"Things Done Changed": Recalibrating the Real in Hip-Hop. Issue 4 (8th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Forman, Murray
• Is Part Of: Popular music and society. Volume 44:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 451
• Page End: 477
• Publication Date: 2021-08-08
• Subjects: Authenticity -- Black interiority -- Black mental health -- gangsta rap -- masculinity -- post-gangsta era; Popular music -- Periodicals; Music -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 782.42164
• DOI: 10.1080/03007766.2020.1814628
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0300-7766

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper critically engages the ways in which hip-hop artists and scholars have commonly defined authenticity and "the real" in relation to Black male identities with an emphasis on the dominant representations of the real associated with the "gangsta" persona. In a crucial shift, however, open discussion about mental health and Black social existence has helped to unravel prior concepts of unyielding masculinity, facilitating the public expression of Black interior reflection and contributing to a radically revised, post-gangsta conceptualization of "the real" in hip-hop.