‘THIS IS MY LIFE’

Biography, Identity and Narrative in New Zealand Rap Songs

Authors

  • Kirsten Zemke-White

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v8i3.28699

Keywords:

hip-hop lyrics, autobiographical songs

Abstract

In her essay on New Zealand hip-hop, Zemke-White focuses on the content of hip-hop lyrics as a way of showing biography, whether real or fictional. She elucidates themes inherent in New Zealand hip-hop that show clear tropes important to the localisation of a US and now global phenomenon.

References

Armstrong, E (2004) ‘Eminem’s Construction of Authenticity’, Popular Music v27n3

Berry, V (1994) ‘Redeeming the Rap Music Experience’, in Epstein, J (ed) Adolescents and their Music: If it’s too loud, you’re too old, New York: Garland Publishing

Decker, J (1993) ‘The State of Rap: Time and Place in Hip Hop Nationalism’, Social Text v34

Dimitriadis, G (1996) ‘Hip Hop: From Live Performance to Mediated Narrative’, Popular Music v15n2

Dyson, M (1993) Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Gladney, M (1995) ‘The Black Arts Movement and Hip-hop’, African American Review v29n2

Henderson, E (1996) ‘Black Nationalism and Rap Music’, Journal of Black Studies v26n3

Kelley, R (1994) Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class, New York: The Free Press

McLeod, K 1999 ‘Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened with Assimilation’, Journal of Communication v49n4

Moore, A(2002) ‘Authenticity as Authentication’, Popular Music v21n2

Ogbar, J (1999) ‘Slouching Toward Bork: The Culture Wars and Self-Criticism in Hip-Hop Music’, Journal of Black Studies v30n2

Rose, T (1994) Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, Hanover: Wesleyan University Press

–––– (1995) ‘Rhythmic Repetition, Industrial Forces, and Black Practice’, in Sexton, A (ed) Rap on Rap: Straight up Talk on Hip-Hop Culture, New York: Delta

Smitherman, G (1997) ‘“The Chain Remains the Same”: Communicative Practices in the Hip Hop Nation’, Journal of Black Studies v28n1

Sexton, A (1995) ‘Don’t Believe the Hype: Why isn’t Hip-hop Criticism Better?’, in Sexton, A(ed) Rap on Rap: Straight up Talk on Hip-Hop Culture, New York: Delta

Stephens, V (2005) ‘Pop Goes the Rapper: AClose Reading of Eminem’s Genderphobia’, Popular Music v24n1

Tucker, L (2001) ‘“Holler if ya hear me”: Black Men, (Bad) Raps and Resistance’, Canadian Review of American Studies v31n2

Walser R (1995) ‘Rhythm, Rhyme, and Rhetoric in the Music of Public Enemy’, Ethnomusicology v39n2

Wheeler, E (1991) ‘“Most of my Heroes Don’t Appear on no Stamps”: The Dialogics of Rap Music’, Black Music Research Journal v11n2

White, H (1980) ‘The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality’, Critical Inquiry v7n1

Wood, B (1999) ‘Understanding Rap as Rhetorical Folk Poetry’, Mosaic v32n4

Zemke-White, K (2001) ‘Rap Music and Pacific Identity in Aotearoa: Popular Music and the Politics of Oppression’, in Spoonley, C and Anae, M (eds) Tangata O Te Moana Nui The Evolving Identities of Pacific Peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand, Palmerston North: Macpherson Dunmore Press

–––– (2005) ‘Nesian Styles (Re)present R‘n’B: The Appropriation, Transformation and Realization of Contemporary R‘n’B with Hip Hop by Urban Pasifika Groups in Aotearoa’, Sites v2n1

Published

2015-10-04

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Zemke-White, K. (2015). ‘THIS IS MY LIFE’: Biography, Identity and Narrative in New Zealand Rap Songs. Perfect Beat, 8(3), 31-51. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v8i3.28699