american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang

INTRODUCTION 31
be seen as a counterinstitutional poetics as well as a poetic strategy for
engaging the public.
In chapter 4 I focus on hip-hop’s thoroughly countercultural
contestatory urban agency. In the first half of the chapter I establish the
parameters for this agency and closely examine some lyrics in order to
elucidate how its primary rhetorical figures operate. I stay cognizant
here of Baker’s discussion of “positive sites of rap” (59–60) and
Michael Eric Dyson’s “enabling, productive rap messages” (7), where
hip-hop is oppositional cultural criticism. I imply then that many of
the songs I discuss are “positive sites of rap” that exist as alternatives
to much politically acquiescent commercial hip-hop. As in the previous
chapters, I select songs that I feel best represent the various
aspects of contestatory urban agency. Tricia Rose points out that one
of the most compelling struggles in hip-hop music is the “discursive
tension” between individual agency and structural oppression; she
claims that they must be “joined at the hip” in order to show how so
called self-destructive behavior is much more complex (142). The
lyrics I discuss often try to work out this tension while making sharp
sociopolitical commentary. To reiterate, my choices of artists and songs
are subjective and aligned with my knowledge base and aesthetics, preferring
hip-hop that is politically and socially progressive over the
hedonist and wealth-obsessed varieties.
In the second half of chapter 4 I explore what some hip-hop artists
are currently accomplishing that other poets are not. I discuss live
hip-hop shows as participatory spaces of potential collective agency
and change. Dyson suggests that the rap concert “creates space for
cultural resistance and personal agency” (5–6). Maria Damon makes
a similar gesture in her claim that poetry slams comprise a “contestatory”
public sphere capable of community-building (327), and
Rose calls rap the “contemporary stage for the theater of the
powerless,” claiming that rap groups use shows to address social and
political issues (125, 134). I use these critics’ claims as departure
points to argue that live hip-hop shows at small clubs can carve out a
space of interactive engagement, where dominant cultural values are
contested and collective agency is created. The hip-hop show,
therefore, is an apt space for exploring the successes of a political
poetry in the United States. To make this argument, I use Arendt’s
theory of “acting in concert” and the work of other public space
theorists. I also draw from my personal experiences at hip-hop
shows and on conversations with a close friend, a Brooklyn-based
freelance hip-hop journalist, DJ, and the owner/operator of an
independent hip-hop record label.