Introduction: Hip Hop’s Here, There… and Everywhere—An Introduction to Global Hiphopography

Williams, Quentin and Singh, Jaspal Naveel (2023). Introduction: Hip Hop’s Here, There… and Everywhere—An Introduction to Global Hiphopography. In: Williams, Quentin and Singh, Jaspal Naveel eds. Global Hiphopography. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–25.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21955-9_1

Abstract

For the last decades scholarship on Hip Hop has sought to develop a coherent statement on its own writing practices: Why, how, where and with whom should academic scholars write about the cultural practices and performances of Hip Hop practitioners ? When interrogating this question, Hip Hop scholars have noticed that they are not the only ones who write in Hip Hop. Writing is an integral element of our culture that is constantly developed in the everyday practices of Hip Hop heads. Emcees jot down their lyrics on their notepads, or more recently type them into their phones, graffiti artists paint big colourful letters on trains or tag their names on the wall, and breakers dance figures and stories into the cypher, rockin’ to the music that is written into the grooves of the discs played by the deejay. Writing—in all its various forms—is an essential skill and technology constantly developed by all Hip Hop heads from around the world. As Hip Hop heads, we write our own histories and our own futures, and sometimes we write simply for the sake of writing. It is fair to state that all roads to hip hop writing lead to James G. Spady, the realest/realist hiphopographer; our inspiration for this anthology. In this introduction, we trace Spady's definitive statement of hiphopography that got us here, leads us there and can take us everywhere, so we can rethink how we should document and take care of Hip Hop Culture inside and outside of the academy.

Viewing alternatives

Metrics

Item Actions

Export

You can export this page using these formats Digital Object Identifier - DOI