...Mireille Miller-Young Abstract Hip-hop pornography propels the conventions of the nearly soft-core hip-hop video to the extreme, the explicit, the hard-core. The convergence of the outlaw cultures of hip-hop and pornography offers a compelling narrative about how black sexual subjects define...

...Whitney A. Peoples Abstract This essay seeks to explore the sociopolitical objectives of hip-hop feminism, to address the generational ruptures that those very objectives reveal, and to explore the practical and theoretical qualities that second- and third-wave generations of black feminists have...

...Anaya McMurray Abstract “Black Muslim women and hip-hop? . . . real Muslims don't listen to hip-hop.” For many it is almost unfathomable that black Muslim women would have any involvement with hip-hop music. While several scholars have explored the connections between hip-hop and Islam, hip-hop...

... discourse regarding the representation of women in contemporary popular music, and particularly in hip-hop. This issue's three organizing themes-"Hip-Hop (and) Feminism"; "Sight and Sound"; and "Rage against the Machine"-address the debates and intergenerational tensions regarding the liberatory potential...

...Janell Hobson Copyright © 2008 by Smith College 2008 JANELL HOBSON Hip-Hop Hegemony Dedicatedto the woman1 whoreportedbeingrapedon March13,2006 by Duke Lacrossteeamplayers,who hiredherfor $400to danceat theirprivateparty, probablybecausesheresembledthe hip-hopmusicvideodancerthat...

...Andreana Clay Abstract Examinations of the relationship of queer sexuality and the hip-hop generation have recently emerged in academia. However, little or no work has been done that explores hip-hop's bisexual, independent poster child, Me'Shell Ndegeocello. Since her debut in 1993, Ndegeocello's...

...Natalia A. Koutsougera Abstract This article provides a socio-anthropological portrayal of the hip-hop narrational mosaics in Greece through the intertemporal exploration of two hip-hop scenes: the rap scene and the hip-hop dance scene. It explores the gray and contested zones of a local hip-hop...

...Msia Kibona Clark Abstract Women hip hop artists in Africa have created spaces for themselves within hip hop’s (hyper)masculine culture. They have created these spaces in order to craft their own narratives around gender and sexuality and to challenge existing narratives. This research uses African...

... sell not only hip-hop culture, but also the very image of its women. They serve as eye candy designed to satisfy an assumed male video audience, affirming critiques of the culture as hyper-masculine and misogynist. “Still” is a series of photographs from contemporary rap music videos. These artworks...

...Daphne A. Brooks Abstract This essay explores the critical work of Beyoncé's second solo recording, and places it in conversation with yet another under-theorized yet equally dissonant R&B performance by her “hip-hop soul queen” contemporary Mary J. Blige. In relation to both Beyoncé's...

... Habana, Las Krudas borrow from shared diasporic resources (hip-hop culture/rap music, African drum rhythms and chants) when fashioning a musical aesthetic that allows for the articulation of the “local” as well as the “global.” Finally, I move beyond Foucault's spatial model of disciplinary power...

... interviews between July and December 2003, having selected interviewees based on their positions in entertainment industries linked to the production, promotion, distribution, and monitoring of hip-hop and rap music. I guaranteed anonymity to participants for two reasons. First, given the public persona...

... theWesternHemispheres,eries edited by Howard Dodson and Colin Palmer (New York:Pro-Quest Information & Learning, 2006). ANDREANA CLAY is an assistant professor at San Francisco State University where she teaches courses on hip-hop culture, popular culture, and contemporary theory in the Sociology Department. She has...

...Paula J. Giddings Copyright © 2008 by Smith College 2008 PAULA J. GIDDINGS Editor'sPreface I confess that when Janell Hobson and R. Dianne Bartlow, co-editors of "Representin': Women, Hip-Hop, and Popular Music," offered to put together a special issue for Meridians,I was a little skeptical...

..." over heavy funk bass and drum production to Sista D's fun and party lyrics accompanied byMid-West and Down South musical production to JV's straight hip-hop,4 Chicanas show depth and diversity in their music. While they speak on many topics, their representations of sexuality and sexual politics...

... in the Streets,” Natalia Koutsougera’s Media Matters piece, which provides an anthropological portrayal of Greece’s hip-hop landscape through the exploration of two hip-hop scenes: underground and dance. In this article, Koutsougera explores the contested zones of a local hip-hop culture as it relates to matters...

... of black femininity in rap music and video. Even more specifically, Essence responded to negative black female representation in non-message rap genres, including gangsta rap, pop hip-hop, trap music, booty music, etc. The Essence"Take Back the Music" series was announced by the magazine in the late fall...

... subversivteext andnot merelydanceasaestheticpleasure. Urban musical forms such as hip-hop, reggae/dancehall, and calypso have often been heralded as "the voice of the people." However, because these black diasporic musical genres have traditionally been viewed as maledominated, feminist scholars have recently...

... tag #JusticeforTrayvon. Because the course centralized hip-hop culture, we situated Martin as a "hip-hop martyr" and discussed how his death (and the murkiness around what happened) sparked a demand for revisions to legal and political practices. However, it was not until watching George Zimmerman's...

.... Or better yet, this tree-loving gun-hating Geechee girl would strap a wild west gun belt machete around her hips enter the worst part of the woods alone and go trunk to trunk until the right one appeared growing peaceful in its thousand-year-old natal plot. And when found I would pull...