Bibliographic details and abstracts are available to all. Downloads of full-text dissertations are restricted to University of Portsmouth members who must login. MPhils may be accessed by all.

Abstract

This dissertation examines Hip-Hop beyond the music, by critically assessing its culture as part of the “post-soul aesthetic” as part of African American history. From the late nineteen-seventies Hip-Hop as a culture and musical art form emerged and evolved in ways almost unimaginable to those at the centre of its ‘underground’ creation in the Summer of 1973. The decades in which Hip-Hop flourished, also defined a period that produced significant social, economic, and cultural fluctuations for the black community after the monumental successes of the civil rights era. Firstly, this work recognises that the study of Hip-Hop and rap culture enables scholars to gather deeper perceptions and understandings of the complex social and cultural histories of black Americans in the latter half of the twentieth century. Building on this, much of the work within this dissertation identifies the ways in which Hip-Hop accurately reflected the realities of the post-civil rights African American experience. 

By examining recorded music material, including lyrics and wider productions within the genre, and most importantly, the arguments of this dissertation will be split into three sub-sections to reach an overriding argument that despite its evident detractors, Hip-Hop as a form of artistic, cultural expression for black Americans grew exponentially to become a powerful driving force in the struggle for further civil rights and equality for black Americans, living within the evolving post-soul era. This dissertation will examine the impacts of Hip-Hop culture as a tool for understanding the trends of evolving black culture in wider American society, most noticeably in terms of its consequential impact on conflicting relations within the black community, uncovering the dynamics of gender roles in the black community, and its impact on activism strategies against those in political power from those hit most severely by the injustices of systematic racism and discrimination.

Course: History - BA (Hons) - C1087

Date Deposited: 2023-10-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14199.html