Hip-Hop Archives

The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production

Murray Forman author Mark V Campbell author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Intellect

Published:30th Oct '23

£109.95

Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.

Hip-Hop Archives cover

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.

“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.”

-- Courtney E. Chartier, Columbia University Libraries

“This innovative and accessible collection explores hip-hop practices that attest to its longevity, impact, and value. Of course, even with the global dissemination, adoption, and adaptation of hip-hop, this is also about the politics, community, and culture of Black people as the fount of this vital practice and knowledge, underlining the necessity of recording and archiving this history. Many contributors speak from empirical experience and their role in establishing the culture and its preservation attests to book’s authority and authenticity.”

-- Paul Long, Monash Univer

ISBN: 9781789388428

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

354 pages