Justin A Williams
Biographic Data
| ID | 3685244 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Justin A Williams |
| GIVEN NAMES | Justin A |
| FAMILY NAME | Williams |
| SIGNATURE | WILLIAMS J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bristol |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2501-6730 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1935 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Sounding the Past
The purpose of this article is to investigate two uses of Zilipendwa (‘golden oldies’) in newer forms of Tanzanian popular music. The first is Kwanza Unit’s Bongo boom bap hip-hop track ‘Msafiri’ (1999) which digitally samples an earlier song of the same name. The second is a late 2010s pop song titled ‘Zilipendwa’ (2017) by the Tanzanian musician Diamond Platnumz featuring the WCB Wasafi artists. Comparing songs from different eras will address …
Polystylism and Stylistic Adaptation in 1970s Jazz-Rock
This article examines Chick Corea’s jazz fusion composition by applying Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke’s concept of “stylistic adaptation” (1973), a specific type of intertextuality, to Return to Forever’s “Duel of the Jester and Tyrant (Part I and Part II)” from Romantic Warrior (1976). Closer investigation of intra-musical features from classical and jazz styles will show how artists from different musical backgrounds and training came to sou…
We Get the Job Done”
Research Article| December 01 2018 "We Get the Job Done": Immigrant Discourse and Mixtape Authenticity in The Hamilton Mixtape Justin A. Williams Justin A. Williams Justin A. Williams is senior lecturer in music at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author of Rhymin' and Stealin': Musical Borrowing in Hip-Hop (University of Michigan Press, 2013), editor of The Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and coeditor (…
When Genres Collide
In his new book, Matt Brennan seeks to investigate two puzzles of popular-music history: first, to investigate why jazz and rock scholarship are so segregated if not resistant to one another; and secondly, why jazz and rock have been treated differently in the press despite their shared characteristics. In many ways, the first question is answered through a thorough investigation of the second, as Brennan focuses primarily on jazz and rock critic…
Rapping Postcoloniality
MC/rapper, public speaker, journalist, graphic novelist, and founder of the Hip-hop Shakespeare Company, Akala (b. Kingslee James Daley, 1983) is one of the rappers at the forefront of the UK’s thriving hip-hop scene. His lyrics and music demonstrate an awareness of history and, in particular, the British Empire’s shameful past as global colonizer and profiteer of the slave trade. Focusing on his album The Thieves Banquet (2013), this article inv…
Theoretical Approaches to Quotation in Hip-Hop Recordings
Intertextuality is pervasive in multiple forms of popular music, but is arguably most overtly presented in hip-hop music and culture. While much academic work has focused on linking practices of quotation, reference, allusion and Signifyin(g) in hip-hop to earlier forms of African-American music, the main purpose of this article is to outline and illustrate the variety of ways that one can borrow from a source text or trope and ways that audience…
Dr. Dre
De La Soul
The Construction of Jazz Rap as High Art in Hip-Hop Music
Multiple factors contributed to the elevation of jazz as "high art" in mainstream media reception by the 1980s. The stage was thus set for hip-hop groups in the late-1980s and early 90s (such as Gang Starr, A Tribe Called Quest, and Digable Planets) to engage in a relationship with jazz as art and heritage. "Jazz codes" in the music, said to signify sophistication, helped create a rap-music subgenre commonly branded "jazz rap." Connections may be…
Beats and Flows
English Mercantilism and Carolina Naval Stores, 1705-1776
English Mercantilism and Carolina Naval Stores, 1705-1776
Beats and Flows
Theoretical Approaches to Quotation in Hip-Hop Recordings
Intertextuality is pervasive in multiple forms of popular music, but is arguably most overtly presented in hip-hop music and culture. While much academic work has focused on linking practices of quotation, reference, allusion and Signifyin(g) in hip-hop to earlier forms of African-American music, the main purpose of this article is to outline and illustrate the variety of ways that one can borrow from a source text or trope and ways that audience…
The Construction of Jazz Rap as High Art in Hip-Hop Music
Multiple factors contributed to the elevation of jazz as "high art" in mainstream media reception by the 1980s. The stage was thus set for hip-hop groups in the late-1980s and early 90s (such as Gang Starr, A Tribe Called Quest, and Digable Planets) to engage in a relationship with jazz as art and heritage. "Jazz codes" in the music, said to signify sophistication, helped create a rap-music subgenre commonly branded "jazz rap." Connections may be…
English Mercantilism and Carolina Naval Stores, 1705-1776
Beats and Flows
The Construction of Jazz Rap as High Art in Hip-Hop Music
Multiple factors contributed to the elevation of jazz as "high art" in mainstream media reception by the 1980s. The stage was thus set for hip-hop groups in the late-1980s and early 90s (such as Gang Starr, A Tribe Called Quest, and Digable Planets) to engage in a relationship with jazz as art and heritage. "Jazz codes" in the music, said to signify sophistication, helped create a rap-music subgenre commonly branded "jazz rap." Connections may be…
Dr. Dre
De La Soul
Theoretical Approaches to Quotation in Hip-Hop Recordings
Intertextuality is pervasive in multiple forms of popular music, but is arguably most overtly presented in hip-hop music and culture. While much academic work has focused on linking practices of quotation, reference, allusion and Signifyin(g) in hip-hop to earlier forms of African-American music, the main purpose of this article is to outline and illustrate the variety of ways that one can borrow from a source text or trope and ways that audience…
Rapping Postcoloniality
MC/rapper, public speaker, journalist, graphic novelist, and founder of the Hip-hop Shakespeare Company, Akala (b. Kingslee James Daley, 1983) is one of the rappers at the forefront of the UK’s thriving hip-hop scene. His lyrics and music demonstrate an awareness of history and, in particular, the British Empire’s shameful past as global colonizer and profiteer of the slave trade. Focusing on his album The Thieves Banquet (2013), this article inv…
When Genres Collide
In his new book, Matt Brennan seeks to investigate two puzzles of popular-music history: first, to investigate why jazz and rock scholarship are so segregated if not resistant to one another; and secondly, why jazz and rock have been treated differently in the press despite their shared characteristics. In many ways, the first question is answered through a thorough investigation of the second, as Brennan focuses primarily on jazz and rock critic…
We Get the Job Done”
Research Article| December 01 2018 "We Get the Job Done": Immigrant Discourse and Mixtape Authenticity in The Hamilton Mixtape Justin A. Williams Justin A. Williams Justin A. Williams is senior lecturer in music at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author of Rhymin' and Stealin': Musical Borrowing in Hip-Hop (University of Michigan Press, 2013), editor of The Cambridge Companion to Hip-Hop (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and coeditor (…
Polystylism and Stylistic Adaptation in 1970s Jazz-Rock
This article examines Chick Corea’s jazz fusion composition by applying Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke’s concept of “stylistic adaptation” (1973), a specific type of intertextuality, to Return to Forever’s “Duel of the Jester and Tyrant (Part I and Part II)” from Romantic Warrior (1976). Closer investigation of intra-musical features from classical and jazz styles will show how artists from different musical backgrounds and training came to sou…
Sounding the Past
The purpose of this article is to investigate two uses of Zilipendwa (‘golden oldies’) in newer forms of Tanzanian popular music. The first is Kwanza Unit’s Bongo boom bap hip-hop track ‘Msafiri’ (1999) which digitally samples an earlier song of the same name. The second is a late 2010s pop song titled ‘Zilipendwa’ (2017) by the Tanzanian musician Diamond Platnumz featuring the WCB Wasafi artists. Comparing songs from different eras will address …
Music History and Culture (8 works) · Art (6 works) · Literature (5 works) · History (4 works) · Art history (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Jazz (3 works) · Musicology and Musical Analysis (3 works) · Popular music (3 works) · Sociology (3 works)