[lbo-talk] Black Music Makes History

[Joseph Wanzala]

The July 2001 issue of Race & Class has an article by Lee Watkin's that is 
worth a read, sorry I don't believe the article is available online but for 
those of us who still actually go to libraries it is "Volume 43:1 July 2001" 
One of the issues discussed in the article is the way in which black youth 
shun rap/hip hop in favor of reggae, partly because hip-hop is associated 
with 'America'  while hip-hop is the domain of the 'colored' or mixed race 
youth. (there is also an anti-hip-hop mevement among segments of Brazilian 
youth who are rejecting all things 'American'.  Indeed the global reach of 
hip-hop is closely associated with capitalist globalization and because the 
hip-hop culture relies heavily on symbolism contained in articles of 
clothing etc. it has an easy if troubled symbiosis with capitalism - a form 
of commodity fetishsim as described in Michael Taussig's 'The Devil and 
Commodity Fetishism in Latin America".

More information about the journal (including a sample copy of a recent
issue) is at http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journals/Details/j0320.html
<http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journals/Details/j0320.html>

"Simunye, we are not one: ethnicity, difference and the hip-hoppers of Cape
Town - Lee Watkins
Sandwiched between Black and White under apartheid, the 'Coloured' community
of Cape Town is, in many respects, now marginalised from the majority Black
society. The response of many of the youth growing up in the bleak Cape
Flats area has been to remake their own political and social identities,
through the art and music of hip-hop. Based on interviews with Cape Town
hip-hop crews, Watkins explores the ways in which they do this, as well as
their relationship to Black Consciousness and to wider global struggles.
These are voices that have been little heard in all the commentary on South
Africa.
Lee Watkins is at the University of Witwatersrand"


>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Black Music Makes History
>Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 16:23:00 -0400
>
>CB:
> > seem to be bothering ghettoites much. He was kinda cool. And Radio
>Rahim got
> > killed by the cops. That was white "male ego" expression through
>violence
> > not loud music.
>
>When was the last time you visited the burbs, Charles?  Each time I go
>there (which is weekly) I see a bunch of whitey boys blasting the crap
>out of their SUV's.
>
>I already commented that macho displays of arrogance and annoying
>behavior is the only arena in this country that significant interracial
>integration has occurred.  How sad.
>
>Wojtek
>
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

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