Hip-Hop Archives

The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production

By (author) Mark V. Campbell, Murray Forman

Publication date:

30 October 2023

Publisher

Intellect Books

Dimensions:

244x170mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9781789388428

This book focuses on the culture and politics involved in building hip-hop archives. It addresses practical aspects, including methods of accumulation, curation, preservation, and digitization and critically analyzes institutional power, community engagement, urban economics, public access, and the ideological implications associated with hip-hop culture’s enduring tensions with dominant social values.

The collection of essays are divided into four sections; Doing the Knowledge, Challenging Archival Forms, Beyond the Nation and Institutional Alignments: Interviews and Reflections. The book covers a range of official, unofficial, DIY and community archives and collections and features chapters by scholar practitioners, educators and curators.

A wide swath of hip-hop culture is featured in the book, including a focus on dance, graffiti, clothing, and battle rap. The range of authors and their topics span countries in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and North America.

List of Figures vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: “An Archival State of Mind” xiii

Mark V. Campbell

SECTION 1: DOING THE KNOWLEDGE 1

1. The Hip Hop Archive and the High School Student: Symbiotic Knowledge Disruption 3

Kulsoom Anwer Shaikh

2. Hip Hop as a Practical and Methodological Issue: Libraries in Russia 19

Sergey Ivanov

3. Hip Hop Dance and the Circulation of Breaking Footage 41

Mary Fogarty and Jason “J-Sun” Noer

4. The Black History 101 Mobile Museum and the Michigan Hip-Hop Archive 57

Khalid El-Hakim

SECTION 2: CHALLENGING ARCHIVAL FORMS 77

5. As We Walk through the Archived Files of All Styles: Archival Practices and Cultural Memory on Battle Rap Forums 79

Sean Robertson-Palmer

6. The Responsibilities and Challenges of Community-Engaged Archives: Lessons from Building the Massachusetts Hip-Hop Archive 96

Pacey Foster

7. The Ballad of “Grandmaster PH”: Contesting Narratives and Lost Archives in Philippine Hip-Hop 114

James Gabrillo

8. Painting, Image, and Cultural Heritage: The Graffiti Mural Fascinate as Visual Ecology 129

Jacob Kimvall

9. Oral History and the Accidental Archive 154

Giuseppe “u.net” Pipitone

SECTION 3: BEYOND THE NATION 167

10. Traces of Solidarity and Breakdown: Domestic Collection in Post-Yugoslav Hip Hop Fanzines and Mixtapes 169

Owen Kohl and Dragana Cvetanović

11. Living Archives: Producing Knowledge about Hip-Hop Culture in East Germany 196

Leonard Schmieding

12. Rap Cubano in the Archive: The Immaterial Paradox 221

Pablo D. Herrera Veitia

SECTION 4: INSTITUTIONAL ALIGNMENTS: INTERVIEWS AND REFLECTIONS 249

13. Nwaka Onwusa (Vice President and Chief Curator, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) 251

14. Ben Ortiz (Assistant Curator, Cornell Hip Hop Collection) 268

15. Martha Diaz (Chief Curator/Archivist, Hip Hop Education Center and Associate Curator/Archivist, Universal Hip Hop Museum) 281

Afterword 297

Murray Forman

Notes on Contributors 309

Index 317

“The variety of voices in Hip-Hop Archives is impressive. The mix of international contexts, especially incorporating the voices of scenes that developed under oppressive regimes, are eye-opening for the central metaphor of knowledge production. Campbell and Forman truly get at the egalitarian and universal form of hip-hop, while acknowledging both African American roots and the varying reasons some founders are left out, closing with beautiful, insightful, and passionate interviews.”