Though it is categorized as popular entertainment, hip-hop’s popularity makes it an effective medium for approaching such pressing issues as intergenerational conflict, homophobia, and politics. These modes of inquiry assume that hip-hop takes the pulse of the society it entertains. Afterall, if hip-hop’s widespread success reflects its ability to resonate with audiences, then there is truth to this notion.

“RINGTONE RAPPER”

Deconstruct a novel in class, and it might lose its meaning. Analyze a piece of music and it might lose its power.

It is a common refrain when it comes to studying art—by academicizing it, one risks diminishing its impact. Hip-hop is no exception.

“I think part of the challenge that I’ve found that [hip-hop scholars] have in talking about hip-hop is critiquing something they love,” Mcginty says. “They don’t want to tear down hip-hop and make it seem like something negative, but they still have to address the negatives within the genre.”

Most researchers involved in hip-hop scholarship listened to hip-hop long before they began to look at it from an academic perspective. Luckily, they say academic treatment does not necessitate a waning of their love for the form.

“I say, hey, Soulja Boy is my favorite ringtone rapper,” says Joycelyn A. Wilson, one of the fellows at the Hiphop Archive. “I’m not trying to learn anything from it, but I do like to hear it when my phone rings. You know, sometimes I don’t wanna be preached to. Sometimes I just wanna go to the party.”

For Ralph’s students—who often consider themselves part of a hip-hop generation—treating hip-hop as an academic subject is eye-opening. “When we talk about hip-hop, everybody’s implicated in it,” Ralph says. “They’ve all consumed hip-hop. They’ve all listened to it. They’ve all loved hip-hop. So when they’re reading these things, they have to grapple with how they listen to hip-hop, why they’re excited about hip-hop. So it’s a different kind of relationship, I think.”

For these researchers and students alike, hip-hop was a passion before it was a specimen. Though intense study risks alienation to music, it also adds unexpected and valuable dimensions to the art form and may even foster greater appreciation.

LOUDER THAN WORDS

The motives behind hip-hop study extend beyond the listening habits of the scholars. The intersections of hip-hop and other fields, including history, can yield critical insights, both personal and political.

Jaqueline Santos, a fellow at the Hiphop Archive, fiddles nervously with the items on her desk as she talks; she has been in the United States only since January, born and raised in Brazil.

She speaks with a careful cadence as she gives an overview of her research. “I study the cultural exchange between black youth in São Paulo and New York, between the late 1970s and the late 1980s,” Santos says. “And the circulation of images and symbols between hip-hoppers in São Paulo and New York was important for a consolidated black movement in Brazil.”

According to Santos, the 20th century black community in Brazil struggled under the weight of discrimination. This Afro-Brazilian community was also a big consumer of African-American styles of music. They could not understand exactly what African-Americans were saying due to the language barrier, but because of the civil rights imagery on the covers of vinyl records, they understood what these musicians were talking about.