Hip-Hop as Urban and Regional Research

Encountering an Insider's Ethnography of City Life

Bibliographic Data

ID4896751
AuthorsD Beer (0000-0002-6926-4595, University of York, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume38
Issue2
Pages677-685
Publication date2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01151.x
OpenAlexW1934123019
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited31

This essay suggests that hip-hop music may reasonably be thought of as a form of urban and regional research. The essay draws upon a recently published book by hip-hop artist Jay-Z, which provides biographical information alongside translations of the lyrical content of his works, to show that hip-hop is full of insider ethnographic insights into urban life. This, it is argued, can be thought of as an answer to Daryl Martin's call for a more 'poetic urbanism', an urbanism that captures the material, sensory and emotional aspects of the city. The essay uses Jay-Z's text to illustrate the type of insights and ideas that we might obtain from hip-hop, giving some specific examples of these insights and concluding with some reflections upon this alternative insider account of city life - and how it might provide us with opportunities for expanding our repertoire

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Ethnography · Insider · Literature · Poetry · Repertoire · Sociology · Urbanism · Visual arts · Anthropology · Latin American and Latino Studies · Music History and Culture · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Architecture

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