Introduction

This book brings together a range of hip hop scholars, artists and activists working on Hip Hop in the Global North and South with the goal of advancing Hiphopographic research as a critical methodology with critical fieldwork methods that can provide a critical perspective of our world.

The authors’ focus in this volume is to present an anthology of essays that expand the remit of Hiphopography as an approach to the study of Hip Hop that is not only sensitive to the social, economic, political and cultural lives of Hip Hop Culture participants as interpreters and theorists, but one that continues to humanize the “whole person” behind the decks, on the mic, rocking on the linoleum floor, painting in front of a wall, and seeking that Knowledge of Self.

This book will be relevant to Hip Hop scholars in fields such as cultural studies and history, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and ethnography, and race studies, while Hip Hop heads themselves will find parts of this book that represent their culture in ethical and informative ways.