Women Rapping Revolution: Hip Hop and Community Building in Detroit (Volume 1) (California Series in Hip Hop Studies)

Detroit, MIchigan, has long been recognized as a center of musical innovation and social change. Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay draw on seven years of fieldwork to illuminate the important role that women have played in mobilizing a grassroots response to political and social pressures at the heart of Detroit’s ongoing renewal and development project. Focusing on the Foundation, a women-centered hip hop collective, Women Rapping Revolution argues that the hip hop underground is a crucial site where Black women shape subjectivity and claim self-care as a principle of community organizing. Through interviews and sustained critical engagement with artists and activists, this study also articulates the substantial role of cultural production in social, racial, and economic justice efforts.There are some random blank pages that are unnecessary but nothing's missing as far as I can tell. There's just an extra blank page between chapters sometimes. "Detroit is a city that has long been recognized as a center of musical innovation and social change. Rebekah Farrugia and Kellie D. Hay draw on seven years of fieldwork to illuminate the important role that women in Detroit's hip hop underground have played in mobilizing a grassroots response to political and social pressures at the heart of Detroit's ongoing renewal and development project. Focusing on the women-centered hip hop collective The Foundation, Women Rapping Revolution argues that the hip hop underground is a crucial site where Black women shape subjectivity and claim self-care as a principle of community organizing. Through interviews and sustained critical engagement with artists and activists, this study also articulates the substantial role of cultural production in social, racial, and economic justice efforts"-- Provided by publisher Contents 8 Foreword - Piper Carter 10 Foreword - Mahogany Jones 14 Preface 18 Acknowledgments 28 Introduction: Intersections of Detroit, Women, and Hip Hop 36 1. Detroit Hip Hop and the Rise of the Foundation 56 2. Hip Hop Sounds and Sensibilities in Post-Bankruptcy Detroit 70 3. Negotiating Genderqueer Identity Formation 91 4. Vulnerable Mavericks Wreck Rap’s Conventions 125 5. “Legendary,” Environmental Justice, and Collaborative Cultural Production 145 6. Hip Hop Activism in Action 165 Conclusion: Women, Hip Hop, and Cultural Organizing 189 Notes 206 Bibliography 228 Index 240