Backpackers and Gangstas
Chicago's White Rappers Strive for Authenticity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4867987 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Geoff Harkne (0000-0003-3596-3483, Northwestern University in Qatar, corresponding author), Geoff Harkness (Northwestern University Qatar, Doha, Qatar,) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 57-85 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0002764210381729 |
| OpenAlex | W1982646224 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 14 |
This project contains an ethnographic and interview-based study of White rappers in Chicago. The research was fueled by a single question: How do White rappers create and maintain authenticity when they are clearly inauthentic by the standards of hip-hop? Though the term authenticity is used often in sociology and other literatures, the author seeks to unpack this mechanism in search of the specific social processes at work. The author begins with a brief account of his methods and then moves to a literature review that includes a broad study of culture and identity; an ethnographic account of White rappers in the United Kingdom; studies of authenticity in the country, punk, blues, and rap music scenes; and an examination of linguistic and rhetorical devices used by rappers. The body of the article explores several aspects of culture: how the rappers in the study learned how to rap, an examination of two cultural objects (live performance and recorded music), and an exploration of two broad categories of rappers, described as backpackers and gangstas. Throughout the article, the author focuses on areas where the current literature does not match up with his own research in hopes of nudging these theories in new directions
Art · Blues · Ethnography · Literature · Media studies · Punk · Rhetorical question · Sociology · White (mutation) · Anthropology · Latin American and Latino Studies · Music History and Culture · Social and Cultural Dynamics
Race, Place and Globalization
Talk of Love
Creating Country Music
Keywords (Routledge Revivals)
Subculture
Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened with Assimilation
Cultures and Societies in a Changing World
“The Chain Remain the Same” Communicative Practices in the Hip Hop Nation
Constructing Racial Rhetoric
Constructing Ethnicity
How culture works
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,43 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2021 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |