The Hip-Hop Underground and African American Culture: Beneath the Surface

195 Pages·2014·2.18 MB·English

by  James Braxton Peterson (auth.)

THE HIP-HOP UNDERGROUND AND
AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE
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THE HIP-HOP UNDERGROUND
AND AFRICAN AMERICAN
CULTURE
BENEATH THE SURFACE
James Braxton Peterson
THEHIP-HOPUNDERGROUNDANDAFRICANAMERICANCULTURE
Copyright © James Braxton Peterson, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-30524-4
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-45480-8 ISBN 978-1-137-30525-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137305251
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peterson, James Braxton, 1971–
The hip-hop underground and African American culture : beneath
the surface / James Braxton Peterson.
pages cm
Summary: “In the Hip Hop Underground and African American
Culture, Peterson explores a variety of ‘underground’ concepts at
the intersections of African American literature and Hip Hop Culture.
From the Underground Railroad to black holes or from kiln holes to
solitary confinement, this project makes meaningful connections
across multiple iterations of Black concepts of the underground.
Since socially conscious Hip Hop music inherits much of its
socio-political and figurative significance from the Black
underground it functions as a logical recurring subject matter
for this study—situated at Black cultural and conceptual
crossroads”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Hip-hop—United States. 2. Subculture—United States.
3. Counterculture—United States. 4. American literature—
African American authors—History and criticism. 5. Literature and
society—United States. 6. African Americans—Intellectual life.
7. African Americans—Race identity. 8. African American youth—
Social conditions. 9. African Americans—Social conditions—1975–
I. Title.
E185.86.P525 2014
305.896(cid:25)073—dc23 2014010010
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: September 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my Dad,
Iver A. Peterson Sr.
Thank you for teaching me how to excavate
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CONTENTS
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
1. Roots, Rhymes, and Rhizomes: An Introduction to
Concepts of the Underground in Black Culture 1
2. Verbal and Spatial Masks of the Underground 19
3. The Hip-Hop Underground and African American
Culture: The Deep Structure of Black Identity in
American Literature 41
4. Defining an Underground at the Intersections of
Hip-Hop and African American Cultures 59
5. A Cipher of the Underground in Black Literary Culture 83
6. Tears for the Departed: See(k)ing a Black Visual
Underground in Hip-Hop and African
American Cultures 101
7. The Depth of the Hole: Intertextuality and Tom Waits’s
“Way Down in the Hole” 119
Epilogue The Ironies Underground: Revolution,
Critical Memory, and Black Nostalgia 139
Appendix: The Timepiece Hip-Hop Timeline 153
Notes 157
Bibliography 175
Index 179
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TTTABLES
3.1 Comparative orthography 47
4.1 A hip-hop underground playlist 69
7.1 The various versions of “Way Down in the Hole” 124