Hip-hop in the age of empire - Cape flat style - Adam Haupt.pdf - Culture - lady_kitty

HIP-HOP IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE:

CAPE FLATS STYLE

Adam Haupt

Dark Roast Occasional Paper Series

No. 9 (2003)

Dark Roast Occasional Paper Series is a project of Isandla Institute. The aim of the

project is to create a discursive space of interface between academic and policy

communities in various fields of development policy and practice. The papers reflect

ongoing research of Isandla Institute staff, associates and interested parties in the interest of

debate and more informed development practice. The papers are meant to provoke

passionate debate and creative aromas of thought. We welcome any comments and

feedback.

Published by:

Isandla Institute, PO Box 12263 Mill Street, Gardens, 8010 – Cape Town, SA. Email:

isandla@icon.co.za

Managing Editor:

Katherine McKenzie

Editorial Collective:

Edgar Pieterse, AbdouMaliq Simone, Dominique Wooldridge

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The views in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of Isandla Institute or its

Board Members.

Hip-Hop in the Age of Empire: Cape Flats Style 1

Adam Haupt

University of Cape Town

Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s concept of Empire is particularly helpful in a

discussion of hip-hop in post-apartheid South Africa, which continues to deal with the

economic and political consequences of apartheid whilst also having to deal with the

demands of global capitalism. The authors’ use of the term Empire alludes to the complex

ways in which power is manifested on the global stage. They argue that imperialism and

colonialism was characterised by “conflict or competition among imperial powers” (Hardt

& Negri, 2000:9). This activity has since been replaced by “the idea of a single power that

overdetermines them all, structures them all in a unitary way, and treats them under one

common notion of right that is decidedly postcolonial and postimperialist” (Hardt &

Negri, 2000: 9). Here, the authors are referring to supranational regulatory institutions

such as the United Nations. Whilst they suggest that the “juridical concept of Empire”

took shape in the “ambiguous experience of the United Nations” (2000, 6), they also

contend that their analysis can be applied to the global influence of transnational

corporations”(2000: 31-32). It is these authors’ conception of the notion of Empire that

provides a point of entry into a discussion of what I call hip-hop activism. My interest in

hip-hop speaks to my ongoing engagement with the ways in which subjects are able to

engage critically with hegemony as active agents or producers within the context of global

capitalism. I also work from the assumption that in “the constitution of Empire there is no

longer an ‘outside’ to power” and that: “the only strategy available to the struggles is that of

a constituent counterpower that emerges from within Empire” (Hardt & Negri, 2000: 58-

59).

An exploration of certain aspects of hip-hop reveals how such counterdiscursive action

becomes possible. Initially, I explore ‘conscious’ hip-hop and discuss its commercial and

politically diluted spin-off, gangsta rap. I will argue that Dick Hebdige’s key text

Subculture: The Meaning of Style finds some currency in a discussion of the recuperation of

hip-hop by the mainstream / the major record labels in its attempts to maximize revenue

streams and consolidate its monopolistic control over the music market place. Hebdige

reminds us that subcultures communicate through commodities and therefore work from

within the operation of capitalist processes of retail, marketing and distribution (1979: 95).

Hip-hop, much like punk subculture or reggae before it, thus walks a tightrope and it is

“fairly difficult … to maintain any absolute distinction between commercial exploitation

… and creativity / originality … even though these categories are emphatically opposed

in the value systems of most subcultures” (Hebdige, 1979: 95). It is from this perspective

1 A reworked version of this paper will appear in: Pieterse, E. and Meintjies, F. (eds) (forthcoming).

Voice of the Transition: Perspectives on the Politics, Poetics and Practices of Development in New

South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinemann Publishers.

Hip-hop in the age of empire - Cape flat style - Adam Haupt.pdf

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