Black love and hip-hop brought Calvin Taylor Skinner and me together in 2018 as we nurtured a commuter relationship between Knoxville and Bloomington, Indiana. During our five-to six-hour drives, I talked about my research on musical masculinity, while my theologian-activist guy shared provocative YouTube videos and podcasts facilitated by hip-hop sages to stir conversation.1 The sages self-identify variously as Pan-African, American descendants of slaves (ADOS) or Foundational Black Americans (FBA), among other Black-centered/African-centered terms. The ADOS/FBA experts probed a constellation of obscure discourses: extraterrestrial encounters, Dr. Sebi, erased ancient African histories, reparations, Black love, and “conscious” hip-hop.2 Discussing these topics with Calvin afforded me familiarity with Black men's curation of complex creative-intellectual space irrespective of dominant culture's understanding of their discourses. Central to this enigmatic genre of orality is speculation, inspecting structural barriers in an idiom their people recognize. From Tidal.com to BlackMagikUniversity.com to 4BiddenKnowledge.com, controlling one's virtual...
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Research Article|
December 01 2022
“The Music Industry Funds Private Prisons”: Analyzing Hip-Hop Urban Legend
Alisha Lola Jones
Alisha Lola Jones
Alisha Lola Jones is an associate professor in the faculty of music of the University of Cambridge. Dr. Jones's book Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance (New York: Oxford University Press) has been awarded the 2021 Ruth Stone (SEM), Music in American Culture (AMS), and Philip Brett (AMS) Prizes. Her research interests include gastromusicology, global pop music, musics of the African diaspora, the music industry, and anti-oppressive ways of listening to Black women.
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American Music (2022) 40 (4): 511–519.
Citation
Alisha Lola Jones; “The Music Industry Funds Private Prisons”: Analyzing Hip-Hop Urban Legend. American Music 1 December 2022; 40 (4): 511–519. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/19452349.40.4.15
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