representing, articulating, and appropriating hip-hop culture

323 Pages·2017·1.07 MB·English

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Spring 2009
The hip-hopsploitation film cycle: representing,
articulating, and appropriating hip-hop culture
Aaron Dickinson Sachs
University of Iowa
Copyright 2009 Aaron Dickinson Sachs
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/591
Recommended Citation
Sachs, Aaron Dickinson. "The hip-hopsploitation film cycle: representing, articulating, and appropriating hip-hop culture." PhD
(Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2009.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.6ceqzz38
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theCommunication Commons
THE HIP-HOPSPLOITATION FILM CYCLE:
REPRESENTING, ARTICULATING, AND APPROPRIATING HIP-HOP CULTURE

by

Aaron Dickinson Sachs

An Abstract

Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Communication Studies in
the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa

May 2009

Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Kembrew McLeod
1
ABSTRACT

In this dissertation, I examine the articulation of hip-hop in the mid-1980s as it
emerged onto the national stage of American popular culture. Using Articulation Theory,
I weave together an argument explaining how and why hip-hop went from being
articulated as a set of multicultural and inclusive practices, organized around breaking,
graffiti, and DJing, to being articulated to a violent, misogynistic, and homophobic hyper-
masculine representation of blackness as essentially rap music culture. In doing so I also
argue that there are real political, social, racial, cultural, and ideological implications to
this shift in articulation; that something is at stake in defining hip-hop as both black and
rap music culture.
I put forward this argument by making three distinct steps over the course of this
dissertation. First, I identify a change in how hip-hop was represented and thus
articulated in popular media. Through an intertextual analysis of the hip-hopsploitation
genre films I show that early hip-hop was being represented primarily as a set of cultural
practices cohering around breaking, graffiti, and DJing rather than the now dominant
articulation as rap music culture.
Next I set forth one possible reason for this shift within the limiting conditions set
by the available media technologies and means of commodification. The visual nature of
hip-hop’s early articulation coupled with the economic inaccessibility of consumer home
video made breaking and graffiti difficult to commodify compared to rapping as an aural
element. Using “technological determinist” theorists like McLuhan, Innis, and Kittler, I
argue that understanding how hip-hop as been historically constructed requires analyzing
the limiting effect that the material conditions of media technologies have on the
production of hip-hop.
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Finally, I offer a second, racial and cultural reason for this shift in articulation,
and begin identifying some of the significance of this shift. A key aspect of the
articulation of hip-hop as rap music is the further connection to blackness. This
connection may function to maintain white patriarchal hegemony by displacing it on the
black body via rap music: a complex dynamic of disidentification and appropriation.

Abstract Approved: _______________________________________________________
Thesis Supervisor

_______________________________________________________
Title and Department

_______________________________________________________
Date
THE HIP-HOPSPLOITATION FILM CYCLE:
REPRESENTING, ARTICULATING, AND APPROPRIATING HIP-HOP CULTURE

by

Aaron Dickinson Sachs

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Communication Studies in
the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa

May 2009

Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Kembrew McLeod
Copyright by

AARON DICKINSON SACHS

2009

All Rights Reserved
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

___________________________

PH.D. THESIS

_____________

This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of

Aaron Dickinson Sachs

has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement
for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Communication Studies at the May
2009 graduation.

Thesis Committee: ___________________________________________
Kembrew McLeod, Thesis Supervisor

___________________________________________
Aimee Carrillo-Rowe

___________________________________________
Murray Forman

___________________________________________
Tim Havens

___________________________________________
Vershawn Young
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank my family, friends, colleagues, mentors, teachers, and students,
both at the University of Iowa and beyond. I consider myself lucky to have found a rich
intellectual community in which to embed myself no matter where I’ve lived. Winters
and tornadoes aside, Iowa has treated me well, and I appreciate the patience it’s shown
this California boy. Of course this dissertation could not have been written without the
incredible help of many people, most notably my advisor Kembrew and committee
members Aimee, Murray, Tim and Vershawn. Materially speaking, this dissertation
would not have been possible without the generous support of the University of Iowa
Graduate College’s Seashore-Ballard Dissertation Fellowship, which allowed me to
dedicate the past year to fulltime work on the project.
I also want to send a shout out to Brian, Carson, Chucho, Dan, Dieter, Jesse, Josh,
Lindsey, Mike, Sam, and Tif, not to mention my moms, for putting up with and even
encouraging me during the development of this dissertation project. Your help, ranging
from long car rides rehashing my argument, to buying me some crucial hip-hop DVDs, to
simply your willingness to tirelessly (listen to me) talk about hip-hop, has been
invaluable. While there are many more names to thank than those above, there are also
some names that have been lost with time; it wouldn’t be right to exclude a big-ups to the
nameless co-worker of mine at the local video store who, during the summer of 2001,
first introduced me to the hip-hopsploitation films by playing Breakin’ 2: Electric
Boogaloo on the store video system. Thank you all!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................vii 
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................1 

Project Overview..............................................................................................1 
Project Purpose and Context.....................................................................1 
Overview of Approach and Strategy of Inquiry........................................2 
Project Value and Disciplinary Contribution............................................6 
Terminology..............................................................................................7 
Research Questions...........................................................................................8 
Research Strategy...........................................................................................10 
Literature Review...........................................................................................16 
Hip-Hop In Film......................................................................................17 
Hip-Hop...................................................................................................22 
Chapter Summaries.........................................................................................29 
CHAPTER 2: REPRESENTING HIP-HOP IN FILM......................................................33 

Introduction.....................................................................................................33 
Context: A Historical Preamble......................................................................35 
Overview.................................................................................................36 
Filmic Context.........................................................................................38 
Hip-Hop in Film.............................................................................................40 
Genre...............................................................................................................42 
Pragmatic Genre Theory..........................................................................45 
Articulated Genre Theory........................................................................48 
The Hip-hopsploitation Films as Genre..........................................................50 
The Relevance of Exploitation................................................................52 
The Exploitation Film Model...........................................................53 
The Function of Exploitation Films.................................................55 
Delimiting Hip-hopsploitation.................................................................57 
The Exploitation in Hip-hopsploitation............................................59 
Connected Critical Discourse...........................................................62 
The Hip-Hop in Hip-hopsploitation................................................................64 
Hip-Hop as a Set of Cultural Practices....................................................65 
Politics of Representation in Hip-Hop as a Set of Cultural
Practices...........................................................................................67 
Hip-Hop as Rap Music Culture...............................................................70 
Politics of Representation in Hip-Hop as Rap Music Culture.........70 
Conclusion......................................................................................................72 
CHAPTER 3: AUTHENTICITY DISCOURSE AND THE POLITICS OF
REPRESENTATION.....................................................................................74 

Introduction.....................................................................................................74 
Backstory........................................................................................................75 
“Subculture”...................................................................................................77 
Representing Gender......................................................................................79 
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Tracy........................................................................................................81 
Carmen....................................................................................................83 
Us Girls....................................................................................................86 
Baby Love...............................................................................................88 
Race and Authenticity.....................................................................................91 
Class and the Black Community.....................................................................99 
Successes and Failures..................................................................................104 
Conclusion....................................................................................................109 
CHAPTER 4: THE MEDIAL METAPHOR: HIP-HOP AS MEDIA.............................113 

Introduction...................................................................................................113 
Rationalizing Determinism....................................................................114 
Hip-Hop History as a Narrative of Media Technology................................115 
Rhetorics of Progress and the “Technological Sublime”......................116 
Evolutionary Rhetoric...........................................................................118 
Hip-Hop as Media Technology....................................................................121 
Defining Media......................................................................................123 
Culture as Media....................................................................................126 
Hip-Hop as a Set of Cultural Practices.........................................................129 
Hip-Hop and Orality..............................................................................129 
Hip-Hop as an Oral Tradition................................................................136 
Hip-Hop as Rap Music.................................................................................144 
Rapping as Literate Culture...................................................................145 
Rapping and Space................................................................................147 
Rapping and Empire..............................................................................150 
Conclusion....................................................................................................154 
CHAPTER 5: AUDIO KILLED THE VIDEO STAR....................................................157 

Introduction...................................................................................................157 
Commodifying Culture.................................................................................158 
Commercialism vs. Commodification...................................................160 
Hot and Cool..........................................................................................162 
Breaking.........................................................................................162 
Graffiti............................................................................................163 
DJing..............................................................................................163 
Rapping (MCing)...........................................................................164 
Key Differences.....................................................................................165 
Audio/Visual Technology.............................................................................166 
Processing Hip-Hop...............................................................................168 
Symbolic vs. Technological Hip-Hop...................................................169 
Data Processing..............................................................................170 
Processed Data...............................................................................172 
Capabilities for Data Processing: The 1980s Context....................173 
Hip-hopsploitation.................................................................................173 
Comparative Analysis of Home Audio and Video Hardware:
Technology...................................................................................................175 
Technological Requirements: Mechanical vs. Electronic.....................175 
Autonomy.......................................................................................176 
Complexity.....................................................................................177 
Inter-Technological Competition..........................................................179 
Comparative Analysis of Home Audio and Video Software: Consumers...180 
Consumer Choice of Media Functionality: Playback, if only...............180 
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