Women Rapping Revolution: Hip Hop and Community Building in Detroit

248 Pages·2020·22.081 MB·English

by  Rebekah Farrugia, Kellie D. Hay

Women Rapping Revolution
california series in hip hop studies
H. Samy Alim and Jeff Chang, Series Editors
1. Women Rapping Revolution: Hip Hop and Community Building in Detroit,
by Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay
Women Rapping
Revolution
Hip Hop and Community Building
in Detroit
Rebekah Farrugia and
Kellie D. Hay
Forewords by Piper Carter and Mahogany Jones
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2020 by Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay
California Series in Hip Hop Studies, 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Farrugia, Rebekah, author. | Hay, Kellie D.,
1965– author. | Carter, Piper, writer of foreword. |
Jones, Mahogany, writer of foreword.
Title: Women rapping revolution : hip hop and
community building in Detroit / Rebekah Farrugia and
Kellie D. Hay ; forewords by Piper Carter and
Mahogany Jones.
Other titles: California series in hip hop studies ; 1.
Description: Oakland, California : University of
California Press, [2020] | Series: California series in
hip hop studies ; 1 | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2020004029 (print) | lccn 2020004030
(ebook) | isbn 9780520305311 (cloth) |
isbn 9780520305328 (paperback) |
isbn 9780520973367 (epub)
Subjects: lcsh: Foundation of Women in Hip Hop. |
Hip hop feminism—Michigan—Detroit. | African
American women—Michigan—Detroit.
Classification: lcc hq1111 .f37 2020 (print) | lcc
hq1111 (ebook) | ddc 305.48/896073077434—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020004029
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov
/2020004030
Manufactured in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Rebekah—
For my husband, Matt, and my sons,
Leeland and Huxley
Kellie—
To Karen A. J. Miller and
Tanya Copeland Stanford

Contents
Foreword ix
By Piper Carter
Foreword xiii
By Mahogany Jones
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxvii
Introduction: Intersections of Detroit, Women, and Hip Hop 1
1 Detroit Hip Hop and the Rise of the Foundation 21
2 Hip Hop Sounds and Sensibilities in Post-Bankruptcy Detroit 35
3 Negotiating Genderqueer Identity Formation 56
4 Vulnerable Mavericks Wreck Rap’s Conventions 90
5 “Legendary,” Environmental Justice, and Collaborative
Cultural Production 110
6 Hip Hop Activism in Action 130
Conclusion: Women, Hip Hop, and Cultural Organizing 154
Notes 171
Bibliography 193
Index 205

Foreword
PIPER CARTER
Who knew that the work I’d been doing along with other folks would
be immortalized in a scholarly publication?!
When I started the Foundation of Women in Hip Hop back in 2009,
I hadn’t intended to do any kind of social justice, I hadn’t even heard of
the term yet.
After we (the 5e Hip Hop Gallery) had been doing our no misogyny
open mic for about three years, I met Dr. Kellie Hay and Dr. Rebekah
Farrugia when they asked if they could study “our work.” They were
actually the first ones to point out to me that we were utilizing hip hop
culture to create positive social change.
We were just living our culture and honestly I just wanted to be
around other women who enjoyed hip hop and identified as hip hop
artists and I didn’t want to hear the negative lyrics and I wanted
everyone to feel safe to enjoy themselves without being groped and
grabbed on.
They were college professors so they would ask us all kinds of ques-
tions and we would have lengthy conversations about all kinds of issues.
After speaking with them I’d contemplate: how do we bring community
folks into the conversation around engaging in the struggle against the
incinerator and the fight for clean air, water affordability and water
safety, public transit and transit justice, food justice/food security/food
sovereignty, climate change, and clean power?
ix