore be seen as a
black cultural expression that is “originally but no longer the exclusive property of blacks
dispersed within the black Atlantic world” (ibid: 3). The commercial potential of rap music,
married with its aesthetic malleability, has resulted in a vast growth in its popularity,
spreading its seeds across the planet. When we speak of hip-hop culture “we are also
referencing hip-hop specific language, body language, fashion, style, sensibility and
worldview” whose emergence in a global information age “is a major variable that sets it
apart, vastly increasing its capacity to reach beyond anything the world has ever seen”
(Kitwana, 2005: xii)

I intend to cover an area which has previously had very little research centred upon it.
‘White’ responses to rap have been relatively neglected in popular music studies, although a
token study has been offered by Andy Bennett (1999b). Whilst ‘white’ British appropriations
of other forms of black music (such as jazz, blues and soul) have been well documented in
sociological work (Hebdige, 1987 and Jones, 1988), this has not been the case for the
relatively ‘new’ form of rap music. My intention is to ascertain how the hip-hop movement
has affected young white hip-hop consumers in Newcastle upon Tyne, England (which has
been chosen because of its closeness to my roots, because of my knowledge of the local scene
and more importantly, because it is over 90% white) (Bennett, 2001). The main analytical
focus is on those who have been influenced and why. I am in effect covering very much new
ground with this project as academic literature on hip-hop is extremely sparse, which is
surprising as rap music is now (from originally being largely ignored by the ‘masses’),
“mass-produced popular culture” (Lynch and Krzycki, 1998: 328) and ‘glocal’ in its
application (Robertson, 1995). “One of the most potent, culturally sensitive tools in working
with youth that has not been systematically explored is rap music” (Tyson, 2002: 134).

The main aim of this project is to analyse the reasons behind these white appropriations in a
predominantly white area. Social and political conditions are almost certainly going to be
very different for a middle-class white youth and a working-class black youth. Their financial
status and sense of citizenship would be radically divergent. With this backdrop in mind,
investigating the reasons behind white appropriations is an exciting prospect. The study has a
set of key objectives designed to facilitate this aim. They are: 1) provide an adequate
theoretical framework for interpreting these white appropriations; 2) provide an ethnographic
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study of white, young, British hip-hop consumers in an almost entirely white area, and a
detailed analysis of relevant media and academic interpretations; 3) analyse the implications
these white appropriations have for social conflict, identity and youth citizenship.

My project will be influenced by the themes of lifestyle and consumption. Hip-hop for the
people that I am interested in is a way of life, and the art form itself is subject to mass
consumption. The focus on white appropriations will be heavily based on the cultural
identities of the participants involved. This research project, as mentioned, seeks to provide a
detailed analysis of ‘white’ appropriations of hip-hop culture in Newcastle. I hope to
ascertain how far this culture has affected the behaviour, values and attitudes of white youth,
and to find out the causes behind this. I will also look at questions of ‘whiteness’,
authenticity, and how ‘white’ appropriations are received within the wider local community.
To obtain this data, an extensive literature review along with three principal methods of
ethnographic research will be used as briefly mentioned at the start: semi-structured
interviews, participant observation and focus groups. These will be used with groups of
young people who are avid consumers of rap music, and whose identities are constructed in
relation to this art form. My methodology will be discussed in greater detail further on in this
chapter.

Various commentators (Rose, 1994; Guevara, 1995; Light, 1992 and Tate, 2003) defend the
inherent ‘blackness’ of hip-hop. They make it clear that white involvement is somehow
unscrupulous and has been responsible for turning hip-hop into a disposable form of
entertainment, therefore radically diluting and deflecting its key cultural forces. Being openly
into hip-hop does not sit well with other white people, who view this overt affiliation as
disrespectful (to their own culture that is) and ‘fake’. A term that is still consistently used is
‘wigger’, meaning ‘white nigger’ or wanting ‘to be black’ (Jones, 1988; Bennett, 1999b; and
Rose, 1994). The dangerous aura and forthright expression associated with many black
rappers (most commonly witnessed in ‘gangsta rap’) is seen as ‘exotic’ by suburban white
listeners (Dyson, 1996), this voyeuristic pleasure of black cultural imagery being deemed as
negative and contrived (Mitchell, 1996). William Wimsatt, author of Bomb The Suburbs,
which was first published in 1994, has said, and this could be applied to a place like
Newcastle: “I’m horrified by the aspect of the white hip-hop thing where you can be a white
hard core hip-hop kid and not know a single black person. Their whole social circle is white.
Their favourite rappers are white, and they’re trying to put out their own CDs, and so on. This
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is shockingly and violently decontextualized from where hip-hop came and from what it’s
about” (cited Kiwana, 2005: 7). The peculiar thing is that Wimsatt is a white man himself
who is a graffiti writer at heart. He does not recognise any irony in his critique.

The noun ‘wigger’ has wholly negative connotations. It has a terminological counterpart in
contemporary African-American culture which is, by contrast, wholly positive. In America,
the term ‘nigga’ with an ‘a’ has been used so often that any racist connotations associated
with this word are more or less forgotten among the current generation, whereas previous
generations strongly objected to its usage in the old ‘er’ spelling. Light-skinned Latino
rappers now go on record and use this term (which is a term of endearment, like the usage of
‘brotha’ in the 1970s) and even a select number of white people have been using it in the
presence of young black men who don’t object (Kitwana, 2005). The word is not of any
great consequence for the current crop of hip-hoppers. Although no white rapper has gone on
record and said it as yet, they have been referred to as ‘my nigga’ when collaborating with
black artists.

It is apparent that my topic is still a controversial, contentious and highly contemporary topic,
and the study will delve further into the controversy surrounding ‘white’ hip-hop, as well as
analysing the other issues I have referred to above. The project is centrally concerned with
how existing white hip-hop consumers relate to an essentially black, urban art-form in a
white locality, and the way in which these appropriations are perceived by the black hip-hop
fraternity, academic commentators and the media.

As mentioned, hip-hop culture in general, let alone in the UK, let alone in Newcastle, is an
under-researched subject. Though other white appropriations of black cultural forms in the
UK (such as ska and reggae) have been sparsely investigated before, these have tended to
take place in areas where there is already a black population to speak of. Newcastle is a
unique site for examining the appropriation of black music and culture. Andy Bennett
(1999b) did examine hip-hop in Newcastle (the only study to do this apart from mine - Anoop
Nayak’s (2003) more recent effort was not hip-hop specific), but there are a number of
glaring shortcomings in his work. Although this is useful as a starting point (more because it
is the only other example), it must be said that it is in many ways flawed; added to which, the
vast changes in the city and local hip-hop scene have rendered it somewhat out of date. The
data that he amassed on hip-hop originally appeared within only a single chapter in his PhD