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Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Abstract

“Funk What You Heard” is a beaconing call to all scholars who engage with Hip Hop studies. This article lays out the ways in which Hip Hop studies should properly respond to the wave of oppressions currently pounding the world. With several key date markers in place for Hip Hop studies, Tricia Rose’s Black Noise in 1994 and Murray Foreman and Mark Anthony Neal’s That’s the Joint in 2004, “Funk What You Heard” charts the path forward for the future of Hip Hop studies. Black Noise provided the original blueprint for studying Hip Hop and That’s the Joint! stamped “hip-hop studies” into history. Although we are close to thirty years since Black Noise, lyrical analysis is a dominant method for Hip Hop studies. Also, although we have a clearly identifiable field, academics still treat Hip Hop as an interesting topic they can write about without speaking to the field. “Funk What You Heard” calls for something more. We can no longer continue down this path of weak analysis and rewriting Hip Hop theories that have been discussed time and time again. Our contemporary waves of oppression have raised the stakes. With the path charted out, we ultimately call on Hip Hop scholars to answer their ancestral call. Answering this call pragmatically looks like building on the field, developing new and innovative research methods, and engaging with all the elements of Hip Hop. As far as the unseen, we will leave that up to your reflection with Hip Hop’s collective consciousness that is not bound by space and time.

Volume

9

Issue

1

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