BUY MY MIX TAPE?
BY E.S.
Hip-hop. Rap. We all know it. Some of us love it. But regardless of our opinions on the matter, it has definitely had an impact on American culture, specifically New York City culture. Hip-hop culture is not confined to rap music, it also encompasses graffiti and breakdancing (Rose), but I will be focusing on the rap music created by artists from Queens County. For those of you that don’t know, New York City is comprised of five boroughs, or counties:
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx,
and Queens. The main question is, how has hip-hop music helped to create urban
space in Queens, New York? In their
early days, hip-hop clubs were the epitome of urban space. With fewer and fewer people going to such clubs nowadays, the urban space has been modified.
Before all of this, there was a period of “white
flight” from New York City to Long Island that led many neighborhoods in Queens
to become largely populated by minorities. While the minority majority sounds
ironic, it is true. Racial and ethnic minorities now occupy neighborhoods that
were once mostly occupied by whites.
Like any group that is mostly in contact with other ingroup members,
culture begins to develop as it did in the black community in Queens. Hip-hop
culture was just one of many cultures that came from ethnic enclaves in Queens.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Queens_neighborhoods_map.png
Many of the rappers that we know today have their roots in Queens. For example, Ja Rule, LL Cool J, and Run DMC are all from the fairly urban neighborhood
of Hollis. Other
rappers like 50 Cent, Waka Flocka Flame, and Nicki Minaj are from the more urban neighborhood of Southside Jamaica. These are just a few of the many rap and hip-hop artists to come from Queens. During the 1980s and 1990s, LL Cool J and Run DMC were topping the charts with hits like “Christmas in Hollies” (Run DMC), “Sucker M.C.’s” (Run DMC), “Around The Way Girl” (LL Cool J), and “I Need Love” (LL Cool J). Rappers like these paved the way for hip-hop culture to evolve. Over the past thirty to forty years, hip-hop has changed and with it, the urban space of Queens.
The success of many artists from the borough has created an environment in which everyone believes they can make it big. On many major street corners in Jamaica, Queens Village, Bayside, and other neighborhoods, you will see people promoting their mix tapes and C.D.s. Artists like 50 Cent, Waka Flocka, and Nicki Minaj go to show that anyone can become successful if the conditions are right. Many of these self-proclaimed rappers that are selling their mix tapes on street corners are producing urban space and using it at the same time. In the actual act of selling these mix tapes on street corners urban space is created. Each individual person that does this is creating an environment in which different behaviors become acceptable. These behaviors are what I believe define urban space. Even though the specific behaviors are important to the creation of urban space, I believe that the history of the space is equally as important. The aforementioned history of white flight created the environment in which this conduct could flourish. While it may seem like an insignificant thing, selling mix tapes has added to hip-hop culture in a way that could not have been foreseen.
https://media.giphy.com/media/ZTQEsWE8A4Zos/giphy.gif
Works Cited:
Chang, Jeff. Can't stop won't stop: A history of the hip-hop generation. Macmillan, 2007.
Rose, Tricia. Black noise: Rap music and black culture in contemporary America. Wesleyan, 1994.
I really liked how you used the selling of mix tapes on street corners as both producing and using urban space. An interesting part of this piece to me was "The success of many artists from the borough has created an environment in which everyone believes they can make it big. On many major street corners in Jamaica, Queens Village, Bayside, and other neighborhoods, you will see people promoting their mix tapes and C.D.s. Artists like 50 Cent, Waka Flocka, and Nicki Minaj go to show that anyone can become successful if the conditions are right. " In my opinion, I would describe this as tokenism in a way that specific members of certain communities who have "made success" despite their oppressions being used as an "example" for others in the community. For me, I see this as kind of problematic. Tokenism is often used to further oppress marginalized groups by using these "tokens" or "successful" people from oppressed groups to put down others who came from their community who weren't able to make that kind of success, essentially blaming them for not being able to achieve success and ignoring the systematic and institutional barriers between them and that success. However, at the same time these successful hip-hop artists have helped to create these urban spaces by inspiring others in their community to attempt to achieve the same dreams through the sale and distribution of these mix tapes. Do you think that tokenism through the use of these hip hop artists negatively or positively affects these communities?
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the way hip hop has effected the organization of space, has also effected the kind of people that become involved in hip hop? What I mean is the following, according to the spacial organization mentioned in your blog, many famous rappers and hip hop artists have come out of these lower income burrows. Due to this, do you think that there is some discrimination towards upper class citizens becoming equally famous hip hop artists? If so why do you think that oppression is there? Is this spatially influenced?
ReplyDeleteDo you think economic and social standing plays a role in rappers success? Is hip hop strictly a product of an urban lower income upbringing? Would a person without such an upbringing be able to succeed in the world of hip hop? Does a person without this background who succeeds take away from the origins of hip hop culture?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how you discussed how rappers in order to make it big have to start small. By just selling their mixed tapes they were able to gain followings and later become the well known rappers that everyone knows today. For the behaviors that you define to be as urban space, do you believe they would be appropriate outside of the Queens or a city setting? Do you believe that "blackness" or "urbanness" is essential to becoming a rapper, or can someone from any background contribute to the art?
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThis post was very interesting and enjoyable to read because I am a fan of some of the artists you mentioned. I liked how you said that the "actual act" of selling mixed tapes produces urban space. Selling mixed tapes and the phrase itself has definitely added to hip hop culture, in which many people use the phrase "mixed tape" to describe something about rap or hip hop. While you mention and it is obvious that hip hop culture created urban space and originated in NYC, do you believe that suburbia could contribute to this space? Although white flight helped create this urban space, many white people in suburbia love rap music, some even contribute to it. Can suburbia be urban?
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ReplyDeleteAll the artists you listed in your blog post were African-American. It may be interesting to examine and compare the experience of the White-American rapper experience in Queens to the African-American experience. Is it easier for an African-American from this area of New York to get signed because they are the 'expected' (stereotyped) type of person to excel in rap/hip-hop culture? It may also be interesting to examine the experience for a rapper coming out of Queens versus another Borrow of New York. Would they face the same struggles to succeed as a rapper from another socio-economic background?
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Do you think that just because some of these rappers were able to make it big everyone else thinks that they can, too? What do you think sets apart the artists that made it big from the people just on the street corner selling their mixtapes - the space, their race/ethnicity, their socio-economic status, their talent, or... ?
ReplyDeleteGreat job citing how many prolific rappers came from Queens and describing the culture of the area! You mentioned the old ways people would peddle albums, what do you think of the modern tools people use to do that today i.e. soundcloud and twitter? Do you think it is easier or harder to come from queens and become a rapper nowadays? Lastly i like the way you incorporated the idea of urban space in this post. Great job!
ReplyDeleteVery good post. I really enjoyed how you listed several rappers and where they are from. I also liked how you showed the similar roots of these rappers. Would you say that hip hop culture during this time was a counter space? Why aren't hip hop clubs as popular today? Why do you think hip hop music has become so popular with white people?
ReplyDelete