Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by MUS 235 student Alice and Rap Music and Street Consciousness, a musicological history of rap music. Thanks, Alice!

Rap Music and Street Consciousness by Cheryl L. Keyes

In Rap Music and Street Consciousness, Cheryl L. Keyes tracks the development of rap music in the United States from the early 1970s to 2000. Employing the perspectives of ethnomusicology, folklore, and cultural studies, Keyes brings in views from a variety of critics. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 explores the sociocultural history and aesthetics of rap music. Part 2 provides critical perspectives of rap and explores the representation of rap in popular culture.

Keyes details the start of hip-hop and rap as a youth movement that evolved in the Bronx, New York, in the early 1970s. She defines rap music as a “musical form the makes use of rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular, which is recited or loosely chanted over a musical soundtrack” (1). In its beginnings, the movement was comprised of disc jockeys, emcees, break-dancers, graffiti writers, and style of urban street culture. In her research, Keyes focuses on disc jockeys and emcees. Hip-hop began with the mixing of pre-recorded hits on two turntables and as it became more competitive, artists started to hire MCs to do vocals over the tracks. The rhythmic aspects of hip-hop caught people’s attention and brought this new style into mainstream media. “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) by Sugarhill Gang became a commercial hit and catalyzed rap’s entry into the popular music industry. By the late 1980s, rap had become a billion dollar enterprise.

With commercial success came harsh criticism and controversy. Many critics often saw rap and violence as synonymous. The media and the right-wing politics of the 1980s amplified the perceived negativity surrounding rap and hip-hop. Ronald Reagan’s rhetoric and ideas spurred division between black and white communities and these sentiments were reflected in the media’s portrayal of African American and Latino youth communities as fraught with violence, crime, and drugs. Rap emerged to combat the negative narrative being placed unfairly upon these communities. Attacks on rap continued, as gangsta rap particularly came under censorship. Critics disputed the artistry of rap; some questioning the sampling of musical tracks rather than the creation of newly inspired works. In Keyes’ work, she situates rap and hip-hop within the context of urban street culture. She defines ‘streets’ as “a subculture of the urban milieu that operates by its own rules, economics, lifestyle, language, and aesthetics” (6). ( A deep understanding of street culture is needed, she states, to mold the discussion of rap and hip-hop.)

Chapter 8, “Visualizing Beats and Rhymes,” will prove most valuable for my individual research. Keyes briefly starts out the chapter discussing how music videos are used as marketing and advertising tools for artists. They serve as a platform for artists to re-envision their music. The first part of the chapter, which I will draw some useful information from, provides a model for analyzing how black youth culture is encoded in rap videos. The second part of the chapter details the video-making process from an interview with director and producer J. Kevin Swain.

In Chapter 8, Keyes introduces the idea of iconic memory, which she defines as “the referencing of place, historical events, and music familiar to hip-hop viewers” (211) and says is unique to rap. Key aspects of iconic memory include visualization of “illustration, amplification, and disjuncture” (212). She focuses some of her discussion on gangsta rap music videos in particular, which is useful since I will be analyzing N.W.A, whose music classifies as gangsta rap. Keyes notes how gangsta rap music videos tried to capture the reality of life in the hood, focusing heavily on the relationship between black youth and the police. Although some critics say N.W.A glorifies violence — which is the reason MTV actually refused to air the “Straight Outta Compton” music video initially — rappers argue that it simply depicts the harassment young black men experience in their everyday reality. She quotes Ice Cube, a member of N.W.A. saying “‘We deal with reality; violence is reality’” (216). “Fuck tha Police” and “100 Miles And Runnin’” were also direct references to police harassment and the repression in young black communities. An important point is how the ‘streets’ influence rap music videos. In the introduction, Keyes notes how video director Hype Williams said that urban street culture informs his directing. “‘The ‘streets’ reflect in all that I do; the camera [lens] is an extension of that’ (1995)” (5). This idea, along with her idea of iconic memory will help shape my discussion when analyzing “100 Miles And Runnin’” and other N.W.A. music videos.

Hype Williams, a prominent rap music video director

Although Chapter 8 aids in my specific analysis of N.W.A.’s music videos, other chapters in the book can provide me, and other researchers, with more contextual context and historical discussion. For example, in Chapter 4, “Expanding Frontiers: Rap Music, 1990-2000,” Keyes discusses censorship of gangsta rap and the wave of concern over First Amendment rights. Also, in Chapter 6, “Issues, Conflicts, and Conspiracies: The Hip-Hop Nation at the Crossroad,” Keyes’ discussion of how materialism plays a role in shaping hip-hop culture will be valuable in my analysis.

N.W.A.’s “100 Miles And Runnin'” music video

As Keyes describes herself, the “nature of this work” is “multifaceted” (13). She was a university student when she began her research and explored aspects of rap and hip-hop by bringing in the voices of critics and artists alike. While other works could perhaps provide a more detailed look at specific topics, Keyes offers a comprehensive base for further research into the musical, visual, cultural, and social aspects of rap and hip-hop. Further, the book contains a “Glossary of Common Rap Music Terms” toward the end. This tool can be helpful to anyone studying the genre.

Author of “Rap Music and Street Consciousness,” Cheryl Keyes

Keyes herself is a black, female researcher who is an outsider in the music industry. In the introduction to this book, she notes how her position as an outsider — and an insider because of her race and gender at times — helped frame her research and fieldwork. By disclosing the positive and negative ways her information gathering was affected by how she was perceived by those in the music industry, Keyes gives an honest account and recognizes her work’s strengths and limits.