Thesiss

In December of 1991, the first lawsuit concerning digital sampling was settled in court. Involving rapper Biz Markie and singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, Grand Upright v. Warner has been widely hailed as a landmark legal decision, as well as a disaster for musical creativit…

The underwater sound is a term used within hip hop for the composition of instrumental tracks that accompany vocals, typically referred to as beats. In order to produce the underwater sound, beatmakers use a conglomeration of multiple audio effects including but not limited to l…

“Phallic/ies and His(s)tories: Masculinity and the Black Nationalist Tradition, from Slave Spirituals to Rap Music” explores Black nationalism as an embodied-social politics, highlighting the ways in which its discourse has been informed not only by a politics of race, but by a …

The late 1980s saw the birth of “conscious” rap: “conscious” MCs and crews took Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Islamic doctrine, education, political empowerment, and other social causes as their themes. Many of the most successful “conscious” solo acts and groups of the lat…