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The Commoditisation of Hip-Hop Music and Queerness

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Black Masculinity and Hip-Hop Music

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Abstract

This chapter analyses the role of capitalist hegemony in commercialising hip-hop music and commoditising queerness—both processes have had a significant impact on the recent promotion of queer hip-hop. It argues that mass commercialisation of queer music and queer hip-hop has primarily relied on the normalisation of gay stereotypes, thus failing to represent the diversity of the gay community. This form of commercialisation, though empowering to some, has limited the imaginary scope of both straight and queer audiences especially in the field of hip-hop by eliminating out rappers who do not fit gay stereotypes and do not rap about, for instance, gay cruising culture and instead devote their music to community building, political conversation, love-seeking, and the struggle to come out.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    They were constantly barred from hotels and restaurants, could not perform to white audiences without state permission, and most preposterously “could only make eye contact with black fans who were confined to the balcony [in a concert hall] and not with whites on the floor”. See Steve Knopper, “The Rope: The Forgotten History of Segregated Rock & Roll Concerts”, in Rolling Stone (November 16, 2017).

  2. 2.

    For example, a peace rally held in Harlem and joined by a crew of legendary rappers including Chuck D and KRS-One for the murder of Yusef Hawkins in Bensonhurst Brooklyn 1989 attracted thousands of hip-hop fans from every borough of New York City; yet, “because there were no shoot-outs or gang wars, the mainstream press failed to report this joyful event” (Nelson and Gonzales 1991: xix).

  3. 3.

    From Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black (1991), Def Jam, Columbia.

  4. 4.

    From Death Certificate (1991), Priority/EMI Records.

  5. 5.

    From Life After Death (1997), Bad Boy.

  6. 6.

    From The Slim Shady LP (1999), Aftermath, Interscope, Web.

  7. 7.

    From The Black Album (2003), Roc-a-fella/Def Jam.

  8. 8.

    Single (2005), G Unit, Interscope.

  9. 9.

    From Port of Miami (2006), Slip-n-Slide, Def Jam, Poe Boy.

  10. 10.

    From Bigger and Deffer (1987), Def Jam, Columbia, CBS Records.

  11. 11.

    From Build and Destroy (2003), Trouble Records.

  12. 12.

    From Ready to Die (1994), Bad Boy/Arista.

  13. 13.

    The black buck stereotype is a racial slur referring to a black man (usually muscular) who refuses to abide by the law of white authority and is irrevocably violent and lecherous. An example of this stereotype is the character Gus from Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffin.

  14. 14.

    From Straight Outta Compton (1988), Priority/Ruthless.

  15. 15.

    Single, 1993, Death Row/Interscope/Priority.

  16. 16.

    From Death Certificate (1991), Priority/EMI.

  17. 17.

    From AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990), Priority.

  18. 18.

    From Death Certificate (1991), Priority/EMI.

  19. 19.

    From Straight Outta Compton (1988), Priority/Ruthless.

  20. 20.

    From Death Certificate 25th Anniversary (2017), Lench Mob Records/Interscope.

  21. 21.

    Ditto.

  22. 22.

    Death Row, Interscope, Priority.

  23. 23.

    Sony Music/Columbia Records.

  24. 24.

    Columbia.

  25. 25.

    This is particularly true for someone like Ice Cube who never had a gangsta background.

  26. 26.

    From T.I.M.E. (1993), Elektra.

  27. 27.

    See http://www.gbmnews.com/articles/3016/1/Timm-West-on-LOGO/Page1.html. Retrieved 29/01/2011.

  28. 28.

    From The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), Aftermath, Interscope, Shady.

  29. 29.

    The interview was first broadcast February 21, 2007, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zznSeTu7Yw4 or http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2007/02/21/rowlands.hip.hop.homophobia.dead&iref=allsearch.

  30. 30.

    A male can only exist momentarily without a female, “if we are talking about biological individuals of the species” (Cockburn 1988: 320).

  31. 31.

    Consult The Racial Contract by Charles W. Mills (1999).

  32. 32.

    Fox Network, aired from April 15, 1990, to May 19, 1994.

  33. 33.

    An example of an “irrational statement” would be “I want 5 apples and pears” with the number of apples and/or pears unspecified, but this statement can be corrected by clarifying the numbers for apple and pear separately; whereas an “irrationalised irrational statement” would be: “I want an apple number of pears”, which has no corrective replacements and therefore no meaning.

  34. 34.

    More Protein/Virgin Records.

  35. 35.

    Blue Thumb, Fantasy, Megatone (records).

  36. 36.

    RuCo Inc.

  37. 37.

    The reason this book calls crossing dressing and activities alike gender parodies is because drag queens and kings are strictly speaking stage presentations not quotidian presentations: many professional drag queen/king performers do not do cross-dressing off stage. Some individuals may choose to do it on a daily basis, but many of them self-identify as transgender rather than gay or lesbian.

  38. 38.

    This list does not include singers who only came out towards the end of their careers, e.g. George Michael, Freddie Mercury, neither does it include those who never publicly came out, e.g. Arthur Conley, Teddy Pendergrass, Freddie Jackson.

  39. 39.

    “Madonna: Artist Profile Page, in Contactmusic.com. Retrieved 2/03/2014.

  40. 40.

    Interview excerpt from AHDM4U, http://ahdm4u.com/2013/07/17/juba/. Retrieved 17/07/2013.

  41. 41.

    2012, Mad Decent.

  42. 42.

    From Fly Zone (2013), Camp & Street, Greedhead Music, Terrible Records, XL Recordings.

  43. 43.

    A firearm that is fully-automatic or select-fire, e.g. the M16A2, AK47, Uzi; here it refers to a man’s penis.

  44. 44.

    The Johnson is when a man wakes up in the middle of the night, usually trying to get some booty (i.e. ass) and is rejected (though not always). When this happens, he proceeds to masturbate on his girl, in anger.

  45. 45.

    Finna means gonna.

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  1. Chengdu, China

    Xinling Li

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Li, X. (2019). The Commoditisation of Hip-Hop Music and Queerness. In: Black Masculinity and Hip-Hop Music. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3513-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3513-6_3

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