1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910484508203321

Autore

Diallo David

Titolo

Collective Participation and Audience Engagement in Rap Music / / by David Diallo

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Pivot, , 2019

ISBN

9783030253776

3030253775

Edizione

[1st ed. 2019.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (154 pages)

Collana

Pop Music, Culture and Identity, , 2634-6621

Disciplina

782.421649

Soggetti

Music

African Americans

Culture

Performing arts

Theater

African American Culture

Theatre and Performance Arts

Global and International Culture

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction -- 2. Call-and-Response in Rap Music -- 3."Rock the House:" Emceeing and Collective Participation in Rap Music's Formative Years (1974-1978) -- 4. "Keeping It Real Live!" Maintaining Collective Participation on Records -- 5. "Coming to You Live and Direct!": Performing Liveness and Immediacy on Record -- 6. Intertextuality in Rap Lyrics -- 7. From the Stage to the Booth to the Stage: Sustaining Collective Engagement During Live Performance -- 8. Rap Music and Singing Along to the N-word -- 9. Discussing Collective Participation and Audience Engagement with Sugarhill Gang's Master Gee -- 10. Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Why do rap MCs present their studio recorded lyrics as "live and direct"? Why do they so insistently define abilities or actions, theirs or someone else's, against a pre-existing signifier? This book examines the compositional practice of rap lyricists and offers compelling answers to



these questions. Through a 40 year-span analysis of the music, it argues that whether through the privileging of chanted call-and-response phrases or through rhetorical strategies meant to assist in getting one's listening audience open, the focus of the first rap MCs on community building and successful performer-audience cooperation has remained prevalent on rap records with lyrics and production techniques encouraging the listener to become physically and emotionally involved in recorded performances. Relating rap's rhetorical strategy of posing inferences through intertextuality to early call-and-response routines and crowd-controlling techniques, this study emphasizes how the dynamic and collective elements from the stage performances and battles of the formative years of rap have remained relevant in the creative process behind this music. It contends that the customary use of identifiable references and similes by rap lyricists works as a fluid interchange designed to keep the listener involved in the performance. Like call-and-response in live performances, it involves a dynamic form of communication and places MCs in a position where they activate the shared knowledge of their audience, making sure that they "know what they mean," thus transforming their mediated lyrics into a collective and engaging performance.