Poetics of the East Coast Old School Rap and Hip Hop Lyrics

• Název práce v češtině: Poetika Textů East Coast Old School Rapu a Hip Hopu
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Poetics of the East Coast Old School Rap and Hip Hop Lyrics
• Klíčová slova: Hip Hop|rap|new york city|african american literature
• Klíčová slova anglicky: hip hop|rap|new york city|african american literature
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2020/2021
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Stephan Delbos, M.F.A., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 02.12.2020
• Datum zadání: 02.12.2020
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 09.12.2020
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 24.06.2021 00:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 12.05.2021
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 24.06.2021
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: David Lee Robbins, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

The topic I selected for my bachelor thesis concerns the so-called East Coast hip-hop, i.e. hip-hop which originated in New York City, of the late 1970s and primarily 1980s. In this genre of music, I would like to research the lyrics, the social, historical, and cultural background which permitted the emergence of the genre as well as the meaning/message of the lyrics’ subject-matter upon which I will focus the most. I will be discussing solely on the African American representatives since they are considered as the genre’s originator sand their social and cultural struggle led to narratives which provide unparalleled statements of the minority. I would like to research the topic due to my interest in musical history and the instances of music in which the lyrical statement and narrative of its performers has significantly greater importance than the music itself. My objective is to discuss those lyrics in the lens of literary studies; to preview the texts as if they were full-fledged works of poetry and statements of a distressed group of individuals in distressed social and cultural situation, to discuss their meaning with the historical, social, and cultural context, and their language, rhythm and rhyming.
The thesis will briefly include the overview of the social and political situation in New York of the late 1970s and 1980s, mainly focusing on the city’s district of Bronx, as it is considered to be the birthplace of the genre and the place where majority of the earliest artist originate from. Moreover, the role of the Last Poets and Jalal Mansur Nuriddin as the predecessor of the rap expression shall be briefly discussed. The thesis will then turn to the definition of hip hop itself, its characteristics in the musical and lyrical terms and explore the motivations of the period’s rappers to create such narratives and express them in the hip hop and attempt to look for features of poetry in their lyrics. The analysis itself will include lyrics by various artists, divided in two groups according to their subject-matter. The first group will concern the so-called conscious and political hip-hop, i.e. songs whose lyrics commented on the political and social environment of their authors and expressed their emotions and beliefs: “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five from 1982, “Wild Style Subway Rap” by Grandmaster Caz from 1983, “Children’s Story” by Slick Rick from 1989, “9mm Goes Bang” by Boogie Down Productions from 1987, “How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise” by Brother D from 1980, and “It’s Like That” by Run-D.M.C. from 1983. The second group will discuss lyrics whose merit lies primarily in techniques of rap, rhythm and rhyming and the MCs’ expression and commentary on their own style of rapping: “The Godfather” by Spoonie Gee from 1987, “The New Rap Language” by Treacherous Three from 1980, “Ain’t No Half-Steppin’” by Big Daddy Kane from 1988, “I Ain’t No Joke” by Eric B. & Rakim from 1987, “My Philosophy” by Boogie Down Productions from 1988, and “Don’t Believe The Hype” by Public Enemy from 1988. This division does not suggest that one group does not overlap to the other in its approach to form or subject, it merely facilitates the analysis of either subject. The thesis should therefore provide a cultural analysis and blending of the genres of poetry and hip hop as well as the historical and social background which spawned the first generation of the African American artists known as rappers or MCs.
Concerning this topic, I’ve read appropriate chapters, essays and articles in the bibliography mentioned below, seen the first season of the documentary series called “Hip-Hop Evolution” by Darby Wheeler in which interviews with many of the artists mentioned above are conducted, watched the so-called “first hip-hop movie” called “Wild Style” by Charlie Ahearn as a visual reference.

Seznam odborné literatury

Al Nasir, Abdul Malik. “Jalal Mansur Nuriddin: farewell to the ‘grandfather of rap’”. The Guardian. 6 June 2018. 1 October 2020.
Bradley, Adam. Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop. New York: BasicCivitas, 2009.
Bradley, Adam and Andrew DuBois. The Anthology of Rap. London: Yale University Press, 2011.
Edwards, Paul. How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2009.
Forman, Murray., and Neal, Mark Anthony. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Harrison, Anthony Kwame. Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethic of Racial Identification. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009.
Hess, Mickey. Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide, Volume 1: East Coast and West Coast. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 2010.
Hess, Mickey. Is Hip Hop Dead?: The Past, Present and Future of America’s Most Wanted Music. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2007.
Kato, M.T. From Kung Fu to Hip Hop: Globalization, Revolution and Popular Culture. New York: State University of New York Press, 2007.
Price, Emmet G. Hip Hop Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, Inc., 2006.
Ramsey Jr., Guthrie P. Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Rivera, Raquel Z. New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Stanley, Tarshia L. Encyclopaedia of Hip Hop Literature. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2009.
Sullivan, Denise. Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-Hop. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011
Watkins, Craig S., Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.